All right, now if you'll take
your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12. And our text will be found in
verse 20. Matthew chapter 12 and verse
20. A message to the bruised. A message to the bruised. A bruised reed shall he not break,
and smoking flack shall he not quench, till he set forth judgment
unto victory, and in his name shall the Gentiles trust. Message to the bruise now every
child of God Knows something about ourselves. We know this
about ourselves. We are Perfect only in one thing
weakness We are perfect weakness in ourselves there is no strength
in In ourselves there is no power to keep us in the faith. There is no power to sustain
our love for Christ or each other. Now let the self-righteous man
boast in his ability. Let the self-righteous man boast
in the power of his will. But God's people, we confess
this, our weakness is known and felt in our very souls. Our weakness is not just a doctrine
to assent to. When I talk about weakness, most
religions may nod their head. But this is not just a doctrine
we assent to, but we are very much acquainted with it. Weakness is a daily, personal,
inward experience of every believer. And I'll tell you this, I have
not yet fathomed the depths of my weakness. I know I am weakness. Perfect weakness. But I still
do not understand how weak I really am. We've not yet fully experienced
that weakness. This truth of our weakness then
must be learned. It must be learned. But there is only one way weakness
is learned. It must be exposed. It must be revealed. And it is
only revealed through inward sorrow and affliction. This is
how our weaknesses are revealed. This is because the Holy Spirit
means by this, Now you ask why? Why do we need this weakness
revealed? Why is it through sorrow and
suffering and pain is the weakness of the child of God to be exposed? Why does the Spirit do it that
way? Simply for this purpose. That we also might experience
the strength of Christ. If you do not know your weakness,
you will never know His strength. If you believe He is, you are
strong, you will never understand His strength or feel His strength. When Paul was buffeted by Satan,
assaulted, what was the answer of Christ to his assault? He
said this, My grace is sufficient for thee, because My strength
is made perfect in what? Weakness. Only in weakness is
the strength of Christ revealed The perfect strength of Christ
revealed so then in the child of God is Ever the experience
this to ever experience the strength and grace of Christ He must know
the greatness of his weakness now tonight I want to reveal
something about our weakness in this text this text is going
to reveal something about our weakness And it is also going
to reveal something about the strength of Christ. The strength
of Christ. Here the Lord is speaking in
order to comfort bruised reeds. He's going to give comfort to
those that are bruised. Those that are hurt. Those that
are afflicted. Those whose weaknesses are exposed. He is going in the power of His
strength. He is going to comfort you. to strengthen you. Now, tonight
I have three points, three things. I want to first reveal the character
of every believer in his weakness. The character of every believer
in this little text is revealed. Then secondly, I want us to see
the gracious will and power of the Redeemer toward those people. And thirdly, I want us to see
the hope of the full experience of our salvation. Now listen,
Christ's salvation is complete. It's done. You've received it. You who believe, you've received
this salvation. But we know that we've not yet
fully experienced the total victory of it. We've not experienced
that yet. We know it by faith, but we soon
shall experience it. Okay, first the character. The
character is revealed in these two types. Listen to this. A
bruised reed and smoking flax. If you want to know who you are
in the text, that's you. You're the reed and you're the
flax. Now then, let's consider the
reed first. Can you find anything weaker
than a reed? I don't know if you've ever been in a bayou or
a ditch and you see the reeds coming up. They're little hollow
plants. They're just as weak. A little child can come up and
just flick one and break it. They're just weak. There's a
weak plant. He's not comparing us to an oak.
But a reed. A reed. A feeble, frail plant. Easily blown and easily broken. Easily bruised. Every believer
understands that we are as feeble and frail as a reed. We are totally
dependent upon the grace and care of God. We are totally dependent
upon the righteousness and blood of Christ to save us and make
us acceptable with God. Now read. It's a very lowly and
despicable plant. It has none of the strength or
abilities of the oak, But the only thing it has in common with
an oak is this, it's living. They both are living. I want you to imagine the reed
for just a moment. Behold the origins of this reed
that Christ is speaking of. A reed, its root lies in a bed
of slime in the ditch. Its root is buried in the slime. It is surrounded by the mud.
But consider this, the reed itself is distinct and different from
the mud it comes out of. It's in the ditch, but it's not
the ditch. It's in the slime, but it's not the slime. It's
in the mud, but it's not the mud. And it's not contaminated
by it. And such is the life of the believer
in Christ. We are surrounded by the mire
of our nature. And yet, in the new birth, we
are distinct from it. In one man lies two natures,
the mud and the reed. The mud, our sin, our vileness,
and the reed, our spiritual life. Now look in the mire and you
see this small stem of the reed begin to push out. You look down
the mud and there's nothing there but mud and all of a sudden one
day you come by and you see a little sprout. You see it pushing through
the mud. You see that little reed come
up. And that seed that was buried was unseen but then at the appointed
time it springs forth and there is life. Even so it is with us. Even so it is. You passed by
me the day before the Lord saved me and there was nothing but
mud. Now the Lord saw something different. He put something different
in there. But one day at the appointed time we were born of
the Spirit of God. We were given life. And we sprang forth from the
mire of our nature. The life of God was planted in
our souls, and in spite of our flesh, in spite of our rebellion,
in spite of our old nature, God lifted our infant head up by
faith, and we burst forth into the sun of righteousness. There
was nothing more blessed. Is there anything more blessed
than to see one born again? When you see a man come to Christ,
I mean, it is the most joyous occasion when a sinner confesses
Christ. Why? Because he is born of God. He is born of God. The sinner
lifts his head out of the darkness and corruption into life and
faith. And just like that little reed
coming out of the mud and the mire, there begins what? A struggle.
A struggle. When we were born again, that
began a struggle, didn't it? A struggle between our sins and
the waves of our temptation and our guilt. We felt our guilt. But then the refreshing news
of the gospel pours over our soul. And we learn this, that
we have escaped the corruption of our nature. There is therefore
now, listen, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. We heard that text, but this
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat
down on the right hand of the majesty on high. We heard those
texts, and we see as a reed coming out of the mud and mire, we see
Christ has removed our sin and guilt. Now listen, the first time this
reed ever saw springtime, What a joyful time it was. What a
time of sunshine. And I know this, when we were
first born again, we supposed it was always going to be like
this. We supposed it would always be this way. It would always
be, we always sing that song, there is sunshine, blessed sunshine
in my soul today. But what is our experience? You
reeds, what is your experience? Let a little time pass and the
spring turns to drought of summer and the coldness of winter. Let
times of trials and temptations take hold of our feeble reed
and what? We are easily bruised. easily bruised. The reed grew
out of the mire into the light, but now something has changed
in the text. It does not say a reed shall
he not break, but rather a bruised reed, a bruised reed. Every believer in this, in this
world, we must pass through great troubles. This is a horrible thing if we
somehow believe we are exempt. We are going to be sadly disappointed. Our faith is going to be brought
very low if we start looking at this saying, oh, well, I'm
a child of God. Therefore, I must be exempt.
No, we all must go through trials. We all must listen, be bruised. Every one of us. Now I'm going
to give you some things that causes the bruise. What causes
the bruise of every believer? Well, the first thing that caused
the bruise was the law. The law caused a bruise. Many
of us who are believers, we were religious, we were self-righteous,
and at once we thought the law was a helper. We thought the
law was our friend. We thought the law would help
us to God. We thought it to be some kind
of rule of life, but once we were quickened by the Spirit,
we saw the law was not our friend, but it was our judge. It was
the one that condemned us. Paul said, I was alive without
the law once, but when sin revived, when the commandment came, sin
revived and I died. And that which I thought was
ordained to life, I found to be death. I found to be death. It was the law that bruised him.
So that he could see this, that by the law should no flesh glory
in his presence, that no man should be saved in any part by
the law. And it was the law that bruised,
was it not the law that bruised our savior upon the tree? He bearing our sins in his own
body was the justice of the law that condemned Him? I tell you, if there will ever
be life in a sinner, he must see the hopelessness of his own
works. And I'll tell you, this will
bruise you. It hurts. It hurts to know this. None of
our works can be accepted. Salvation is not a cooperation,
friends, but this often bruises us. It often bruises us. Second thing that bruises the
reed is afflictions. Afflictions. Every believer must
pass through affliction. Listen to this in Acts chapter
14. The apostle was confirming the souls of the saints and he
was exhorting them to continue in the faith. Every time I come
here, I exhort you to continue. Now, why do I have to do that? If everything was going well,
you would say, well, what is he talking about? Why does he
need to exhort me? I'm doing good. No, we are exhorting
you because we know this, that we through much tribulation,
much tribulation should enter the kingdom of God. And so this
exhortation, I know you are going through much tribulation. Why? Because every reed does. And
this affliction, this tribulation often bruises. We are afflicted
in our bodies. We are afflicted by our families.
We are afflicted in our minds. We are afflicted in our hearts.
And this affliction could be because of our sin. It could
be because of someone else's sin. It could be just plain providence. No fault of anybody. This is
just God's providence that afflicts us. Believers go through trials like
ocean waves constantly beating us over and over and over again. You know what this does? It bruises
us. It bruises us. We are bruised by these afflictions. Our cheerful countenance and
boldness of spirit is brought low by them. These trials and
troubles will break, will not break the believer, nor will
they ever be brought into despair to leave Christ. But these trials
and providences do bruise us. But let us be sure of this, these
afflictions have a purpose. Every affliction has a purpose,
is purposed of God, for you. Was our Lord not afflicted? What
was his title? A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. Scripture tells us that he learned
obedience by the things he suffered. Now listen, he knew obedience. He could do nothing else. What
does it mean he learned? He experienced by the things
he suffered. And so if the son of God should
have fellowship with sufferings, how much more should we not also
be partakers of suffering, afflictions? Let me ask you, do you long to
be walk, to be in a closer fellowship with Christ. And what I mean
by that, do you long to feel his presence and enjoy him? Long to hear his word? Do you
weep because of your distance from him? Then consider the way
that we draw near to Christ is this, affliction. Affliction. Listen, if you're to know more
of his broken heart, then surely you must yourself experience
a broken heart. If you're to be close to the
man of sorrows, you yourself must also take part in sorrow. Now listen, I'm not saying pray
for affliction. But know this, when you pray
for nearness to him, that's how it comes. You must be bruised
by afflictions. The third thing is temptation
bruises us. Temptation is easily bruises
us. Now, why should such powerful and painful temptations fall
upon us? Because the reed, the believer
often thinks ourselves strong. We need to be taught our weakness. And nothing makes us feel our
weakness so much as our inadequacy with temptation or acquaintance
with temptation. Now temptation, what does it
do? What is the purpose of this temptation? Temptation exposes
hidden evils. That's what it does. A lot of
times we have evils in this heart that we don't know about and
what reveals them is temptation. Temptation. David did not know
the adulterous and murderous heart that he had until he was
what? Tempted. Hezekiah did not know his pride. He thought himself pious when
he showed the Babylonians the things that God had done. But
it wasn't piety, it was pride. He did not know that until the
Babylonians tempted him. Jonah did not know his rebellion
or hatred until God had tested it. Temptation does not put sin
into our heart, it simply exposes it. Our nature is like fuel and
temptation like the fire. You separate them, the fuel is
harmless. But you put the fire to it, and
only then you know its power to burn. This is why the believer is to
pray, Lord, lead us not into temptation. But when we are,
when we are, I'll tell you this, we're bruised by it. It's not
the inner man bruised when you're led into temptation. These evils,
these evils spring up in us that we did not know were even at
there. They come out of us. What a bruising
this is. What a sorrow it is to the believer. The fourth thing that causes
bruising is Satan. Satan is a professional bruiser. In the beginning, this message
was this, the seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent,
but as it was added, he shall bruise his heel. Now, listen,
if you know this, that he was permitted to bruise the heel
of our master, how easily could he bruise us? And what is his
bruise? It is this accusations. Accusations. He hints at such thoughts of
leaving Christ or of Christ leaving us, and it causes us to be bruised. Have you ever had thoughts of
leaving Christ? Oh, what a sorrow it is. What
a pain, what a devastation it is. And lastly, this sin itself
bruises us when we are tempted and we are exposed our evil,
but not just that, when we've given over to it. This bruises
us. The consequence of sin is sharp
and piercing to our souls. Guilt lies hard and heavy upon
us, and cuts deep into our soul. Sin bruises the reeds of God. But every reed that has ever
been bruised, every reed that has ever been bruised, listen,
we have this same as David. I just told you of David's bruising.
