My Year With Spurgeon: Week #28

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." ~ Charles Spurgeon, Before Sermon, At Sermon, After Sermon

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...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. ~ Charles Spurgeon, Before Sermon, At Sermon, After Sermon

There is a common consent among mankind that there should be some preparation for worship. I see the visible signs of it here, today...My counsel to you is cleanse your hearts rather than your garments! Go before God in newness of spirit rather than in newness of clothing...In making this preparation, our text tells us that there are some things to be laid aside. What does it say? "Therefore lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness." Some things must be removed before the Word of God can be received. And what are these things? The text mentions all filthiness. Now sin of every kind is filthiness. It does not strike the most of men so—they call it pleasure! I have even known them to think it an ornament. But in the judgment of the Spirit of God, who speaks here by His servant, James, every sin is filthiness. In the sight of every renewed man, all sin is filthiness and nothing better. Ever since the day when the Spirit of God took the scales from his eyes, the godly man sees sin to be a foul thing—abominable in the sight of a holy God. Sin in the thoughts is filthiness of the thoughts! Sin in words is filthiness of speech! Sin in action is filthiness in life! Everywhere, the transgression of the Law is a foul and polluting thing, which neither God nor good men can bear. Now, Brothers and Sisters, in coming before God, by the help of His Spirit, every sin must be confessed, forsaken, and hated. By faith in the precious blood of Jesus, it must be washed out, for we cannot come before God with acceptance while iniquity is indulged. We must remain apart from God till we are apart from filthiness. ~ Charles Spurgeon, Before Sermon, At Sermon, After Sermon

I cannot attempt to express the abomination of sin to God! He hates it with all His soul. If we are to be acceptable before God, there must be no keeping of favorite sins, no sparing of darling lusts, no providing for secret iniquities—our service will be filthiness before God if our hearts go after our sins. ~ Charles Spurgeon, Before Sermon, At Sermon, After Sermon

Sin is the greatest conceivable danger to a man's own soul—it makes a man to be dead while he lives—yes, corrupt before he is dead. Sin is a mortal disease and he that bears it about him is not far from Hell—while he continues to love it, he can never enter Heaven. ~ Charles Spurgeon, Before Sermon, At Sermon, After Sermon

Some persons, when they are angry, will say things that never ought to be repeated, or even said for the first time. ~ Charles Spurgeon, Before Sermon, At Sermon, After Sermon

Any kind of naughtiness in a child of God is superfluous—iniquity ought not to be within him! Children of God, you cannot serve the Lord if you are giving your strength to any form of wrong! Moreover, sin prejudices against the Gospel. A man says, "I did not enjoy the sermon." How can you? What have you been enjoying during the week? What flavor did last night leave in your mouth? ~ Charles Spurgeon, Before Sermon, At Sermon, After Sermon

How shall we act while listening to the Word? "Receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls." The first thing, then, is receive. That word, "receive," is a very instructive Gospel word—it is the door through which God's Grace enters us. We are not saved by working, but by receiving—not by what we give to God, but by what God gives to us—and we receive from Him. In the hearing of the Word, there should be a receiving of it, not into the ears only, but into the understanding, into the heart, into the conscience, together with a laying-up of this good treasure in the memory and the affections. You must receive the Word of God, or it cannot bless you. For, Sirs, the Word of God is a feast, but what comes of it if a man only looks at the banquet? Shall he not go away as empty as he came if he does not receive it? The preaching of the Word of God is as a shower from Heaven, but what happens to the soil if the raindrops fall but none are absorbed into the soil? Of what use is the shower if none is drunk in by the thirsty furrows? A medicine may have great healing power, but if it is not received, it does not purge the inward parts of the body. There must be a receiving of any good thing before the goodness of it can be ours. ~ Charles Spurgeon, Before Sermon, At Sermon, After Sermon

The door of Heaven is open to those who sit at Jesus' feet and learn of Him. You are not His servant unless He is your Master. You cannot be said to be His disciple if you question His teaching, for in the questioning of Christ's teaching lies the rejection of His Person. To doubt Jesus is treason against the authority He claims over every human heart. Receive with meekness if you would be blessed with Divine Grace. ~ Charles Spurgeon, Before Sermon, At Sermon, After Sermon

We are not bid to receive with meekness men's words, for they are many, and there is little in them. But receive with meekness God's Word, for it is one, and there is power in each Word which proceeds out of His mouth. Any little particle of God's Word, so far as we know it, is precious, and should be highly esteemed by us. The odds and ends, and corners and fragments of the Divine Word are to be received by you and by me—and there is a lack of meekness in us if we begin to pick and choose, and cut and carve the Divine Word. Who are we that we should say, "This or that is not essential"? Who are you, O man, that you should decide what is essential or otherwise? He who gave the Word did not write trifles! It is essential that you receive the Word of the Lord as supreme and perfect! And it is essential that you are lost if you do willfully reject any portion of that which the Most High deigns to reveal to men. Receive with meekness the one, only, and indivisible Word of the Lord. ~ Charles Spurgeon, Before Sermon, At Sermon, After Sermon

Nobody ever received the Word of God into his heart, to be engrafted there, without being cut and wounded by the Truth of God. It needs two wounds to make a graft—you wound the tree and you wound that better tree which is to be grafted in. Is it not a blessed grafting when a wounded Savior comes into living contact with a wounded heart? When a bleeding heart is engrafted with a bleeding Savior? Engrafting implies that the heart is wounded and opened—and then the living Word is laid in and received with meekness into the bleeding, wounded soul of the man. There is the gash and there is the space opened by it. Here comes the graft—the gardener must establish a union between the tree and the graft. This new life, this new branch, is inserted into the old stem, and they are to be livingly joined together.  Now, we need the Word of God to be brought to us in a similar fashion—our heart must be cut and opened—and then the Word must be laid into the gash till the two adhere. Then the heart begins to hold to the Word, to believe in it, to hope in it, to love it, to grow to it, to grow into it and to bear fruit accordingly! "Christ lives in me," said the Apostle. Is not that a wonderful thought? ~ Charles Spurgeon, Before Sermon, At Sermon, After Sermon

Believe in the power of God's Word—receive it as being fully able to save your souls from beginning to end! Two ways it does this—by putting away your sin as you accept the blood and righteousness of Christ—and by changing your nature as you accept the Lord Jesus to be your Master and your Lord, your life and your all. There is such potency in the Word of God, that if it is received into the heart, it will effectually save the soul! It will not merely give you a hope of being saved, but really save you—save you now, save you through life, save you to all eternity! Oh, with what ears ought men to listen to a Word which can save their souls! ~ Charles Spurgeon, Before Sermon, At Sermon, After Sermon

We value clouds by their rain, and men by their actual doings! The world is always looking to the church, not so much to hear her teachings as to see her doings. The bulk of men do not read the Bible, but they read you...~ Charles Spurgeon, Before Sermon, At Sermon, After Sermon

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible