I heard a sermon many, many years ago. I cannot remember precisely the content of it, which was just on this verse – ‘As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him.’ And the preacher took the verse right out of context, but he preached on it beautifully. It was all about coming quickly when the Lord calls you. He applied it to unsaved people. When God calls and touches your heart, and you realise he suffered and died on Calvary for needy sinners, and you need to repent, then you respond to his call and you repent and embrace him and come to him.
And when you are a Christian and you have been many years in the faith, and Christ calls you, it is time to pray, it is time to come to prayer. What are you doing? Busily doing something in the house. This evening perhaps, clearing this up and that up, preparing this and preparing that, putting things in place. Maybe watching the television. It is time to pray. The Lord calls. Down everything, come quickly, respond.
When you are about to say something you should not, about to respond testily, angrily to something at work; when something is going to go wrong, and you get that spasm of conviction given to you by the Spirit moving in the conscience, it is the call of Christ. Respond quickly. Kill the word off. Hold yourself together. Pray for help. Behave as you should.
When you are at home and perhaps there is a disagreement, husband, wife, and you hear the call of God – be careful. Treat each other with great love and courtesy and kindness. Be prepared to be wronged. Then you quench the wrong behaviour. You come quickly to him.
If some duty comes across your mind – I really ought to write to so-and-so; for the Lord’s sake, I should help so-and-so; I should go out and do this for the Lord. Then respond and do it. May be the Lord has spoken and moved you to some duty. So that is what the sermon was about, and it was absolutely right to preach in that way, though the words were taken out of their context in a sense.