The following sermon was preached
on Sunday morning December 1st 1996 at the Trinity Baptist Church
of Montville, New Jersey. Now let us again seek the face
of God in prayer asking specifically that the Lord would fulfill his
word of promise that if we who are evil know how to give good
gifts to our children how much more shall our Heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask it. Let us ask that the
Father would grant the Spirit's presence in conjunction with
the preaching and hearing of the Word of God. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for
your word of promise that you are the God who delights to give
good gifts to your children that you are the God who has promised
that you would not abrade us when we ask from you those things
that are needful for our spiritual well-being. And we would, as
we now come to the preaching of your holy word, acknowledge
our present need of the present assistance of the Holy Spirit,
that his ministry to us may not be theoretical, but that it may
be powerful, that it may be known and felt in the preaching and
hearing of this your own holy word. And we pray that the Spirit
will do that work which He most delights to do, even taking of
the things of Christ and revealing them to our hearts with power. Hear us, O God, we plead, through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. If you have your Bibles open,
may I urge you to just glance with me at the opening and closing
words of the Gospel of Matthew. That may seem like a strange
request, but I hope the rationale for it will soon become clear.
The book of Matthew, the first book of the New Testament, begins
with the words the book of the generation or the genealogy of
Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Then there
follows, in the next sixteen verses, this record of the genealogy
of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh. There was a real
genealogy of a real Jesus Christ. whose birth record then begins
in verse 18, now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise,
and then chapter 2, now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem,
and then throughout the entire Gospel of Matthew, we have this
accurate, though not exhaustive, and not always perfectly chronological
record of the life the ministry, the teaching, the death, the
resurrection, and the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. In
other words, what we have in the Gospel of Matthew is a real,
substantive, biographical account of the life and ministry of the
Lord Jesus. We are not dealing with the stuff
of religious myths, We are not dealing with notions that devout
followers of Jesus projected, as it were, into historical form,
but rather we have a real, bonafide, biographical sketch under the
direction of the Holy Spirit with reference to the life and
ministry, the teaching, the death, the resurrection and ascension
of our Lord Jesus. But this very account of the
historical facts as they relate to Jesus of Nazareth closes in
its very last words, Matthew 28 and verse 20, with these very
suggestive words, Matthew chapter 28 and verse 20, and lo! I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world, or the consummation of the age." And
here we have a record of the words of Jesus promising that
He would be with His people always, literally, each and every one
of the days, even to the consummation of the age. In other words, we
have in the Gospel of Matthew what is introduced in the very
first word and the first verse of that account, a bonafide,
real, historical record of the life and ministry of Jesus. but then it closes with this
promise of the abiding presence of the very Jesus whose record
is given to us in the Gospel of Matthew. Now as Hugh Martin,
a preacher, theologian, and pastor of the previous generation in
Scotland has so masterfully demonstrated in his classic work now printed
under the title The Abiding Presence, Here we have in this combination
of Matthew 1-1 and Matthew 28-20 one of the most amazing and encouraging
declarations of what lies at the very nerve centers of the
Christian faith. And Hugh Martin goes on to comment
and to, as it were, conjecture what it would be like if all
we had was an accurate, historical, biographical account of the person
and work, the ministry, the teaching, the life, death, and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus, if that's all we had. we would experience
what we experience when we read the biography of a noble man
or woman who has come across the stage of human history. If that biography is accurate
and we see in that man or woman noble characteristics, great
deeds accomplished for the advancement of the truth of God or humanity
at large, when we read such a biography we are filled with admiration,
We are filled with a mingled sense of disappointment that
we had to read in the last chapter about the person's death. We're
filled with a sense of longing, would that God would bring into
my life someone with those characteristics in my generation. And Hugh Martin
says, if all we had in the Gospel records was this accurate account
of the life and teaching and ministry of the Lord Jesus, a
record of how He related to the full spectrum of humanity in
all of its complexity of need, then to read the Gospels would
merely fill us with admiration. It would fill us with longing
and yearning that somehow we might know something of the presence
and ministry of such a Savior. But he points out, you see, God
has not left us with that frustration. For having given us this beginning
of the gospel or good news of Jesus Christ, this gospel that
begins with the record of His genealogy, the record of His
birth, the record of His baptism, of His mighty ministry, it concludes
with this marvelous promise that this very Jesus, by the presence