You remember how he committed such great sin. But I tell you,
his confession is the confession of every bruised reed. Lord,
have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. According to
thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of thy tender
mercies, what? Blot out my transgression. Wash me throughly. from mine iniquity, cleanse me
from my sin. I acknowledge my transgression
and my sin is ever before me. Later on in verse seven of that
chapter, he says, purge me with his, what does that mean? Purge
me with the blood of Christ. Purge me with the blood of Christ.
And listen, I know I'll be clean. If you do it, if it's his blood,
Wash me and I shall be as white as snow. Make me to hear joy
and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. You see we confess this that
this bruising's of God. This bruising's of God. We confess
our sins and here's the hope then of the bruised reed. The brews read, this is the way
and the path by which the Lord reveals his love and power. If
you've been bruised by these things, it is good that we are
bruised. It's good because by this he
will reveal his love and power. Now the second character is this
smoking flax. I want you to understand what
this means. This word flax, it's rather toe. Now what this is
is the waste of flax, of hemp. Hemp, it'll do fine, but you
have this waste, and it's good for nothing but to burn. But the problem is when you put
fire to it, it doesn't really burn. It just smokes. It just smokes. The flame won't
catch. It just smolders. And the smoking
flax, it is a picture of the work of God, work of the Holy
Spirit upon our hearts. The smoking flax, or the fire
of it is the life of God within. It is the life of God that is
kindled in every child of God. And I know that every believer
in Jesus Christ, we would have this fire of faith and love,
would you not? Would you not love that faith
and love would just light up the room every time you walked
in? It would just glow, that you
would just take over. You want that. We would love to feel the burning
flame of love and faith, but the problem is the toe. The toe
here, or the flax itself, is a picture of the wicked and vile
corruptions of the old man. We would love to burn with faith
and love, but it is because of this old nature of sin and unbelief,
our doubts, our lusts, and our afflictions that seem to snuff
out the flame of faith and love. And the smoking flax is the work
of life given to us by the Holy Spirit. Why? Because it pictures
the struggle. The fire is struggling to burn,
and the flax is struggling to put it out. This is a picture of us. Oh, what heaps of rubbish overspread us in the inward life of God. The cares of family and business,
of worldly evils, sensual desires seek to snuff out the flame of
God's faith so that every believer cries, Oh, wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Oh, how I need one to come and
blow upon the flame of God said in my heart that God would send
his spirit so that it would burn up the massive corruption surrounding
my old nature. But herein is the hope that where
there's smoke, there's fire. If there is this struggle, then
there's what? There's life. There's life. Now then, You see,
that's our nature, that's a picture of us. The reed, the wheat plant
growing out of the mire, that's us growing out of us, old nature,
God giving us life, and then God causing the bruise. God causing
the bruise by Satan, by sin, by temptation, by affliction,
whatever means God uses to bruise us. That's us. But now that I want you to see
this second thing, and this is where, this is the comfort. The
gracious will of Christ toward the bruised. Look at this. Go back to your text. The bruised
reap. That's me. Listen. Shall he not break? And smoking flax he will not
quench. Weak and wounded believer, Jesus
knows our frame. and remembers that we are nothing
more than animated dust. Are you bruised? Are you ready
to give up all hope? Are you now sunk beneath the
waves of sorrow? Do you soon expect the Savior
to cut you off? Because of your sin, because
of your affliction, because of Satan's accusation, you expect
him to at any moment just break you off like a bruised reed.
