Heedful Hearing
(No. 3357)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 1913.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
AUGUST 23, 1868.
"Take heed, therefore, how you hear." Luke 8:18.
It is implied in this verse that you do hear. A man cannot take heed
how he hears if he does not hear at all. Hence, how great is the sin of
a vast proportion of the inhabitants of this city who utterly forsake
the ministry of the Gospel, who never hear it, or hear it but only now
and then! We have frequently met with people who, before they came to
this house, never attended any place of worship. They were taken there,
they say, to be christened, or they went there to be married and they
expected to be carried there, or somewhere like it, to be buried, but
that was all their church going and all their respect for the worship
of God. Unhappy they–to have the Light of God and to refuse to see–to
have God's diamond lying, as it were, at their very feet, and yet to
refuse to pick it up! The day will come when wasted Sabbaths will be a
burning accusation against the inhabitants of this privileged, but
wicked city! With churches in almost every street, with preachers of
the Gospel to be found here and there declaring fully the saving Truth
of God, it shall go harder with the citizens of London than with the
inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day when the Lord comes to
judge the quick and the dead! Do I address any who have merely dropped
in here tonight, but who are not often hearers of God's Word? Ah, my
dear Friends, you little know the sweetness of the Gospel, for if you
did, "not tents of ease nor thrones of power" could tempt your feet
away from the place where God specially reveals Himself on the Day of
Rest!
Do you think how unjustly you are treating your God? There are seven
days in the week and He gives you six, but you rob Him of the seventh.
You are like a man on the highway who met a beggar and seeing him to be
in great need– and having but seven pounds in his pocket, he gave the
beggar six–and then the beggar knocked him down and stole the seventh
from him! He was an ungrateful wretch–and what are you? You shall
answer for yourselves.
It is implied, again, in the text that a man hears the Gospel, for it
does not matter much how you hear if it is not God's message, if it is
not the Truth of God. The best way to hear a lie is not to hear it at
all. The best way to hear preaching that is not according to God's
Gospel is to hear enough of it to know what it is and then walk off and
hear no more. But it is implied that you do hear the Gospel and here
comes the enquiry–Do those who frequent places of worship invariably
ask themselves the question–"Is the preacher a Gospel preacher? Does
he preach according to the Holy Scriptures? Does he deliver to me the
Truth of God, or is it a cunningly devised fable or invention of his
own?" I fear that the most of our hearers only ask, "Is he a fluent
speaker? Is he a high-soaring rhetorician? Can he pile his words, one
upon another? Or is he amusing? Does he use many illustrations and
metaphors? Will there be something to interest me?" Ah, but, my
Hearers, if the bread is poisoned, it is of small concern that the
baker makes it up into pretty loaves! If it is not a Gospel draught
that is given you to drink, it is a small matter to you whether the cup
is richly designed or not. Better that you have it in the poorest pot
and drink from that, if it is from the river of the Water of Life, than
that you receive untruth out of a golden cup! The chief matter with a
hearer when he goes to a town to live and has to enquire, "Where shall
I attend on the Lord's-Day?" should be this–"Where can I hear most
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ? Where shall I hear a man who can
touch my conscience? Where shall I hear the Truth that will be quick,
powerful and sharp as a two-edged sword to my soul? Where may I hope to
be saved? Where may I trust, being saved, that I may be helped on the
road to Heaven?" All the rest is mere matter of taste, but this is a
matter of the utmost importance! Is it the Gospel or not? If it is not
the Gospel, let not your feet tread the floor! But if it is the Gospel
of Jesus, then "forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as
the manner of some is."
But now, these two things being granted–that we ought to hear and that
it ought to be the Gospel–the text graciously counsels us, "Take heed
how you hear." We purpose to handle our theme after this fashion.
First, there is a caution implied in the text. Secondly, there are
rules intended in it. And then again, there are strong reasons for it.
First, there is–
I. A CAUTION IMPLIED IN THE TEXT.
"Take heed how you hear." The caution is that we should not think it a
trifling thing to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "Take heed"–as
though you had to stop on the threshold and remember where you are.
Take heed, take heed and remember, then, that it is no trifling thing
to hear a sermon if it is a Gospel sermon! Some think it is a simple
work to preach and child's play to sit and listen. When the great
trumpet peals and the dead are awakened, they will think very
differently! They will reckon that speech was never put to so noble a
purpose as when it was used to bring men to reconciliation with their
Maker–and that ears were never used to as good an end as when they
were used attentively to hear what God the Lord would speak when He
would bid the rebel come to Him and find mercy! The preacher, if he is
what he should be, does not think it a light or easy thing to preach.
It is said of Luther that he never feared any man and yet he declares
that he never preached a sermon without his knees knocking together
because he trembled lest he should be guilty of the blood of any of his
hearers. This is the great burden of my life, lest I should miss
anything that should be profitable to you. Lest, in dealing with God's
Word, I should be like some untaught chemist's lad who is mixing
medicines which were meant for restoring health, but who introduces
poisons into them. No! But I would tell you all I know, tell you all
God's Word as I have learned it and speak it honestly, affectionately
and plainly, trusting thus to be clear of the blood of all men!
But in proportion as it is solemn work to preach, it is also solemn
work to hear. When men enter king's palaces, they become at once
respectful, they regard their company, they pay marked attention to the
head of the household–and should they not, when they come into the
assembly of God's people to join in the worship of the Most High?
Should they not, after the same sort, say, "How awe-inspiring is this
place where the Gospel is preached! It is none other than the House of
God, and the very gate of Heaven"?
Because, then, it is no light and trivial thing to hear a sermon, take
heed how you hear!
Again, it is no easy thing to hear a sermon well, and hence the appeal
of the text, "Take heed how you hear." The fool cannot hear it well. He
lets it in one ear and out the other! The mere critic hears it, but
without any profit to himself. Multitudes have heard hundreds, possibly
thousands of sermons, but they have not been benefited thereby–they
have let the golden stream run past them–and not one single drop of
the precious treasure have they retained. The art of listening to the
preaching of the Gospel is one of the highest arts in the world and
conduces to the best results! Don't you suppose when you have come up
those step, and taken your seats, that you are all ready for the
sermon. No! No, it is not so! If you would have good fruit of it, there
ought to be as much preparation on your part as on mine. Am I to pray
that I may be a blessing to you, and are you not to pray that you may
get a blessing out of the words? Are you to come flippantly, or even
carelessly into these seats and sit down, and then hope to be edified?
If so, indeed, you shall usually find your hopes disappointed! Take
heed how you hear, because it is not a little thing, nor an easy thing,
to listen to the Gospel of Jesus!
Take heed how you hear, implies this caution–that it is no light thing
to hear the Gospel irreverently, for on the bad hearing may hang not
only the loss of the blessing which might have come, but the infliction
of a punishment which shall be the greater for careless hearing. Men
never listen to a Gospel sermon and remain as they were. They are
either bettered by it or–shall I say worsened?–if there is such a
word. It is not possible that the Gospel should have shined on those
eyes without either giving light or increasing the blindness. I do not
believe that any man has regularly sat under the sound of a Gospel
ministry for three months without being either sensibly hardened or
manifestly softened by it. You know how children's characters are
formed, how day after day, and week after week, bring impressions for
good or for evil upon their sensitive minds. And it is just the same
with ourselves. Every Truth of God that passes before the camera of our
soul leaves some degree of impression upon the sensitive plate of our
character–and we are either blessed by it, or cursed by it, as the
case may be. It must be either a savor of life unto life to us, or of
death unto death. It is no light thing to have heard amiss!
But there is also a sweet caution that springs out of the text if you
think it over. "Take heed how you hear," for it may be a blessed thing
to hear, and no one can tell the weight of mercy that may come from the
hearing! I have heard of a child who used to lean forward so earnestly
to catch every word–he told his mother it was because he had heard the
preacher say that if there was a sentence in the sermon that was likely
to save one soul, the devil would, if it were possible, be sure to get
you to be inattentive while that was being said! Now the boy was right,
and there was a great truth in it. If men did but always catch the Word
of God, speaking after the manner of men, what chances there would be
that that Word would be blessed to them! And what a blessing it would
be! Why, there may be some here tonight–for there have been such here
many nights–who have come in here having had a miserable life of it up
till now and their wife and children a more miserable life, still, if
it is possible, for they have been frequenters of the ale-house,
spending their money in riotousness. But what if they should be sobered
tonight by Divine Grace and get new hearts and right spirits–that
would be blessed hearing–blessed for the family, for the wife and
children, as well as for the man himself!
There may have come in here some poor desponding men and women, ready
to make away with themselves. Oh, perhaps in the hearing, tonight, the
joy of the Lord may come to them and they may be saved! Many and many
have found out that they were the children of God while they were
hearing–found out that Christ was theirs, pardon of sin was theirs,
Heaven was theirs! And they would never have found it if it had not
been for hearingit! But while they were listening, God's Holy Spirit
opened their hearts to perceive and receive what had all the while been
written in the Scriptures!
Oh, may it be a blessed night to some of you while you are here! Pray
for it, people of God! "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
avails much." Let your prayer go up that souls here may so hear the
Word of the Gospel of salvation as being a great message from God and,
therefore, may hear it with all their hearts and so listen to it that
it may be salvation unto them according to the Master's promise,
"Incline your ears and come unto Me: hear and your souls shall live."
Now, and at somewhat greater length–
II. THE TEXT IMPLIES SOME RULES AS TO HEARING.
The text is multum in parvo–much in little. "Take heed how you hear,"
means many things. Do not be alarmed when I say that we shall have
seven points under this head. That you may remember them, I have put
them in the order of the alphabet.
"Take heed how you hear." That is, first, take heed that you hear
attentively. And it will not burden your memories if I hook on to that
word another like it–retentively–that heed that you hear attentively
and retentively. I have heard of a poor idiot who was an excellent
hand, idiot though he was, at carrying messages. And the way in which
he did it was to deliver the message exactly as he had it, word for
word. But he had a great peculiarity. While the person told him the
message, he always stood with one hand closing one of his ears–and as
soon as ever he had got the message, he put the other hand up and
closed the other ear so that both ears were shut–and away he ran! When
asked why he did it, he said that when the message came he did not want
it to get out at one ear–and then when he had received it, he shut the
other ear in order that it might not get out that way! Observe, fool
though he was, there was wisdom in the action. I wish there were as
much wisdom in some who would not like to be called fools, for they
hear the Truth of God with one ear and it goes out the other! It were
well if they took care not to let it escape them. Have your ears open
with keen, attentive listen-ing–and then have both of them shut as
being retentive to keep in the Truth you have received. But alas, many
do not even hear at all. The Gospel is being preached, but they are
thinking of a thousand other things. Distracting thoughts fill their
minds.
We all know how hard it is for the marksman to shoot a running deer.
And how difficult it must be for the preacher to strike the running
judgment and the moving, restless mind that is preoccupied with other
things! But if we can get the whole mind fixed on the subject before
us, as it should be, then we may hope to make an impression. Do labor,
dear Friends, to whomever you may be listening, to put those
distractions away–the thoughts of house and home and all besides,
while the Gospel is operating upon your minds! And when you have heard
it, try to store it up and keep it there. If it is good for today, it
is good for tomorrow! And if it does not bless you today in the
hearing, perhaps God may bless it to you in years to come. We have read
of a man who was converted through a sermon, but he heard the sermon 70
years before it was blessed to him! Mr. Flavel had preached it and the
man was sitting, 70 years later, under a hedge in the
United States. And he recollected that it was 70 years ago that day
that he had heard the sermon–and God, then and there, blessed the
sermon to him and he was saved! Hear, then, attentively and
retentively!
The second point is–hear believingly and, as all true belief ends in
practice, hear obediently. That which we do not accept as being true
can be of no service to us, especially in the economy of Divine
Grace–where everything comes to us by faith–and where unbelief
restrains the hand of God and keeps back the blessing. Faith, however,
as I have said, must always be obedient if it is true. When you have
heard the Word, put it in practice at once! What a grand close to a
sermon that was after Paul had preached in the streets of Ephesus, when
they brought out their books of witchcraft and made a pile of them in
the street and burned them before the Apostle's face! Ah, it were well
if men would bring out their sins, their hard thoughts of God, their
fancied self-righteousness and everything contrary to the Divine will.