and ministry of the Spirit, is with us. not to be admired from
a distance, not to be longed after, not to be filling his
people with nostalgia, but in the spirit of faith to fill them
with confidence that all that he is as he is displayed in the
gospel records, he is to the end of the age in the presence
of his people. I am with you always, even to
the end of the age. Then Hugh Martin goes on to say,
think how frustrating it would be if all we had was a record
of his promised presence, but we had no gospel account of what
he was like. If all we had was the promise,
lo, I am with you, but no record of how he related to the downcast. how he dealt with those of weak
faith, how he dealt with the outcast of society, how he dealt
with the religious proud and the smug. You see, if we had
merely the promise of his presence, But no substantial content in
scripture telling us what he was like. There might be some
sense of mystical satisfaction, he is with me. But when I ask
the question, how can I expect him to act towards me? I would
be left at the mercy of my own imagination. or the mercy of
the opinions of others. And there are never lacking in
any generation people who are quick to affirm, my Christ would
never do this, or my Christ would never do that, or my Christ would
always do this, or my Christ would be that. And you see, if
we had but the promise of his presence, but we had no substantial
record of what he is like, it could only fill us with this
mystic sense that he's somehow, in some way or another, with
us. But precisely how he is with us and how he relates to us concerning
those questions, we would know nothing. But since God has given
to us this marvelous conjunction, this fusion, of an accurate record,
joined to the promise of an ever-abiding presence, we have all the human
heart can yearn for in relationship to the Lord Jesus. And that reality
is the background and the framework of the passage to which I direct
your attention this morning in this very Gospel in Matthew chapter
12. And I trust you'll see the relevance
of that rather lengthy synopsis of Hugh Martin's thesis given
in the first chapter of his classic work, The Abiding Presence. For
here in Matthew chapter 12, we have an accurate record of our
Lord's two encounters with the Pharisees in conjunction with
controversies over his activities and the activities of his disciples
on the Jewish Sabbath day. In Matthew 12, verses 1 through
8, we have the incident where our Lord justifies and defends
the action of His disciples in going through the core grain
fields and taking some of the gleanings of that grain in order
to gratify their hunger. And the Pharisees take umbrage
at this, and the Lord defends His disciples, and then in verses
9 through 13, our Lord Jesus heals a man who had a withered
hand, and He did it on the Sabbath. And again, the Pharisees are
upset that Jesus did this, and Jesus once again comes to the
defense of His actions, and when Jesus is done, with these two
defenses of what in the estimation of the Pharisees was a breaking
of their Sabbath rules, not God's. They're so frustrated that they've
been openly put to rout that we read in verse 14, the Pharisees
went out and took counsel against him how they might destroy him. You see, when you cannot best
a man with rational arguments, then you've got to get rid of
him. He's an irritant, and the only thing left to do is get
rid of him. And so that's what they are committed to doing.
Now it's in that setting that we now read, and I ask you to
follow, verse 15 of Matthew 12. And Jesus, perceiving it, withdrew
from thence, and many followed him. And he healed them all,
and charged them that they should not make him known, in order
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the
prophet saying and then Matthew quotes from Isaiah chapter 42
verses 1 to 4 behold my servant whom I have chosen my beloved
in whom my soul is well pleased I will put my spirit upon him
and he shall declare judgment to the Gentiles he shall not
strive nor cry aloud, neither shall anyone hear his voice in
the streets, a bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax
shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment or justice
into victory, and in his name shall the Gentiles hope. Now I want to direct your attention
particularly this morning to verse 20 in this passage. As the Lord Jesus withdraws from
the Pharisees who are taking counsel how they might destroy
him, And as he is engaged in the work of healing multitudes
and charging them not to emblazon abroad what he has done, but
to be reserved and restrained in advertising his mighty works,
Matthew, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, says the actions
at this time were a direct fulfillment of what was prophesied of the
servant of Jehovah by the prophet Isaiah 800 years prior to the
events recorded. And Matthew says, everything
that was prophesied of the servant of Jehovah, in what in our Bibles
is Isaiah 42, 1-4, is now being fulfilled in Jesus. And while the primary emphasis
of the passage falls upon his reticence to send out these who
have been healed as noisy ambassadors of his credentials, he solemnly
charges them not to make him known, because the servant of
Jehovah was to accomplish his mighty work, not through the
ostentatious methods of the worldly leaders. but by the sheer power
and grace that rested upon Him by the Holy Spirit, He would
accomplish His divine mission. But in the certain accomplishment
of that mission, a mission that would eventually encompass the
Gentile nations, verse 21, and in His name shall the Gentiles
hope. He can be expected to act in
a certain way. And it is in verse 20 that we
are told in the accomplishment of that mission, a bruised reed
shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench. I want us to meditate for the