Now listen, I know this, a bruised reed deserves nothing more than
to be broken off. What good is it? When you got
a reed and it's bent over, Right? It's now back down in the mire. Right? It grows up. It's standing
up straight. Now it's bruised. It's leaning
over. It's in the muck. What good is it? It can't produce
any fruit. It can't provide any shelter
for you. You don't chop down a bunch of
reeds and build a house, do you? It's useless. But notice the
compassion of Christ even recognizing your uselessness. He still will
not break you off. He will not let you go, though
you might deserve it. The bruised reed, though it has
no value, it yields no fruit or flower. Yet see the great
and tender love of Christ, that He will not break it off. When
you are bruised, we come to Jesus like that Syrophoenician woman.
Remember her? She came, Lord, have mercy upon
me. She's crying after him this whole time. His disciples said,
Lord, won't you send her away? You know what he turns and does?
He bruises her even more. He didn't turn around and say,
it's going to be all right. No, he turns around and says, you
know, it's not me to give the children bread to dogs. What'd
he do? He bruised her. And what was the confession of
every bruised reed? Lord, have mercy upon. That's
exactly what she said, Lord, truth. What you said just right. Truth. Lord, even the dogs received
the crumbs from the master's table. She was bruised. Why'd he bruise
her like that? So he could show his love and
mercy. Listen, Jesus was not willing
to cut her off. She was bruised in order to display
his power. If you are now bruised by the
afflictions and temptations, by the guilt and accusations
of the enemy and ready to perish and give up hope, remember this, that Christ was in all points
tempted as we are yet without sin. He is touched with the feelings
of our infirmities and does sympathize with us and support us. And here's
the hope that Christ will not ever cast me off. A bruised reed
he shall not break. Are you a bruised reed? Here's
your hope. He won't break you. He won't
cast you off. And the second thing is smoking
flax he shall not quench. Behold our corruption and lust
are strong. Our thoughts are full of filth
and and hurtful passions, our hearts and minds are cold, indifferent
toward the things of God, and our flesh would surely long
to extinguish this spiritual life. Is it not a wonder that
we're still here? Is it not amazing that the smoke
of faith still emanates from this man? I tell you, if our faith in Christ
and love for God were left up to our power, it would have been
out long ago. But here is the hope of life,
smoking flax. One who the Spirit of God is
kindled to life and faith, be it ever so small, Jesus will
never let it die. No matter how small our faith,
He will never let it go out. I'm telling you, friends, I have
often just thought it's over. I thought my faith was gone,
nigh well gone. Me and Asaph, I'll tell you what,
me and him, I identify with him. He said, my faith nigh well slipped. I was gone. Have you ever been
just totally thought it's over? And yet somehow faith still came. That flame of faith still flickered. Why? I like that picture in Pilgrim's
Progress, don't you? You see, he comes to the interpreter's
house, and Christian is looking at a wall, and there's a fire
right there in the wall. And one man, he's taking water,
and he's just pouring it onto the flame, pouring the water,
trying to put it out. And the more water he puts on
it, the fire grows. And Christians just saying, what
in the world is this? This is amazing. How is it that
the flame won't go out? And he said, come to the other
side of the wall. Takes him to the other side of the wall, and
there's a man on that side pouring oil in. This is a picture. Sin, self, world,
flesh, the devil. constantly trying to put out
that faith. Your own flesh is trying to put
it out. But here's our hope that God
continually pours the oil of the Spirit into our hearts and
it will never go out. This is exactly what Christ meant
when he said this. No man can pluck them out of
my hand. Who will rob you of your faith? Oh, they'll try. But they'll never be able to
do it. The just shall live by faith. That's not only the rule
of our life, but that's a promise. The just shall live by faith,
continually living by faith. And so when you come to that
point where the smoke seems almost gone, listen to this, a smoking
flax he will not put. I know that's what Peter meant
when he said this, that we are kept by the power of God unto
salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. Are you a bruised reed? Bruised
by sin, bruised by temptation, afflictions, trials, Listen to this, he will not cast
you off. Do you have faith in Christ?
