THE SIXTH EVIL. The sixth thing wherein the danger of
earthly-mindedness consists is this: 'tis one of the greatest hindrances
in the world to profiting from the ministry of the Word.
Oh, many of you cannot but be convinced in your consciences
that you have not profited by the Word; and sometimes you
will complain of the lack of profiting under the means! Oh,
that you had hearts to look into the cause of it, as to why it is
that you profit so little! It will appear that it comes from your
earthly-mindedness. You bring a heart full of the world, full of
dross, with you. It is no wonder that you do not see those spiritual,
heavenly things that are in the Word when there is so
much dross in your eyes.
Summer travelers, traveling in the midst of dust and in
company, do not have the freedom of their eyes to see things
like they do at other times. Oh, many men come to the Word
with their thick clay, and a great deal of filth that clams tip
their very eyes, and deadens their hearts in the hearing of the
Word! You know what Christ said to Martha, when Mary was
sitting at Christ's feet and hearing His Word. He said that Martha
was encumbered with many things. So it is many times with
those who come to hear the Word. Though they are in the presence
of Christ and have the sound of the Word in their ears,
yet their hearts are encumbered about many things. There's a
great noise in their hearts. They are busied in the world even
while they are hearing the Word. As you find in Ezekiel 33:31,
there's a notable description which, I fear, may be true of many
of you: "And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and
( they sit before thee as My people, and they hear thy words, but
they will not do them; for with their mouth they show much
love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness."
Notice, "They sit before you as My people, and they hear
your words, and they show much love with their mouth." They
will commend the sermon. It may be that they will say, "He is
an excellent preacher; it was a very good sermon that we heard
today." They will show love with their mouths, but yet their
hearts go after their covetousness for all that. They heard a
man speak fine things, and bring excellent expressions to set
forth the matter at hand, but their hearts are after the things of
the earth, and after their covetousness.
They had carnal, earthly, drossy hearts, and hence it was
that no good came to them by the ministry of the Word. That
famous place, which shows it clearly, is in Matthew 13:22. You
know the several sorts of ground that had the seed of the Word
sown into them, but there was but one of them that was good
and faithful. The other was thorny ground. He who received
seed among the thorns is he that hears the Word; and the cares
of this world and the deceitfulness of riches chokes the Word
and it becomes unfruitful. I beseech you to observe it: these of
whom our Savior speaks of herein this parable, who get no benefit
from the Word, are not men who live lewdly (drunkards,
swearers, or whore-masters), but those who have earthly hearts.
It says, "the deceitfulness of riches." The things of the earth
do not hinder in an open way, for thousands of men who have
earthly hearts do not know that they have earthly hearts. No,
it is the deceitfulness of riches, and it chokes the Word. It may
be, just when they are hearing the Word, if affects them. Oh,
they think it's sweet, and they will remember it; but the deceitfulness
of riches and the cares of this world choke the Word.
When these things come, they have worldly businesses, and
their houses, and gardens, and comings in, and full tables, and
all the delights that they have in the world—all these things
come and possess the heart so that the Word is choked. It cannot
get down into the soul to sink in there, and so to prevail in
the soul to bring forth fruit. The Word is choked.
Many of you come here three times on the Lord's Day, and
have precious seed sown all those times; and yet how it is choked
by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of the things of
this world! You bring with you, and keep with you, and carry
along with you, earthly minds; and hence it is that the Word does
not prevail with your hearts. Oh! What do you lose through this
earthliness? You lose the fruit of the Word that should save your
souls. A spiritual heart, having received some one truth into it,
later blesses God for it, and would not for ten thousand worlds
have it otherwise than that he should have that truth preached
unto his heart at such a time. Oh, he has cause to bless God for
such a morning, for such a day, that he has such a godly pearl of
great price presented to him! Taking root, it's more than if God
had given him thousands of worlds to possess.
But now many of you, having your thoughts and hearts about
some petty thing of this world, all those blessed truths that you
hear from time to time, things that the very angels desire to pry
into, are all choked and come to be unfruitful. Why did the young
man who came to Christ to know what he should do to inherit
eternal life receive no good? The text says that he had great possessions.
A man may, no doubt, be a rich man and yet a godly
man, a holy man. But it was the heart, mixed with the earth, that
hindered the young man from embracing Jesus Christ.
Young men are, for the most part, guilty of fleshliness rather
than seeking after the riches of the world. Yet sometimes it has
been the bane of some young men. They were very forward
when they were servants; oh, how precious was the Word to
them! But when they got into the world and found the sweet
ness of it coming in, then the Word was choked in them, and
they have lost the savor they had in the Word. They have lost
the relish of the Word. It is not as sweet now to them as formerly
it had been.
That's the great evil of earthly-mindedness: it hinders the
great benefit of the Word, and there is much evil in this. If
you had hearts to receive what is delivered, your hearts would
tremble at the thought of this. "O Lord! What shall I do so as
not to be hindered in profiting from this Word?" 'Tis the great
blessing of God to the world. It's that which must save my soul;
there's more worth in it than ten thousand worlds. Whatsoever
might hinder my profiting from Thy Word, I must take heed of
it. Take heed of earthly-mindedness. Many of your consciences
cannot but tell you this. Sometimes any business will keep an
earthly-minded man from coming to the Word; and when he
does come, there is earth in his heart and ears that keeps him
from attending upon the Word. When your thoughts are about
earthly things in the hearing of a sermon, it may be that some
truth passes by your soul that might have saved you eternally,
and you have lost that opportunity which, perhaps, you shall
never have again.
"A Treatise on Earthly-Mindedness" by Jeremiah Burroughs