An eloquent congregation will make any preacher eloquent: help me then this morning. I cannot speak with any degree of physical vigour to you, by reason of the infirmity under which I struggle but what I do say to you is steeped in earnest desire that the Lord may bless it to you. You exhibit plenty of loaf, but there is no corn in the ear, no substance m your Christianity. You are religious persons, and to all appearance you are under the influence of godliness. But I will deal with those of you who hear the Word attentively, and, in a sense, receive it into your hearts and understandings, so that the seed grows in you, though its fruit never comes to perfection. Neither will I address myself to those who receive the truth with sudden enthusiasm, and as readily quit it when trial befalls them such are the rocky-ground hearers. I will not speak to those of you who hear the Word, and retain none of it because of the hardness of your hearts such are the wayside hearers. How will you excuse yourselves before God for having occasioned them so much disappointment?Īt this time I will only deal with one class of you. What fruit have you borne hitherto from all your hearing? May I venture to put the question to each one of you very pointedly? Some of you have been hearers from your childhood- are you any the better? What long lists of sermons you must have heard by now! Count over your Sundays how many they have been! Think of the good men now in heaven, to whom you once listened! Remember the tears that were drawn from you by their discourses! If you are not saved yet, will you ever be saved? If you are not holy yet, will you ever be holy? Why has the Lord spent so much on one who makes no return? To what purpose is this waste? Surely you will have much to answer for in that great day when the servants of God shall give in their accounts, and shall have no joy when they come to mention you. If you bring forth fruit to the praise of God’s grace, well but if not, however you may seem to hear with attention, and may retain what you hear in your memories, if no saving effect is produced upon your souls, we shall know that the soil of your heart has not been prepared of the Lord, but remains in its native barrenness. You sit here as a jury upon yourselves: your own condition will be brought clearly out by the way in which you receive or refuse the gospel of God. O my dear hearers, you undergo a test to-day! Peradventure you will be judging the preacher, but a greater than the preacher will be judging you: for the Word itself shall judge you. The word of the Lord tries the heart and reins of the children of men, and in this it is as the fire which distinguishes between metal and dross. If it produces in you holiness and love to God and man, then we know that there is good soil in you: but if you are merely promising people, but not performing people, then we know that the ground of your heart is hard, or stony, or thorny. We do not know your hearts till we see your bearing towards the gospel. You would not so certainly have known the quality if you had not seen the failure or success of the seed. If you do not bring forth fruit unto holiness, and the end is not everlasting life, I should be better employed in breaking stones on the road-side than in preaching to you.įruit-bearing made the difference appear in the various soils upon which the sower scattered seed. O my hearers, if you are not converted, I waste time and energy in standing here! Men might well think it madness that one whole day in the week should be given up to hearing speeches: madness, indeed, it would be if nothing came of it to conscience and heart. Preaching is the idlest of occupations if the word be not adapted to enter the heart, and produce good results. ![]() Without fruit the sower’s work would even seem to be insane for he takes good wheat, throws it away, and loses it in the ground. ![]() ![]() WHEN that which comes of his sowing is unfruitful, the sower’s work is wasted: he has spent his strength for nought. “He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.”- Matthew xiii. “And some fell among thorns and the thorns sprung up, and choked them.”- Matthew xiii.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |