Attention!

Attention!

(No. 3440)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1915.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Hear you Him." Matthew 17:5.

WHEN our Lord Jesus Christ was transfigured, there came a Voice from
the bright, overshadowing cloud, which said, "This is My Beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. Hear you Him." It was the Voice of the
Father concerning His Son–a testimony to His Person, a notification of
His office, an announcement of His authority to teach and to legislate.
You can understand how imperative it then was for those who heard it to
heed Him. But now He is gone up from us. He has entered into the
excellent Glory–He no more teaches in our streets, yet still, as
though present with us, He speaks to us. By the written Word, His
sayings are handed down to us Infallibly. Often times, when the Holy
Spirit rests upon God's servants, they become as the voice of Christ to
us, and when that same blessed Spirit, as the Comforter, brings to our
remembrance the things of Christ, does it not seem as though Jesus,
Himself, spoke to our souls? The admonition is not out of date–it has
not lost its telling point or its vital force. Still does the Father
say to us concerning His well-beloved Son, "Hear you Him." Let us
proceed to meditate on this sacred charge. The three little words may
give rise to four short questions. Why? What? How? When?

I. WHY SHOULD WE HEAR HIM?

It might serve for a sufficient answer, had we no other reply, because
God, Himself, commands us! This injunction comes of the Father, "Hear
you Him." Over and over again are we enjoined to listen to the voice of
Christ. Every messenger from God ought to have our respectful
attention–how much more the greatest of all messengers–that Messenger
of the Covenant, the Messiah, the Sent One, the Apostle and High Priest
of our profession? Did not Jehovah, Himself, say, "This is My Son"? It
seemed reasonable that the Son should receive more reverence than any
of the servants. If senators and patriots, counselors and Prophets, had
been stoned and cast out of the vineyard, deference might yet be paid
to the Son! If their perverseness had refused Him homage, their
scruples might have sheltered Him from indignity. Surely they would not
go so far as to cast out the Son, Himself! There is a willfulness, a
defection of heart, an enormity of sin in refusing to hear the Christ
of God, for which it is difficult to find terms. Appointed, anointed,
commissioned of the Father to speak to us, to confer with us, to make
known among us the mind and will of our great and gracious Sovereign,
it becomes treason and blasphemy of the highest order and the deepest
dye for us to refuse to heed His Presence or listen to His words!

Why hear Him? do you ask? Does not our lord Jesus Christ, Himself,
deserve to be heard?Peerless among the princes of Heaven, is He not
very God of very God? And immaculate among the children of men, is He
not Man of the substance of His mother? Here is a double claim upon our
attention. Beaming with Divinity, instinct with Humanity, He speaks as
never man spoke, clothing the highest oracles in the most familiar
parables. And will you not hear what this God-Man has to say? Is He not
perfect in wisdom, pure in motive and undeviating in truthfulness? To
whom should we listen, if we turn away from Him? He has all those high
sanctions which should claim our allegiance and all those sweet traits
of Character which should attract our regard. If we will not listen to
such an one as Jesus of Nazareth, the gentle, and meek, and lowly, yet
the truthful, the honest, and the brave–to whom will we ever lend an
attentive ear? O sons of men, there was never mentor or orator so
worthy of your regard as Jesus Christ! Never philosopher who had such
maxims to deliver, or such mysteries to unfold as this Man–the Son of
God–the Incarnate Wisdom!

Why will you not hear Him, when the message He has come to communicate
concerns yourselves, your present and future welfare, your most solemn
interests? The tidings He brings are, indeed, laden with ten thousand
blessings for us, if

we will but incline our ears and listen to them. He comes to redress
our grievances, to retrieve our disasters, to redeem our souls, to
secure our prosperity, to effect our salvation! As an Ambassador from
God, He comes, not to treat upon small matters, to settle petty
disputes, or to advise upon local or temporary affairs, but with
supreme authority to show how sinful man may be reconciled to his
Maker, how the foul stains of transgression may be washed away and
scarlet sins become white as snow! He comes to tell us how we may
escape the impending doom of Hell and how we may attain an inheritance
in Heaven! To fit us for that high estate, and that blessed society, He
comes to cleanse us from our corruptions and to endow us with a nature
that is Divine, and faculties that are suited to the celestial Glory!
Such a message as this should enamor our very selfishness and compel
our ambition to regard it with favor. Hear you Him! O you sick and
wounded, will you not listen to the Physician? O you bankrupt debtors,
will you not listen to the Jubilee trumpet that proclaims your debts
paid and your forfeited rights restored? O you outcasts, wandering all
forlorn, in climates uncongenial to your health, your peace, your
homely joys–will you not heed the voice of a Guide who comes to
conduct you in safety to your fatherland? O you despairing souls, He
sets before you an open door! You famished poor, He invites you to a
banquet–a banquet richly provisioned with all the dainties of eternal
love! With such words upon His lips, such blessed news to bring to such
needy creatures, our Lord Jesus Christ may well claim to be heard!