It were blessed preaching, and blessed hearing, if such were the
result–hear believingly and obediently!
Thirdly, hear candidly and honestly. Too many are prejudiced against
the Word. Prejudiced because they do not like the preacher, though I
see not why they should not accept the Truth wherever it may be found.
A man would prize a jewel, though he found it on a dust heap–and the
Gospel of Jesus is to be valued, let who will proclaim it! Some make up
their mind before they hear, that they will not receive it. This is
neither honest to the Truth of God, nor to themselves. They show not
wisdom, but folly here. But many will tell you that they cannot be
expected to change their religion, as if they half-felt that if they
were to think a little they must do so. Surely that religion that will
not bear deep consideration must be a poor, poor thing! No, Sir, but
hear what is to be said! Judge it by the Word of God. Judge it honestly
and when you have done so, if it is not the Truth of God, cart it away
to the winds! But if it is the Truth of God, then accept it and may God
bless it to you! It is a pity that men are not more candid in hearing
the Gospel and in applying it to themselves. How many, if they hear a
Truth of God, will say, "I wonder how that will suit So-and-So," and
immediately cast their eyes around the place to see if Mrs. So-and-So
is there and wonder how she will like it. The old Roman said, "Lend me
your ears," but I may say–keep your ears at home! Hear for yourselves.
Constantly this process ought to be going on in the hearer's mind,
"What has that Truth to do with me? That promise–is it mine? That
threat–ought it to make me tremble? That caution–does it apply to me?
That command–am I the man who ought to carry it out? Oh, for such
candid, personal applications of Gospel Truth by each hearer to
himself! We should then have blessed results.
I have thus gone through three points. The fourth is–hear devoutly and
hear sincerely. I reckon that but little good will come of the hearing
which some people give when they hear of loaves and fishes being given
away. If there are so many loaves to be given away on Sunday, a certain
number of poor people will be sure to be there–a vile hypocrisy which
cannot be too much condemned! Take heed, dear Hearers, that none of you
ever hear with such low and sinister motives, but that you come to hear
the Gospel as God's voice to us and, therefore, as in God's Presence
with simple and lowly hearts, desire to know His Truth that you may
sincerely live it! Never should there be mixed therewith anything so
gross and carnal as that which brings some men and women to the House
of God.
Why, do not even some of you come merely because it is the custom to go
somewhere, or because it looks respectable, as if the Lord's own
worship were to follow and honor the fashion of the day? This is all
mischievous and rotten as a motive! If I did not think it were some
good to me to come to worship, or that it was my duty to God to do it,
do you think I would do it to please my neighbors? No! Let my neighbors
please themselves! The honest, upright man in these things remembers
that religion is a personalthing and that to be the mere slave of
fashion and custom of others is sinful degradation!
Oh, I beseech you, lay aside that slavery of men's fashion! And when
you do listen to the Gospel, let it be with a direct and devout feeling
in your soul that you have come to worship God and to hear what the
Lord God shall speak to you!
I will not stay on any one point and, therefore, pass on to observe
take heed that you hear earnestly and, therefore, spiritually. Some men
get no blessing from the Gospel, but who wonders that they do not? They
never put their hearts into it. Oh, I think if I were this night under
conviction of sin and were seeking a Savior, I would listen with all my
heart and soul to the preaching of Jesus Christ! Have you not known
times, some of you, when you would have stood in the aisles by the hour
to hear of Christ, if perchance you might have got rid of the burden of
your sins? Ah, these are the men that get the blessing! But those who
are half asleep and in their minds quite asleep, are not likely to
receive the Word.
How can it come to them with power? What probability is there that it
will, when they themselves care not whether it will or not?
And then, dear Friends–coming to the letter "F"–take care that you
hear feelingly, asking the Lord to make the Word cut into your souls!