A smoking flax he shall not quench. This is the reason we still believe. And the last thing is the hope
of Christ's eventual completion of this salvation. Look at this,
he says, Till he set forth judgment unto victory. While the reed is being bruised
and the flax is dimly burning, judgment is ongoing. The court
of judgment is set up in the conscience and the verdicts are
being passed out. When every believer's sin is
always the spirit of God, which brings us into the bar of judgment
with our conscience. There is the child of God who
at once is brought to anger and rage. The other has been allured
away by lust he has committed and vile affections of the flesh.
Others in their hearts have left their first love. It's then the
spirit of God will always at the appointed time bring his
sons to judgment in their conscience so that they should feel the
bruise. He does so that they may see
their corruptions and have well nigh extinguished their love
and faith in Christ. It is true that Christ will bring
upon his saints through their bruise and through their smoke
of their corruptions. He brings them on us to feel
the guilt and shame of our sins. He will bring our souls down
to the dust even because it is only there is mercy seen. You
see, bruises us. And he causes this this to come
upon us so that we should see not just the condemnation, but
victory. Isn't this where he always brings
us? He brings us down so that he might cause to see the victory. The victory. The victory is not
in ourselves. The victory is in Christ. He
brings us through the judgment bar of our conscience and draws
us down. Feel our bruised so that he might
show us victory. Victory. They might show us that Christ
is victorious. Therefore, he will not cut us
off or cast us off. Why? Because Christ has already
won the victory. Listen to what it says in Isaiah
53 in verse 8. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. And who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off. Why aren't you going to be cut
off? He was cut off. He was cut off from the land
of the living. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken. He was made, he made his grave
with the wicked and with the rich in his death because he
had done no violence. Neither was there any deceit
in his mouth, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Why are you not going to cut
that bruised reed off? He was bruised. The Lord bruised
him. He put him to grief. When thou
shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. You will not be cut off even
because he has satisfied the justice of God forever. Our life will never be cut off,
our flame will never go out. Though our corruptions ever be
so many and our foes ever be so determined to put out our
fate, Jesus here has given us eternal life, and he will never
allow it to go out. And here's the question to you
reeds, you bruised reeds. Upon whom is this victory dependent? Smoking flax. Does your life
depend on your power to keep it going? No. Our life and our salvation
is totally dependent upon the victory of Jesus Christ. Listen, you bruise read. Was
he successful? Was he victorious? Did he actually put away our
sin? Therefore, can God be just? and still cut us off. No. No, God cannot demand twice payment
for sin. That's why the bruised reed shall
not be broken. That's why the smoking flax shall
not be quenched because he has set forth judgment unto what?
Victory. Victory. I pray that God would help us
with this in our time of bruising, in our time of struggle, our
time of when our faith is low, our love is nonexistent. I'm hopeful in this that I shall
not be cast off because he promised a bruised reed he shall not break. Smoking flax he shall not quench
to set forth judgment unto victory. I'll tell you, one day we're
going to experience the full measure of that victory. I don't
know the full measure of that victory. I haven't yet experienced
it. We soon shall experience it. There won't be any more broken
reeds, will there? Won't be any more smoking flax. Why? Won't be any more sin. I pray God will help you and
strengthen you. Let's stand and be dismissed. Father, dismiss us with your
blessing, and please comfort your people. Strengthen us in
our time of affliction. Show us the victory that is in
Christ so that we not be discouraged, we not be downcast. Father, though
we be bruised, you will not break us off. Though we struggle to
believe, we know you will not put out our faith. I thank you
and give you praise for it, in Jesus' name. Amen.