There is a further argument which ought to have thrilling force among
full many of you, my Hearers. With what zest should we, who profess to
be His disciples, hear Him. Years ago some of us took His easy yoke
upon our shoulders and we bless His name it has never galled
us–neither are we weary of the load. He is our Master and our Lord,
and if He is so, surely our proper place is at His feet. It is an ill
thing of us, and untruthful, if we call Him Master, and yet will not
believe what He teaches! If we say to Him, "Rabboni," and yet turn
aside to hail some fellow creature–be he a noted saint long since
dead, or a party leader who still survives among us, as our captain and
commander-in-chief. If Peter is our master, let us call him so! If
Calvin is our master, let us call him so! And if Wesley is our master,
let us call him so–but if we are disciples of Jesus, then let us
follow Jesus–and follow Him with other men only so far as we perceive
they followed Christ! Hear you Him, O you disciples, if you are His
disciples. Will you enlist as His soldiers and shrink from His lead?
Will you engage to be His servants and yet violate His orders? Will you
who declare that He is your Chief and wear His uniform, cede your
homage to other masters? No, by all that is honest and just, pure and
comely, and of good report, the shame would fester in every Believer's
conscience! You call Him, "Master and Lord," and you say well, for so
He is– but prove yourselves to be truly His disciples by listening to
Him!

To the rest–(I am grieved at heart that I should have to speak of the
rest, but we know there is such a remnant here)–to those who are not
His disciples, there is an argument, that if it counts not now, will
count hereafter. You must hear Him in the Day of Grace, or else you
shall hear Him in that Day of Judgmentand perish forever! Do you refuse
to hear Christ? There are not any tidings of mercy to be heard
elsewhere! "See that you refuse not Him that speaks, for if they
escaped not who refused Him that spoke on earth, much more shall we not
escape if we turn away from Him that speaks from Heaven." O Sinners,
hear you the Savior's voice! O wanderers, hear your Shepherd's voice! O
you dying, hear your Physician's voice! I will add, O you dead, hear
you the voice of the Great Quickener, for the time is come that they
who are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of Man–and
they that hear Him shall live! "Do you Hear

Him?"

Thus with general arguments suitable to all and with special arguments
suitable for those who have believed–and for those who have not
believed–we leave with you a few of the reasons why. Our second
catch-word is–

II. WHAT?

What are we to hear? "Hear you Him." There is much to hear concerning
the Person of Christ, the actions of Christ, the sufferings of Christ
and the offices of Christ–but the fullness of all Revelation is
embodied in Him. Greater than the greatest sermon that was ever
preached in the world, is the Word made flesh! He is the manifestation
of God, the brightness of the Father's Glory and the express image of
His Person. Would you know God, you must know Christ. "He that has seen
Me" (it is His own testimony) "has seen the Father." In the Character
of Jesus, the Character of God is reflected with ineffable purity! The
invisible God is in Him, made visible to men as far as the sense of
faith can behold Him– infinitely farther than the natural senses can
discern. The Infinite can never be brought down to the level of our
puny intelligence so as to be comprehended by us, yet in the Presence
of Christ we are conscious of the Infinite. It is palpable to us as a
mountain that cannot be scaled, but under whose shadow we can find
shelter. And when we look to Christ, and