Those get the blessing in whom the Word plows a furrow–not those to
whom it is like whipping the water, no impression being made but for an
instant. Oh, pray God that you may not get Gospel-hardened! Ask Him to
make you tender under all threats and to keep you like a well-plowed
field that is ready to receive the good seed when it is scattered upon
it! Try if you can, and may God's Holy Spirit help you to be warned
under the threats, to be cheered by the promises, to be comforted by
every good Word of the Lord so that, feeling the power of the Word, it
may be life and salvation to you!
Again, "take heed how you hear," and mind that you hear gratefully and
prayerfully. It is a privilege beyond all price to live in a land of
Bibles, to be brought where the Gospel is proclaimed. Thank God for it.
Do not be indifferent, lest He take the candlestick out of its place
and leave you in the dark. Hear prayerfully! I wish it were a habit
with you, when you get home, to take a few minutes in a quiet room and
pray for a blessing upon what has been heard. We might expect to see
great results if this were your constant practice, to pray after your
hearing–and even before–to get the ground ready! And when the seed is
sown, to rake it and water it, so that it may have congenial soil in
which to take root. Ah, but how many come to hear the Gospel and then,
all the way home, get into some idle company after the service and
whatever Word of God might have been blessed, fails to produce any
result, for the evil birds of the air have devoured the seed that fell
upon such a hard highway!
May God give you Grace to put in practice these seven hints that I have
given you. "Take heed how you hear." And now, lastly, there are–
III. CERTAIN OBVIOUS REASONS FOR TAKING HEED HOW YOU HEAR.
And the first is because it is God's Word. Not everything that I say,
or that any minister says, is God's Word. Hence you should take heed to
separate between what is God's and what is ours. But wherein we speak
according to Holy Scripture, it is as much God's Word as if God Himself
spoke. And let me remind you that God's Word, whoever speaks it, is a
much more solemn matter than a king's word! Where the word of a king
is, there is power, but where the Word of God is, though a boy should
speak it, there is Irresistible Power! It is better for you to hear
God's Word from your fellow men than it would be to hear it from an
angel, for God would have employed angels on such messages if they had
been better. But because men can enter with greater sympathy into your
feelings, God has not given this ministry unto angels, but has
"committed unto us the word of reconciliation." It is better for you to
hear it from us than it would be to hear it from one who should rise
from the dead, for if not, God would bid them rise from the dead and
preach to you. But remember, He would not send any from the dead to
preach to Dive's kinsmen.
He said, "They have Moses and the Prophets: let them hear them." I will
go further and say it is better for you to hear the Word of God from a
poor preacher than it is to hear it from God, Himself, for men did hear
it from God, Himself at Sinai, and they prayed that He would no more
speak with them, for the voice was too terrible. "You cannot see God's
face and live," but in tender mercy He speaks through the lips of one
like yourselves, who has passed through your sinnership, has fled to
Jesus and can speak from living experience. Therefore "take heed how
you hear," for though it is but a man that speaks, it is more than a
king, or an angel, or one risen from the dead! It is, after all, the
Voice of God, the King of kings, speaking through His
ambassador–therefore despise it not!
"Take heed how you hear" because it is most precious Truth which is
proclaimed–Truth which may save your soul! The only chance, my
unconverted Hearer, that you have of Heaven lies in the preaching of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Do you know the story? God became Man that
He might suffer what was due for human sin. And whoever trusts in Jesus
Christ, the Substitute for sinners, shall be saved! If you rely simply
and entirely upon Him, you shall live! Now, that is the Gospel. If ever
you shall enter Heaven, it shall be through that gate. If ever you have
true peace, it will be through that precious balm of Gilead. I beseech
you, then, despise it not! This treasure is better than gold! No
mention shall be made of coral or jewel in comparison with it. Oh, come
and buy it without money and without price! But trifle not in that
sacred market of a preached Gospel in which alone you can buy the
salvation of your soul!
Take heed how you hear, because it is by this Gospel that you will be
judged. Paul says that Christ will judge the world and he adds,
"according to my Gospel." The Gospel! The Gospel! You have heard that
word till you have grown sick of it, but you shall see that word
pointing the sword of Justice if you despise it! When God stands and
holds out mercy to sinners, if they reject it, surely their destruction
shall be the more severe! Oh, my dear Hearers, if you understand the
Gospel of Jesus, I beseech you to so act towards it that you may not be
afraid when the big books are opened and the thundering voice of the
Judge shall read out the history of your life and shall pronounce your
final and eternal destiny!
Take heed how you hear, for many who heard the Gospel once are now
among the lost Terrible reflection! These pews have held some whose
spirits are now forever banished from hope! Take heed how you hear, for
you may be sitting in such a seat–the successor of such an one–and
you, also, may tread in his footsteps, despise the Truth of God and so
die without hope!
Take heed how you hear, for there are many nearing the end who will
hear no more.
Among the regrets that too often make dying such stern and crushing
work is this, "I knew the Gospel, but I did it not. I was told of
Christ, but I never trusted Him. I was pressed and persuaded and prayed
to give my heart up to Him, but I put off a decision until now! My last
few hours have come and 'tis enough for me to be thinking of the pain I
suffer! I have no time to think upon eternal things and do such weighty
business with a God who has now come so near to me, dressed in robes of
wrath!" Oh, as you will prize your Sabbaths when they are over. As you
will value the sermons when you cannot listen to any more of them,
think well of them, now, and make this resolution–and God help you to
make it in His strength–that you will never again read the Bible, or
listen to Gospel preaching or Gospel talking, without the solemn desire
of your whole soul that it may be made a saving blessing to you, that
you may not perish while hearing the
Word!
Oh, I pray you take heed how you hear, for there are many in Heaven now
who never could have been there if they had not heard the Word. And
they were such as you are! Then why should not you find the way there
by the same road which they, though wayfaring men, were able to tread
without mistake? Children, recollect that–
"Many dear children are gathering there, For of such is the Kingdom of
Heaven." There are children in Heaven who were saved by hearing the
Word in the Sunday school, saved by listening to it from this platform
when they were but boys and girls! Dear Children, may you trust Jesus
and become lambs in His flock. Young men and maidens, there are
multitudes of your age who are among the choristers of the skies,
making eternal melody before the Great White Throne, and they came
there by hearing of the name of Jesus and trusting in Him! Will you not
follow them? They were taken from you–some of you remember them when
they died–you sat side by side with them in the class one Sunday, and
the next Sunday they were in Heaven! Or you watched them fading slowly,
like lilies broken a little at the stalk, and at last they withered.
No, they withered not, except to our poor eyes, for they bloomed anew
in Heaven!
Will you not bloom there, too? If so, listen to the Word of Jesus and,
above all, accept it, and accept it now! Trust Him whose hands were
pierced! Rest in Him whose heart was smitten with a spear! He will save
you! He rejects none who yield to Him–yield to Him now! And you, you
men of business, 'tis hard work to get you away a little while from the
desk and ledger, you are so absorbed and eaten up with many of the
business cares of life! And you, working man, so apt to close your ears
to anything about another world–yet hear me! There are merchants like
yourselves and working men like yourselves who stand among the
white-robed host and rejoice with unspeakable joy and full of glory!
They are there, and if you ask them how, they will tell you that they
washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb! They
found that precious blood by listening to the Gospel with attentive
ears, and will you not be found there? Oh, what will it profit you if
you gain the whole world and lose your own soul? Sirs, it will be bad
business if you make ten thousand pounds and forever ruin your souls!
It will be hard business, you working men, if you toil on, and on, and
on, bricklaying and carpentering, and I know not what besides, and yet
throw away your souls, your immortal natures! I beseech you, by every
grain of sense you have, and all the wits that are within your brains,
be wise and trifle not with your souls–your better part, your immortal
part! As for your body, the worms will eat it, do what you may with it!
But your soul–oh, I pray God that no undying worm may ever feed on
that, but may you escape from that danger, safely be sheltered in
Christ Jesus and be eternally blessed in Him!
I have given you good enough reasons, then, for taking heed how you
hear, but what is needed, is not reasons, but reason, or better
still–Grace, the Grace of God! What is needed is not more argument,
but the willingness to yield to
those already felt. Oh, yield now to the saving Grace of God in Christ
Jesus! Look to Him and be saved, I pray you, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 2 TIMOTHY 2.