remainder of our time this morning upon this statement extracted
from the prophecy of Isaiah, which Matthew, under the guidance
of the Spirit, says is now being fulfilled in the life and ministry
of Jesus. A bruised reed shall he not break,
and smoking flax shall he not quench. For in his promise, Lo,
I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age,
we are warranted to think of the Jesus who is with us as perfectly
suited, as perfectly fulfilling this description, the bruised
reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not
quench. as we think our way through the
passage consider with me first of all the imagery employed then
secondly we'll consider the truth conveyed by that imagery and
then thirdly the practical application of the truth declared first of
all then the imagery employed our text says that Jesus will
deal with bruised reeds and with smoking flax, a bruised reed
shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench." Now
obviously the prophet is speaking in figurative language. It's
not telling us what Jesus would do if he came by a riverside
or by the side of a lake and found a stand of reeds. that he would be very careful
as the super environmentalist to make sure he didn't bruise
one of them. Now you see, environmentalists
would find in this text, a marvelous text to prove that Jesus supported
their cause. Well, it's not talking about
literal reeds, how Jesus would relate to reeds that he might
pass on his way down to Jordan to be baptized, or on his way
out of the Jordan, or reeds that might be found by the shores
of the Sea of Galilee, where much of his ministry was carried
on there in northern Palestine. No, it is figurative language. It's not talking how Jesus would
deal in a home where some flax was smoking. It is figurative
language. There is imagery employed. And
it's crucial that we grasp the imagery. And let's seek to do
that. A bruised reed shall he not break. The reed is a hollow, tall, but
fragile water plant, found abundantly by rivers and often around lakes. And apparently in Palestine it
was a well-known plant growth. For you remember in this very
Gospel record, the previous chapter, when our Lord is speaking about
John the Baptist, He says, What did you go out into the wilderness
to behold? Matthew 11, 7. A reed, same word,
shaken with the wind. Now you see, you don't use figures
of speech that don't bridge in the minds of people from the
known to the unknown. You don't use figures of speech
that make no sense. That's confusing matters, not
clarifying issues. So when Jesus said, when you
went out to see John, what did you go to see? Now they had all
seen many, many times a stand of reeds, these thin, hollow
water plants, and when a zephyr, a breeze would blow, they would
all bend with the breeze and then stand again. He said, is
that what you went out to see? Did you see in John the Baptist
one who is like a reed? And he could use that imagery
because the reed was a common commodity to these in Palestine. So common that when our Lord
is standing before that kangaroo court, the night before His crucifixion,
and they put Him into this posture of mock coronation as a king,
and put on Him in a purple robe, and put upon Him a crown of thorns,
it says in Matthew chapter 27 and verse 29, they put a reed,
same word, a reed in His hand. They have them readily available.
The reed then was this hollow, tall, but very fragile water
plant. A bruised reed would be a reed
that someone had either walked against it or had deliberately
whacked it, and somewhere along the stalk of that hollow reed
it had been bruised, and being bruised would to some degree
be bent at the point of its bruising. And now it says that Jesus, the
servant of Jehovah, can be counted on that when he encounters a
bruised reed, he will not break it. Now the word break is the
very word used in John 19 three times with reference to the breaking
of the legs of the ones who were crucified. They broke not. the legs of our Lord. They did
not snap the bones, though they did snap the bones of the other
two criminals that were crucified with him. So here we are told
that the servant of Jehovah, in the accomplishment of his
messianic mission, which will be successful, in his name shall
even the Gentiles hope. that whenever he came upon a
bruised reed, he would never do the thing that would be very
easy to do. When you come upon a reed that
is bruised and bent over, all you need to do is take the part
that is bent and bring it down once and up again and you break
it off. A bruised reed, it's so easy
to break it. And to cast off that reed is
no longer useful for a measuring rod, for that's what these reeds
were sometimes used for. And it's that very use that appears
in the book of the Revelation, where John in vision sees that
there is a reed used as a measuring rod. The reed in other cases
was, in the small end of it, cut off and used for a quill
and a pen, and that biblical usage is found in the scripture
as well. But this is the picture of a
man who comes upon a bruised reed, and he does not do what
would be so natural and easy to do to something that appears
as though it's not going to be useful for anything anyway. It's
already bruised and bent. Break it off. he will never do
that the bruised reed he will not break but then the second
imagery is a smoking flax shall he not quench now what's flax? well again we're in the realm
of plant life and the flax came from a plant the stalk of which
had fibers that could be woven into what we now would call linen
And in biblical times that particular plant and the stem, the fibers
from the stem would be woven into various materials for various
usages and one of them was to make a wick for their oil lamps. And when those fibers would be
woven together into a wick, they would be placed into a bowl-like
vessel that held oil, and the wick would be pulled out one