listen to His voice, we are as those who gaze on the vast ocean in
which, to our poor minds, the Infinite is mirrored forth, for, as far
as the vision can stretch, there is no bound, no shore beyond–and His
Words sound on and on like the mighty sea through time that knows no
limit, and through eternity that has no end! He is the Wisdom of God
and the Power of God. Hear Him, then! Hear Him! Let His voice break on
your ears as the music of the main, in that melodious anthem, "Come
unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest." Or in that thrilling utterance, "I, if I am lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto Me." Hear Him, I say, hear Him! As the
sound of many waters, as the chorus of the waves, hear this–"God was
in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." View Christ as a Child
who must be about His Father's business and as a Man who must work the
works of His Father while it is day! Know Him as a Teacher and a
Guide–mark His zeal to minister and His devotedness to suffer! Then
let poets sing of "Nature," if they please. Let them call it "the thin
veil which half conceals and half reveals the face and lineaments of
God," as some of them have done. But let Christians bear me witness
that the simple tale of Christ living among men, with which we delight
to make ourselves more and more familiar, unveils the attributes of God
in words and deeds of mercy and compassion, of patience and
long-suffering, of sweet mindfulness and great marvel in such clearness
as days of sunshine and moonlight nights could never teach you, though
more than three-score and ten of these revolving seasons should pass
over your head!

But especially read God in the death of Jesus! Behold the Divine
Justice gleaming there, for He wakens His sword that He may sheath it
in the heart of the Great Shepherd, so that the sheep may escape its
keen edge! See there the love of God, who spared not His own Son! See
all the Divine attributes marvelously blended on the Cross in the
bleeding Person of Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of the Father.
Hear Him! And now do you hear tell of Him as He goes beyond the stars
and enters the pearl gate to take possession of His well-earned crown?
Let us hear Him there and understand that He is able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lively to make
intercession for us. Hear the voice of His Ascension as it proclaims
the justification of those for whom He died and rose again–and the
assurance of the eternal perfection of all those for whom His blood was
shed–"for this Man has perfected forever them that are set apart by
the one Sacrifice that He has offered." Hear Him! His very Person and
everything connected with Him speaks with trumpet tongue! Hear what God
says to you by Him! Oh, I wish that we were more attentive to the Lord
Jesus Christ, but I am afraid many of us are very superficial in our
considerations of our Savior. We do not labor "to comprehend with all
saints what are the heights and depths." God speaks to dull ears.
Though His accents are far more sweet than music when He speaks by
Jesus Christ, yet a very large part of what God has thus said to us,
many of you have not understood.

Let me remind you, dear Friends, that the Lord Jesus has many forms of
speaking–many varieties of utterance. Sometimes He instructs. He is a
skillful Teacher and He has spoken by the mouth of His Apostles, as
well as with His own lips. The Truths of God that were uttered in His
name, like the miracles that were worked in His name, have the impress
of His Sovereign authority. Hence that summary of Christian Doctrine
which Paul was inspired of the Holy Spirit to open up, was the plain
result of the life of Jesus–a key to interpret what He said and did.
Did you read in the Gospels how He obeyed the Father? In the Epistles
you read of that obedience as a righteousness imputed to all who
believe. Do you find in the Gospels a minute account of the Lord
Jesus–the Epistles will tell you that His death was a propitiation for
our sins. Do the Gospels furnish you with proofs of His rising from the
dead? The Epistles will assure you that He was raised for our
justification! Do you learn from the Gospels that He ascended up into
Heaven? The Epistles will teach you that He always lives to make
intercession for us! We are bound to take our theology from the entire
Scriptures.

Where, and when, and by whomever Christ speaks to us, let us hear Him!
The well of undefiled theology is the Word of God. We err when we pin
our profession to creeds of human devising. Creeds are exceedingly
useful and I hope they will never be discarded. In fact, they never can
be, for every man has a creed, whether he likes to think so or not. He
has a consistent or an inconsistent one. But our creed must not be the
dogmas of general councils, or the opinions of learned men, much less
must it be the reflection of "modern thought," which is full of
infidelity–it must be the Truths of God which we have received
directly from the Word of God! And surely, after reading controversies
upon theology, one has often said, like David, "Oh, that one would give
me a drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem that is within the
gate! Oh, that I could get a drink of the water from the wellhead from
Scripture itself!" And you do well, my Brothers and Sisters, if your
only Doctor of Divinity is Christ–and if He is your only body of
divinity, for, indeed, was there ever any other body of divinity under
Heaven except Jesus Christ? Let my Doctrine be what Christ taught! Let
my reason for believing it be that He said it! Let me sit at His feet
and learn of Him, and let Him be my Authority. I shall need no better
argument, if I gather my reason from the fact that He has declared it!

