In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of heeding the warnings and messages from God. He uses the example of the sinking of the Titanic to illustrate the consequences of not paying attention to danger. The preacher encourages the congregation to not only listen to God's word but also to act upon it. He emphasizes the need to be doers of the word and to take steps in God's will. The sermon concludes with a reminder that God speaks to our hearts and reveals His will to us, and it is our responsibility to diligently listen and obey.

There are two things. First of all, we get a chance to hear, and then we get a chance to do. And those two items belong together. We heard a while ago how important it is to be swift, to hear, and then it says, but be ye doers of the Word. I'm so glad that God gives me a chance to act upon what I hear. I find out that if we don't, as we heard a while ago, disaster is awaiting us. This happens to be the anniversary of another catastrophe, the sinking of the Titanic about forty-eight years ago. And the Titanic was one of these proud creations, like we are, unstinkable. Oh, what a danger when we get to the place where we're so proud and so self-assured that we never dreamed that there might be a disaster awaiting us. I heard the Lord say to a young minister one day, I don't want you to fall down to show you where you're failing. And some time ago, I had dealings with a minister who had failed so terribly. And someone came to me and said, do you think that that just happened unexpectedly? I said, no. That man knew what to do a long, long time before God allowed him to break. But this Titanic was plowing through the Atlantic and was assured from the captain down to the least sailor that it was unstinkable. It had been advertised like that way. It had been built to specifications that made it absolutely sure that that ship could not sink under any circumstances, even if it were, if it collided with another ocean liner, it just couldn't sink. It was impossible. And so when during the night of the 14th of April, 1912, messages came from another steamer, a little German metal. The messages came through the air, wireless telegraph, look out, danger ahead, danger ahead. The wireless operator of the Titanic was too busy with stock reports that were coming in from New York. And he had on board some of the richest stockbrokers, millionaires, John Jacob Astor, Strauss, the founder of Macy's, and some such names were on board. And they wanted to get to New York on time. They were racing to get to New York as soon as possible. And when this German steamer kept firing at them, look out, look out, danger ahead, icebergs. Finally, the telegraph operator got tired of it and he wired back, shut up, I have no time to listen to you. And so the German closed his, his instrument and went to sleep. And then the disaster happened so quietly that the Titanic didn't notice it. The passengers didn't notice it, even though the boat suddenly stopped. And then they came on board and then they saw the iceberg they had collided with, but it had hardly tilted the boat a little bit. They had just heard a little grinding noise, that was all. And some ice had fallen on deck. And what did the passengers do? They amused themselves with picking up ice chunks and playing with them. And they were told, this is an unsinkable ship. It won't take long before we'll be under our own steam and we'll go right for New York. Oh, if they had only listened to those messages of danger, if they had only paid attention, because four hours later that boat tilted and went down for the bottom and 1,500 people drowned inside of 15 minutes. They were gone forever. Death is awfully permanent, isn't it? And if they had only hearkened and stopped that boat in time, if they had only been willing to go a little bit slower to get to New York, maybe a day later, their lives would have been saved. We have heard signals from the other world today. We hear them every day. And they're serious signals. We don't realize how serious they are because we're quite comfortable. My, we're having a wonderful meeting, aren't we? Wonderful meetings. I've often wondered at the warnings that God gives us. You might not believe me, but many times I've said, God, I'm never going to speak of it again. I'll never speak of it. I've said, God, forgive me for talking like that. And then when I get up again, the Holy Ghost sends another signal, sharper than ever. We've heard it and we know where it came from. We know where the sender is. It's in the New Jerusalem. It's in heaven. It's the place where we're headed for. And he says, look out, danger ahead. And so he says, be swift to hear, but be ye doers of the word, doers of the word. So I'm glad that God not only gives me his word, but he gives me a chance to act upon it. Beloved, that's the thing I need to learn better, to act upon it. I heard God speak to another young minister that because he was a little more successful and fruitful than others. And the Lord says, it's because you have taken steps in God, which the others didn't take. Oh, that's it. God says, forward, march. Squads, left. God tells you definitely what his will is, but oh, now we can preach about it. Now we got another text for another sermon. But where are the people that take steps in God? I tell you something, we can get some light about some truth today and we'll never get there. Maybe we'll have to go way back somewhere. And like when you've lost your way, you've not followed the road map and you've gone on and just trusting your luck to get to the destination. And then when you've gone a hundred miles, you'll find out that you're way off the mark. And the only way to get back is to go back a hundred miles and then start on the right road. I heard the Lord talk to another young minister. He wanted so much to preach. He's been writing me. He wants to go to Germany with me. I couldn't use him and the Lord couldn't use him at all because 25 years ago the Lord talked to that man. He was in a faith home. And as people do in the faith home, faith home is like other homes. They're homes that we love the most and where we grumble the most. We like to put mottos on the wall. What is that to thee? Follow thou me. And we feel sort of elated because we're overcoming. And the Lord spoke to that fellow. He wanted to preach so badly. And God said, you know what's the matter with you? You like to preach. You want to tell others what to do, but you don't like to wash dishes. Well, what man, especially German man, likes to wash dishes? Well, that's a disgrace. I thought today, my, what a wonderful change this is. You know, our ministers look much more sedate now behind this wall and behind this pulpit. I can see the point of wearing a dog collar and, and a black robe. Really, it makes, makes people feel kind of, are you the Bishop of Rochester? Mmm, boy. They look so, especially when they close their eyes and look spiritual. Well, that's what this fellow wanted to do and he knew how to do it. He was built for the ministry, but he didn't like to wash dishes. Well, what is that? Preacher doesn't have to wash dishes. But God Almighty spoke to him. I knew it was God. God used the lips of a minister, yes, but it was God that spoke to this minister. He says, I will not going to take, I'm not going to take you on until you go back to that kitchen and wash dishes until you like it. Isn't that a strange word? Isn't that a strange school of theology? God says, I'll never make a preacher out of you until you get back to that kitchen and wash dishes until you like to do it. Why was that? Why? Because there was a devil in that fellow's heart, a devil of pride, an ambition to be a preacher. And I tell you, unless God makes a preacher out of me, I will come up in that day of judgment and I'll be disgraced before Almighty God. And maybe I've got to go back to some place where God wanted to rid me of some kink in my nature. And the only way he could do it by making me get down somewhere. And I was not willing to step down. I want to step out. I was not willing to be swift to hear how definitely God speaks to us about the sins of the tongue. He's spoken to us this morning about that. But who here has taken steps in God where he's been delivered of that bondage and delivered of that deception and where your tongue has been bridled? In olden times, they would cut out the tongues of people that gossiped. And today we're tolerant. Today we don't do that anymore. If anybody commits murder, we put them in an ice cream parlor and we give them a psychiatrist to cuddle him. But in those days, they just cut out his tongue. He'd never say another naughty word after that. God's got a cure for that tongue of mine. I tell you he has. Woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips. What's the difference, Isaiah? For goodness sake, you can prophesy. You don't have to be careful about your tongue. But you know it was after he was cleansed through deep Holy Ghost repentance, and it seems that he was the only one that God Almighty could get to take those steps and to become a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and made for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work. Because God the Lord had the Lord filling the temple, and into his mouth he said, Whom shall we send? Who will go for us? And Isaiah said, Here am I. But he couldn't say that till he was cleansed. What would happen to us if today we would take steps? Maybe just a little step. You'll never take a big step till you take a little step. You'll never get any any further if God deals with you about your tongue. You'll never, you can go on a thousand years coming to conventions like this, hearing the Word of God, studying the Bible, going to conventions, and you'll never get to where God wants you until you take a step where God asks you to step. God says, Put your foot there. When I was saved, I was surprised that I could love everybody. There was a woman in the Baptist Church that I couldn't stomach all those years. She was the organist. She was a real lot of gab, and I just couldn't stomach her. But when I was saved, I really loved that woman enough to pray for her, and to desire that she might get to God, because I knew how she needed it. And one day at a picnic, I was, as I said last night, a young fellow, and here this wench was standing there, and nobody paid attention, sort of a wallflower, so I took pity on her. I said, Come on, Mrs. Wagner, come on, I'll give you a boat ride. She was happy, and she came. And so I pulled the boat up to the pier and stepped into it and got the oars, and I said, Now step in, but listen, don't step on the edge of that boat. And woman that she was, she stepped on the edge of that boat, and both of us went down to the bottom. What a picnic we had. I still see her standing up against the tree, trying her, trying to dry her slip and her steady coat. Well, I never wished anybody any harm, but praise the Lord. Don't step on the edge. Get that tongue of yours bridled up. Listen, he says, your religion will be no good at all. Oh, we've heard it a thousand times until they're so used to it. But I tell you, God's eyes are looking for somebody that will obey. And today we have a chance to say, My God, hear, live or die. I remember times when I had to do that. I just had to do that before I really got into the full-fledged ministry. God took me by the neck, and he said, If you don't take this step, it costs something. You gotta labor. Isaiah had to labor. What made him labor over that one item? Why, his eyes had seen the Lord of hosts. I tell you, all of us will be transformed, and God will give us that sight of Jesus. We'll not trifle with little sins anymore. That's where our danger comes in. It's the little thing. We call them little, but that little worm will turn into a dragon that'll swallow you tomorrow. And God says, Look out for that hearing ear. All the blessing of heaven comes in the way of hearkening diligently. He that hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely in the midst of the lion's den and in the midst of a world full of demon powers that seek my destruction. He that hearkeneth unto me, God says, Careful, there's danger ahead. Oh, to take steps in God, not just to be swift to hear, but to be a doer of the word. God will not ask you to raise the dead and cleanse the lepers, and he doesn't ask you to go into a lion's den and stop the mouths of lions, but he asks you to stop your own mouth. You know what to do? You've got to do something about it. When I had come from Switzerland, I got a job in a jewelry house in Chicago as an errand boy, and with me the same day, an Irishman got a job. He was a real Irishman with a red nose and a nose that was shaped like a hatchet turned upside down and a big jaw. And he had just come from Ireland and I had just come from Switzerland, and because I couldn't talk English very well, the boys had a lot of fun with me. They tried to kid me, and so this Irishman took me alone one day. He was a big, tall fellow. They were all afraid of him. He said, Don't you let him do that to you. Step him on the nose. You hear me? Step him on the nose. Listen, step him on the nose. You're not debtors to the flesh. You don't have to. Oh, thank God. Thank God. Oh, let me step him on the nose. And God will help me. God who has also given unto us the earnest of the Spirit, and we will never know what it is to be filled with the Holy Ghost until we obey the Holy Spirit, until we allow him to be the Lord and Master of our lives, until we understand that we're to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh, that as we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so we must and we're privileged to walk also in him. And there is a goal set before us, a most marvelous goal. Let us therefore run with patience. The race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, there is the goal. And I desire very greatly to make my people understand something about the goal I have set before them, the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, until like the Apostle Paul, they will make it their one aim in life to attain. Because I have apprehended them for this one thing, and I have wrought them for this one thing. And today you hear the clamoring sound and the call everywhere, behold the bridegroom, go ye forth to meet him. And where are the bridal souls and hearts that have made pleasing me the one aim in their lives? And how are you going to please me unless you begin by hearkening diligently unto me? And all of you, almost all of you, have experienced the power of my word. And you know that I have been speaking to your hearts, not just to your ears. I have caused you to know my will. I have made you know my counsel. I have told you things that the world has not known and the wise of this world have not understood. It's been hidden from them. But walking in the midst of my seven golden candlesticks, I must find hearts and ears that hearken diligently to my word. The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life, and they are sent forth out of the mouth of Jehovah to bring forth the things that I sent them for. The thing that I have wrought you for by my own spirit is that you might become like unto myself. And many times you've heard it quoted that everyone that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. And I've called upon you to put aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset you, to strip yourself for the race. It isn't the picnic I am leading you to, but I am buckling on your armor for a warfare, for an overcoming, for a bout with the enemy of enemies, the chief enemy of God's people. And I desire to lead you all the way in triumph. And so this very day I've called upon you to take steps of obedience. I'm not asking you to take steps that you're not prepared for, but I'm asking you to follow me step by step. And as you take a step of obedience today, I will prepare you for the next step tomorrow. And as you follow me as your Lord day by day, I will prove to you that I'm not only the author but also the finisher. I who have begun a good work in you want to work in you day by day to will and to do of my good pleasure. And as I cause your heart to respond and to ascend to my sentence and to my diagnosis of your case, I want you to take steps of obedience. And then I will by my spirit work in you the fruit of righteousness, which is by Jesus Christ unto the glory and the praise of God. And this is my word.