end of it. Often it was formed in such a
way that it would cup the wick, and that flax served as the wick
for that lamp. Now it says, a smoking flax,
he will not quench. well we are told by those who
are knowledgeable in these things and have even seen such lamps
in our day in the Middle East that when the supply of oil would
be diminished the flax itself would begin to burn and when
it did it would smoke and send off an acrid smell and that was
a signal you better get some more oil back in there because
the house is being filled with the smell of burning flax so
the picture here is smoking flax the oil is being diminished And
often what the woman of the house or the man of the house would
do is when the wick had gotten to the place where it began to
smoke, that they would come along and clip off part of that wick
that was smoking, still had a little bit of the embers of living fire
in it, but was mostly smoke, clip it off, quench the fire,
pull off the burnt part, pull out more of the flax, and then
reignite. that flax, and so have light
in the house once more. But now it is said of the servant
of Jehovah, smoking flax he will not quench. And that's the standard
word for putting out fire. When Jesus spoke of hell being
a place of unquenchable fire, there's our word. It's the word
used in Matthew 25, 8, with the virgins, the foolish virgins,
they said, our lamps are gone out, their fire has been quenched. And it's the word used in Ephesians
6, 16, where Paul says, take the shield of faith wherewith
you shall be able to quench, put out all the fiery darts of
the wicked one. Now, do you see the imagery employed
there? the servant of Jehovah as surely as he will never break
the bruised reed, he will never put out the little remaining
flickering embers in that smoking flax of that oriental oil lamp. He will never quench that flax. Rather, he will nurture it, he
will do whatever is necessary to have it burn brightly again. So the servant of the Lord in
his ministry is one who would never do what is illustrated
in this snapping of the bruised reed and this extinguishing of
the flickering fire in a smoking, oil-starved, flax wick. Now that's the imagery employed. Now then, secondly, what is the
truth conveyed by that imagery? What is the truth conveyed in
that imagery? As surely as we know from the
prophecy of Isaiah that the One who was the Son given, the One
who was the Child born would be the mighty God, the everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace, We know with certainty that in
the accomplishment of his messianic task, whatever it means, he will
never break the bruised reed, and he will never quench the
smoking flax. Now, what truth is conveyed in
that imagery? Well, negatively stated, it is
this. The person whose spiritual condition
is weak clagging and vulnerable like the bruised reed, whose
spiritual condition is such that it is waning in the fire of devotion
and zeal, such a one will neither be crushed nor extinguished by
Jesus." That's the negative statement, and that's the way it comes to
us in our text. Quoting from the prophet Isaiah,
we are told that a bruised reed shall he not break, and a smoking
flax shall he not quench. But most likely what we have
here is a figure within a figure. You have imagery used, but used
in the form of what's called a litetes. And a litetes is a
figure of speech, many of us use it. in which you state something
and you mean just the opposite. You state it negatively, but
you mean it just the opposite. For example, someone might say,
well look, this cost me no little pain to make this for you. What
do we mean? It cost me much pain. Or we may
say, there were not a few present. What do we mean? There were many
present. So when it is said that the servant
of Jehovah the bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking
flax shall he not quench, most likely our Lord intends that
we should understand from this the positive affirmation that
the person whose spiritual condition is weak, flagging, and vulnerable
as the bruised reed, whose zeal and whose love and whose faith
and whose repentance is well nigh obscured in the smoky wick
of spiritual dullness and barrenness, most assuredly the Lord Jesus
will never break off and cast away that believer who is like
a bruised reed, nor extinguish that almost imperceptible fire
of spiritual life in the one who is like a wick of smoking
flax. Now it's interesting that in
Bishop Ryle's expository thoughts when he comes to this very passage
beautifully states this perspective in summary form. What are we
to understand by the bruised reed and the smoking flax? The
language of the prophet no doubt is figurative What is it that
these two expressions mean? What is the truth conveyed in
the imagery? The simplest explanation seems
to be that the Holy Spirit is here describing persons whose
grace is at present weak, whose repentance is feeble, and whose
faith is small. Towards such persons the Lord
Jesus Christ will be very tender and compassionate. Weak as the
broken reed is, it shall not be broken. Small as the spark
of fire may be within the smoking flats, it shall not be quenched. It is a standing truth in the
kingdom of grace that weak grace, weak faith, and weak repentance
are yet precious in the Lord's sight. Now if that is the proper
understanding of what Matthew says is presently being fulfilled
in the ministry of Jesus, then we should expect when we read
through the gospel record concerning how Jesus dealt with those with
weak faith, those with weak repentance, those with but a dull little
speck of zeal and fire and courage of devotion to Him, that we should
see Jesus dealing in such a way that we could immediately make
the connection and say, yes, there's a bruised reed. Jesus
is in the presence of a bruised reed. What will He do with it?
Will He break it? Here is a smoldering, smoking
flax wick. It is atrid with the smell of
the smoke. There is very little discernible
fire. What will Jesus do? Will he clip
it off? Or will he so deal with that
smoldering, smoking wick that it once again burns bright? Well, if you have any acquaintance
with the gospel records, you know that the Lord Jesus deals
precisely in this way with one after another after another. Just turn back to chapter 11
in this very gospel for a beautiful example of a bruised wreath and
of a smoking flax. And it's interesting because
this is a man of whom Jesus spoke and said, He was a burning and
a shining light. That's how Jesus referred to
John the Baptist. But here in the opening part
of chapter 11, we read verse 2, Now when John heard in the
prison the works of the Christ, he sent by his disciples and
said unto him, Are you He that comes, or do we look for another? Now think of it. This is the
one who was the forerunner of Jesus, whose devotion to Jesus
even predated His birth. When Mary came into the presence
of Elizabeth, John the Baptist had a glory fit in his mother's
womb. The babe leaped in her womb in
the presence of his Lord. He was filled with the Spirit
from his mother's womb. It was he of whom it is said
in John 1 that when he saw Jesus coming he said, Behold the Lamb
of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he. of
whom I spoke, saying, The one who comes after me is before
me. I am not worthy to unloose his
sandals. I baptize in water, but he shall
baptize in the Holy Spirit and in fire." It was John who points
to Christ, who speaks of Christ. who rejoices when people come
and try to stir him up to jealousy and say, John, everybody's going
away from you and after him. And it's recorded that John rejoiced
and said, look, what makes the friend of the bridegroom happy? Well, it's when all the attention
is placed on the bridegroom, not on the best man. I'm just
the best man. And now that all the attention
is being focused on the bridegroom who's come, I rejoice. There
is the burning and the shining light. But now look at him. He's
in prison, swept into prison by a sea of raw, base, animal-like
male lust. when everyone's raving about
the seductive dance of Herod's daughter, Salome. Carried along
in that mindless orgy, Herod says to this wicked young woman
who's being pulled at the end of the strings of her mother's
manipulative influence, look, I'll give you anything up to
the half of my kingdom. John is in prison, and in prison
apparently This one that seemed to be like a cedar in Lebanon.
What went you out in the wilderness to see? A reed shaking in the
wind? Jesus said, Not John. None greater
among those born of women than John. He's not a reed. He's a
cedar in Lebanon. Let the winds howl. Let the opposition
come like a gale. This is no reed shaking in the
wind. Look at him now. Are you he that
should come? Or do we look for another? He's
a bruised reed. His faith, his confidence has
been shaken. He's a smoking flax. Are you
heaved until we look for another? And it says, he said this after
he heard of all these miracles. Strange thing. You think if there'd
been a period when Jesus wasn't doing miracles, that John might
have said, are you the one that should come? But the text says,
when John heard of the works of Christ, he sent by his disciples
and said, are you he that comes, or do we look for another? Now
surely, if ever anyone was a just candidate to be rebuked for sinful
forgetfulness, for unbelief, For unfounded timidity, it was
John at this point. But how does Jesus deal with
him? Look at the passage. Jesus answered and said unto
them, Go and tell John the things which you hear and see. The blind receive their sight,
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and
the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good tidings preached
to them, And blessed is he whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling
in me." He says, look, just go back and tell John all the things
you see and hear. And I have confidence that John
knows his Old Testament Scriptures well enough that when you spread
before him all of these specific credentials of my messianic identity,
he'll remember who I am. All that he has said about me
and all that he's preached about me, all that he's known of me,
will once again ignite into a flame of present confidence that I
am precisely who He declared me to be, the Lamb of God, the
Son of God, the promised Messiah. I am exactly all that He's already
preached that I am. Just go back and tell Him. And
then what does the Lord do? Verse 7, And as these went on
their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning
John, Now here's an example of what happens when you allow unbelief
and doubt. No, he doesn't use John as a
springboard to give a lesson on the wickedness of unbelief
and forgetfulness. He uses the occasion to give
just praise to John. What did you go out in the wilderness
to behold? A reed shaken with the wind?