Verse 1. You therefore, my son, be strong in the Grace that is in
Christ Jesus. This is an exhortation to everyone of us, not only to
have Grace, but to be strong in it. There are many professors who as
long as they are just saved, are content. We are not content with being
barely alive spiritually–we do not wish to spend our life shivering
with cold, but we seek after comfort as well as existence–and we seek
to be in health, as well as to be in life. So should it be with the
Christian. He should pray, "Lord, make me strong in the Grace that is
in Christ Jesus." Oh, that these words might be not merely an
exhortation, but a Divine fiat, that as God said, "Let there be light,"
so He may say to His children, "Be you strong," and then oh, how soon
shall the weakest of us leap into immortal strength!
2. And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the
same commit you to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others
also.So then, there is to be a succession of teachers in the Church,
and these do ill who are always speaking against the ministry of God.
Timothy receives his ministry from Paul–he is to commit it to faithful
men and these are to hold it in custody to teach to others. But there
are some who say that all Christians should be teachers. To which we
answer, if the whole body were a mouth, where is the ear? The mouth is,
after all, but a vacuum. If the whole body was a mouth, there would be
no body at all! If all are to be shepherds, who are to be the sheep? If
all are to sow, where are we to find the ground? No, Brothers and
Sisters, we must be careful to pray God to continue the ministry in our
midst, for without it we miss many blessings. "The same commit you to
faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."
3. You therefore endure hardships, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
If you desire delicacy, join not the army. A soldier's calling is not
to be linked with softness–and if you desire ease and comfort, join
not the army of Christ, for a Christian's profession and these go not
together!
4. No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life;
that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier.So Timothy,
as a Christian minister, is to act as the Roman soldier did! It was a
law in Rome that no soldier was to plead in court for another as a
lawyer, or to act in business for another as a bailiff, or to have
anything to do, while a soldier, with either husbandry or merchandise.
And so should it be with the men of God who have to preach the Word–
and every Christian, indeed! Though he meddles with common things, he
is to take care that he is not entangled by them, not to be caught, as
it were, as game is entangled in a net. There is a way, you know, of
making the actions of common life subservient to the purposes of Divine
Grace. This is the Christian's business–let him take care that he is
not entangled with the cares of this life.
5. And also, if a man competes in athletics, he is not crowned except
he strives lawfully. There were rules in the Grecian games. When they
struck each other, the blow was not to be given except upon a certain
part of the body, and if a man fought unlawfully, he could not get the
prize. So there are laws, too, for the Christian ministry and also holy
regulations for the great wrestling of Christians.
6. The farmer that labors must be first partaker of the fruits. This is
a law. No man has any right to be a partaker at all till he has first
tasted of the fruits of the field. Until we have first tasted that the
Lord is gracious, we cannot effectively or properly minister the things
of God.
7. 8, 9. Consider what I say; and the Lord give you understanding in
all things. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised
from the dead according to my Gospel Wherein I suffer trouble, as an
evildoer, even unto bonds. But the Word of God is not bound. See how
the Apostle comforts himself! Here he is in prison, but the Truth of
God is free! He sits with the chains about his wrists, but the Word of
God travels from nation to nation, from continent to continent, like
the free spirit that dwells in it!
10. Therefore Iendure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may
also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal
glory.Not that the sufferings of Paul had anything meritoriously to do
with the salvation of the elect, but
that by his earnest striving and suffering, the word of the Gospel was
brought to their hearing–faith, then, came by hearing–and so they
were saved.
11, 12, 13. It is a faithful saying: For if we are dead with Him, we
shall also live with Him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him:
ifwe deny Him, He also will deny us. Ifwe believe not, yet He abides
faithful: He cannot deny Himself Glory be to God, the unbelief of man
cannot make God break His promises! Christian, all your unbelief has
not made God unfaithful to you! And Sinner, though you cast out the
promises of God as being good for nothing, yet He will not therefore
raise the recompense of reward, for Jesus will save others if He saves
not you. "He abides faithful."
14. Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the
Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the
subverting of the hearers. There are some Christians who want to have
this exhortation given to them in these days, for they are always
striving about words to no profit. Beware of these men, if you would
not have your faith staggered!