But the Word of the Lord is not always the voice of instruction–it is
sometimes spoken in peremptory tones, commanding us. The Lord Jesus
Christ has given many absolute injunctions to His people. Some there
are among us–we grieve to confess it–who are not so fond of His
precepts as of His Doctrines. They will hear the preaching that sets
forth the precious Doctrines of Grace and the sweet promises of the
Covenant with very great delight, as I hope we all do, but at the
mention of the precepts and practical obligations, they are offended
and afraid that there is more of a legal twang than of a Gospel tone in
the sermon! Perhaps such fears have too often been justified. At the
same time, Brothers and Sisters, we should always be ready to suffer
the word of exhortation and be as content to do for Christ that which
He enjoins, as to get from Christ that which He freely bestows! That
saying of the mother of Jesus to those who waited at the feast of Cana
is good advice for us all. She said to the servants, "Whatever He says
to you, do it." Does Christ command separation from the world–separate
yourselves and come out! Does Christ command bearing your cross and
going outside the camp? Take up your cross cheerfully and follow Him
outside the camp! Does Christ command integrity of character and
holiness of life–oh, that we might be blameless in the one and
exemplary in the other! Does He command love, a kindly affection for
the Brothers and Sisters and a practical benevolence towards all
mankind–let us diligently cherish both! Does He command us to forgive
injuries, to show a peaceable disposition–then let us bear and forbear
in advance of all the maxims of society, stimulated by the noble
example of our Lord and obedient to the Law of His mouth! Do you call
the blessed Jesus your Lord and Master? "Hear you Him." Heed His
precepts, as well as listen to His Doctrine! Often, too, by way of
direction, does our Lord speak to us. How wisely would our lives be
ordered, did we simply and sincerely follow Christ's guidance! We often
make glaring mistakes in trivial matters because we fancy ourselves
able to direct our own steps in plain, common paths. Many a man has
gone straight through an intricate course because he has prayed
earnestly–and in answer to prayer he has found out the narrow channel
between the quicksands and the rocks– yet on other occasions that same
man has committed folly in Israel because he thought it was fair
sailing, and he did not want to take the Divine Pilot on board. Let us,
in all things, great or small, ask counsel of Christ! And when once we
know His will, let us never have a second thought! It is not ours to
reason or to question, but it is ours to suffer loss and endure
reproach, if necessary, when we have His orders. The Christian's, like
the soldier's duty is to obey. Be it to do or to die, it is imperative
that he lay his judgment at the feet of his Commander. His judgment is
never more sound than when he defers to his Chief, demurs to nothing,
and decides at the spur of prescript or prohibition. With His charge
for your chart, be ready to hear His direction!

Nor is there any lack in another particular. Full often, blessed be His
name, Christ gives us the word of consolation. Unhappy are those
disciples who turn a deaf ear to these sweet refreshments. We know some
who are so sickly and depressed in spirit, that "their soul abhors all
manner of meat, and they draw near unto the gates of death." "My soul
refuses to be comforted," says the Psalmist, and there are persons in
that pitiable condition. But, dear Friends, when Jesus deigns to
comfort, surely it is wise to obey the injunction, "Hear you Him." Why,
if I could not believe the promise of my father, or the promise of my
brother, yet must I believe the promise of my Savior! He cannot
deceive! He would not speak flattering words! It were not possible for
Him to buoy me up with specious consolations, showing me the bright
side of the picture and veiling the darker shadows. Oh, no! He,
Himself, has said, "If it were not so, I would have told you." He is
perfectly ingenuous in what He says. He conceals nothing which is
profitable for us to know! He is, Himself, transparent Truth. When He
says to me–to you–"Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in
God: believe also in Me. In My Father' s house are many mansions,"
shall we not dismiss our fears, renew our hearty confidence in Him,
believe in the many mansions and look forward to them? And if He says
to us (as He does), "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." If He
declares, "I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never
perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hands," should we not
ground our full assurance on His simple assertion? Are we to question
what He affirms because it seems too good to be true? May it not remind
us of that famous speech of the Lord by the mouth of His servant
Isaiah–"As the heavens are above the earth, so are My ways higher than
your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Oh, bow your ear, you
mournful one, disconsolate as you are! I marvel not that you refuse
earthly sedatives, but I wonder much that you should deny yourself
these heavenly restoratives! The oil and wine that Jesus brings is
healing and

healthful. The ointment that He puts upon you will not aggravate your
sores, but will cure your malady! Yield yourself to His generous
treatment! The spirit of Christ never comforts unwisely. Rejoice that
He has given the Holy Spirit and still speaks by the Spirit unto the
mourners in Zion.

I might linger over these and kindred reflections. When our Lord speaks
by way of warning and bids you, "Flee from the wrath to come," hear you
Him! When He speaks by way of exhortation, or of invitation, saying,
"Come unto Me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest," then, "hear you Him!" If His tone should seem somewhat
severe to your souls, and your flesh should revolt against it, yet,
"Hear you Him." His lips are as lilies, dropping sweet-smelling
myrrh–always sweet smelling and healing like the myrrh. Oh, regard
Him! Catch His faintest accents! Treasure His words. Take your tablets
and write down what He says–but let your tablets be your heart's best
flesh, made soft by the power of the regenerating Spirit! Pray the Holy
Spirit to write upon your souls, to carve deeply upon your hearts, all
that Jesus Christ may speak to you! This is what we would have you
hear. "Hear you Him." The third word about which some remarks were to
cluster was–

III. HOW?

How shall we hear Him? We have shown you that He speaks in the Word of
Scripture, that He speaks through His sent servants, that He speaks by
His Holy Spirit to the hearts of His people. How shall we hear Him,
then? Undoubtedly it becomes us to listen with devout reverence. Let us
revere every Truth of Scripture for the sacred Authority with which it
comes to us. Every rightly constituted mind must feel shocked at the
way in which certain parts of God's Word are treated by the
thoughtless, as well as the profane! I believe, Brothers and Sisters,
that the habit of trifling with the minutest detail of God's Word is
very sinful. I know that it has led to much mischief in the Church of
God. I remember hearing a minister speak of the controversy about
Baptism with palpable levity. It made me shudder when he said that for
his part, he did not care two cents about Baptism! Is there not a
Baptism of the Lord's commandment? Some sort of Baptism there is, at
any rate, which Christ has enjoined. God forbid that I should scoff at
it! Where is your loyalty to the Son of God if you rudely snap your
fingers at any ordinance He has appointed? You that hear may account it
of no consequence, but He that declared it to us well knew its profound
importance, for He said, "Whoever, therefore, shall break one of these
least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the
least in the Kingdom of Heaven." You have coined a new proverb to
supersede the old statutes. "There are no sects in Heaven," you inform
us. Then, having forged a text, you supply us with a commentary. "These
points are really nonessential," you tell us, "it would promote love
and concord utterly to ignore them." No, Sirs, but the points of which
you speak so lightly are not mere specks on the horizon–they are more
like lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the
night–let them be to you for signs and for seasons! "They are not
essential for salvation," says one. Be it so, and yet they may be
essential for approbation, I reply. As a servant, "Will you willfully
offend because the penalty is to be reproved, not to be discharged? As
a pupil in the school of Christ, will you violate His Laws because you
will only be put to the bottom of the class, and no one supposes you
will be expelled from the school? Has it come to this with you,
professing Christian, that to escape from Hell is the only thing you
care about? Are you of so mean, so beggarly a spirit, that, provided
you get saved, it is all you are concerned about?" Dear Friends, after
we are saved, it is essential to the peace of our conscience that we
search the Word of God to know the will of Christ concerning us and
that in every particular, as far as we are able, we endeavor to do His
will! You may err through ignorance, not knowing that you are doing
wrong. That is a sin, a sin concerning which Christ says that you shall
be beaten with few stripes. But it is an aggravation of sin when a
person does not wish to know His Lord's will–no, refuses to enquire,
and thinks it quite unimportant–for such willfulness the servant, to
use our Lord's own words, "shall be beaten with many stripes." God save
us from the censure, as well as the penalty of that transgression!
Never treat with levity any text of Scripture. Never suppose that
because the Truth of God is considered small by the men of your
generation, that it is, therefore, inconsiderable in the eyes of Him
who rules throughout all generations. The sweepings of the lapidary's
shop, where diamonds are polished, are precious–how much more should
each member of the whole Church be jealous of every minute particle of
the Truth of God! Small errors are the seedlings from which gigantic
heresies spring up. The more accord with the mind of Christ there is in
the individual disciples of Jesus, the more concord there will be in
the visible Church. Unity is not promoted by endorsing one another's
faults, but by conspiring with one another to maintain the Master's
statutes!

Let us hear believingly. Some are troubled with doubts and, fears, and
others foster them as if they were accessories to faith and proofs of a
naive disposition! We have heard from the philosophic side that there
is more faith in doubting than in crediting the revealed Word. Really,
such cant I do not care to quote. The marvel is that it gets currency
for an hour. The class of doubters we have abroad in the present day
may well be always declaring that they are honest, since there is so
much reason to suspect the honesty of their doubts. And then there are
Christian people who think it a commendable humility and an excellent
feature of experience, to entertain doubts, to make a profession of
fears and to cast reflections on "the full assurance of faith," as
though it were presumptuous and unbecoming! From the tone of their
conversation you might infer that the promise of the Gospel is to him
that doubts and hesitates to show his allegiance, rather than to him
that believes and is baptized, that he shall be saved! The new birth is
a grave subject to their thinking. It fills them with terror, instead
of inspiring them with hope. But their morbid views are all wrong, my
Brothers and Sisters! What Christ has said is true, Infallibly true! It
is not to be lightly questioned, but implicitly relied on. Be it ours
to accept from His lips whatever of teaching, of consolation, or
promise He may utter. And let us hear Him expectantly, with the full
assurance of hope, knowing that He is faithful who has promised.
Especially in the matter of prayer, let us encourage the utmost
confidence that He will hear us. Have you not caught yourselves
sometimes telling of the remarkable answers you have obtained, as if it
caused you the greatest possible surprise that you should ask and
receive? Meet and right it is, my dear Brothers and Sisters, that you
should relate what God has done for you–but is it quite right for you
to express astonishment that He has fulfilled His own engagements?
Should it be accounted strange by God's own children that their Father
keeps His word? Are His oracles so equivocal, that when they are
literally fulfilled, we lift up our hands in blank amazement? Not so,
Beloved! Better far the saying of that aged Christian woman, who, when
she heard a young disciple relate the answer he had got to the prayer
he had offered, and finish up his story with the exclamation, "Wasn't
it surprising?" replied, "No! it is just like Him." As it is His custom
to keep His word, let us always hear Him expectantly!

And let me charge you, beloved Friends, that you take heed by the power
of God's Spirit always to hear Jesus Christ obediently. There is a way
of hearing that is worse than not hearing at all. Who are so deaf as
those that will not hear or hearing, will not obey? How often has the
Lord called some of you–and yet you have not come to Him? Though He
has taught you much, you have not learned anything. Though He has
exhorted you many times, you have not stirred. Though He has frequently
warned you, you have taken no heed. Oh, that we obeyed, instantly
obeyed Him, scrupulously obeyed Him, universally obeyed Him! Oh that we
enquired and ascertained His will with an eagerness to do His bidding!
Gladly would I be like a cork upon the waters, that feels every breath
of the wind and every rise of the wave–not like some great steam
vessel, that needs a storm to make it roll. Would to God we were
delicately sensitive to the mind of Christ like the photographer's
sensitive plate that catches the image as it passes and permanently
retains the reflection, so that when Jesus Christ' s perfect image
comes before our soul, it might be there stamped upon us to abide
evermore! Oh, my dear Brothers and Sisters, ponder this pensively. Pray
over it privately. Ask yourselves personally, are we all thus hearing
the Lord Jesus Christ? Come to close quarters–let us put it
pointedly–are any of you living in habitual disregard of your Lord's
will? If so, you are unhappy, I know you are! You cannot be happy until
you come and yield yourself up to Him. What is the true posture of a
servant but to wait his master's beck and bidding? Where can you expect
to know the sweetness of Christ but in acknowledging Him as your Lord
and yielding your souls in allegiance to Him? Cry to God, then, for
cleansing from the errors of the past! Invoke His help to make your
obedience complete, now and in days to come. We know we are not saved
by ourobedience–we are saved already by Hisobedience–but for the love
we bear His name, what was our gain, we count our loss, and we desire
to render ourselves as living sacrifices unto Him, which is but our
reasonable service! Thus let us hear Him.

I beseech you, you who listen to me from Sabbath to Sabbath, never to
take any of your beliefs from my sermons unless you can verify them
from His sayings! I would cheerfully blot out from your recollection
every dogma that has no authority but my own. I would urge you to give
it like chaff to the wind. Let your soul be established upon the Truth
of God as it is in Jesus! "Hear you Him." Whatever He says, accept
beyond appeal. Let that be your beginning and your ultimatum, the
beginning of your confidence, and the end of all your controversy!
Should Christ's teaching take you out of our connection, or out of any
association where you now are, never mind, follow it! Through floods or
flames, if Jesus leads, follow His guidance! Don't be foolish enough to
take up with impressions that are merely of the flesh. Don't be

forever changing and shifting with the currents of opinion. Don't have
windmills on the brain. Read well, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.
Having done so, if nobody in this world beside yourself professes to
believe the Truth that Christ has taught, believe it all the more
intensely! Be concerned that so much dishonor should be done Him by so
many being in ignorance or error, but be concerned to honor Him
yourself by holding that Truth firmly which others overlook or despise.
"The Bible, and the Bible alone," said Chillingworth, in that oft
quoted opinion of his, "is the religion of Protestants," but I am
afraid it is hardly a fact. It ought to be true and it would be true,
were we true to Christ. It is the professed religion of Christendom!
The Word of God applied to the soul by the eternal Spirit becomes to us
the voice of Christ, and we desire to hear it, God helps us to hear it!
One more question remains to be answered. IV. WHEN?

When shall we hear Him? The reply must be, Evermore! Hear Him when you
begin your Christian career. "Hear, and your soul shall live." "Faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." It is the hearing of
Him that quickens the soul. "Incline your ear," He says, "and come unto
Me; hear, and your soul shall live." Nor are we to give up hearing
Christ after we have found life in Him–we are to continue still
learning of Him. We shall never grow so wise that we do not need Him
for a Teacher. We shall never be so experienced that we can find our
own way, and no longer need Him as a Guide. We shall have to keep on
hearing Him when our locks are gray and our age is reverend. When we
are on the banks of Jordan, and our feet almost tread the hallowed soil
of the border land–even then, Brothers and Sisters, we must still hear
Him! And then across the river His voice will greet us. We shall
forever hear Him in the upper skies. The great matter, however–great
because it presses so heavily on our present interest and our future
destiny–is that we hear Him now! "Today if you will hear His voice,
harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation
in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My
works forty years." May we have Grace to hear Him now. If we do not
hear Him now, speaking with the voice of mercy, tomorrow we may hear
Him say, "I never knew you." It would be a terrible hearing that,
"Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity!" The thunder of those
dreadful words will be everlasting! May God, of His infinite Grace,
save us from hearing the dreary sentence of the Judge by enabling us to
now hear the cheery welcome of the Savior!

And do you not think, dear Friends, it would be well that Believers
should have a special time for hearing Christ every day? Might you not
mark off a quarter of an hour in the day for hearing what God the Lord
shall speak? In the middle of London, amidst all the din of traffic,
the sweetest chimes cannot be heard–they are drowned. But that same
music, when other sounds are hushed, will be extremely pleasant. We
have the rush and crash of the world in our ears nearly all day. If we
want to hear Christ' s voice, we must sometimes get alone and sit in
silence. It is the best commerce a man can engage in–it brings in the
richest treasure! He will be poor who does not set apart some time in
which He can listen to the voice of Christ by searching the Scriptures,
by drawing near to God, by watching and prayer. Even the public Prayer
Meetings should be second to private intercessions. "This ought you to
have done," I would say of the Prayer Meeting, "not to have left the
other undone." Both should be regarded, for oftentimes in the morning,
if one can get a text of Scripture and put it under the tongue, it will
keep the mouth sweet, the breath sweet and the heart sweet all day
long! And at night, when one is weary, it gives calmness to our
slumbers and even makes our dreams pleasant, if we can get a kiss from
the lips of the Spouse in some joyful promise, some precious portion of
the Word of God! "Hear you Him," my Brothers and Sisters! "Hear you
Him." The Lord unstop your ears to hear, O you that have never heard
Him! And you that have heard Him often, may you hear Him yet more
frequently and more familiarly till He shall say unto you, "Come up
here," and you shall finally enter into His joy! God bless each one of
us richly for Christ's sake. Amen.