What did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Verse 9, what did you go out
to see? A prophet, I say, much more than
a prophet. Dear people, do you see the Lord
Jesus fulfilling His identity as the Lord's servant? This bruised
reed, John, He didn't break. This smoking flax, he did not
quench. You can go through the gospel
records. We had some of it laid out so eloquently when Pastor
Donnelly was here. You take Peter. Yes, there's
a time when the Lord calls him adversary, Satan, get behind
me, when Peter would stand between our Lord and the cross, thinking
that He is God's appointed means to keep the Son of God from suffering. The Lord says, get behind me,
Satan. You're thinking not the thoughts of God, but the thoughts
of men. And then Peter, when he thinks himself to be a Seder
in Lebanon, if all forsake you, I'll never forsake you. You see,
there comes a point where Peter is a bruised reed. In his own
ears, cannot deny that they've heard his mouth taking oaths
and maledictions in the presence of a little servant girl, in
the presence of others, taking oaths and curses upon himself
to affirm he doesn't even know Jesus. And what does the Lord
do? The scripture tells us that Jesus
looked upon him. The scripture tells us that Peter
called to remembrance the words of the Lord Jesus and went out
and wept bitterly. And when our Lord rises from
the dead, what does he say? Go tell my disciples and Peter. He may think he's cut himself
off, but I want him to know I've not cut him off. Tell my disciples
Because Peter may think he's the bent and bruised reed and
has been broken off and no longer fits the category of disciples. Go tell my disciples, and Peter,
and Peter. And then you remember how sweetly
and graciously he dealt with him after he'd prepared breakfast
for them by the seaside recorded in John's Gospel chapter 21.
Do you love me, Peter? He doesn't say, why did you deny
me? Why did you deny me? Peter at that point was so bruised
that such a question from the Lord Jesus would have broken
him. His flax was so smoky and so lacking in any discernible
fire that such treatment would have extinguished whatever remaining
love and zeal was there. So the Lord Jesus tenderly deals
with that smoking flax called Peter. And he says, Lord, you
know all things. You know that I love you. And
the Lord recommissions him. For each denial, there's the
fresh affirmation of his love. And after it's all over with,
the Lord Jesus says, my purposes for you have not been sidetracked.
You're to feed my sheep, feed my lambs, tend my sheep. Peter,
you're to follow me as my faithful disciple. and you go through
the gospel records and you see the Lord Jesus doing this again
and again and again, where there is one of his true people, weak
faith, weak repentance, weak zeal. They are indeed fitting
the imagery of the bruised reed and the smoking flax. He neither
breaks the one nor quenches the other. So we've considered together
the imagery employed. Secondly, the truth conveyed
by the imagery. Now thirdly, I want to make application
of this truth to those of you sitting here this morning. And
since there are two basic groups sitting here this morning, more
basic than male and female, it's the groups, those that are in
Christ and those that are out of Christ. I want both of you
to know what you can expect of Christ. the Christ of whom Matthew
speaks saying that this passage is now fulfilled. He who has
come as the Lord's servant is the one who will not break the
bruised reed and will not quench the smoking flax. So I want to
make application first of all to you who are the true people
of God and I have three applications that I want to lay upon your
understanding and upon your conscience. And the first is this, I want
to call upon you as I call upon myself to worship and to admire
such a Savior. to worship and to admire such
a Savior in the midst of a passage, and note this emphasis, a passage
which declares the triumph of the mission of the Lord's servant. Behold my servant whom I have
chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased. I will
put my spirit upon him. He shall declare judgment or
justice to the Gentiles. Verse 21, And in his name shall
the Gentiles hope. There will be such a revelation
of His character and works, that's what His name means, as we saw
several Lord's Days ago. And even Gentiles shall hope,
shall trust, shall place their confidence in this One as He
is revealed in the Gospel. In a context where the servant
is set forth as the successful servant in his mission, Yet,
in the success of that mission, there is nothing of the worldly
conqueror in our Lord Jesus. There is nothing of the worldly
method to accomplish His mission. There is nothing of the pattern
of the Gentiles as we were reminded in the previous hour. Jesus said
among the Gentiles, those that reach the top are those that
lord it down upon others. They climb to the top over the
reputations and over the sensibilities of others. And in our Lord Jesus
we see this beautiful balance, this fusion of principle, determined
commitment to do the will of God, unflinching commitment to
the will of His Father. And yet the gentleness and the
tenderness that it can be said that the bruised reed He will
never break and the smoking flax He will never quench. In a very
moving sermon on this text, one of the most powerful preachers
of the colonial period, some say in their judgment the most
powerful preacher that America has ever produced, Samuel Davies,
he opened his exposition of this text with these words, the Lord
Jesus possesses all those virtues in the highest perfection which
render him infinitely amiable, and qualify him for the administration
of a just and gracious government over the world. The virtues of
mortals, when carried to a high degree, very often run into those
vices which have a kind of affinity to their very virtues. Then he
quotes a statement that apparently was in vogue in his day, right
too rigid hardens into wrong. In other words, immortals, a
man committed to righteousness and committed in principle, unflinching
in his commitment to right, can very easily cross the line into
a harshness and into an inflexibility. Strict justice steels itself
into excessive severity and the man is lost in the judge In other
words, the tenderness that ought to mark humanity in the midst
of suffering, humanity is lost in this absorption with principle
and with equity. But in Jesus Christ, goodness
and mercy are joined to this inflexible commitment to righteousness. These seemingly opposite virtues
center and harmonize in the highest perfection without running into
any extremes. Hence, he is at once set before
us in Scripture as the Lamb. Remember in John's vision, I
saw as it were a Lamb in the midst of the throne. Yet in that
same book he is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Well,
is he Lamb or is he Lion? When it is right for him to be
Lamb, he is all Lamb. as a lamb before her shears is
done, so he opened not his mouth. Pilate marveled, Herod marveled
at his silence before all of this sham witness of his so-called
sins. When it's time to be a lamb,
he's all lamb. When it's time to be a lion,
he's all lion. Psalm 50 shows him as the lion
who says, I will rend you in pieces. Now I ask you, can you
worship and admire a Jesus who is perfect lamb and perfect lion? Not all lamb, all lion, but perfect
lamb, perfect lion. In this passage we see the servant
of Jehovah anointed by his father to go forth to accomplish his
mission and he shall be he must be successful in that mission
but in that mission he is never so preoccupied with the world
encompassing task laid upon him that when he passes by a bruised
reed he just nudges it and sees it break. He stops and takes
that bruised reed like I took one of the branches on one of
the shrubs in front of my house, in a shrub that is dependent
for symmetry upon all of its branches. Somehow during the
ice storms last year, one of them got bent over to where it
would have been the easiest thing to just snap it off, but it would
have destroyed the symmetry of that bush. I tenderly propped
it up, splinted it, wrapped some duct tape around it, and now
it's joined the rest of its fellow branches. That's the picture of our Lord.
Filled with zeal to accomplish his messianic mission, yes. So
much so that at one point as he sets his face like a flint
to go to Jerusalem, it says that even his disciples were amazed. They were blown out of their
minds. There was an aura of determination, of fixation that they could not
comprehend. Yet, yet, in the midst of that, he never walks by the bruised
reed and carelessly snaps it off. When he sees the smoking
flax, he doesn't say, look, we've got to get on with it. We've
got no time to stop and trim smoking flaxes. Let's snip them
off and pull it out. No. The smoking flax, he will
not quench. Oh, dear people of God, how we
ought to admire and to worship our blessed Savior, for all the
perfections of holy humanity seen in perfect equipoise and
balance in our Lord Jesus. But then secondly, I exhort you,
my fellow believers, to trust the Lord Jesus to be just such
a Savior to you. Trust Him to be just such a Savior
to you. Now I hope you see the rationale
for giving you a little synopsis of Hugh Martin's marvelous insights. The book of the generations of
Jesus Christ and the record unfolds but you see it closes with the
words lo I am with you always even to the conservation of the
age and the Christ who is my Savior and my Lord my keeper,
my preserver, my protector, I can trust Him to continue to be what
He has declared in this text, to be the Lord's servant who
will never break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking
flax. And when I know myself to be
the bruised reed, When I, like John, find myself in a place
where faith is low, and my whole world has come crashing down
at my feet, and I hardly know my left hand from my right, it
is precisely then that the accuser will come and say, what will
he have to do with you? You're nothing but a bruise to
read. You're nothing but a piece of flax that stinks. There's
no pure and even discernible flame of faith and love and zeal
and repentance. What use does He have for you?
