by Allen Webster
A Christian faithful to attend all services will hear about 215 sermons/classes a year, including gospel meetings and VBS. In a lifetime of 75 years, that approaches 16,000 sermons and 8,000 hours. Anything one invests that much of life in should be taken seriously. James gives a time sequence approach to best utilizing sermons (James 1:21-22).
Before a Sermon: “Lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness” (1:21).[1] A field is prepared to receive seed by removing trees, brush, roots, rocks, and weeds. It is plowed to soften it, so the seed has a place to germinate and an opportunity to grow. The human heart (mind) must be prepared to receive the seed of the word (Luke 8:11; 1 Samuel 7:3; 2 Chronicles 12:14; 19:3; 20:33; 30:19). Preaching is as a shower from heaven. It cannot penetrate hard hearts but is as water running of a slab of marble. A heart is prepared by removing the sins that fill it (Genesis 6:3) and block the word from entering, or having entered, from growing (Matthew 13:1-9). Once a mind is cleared, it can soak up verses like a sponge and become saturated with thoughts from God like Gideon’s fleece (Judges 6:38). With ploughed ground, the seed quickly grows to maximum fruit (John 15:5, 8).
During a Sermon: “Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls” (1:22). It is always wise to put ourselves under the influence of God’s powerful word (Romans 1:16). A sick man should live near a hospital[2] (Isaiah 1:6; Romans 3:23). Even if one did not intend to obey it, it still has the potential to work. Once as Jesus preached, officers were sent to arrest Him. Instead, they returned to their superiors with the message, “Never man spake like this man” (James 7:46). In ancient times spies listened to preachers, took notes of what was said, to accuse them of false doctrine. In a few cases, they were converted.
What is our responsibility while the word is preached? “Receive” it. God’s word is a feast; a banquet is not meant to be watched but eaten. A medicine cannot heal until it is taken. Reception is the door through which God’s grace enters our lives so throw open the windows of your soul for blessings (cf. Malachi 3:10).
How are we to receive the word? “With meekness.” Many miss the gospel because they do not have a teachable spirit (James 3:17). “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). The door of blessings opens when one sits at Jesus’ feet (Luke 10:39). It is to be received in its entirety. A meek person does not pick and choose or cut and carve the divine word. The Word’s odds and ends, corners, and fragments are valuable—every word is precious (Psalm 139:17). A sermon may step on our toes, but it must be accepted if it is God’s will for our lives. If the preacher speaks truth, we must not sit in judgment upon it (Jeremiah 36:23). We cannot say this belongs and this is unessential. To doubt Jesus is treason.
What is to be received with meekness? “The engrafted[3] word.” As botanists join two species of trees by grafting, so Jesus the Vine joins sinners to Himself to provide them sustenance and make them fruitful (John 15:1-7). Since God’s words are living (Hebrews 4:12), they can be grafted into living hearts.
Two wounds are required to make a graft. A branch is cut from one tree, but it cannot simply be taped or tied to the stump of the host tree. The host tree must be cut to receive the graft. The graft must be taken inside. Jesus was wounded on the cross; a sinner’s wound comes in the form of a broken heart (Joel 2:13; Psalm 34:18; 51:17; Matthew 5:3-4). Our hearts receive the word into that gash. Christ lives in us; we abide in Him (Galatians 2:20; 1 John 2:6).
Vance Havner said, “God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume—it is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.”[4]
After a Sermon: “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (1:23). James states the same truth positively and negatively. Positively, he says, “Be ye doers of the word” (James 1:25; 4:17; Matthew 7:21-27; 12:50; 28:20; Luke 6:46-48; 11:28; 12:47-48; John 13:17; 14:15, 22-23). This imperative tense means, “Let this be your constant pursuit—your main purpose in life.” The word “poet” comes from the word for “doers” here. A faithful Christian’s life is a perpetual poem, exhibiting beauty and symmetry.
Knowledge without action is of little benefit. A businessman who knows how to make money remains poor unless he opens a shop. The doctor who can cure the sick heals none if he has no practice. A capable teacher helps no child if she takes no students. Practice is the harvest; knowledge is but ploughing and sowing.
Letters usually end with a phrase that English teachers call the complimentary close, such as “Sincerely.”[5] In the late 1700s and 1800s, it was common to use “Yours truly.” A century before, it was commonly, “Your obedient servant.” Our lives and prayers should close with that thought (Deuteronomy 26:16; Joshua 1:8-9; 1 Samuel 15:22; Ezekiel 33:31-32).
Negatively, James says, “not hearers only.” This does not refer to a person who listens with little interest. To the contrary, it denotes one who listens closely but makes no effort to live by it. In early centuries, hearers designated those attending lectures who listened but never became disciples (cf. Acts 17:21)—like auditors, today. They hear the same lectures and may be received with the same interest, but when graduation they will not receive a diploma.
There are two parts to obeying the Gospel: believing and behaving (Romans 2:13; Colossians 3:17; 1 John 2:3-4; 3:7; 3 John 1:11; Revelation 22:7). It is not talking, but walking, that brings one to heaven. It is not enough to hear; we must heed. What is heard in the holy place must be lived in the marketplace. One who listens to a doctor but does not take the medicine will not be cured (cf. John 8:31-32). Hearers only are the greatest prodigals because they waste the greatest gift, God’s precious word. The better that which one hears, the more guilty if he neglects it; the plainer the gospel is taught, the more inexcusable its rejection. “When I have a more convenient season, I will send for thee” (Acts 24:25; Revelation 3:20).
Most people will not come to hear Sunday’s sermons. They will not read the Bible, but they read Christians. Paul wrote, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men” (2 Corinthians 3:2).
The text closes with this solemn statement: “deceiving your own selves.” Bishop Brownrigg (1592–1659) said, “To deceive is bad, to deceive yourselves is worse, to deceive yourselves about your souls is worst of all” (Isaiah 44:20; Obadiah 1:3; 1 Corinthians 3:18; 6:9; 15:33; Galatians 6:3, 7; 2 Timothy 3:13; Titus 3:3; 2 Peter 2:13; 1 John 1:8; Revelation 12:9).
This phrase literally means “to reckon sideways and then cheat” (as in a foot race). A person who assumes he can benefit from only listening cheats himself. To be able to quote the New Testament but not practice it, would ultimately be useless (2 Peter 2:21). If we heard a sermon every day, preached by an angel, it would never bring us to heaven if we only heard.[6]
When a husband returned home sooner from worship than usual, his wife asked, “Is the sermon done already?” “No,” he said, “it is all said, but it is just beginning to be done.”
[1] This material is adapted from Charles Spurgeon: https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/before-sermon-at-sermon-and-after-sermon#flipbook/
[2] Spurgeon
[3] Implanted
[4] http://christian-quotes.ochristian.com/Vance-Havner-Quotes/
[5] Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1997)
[6] Matthew Henry