That's what the accuser will say to you. And as a man or woman,
a boy or girl of faith, you need to face your accuser and say,
My Savior is the one who is committed never to break a bruised reed
and never to quench a smoking flax. And you look up into his
face and you say, Lord Jesus, this ain't a very glamorous thing
you're looking at. It's a bruised wreath that's
drooping over, apparently useless, cast off, no good for a measuring
rod, no good to even be put as a mock scepter in the hands of
the Son of God, no good for anything. But Lord, you said you'd not
break bruised wreaths. And Lord, I'm smoking flax. If I had to look with the most
powerful microscope, I wonder if I could even find a glimmer
of any real living fire of zeal for your honor, of tenderness,
of brokenness. Lord, my repentance shames me. My faith is well my undiscernible,
my zeal, I can't even think of it without shame. But Lord Jesus,
you have said in your word that you would not quench the smoking
flax. Now, it's not very good for self-esteem,
I realize, to say I'm a bruised reed and a smoking flax. You
see, if you're committed to this wretched gospel of self-esteem,
you'll never, never be able to walk as a Christian in a biblical
way. It's not flattering to say, Lord,
I'm a bruised reed. I'm a stinking, smoking, no good
piece of flax at this point. But you see, you're a reed and
a piece of flax for whom the Son of God shed his precious
blood. For whom he came all the way
from heaven by way of Mary's womb to get up to a cross where
hell would be poured out upon the soul of the Son of God. That's
your value to him. So you come as the bruised reed.
into smoking flax and say, Lord Jesus, manifest in me your messianic
function and identity, the Lord's servant who will not break the
bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax. Then my third exhortation
to you, the Lord's people, is this, not only worship and admire
such a Savior, trust Him to be such a Savior to you, but that
imitate Him in your dealing with others. Imitate him in your dealing
with others. The scripture says in 1 John
2.6, he that saith he abides in him ought himself so to walk
even as he walked We've heard in recent weeks a new commandment
I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you. And surely this is one dimension
of His love by which He nourishes and cherishes all of the bruised
reeds of the smoking flaxes for whom He shed His precious blood. And now you and I are called
upon to imitate Him in our dealings one with another. and where we
have no reason to doubt the profession of one with whom we are bound
in common confession of faith and attachment to Christ. There's
not been a repudiation of that confession. There's not been
official church discipline which has labeled someone's profession
as spurious and put that person out of the church. We are to
deal with one another as the Lord Jesus deals with us. And
we will see each other at times as bruised reeds and as smoking
flaxes. And we need to deal with one
another as the Lord Jesus deals with us. And when someone has
done something that was irresponsible and stupid, and now they're reaping
the fruits of that stupidity and irresponsibility, or even
sin, what is our function? To rub their noses in it? No! To be like our Savior, and to
come to the bruised reed, and to the smoking flax, and to minister
in the gentleness of our Lord Jesus. Isn't that what Galatians
6 says? If a man be overtaken in a trespass,
you that are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness,
considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." How many times
in pastoral dealings, when people have come and had to expose some
aspect of sordid declension from the Lord, and they've looked
at me, and I've said, well, what do you want me to do? Spit on
you? What do you want me to do? Throw you out of my study? Well,
aren't you angry? No. Well, aren't you? So what
do you want me to do? I'm a sinner. And apart from
the daily mercy of God, vowed safe to me in Jesus Christ, where
would I be? And whatever you've done, but
by the grace of God on the day you did it, I'd have done something
ten times worse apart from the grace of God. Surely, if we are present monuments
of the fact that Jesus does not break bruised reeds or quench
smoking flasks, we ought in our dealings with one another to
reflect the disposition of our Lord Jesus. But then, in closing,
I want to bring a word of application to you who are not in Christ.
And I want to bring it in terms of two very simple and direct
questions. There are those of you sitting here today, men,
women, boys and girls, who are not in Christ. You've never divorced
yourself from sin and been married to Christ in the bond of faith. You've not turned from running
your own life and being in the God business and embraced the
living God as your God and His Son as your Savior and your Lord.
And I want to ask you two questions in the light of this text. The
first, I'm sorry, two words of exhortation. The first, a sincere
question. A sincere question, and it's
this. Why would you not want to put
yourselves in the hands of such a gracious savior? As I was preparing,
I said, Lord, to go on in unbelief under the preaching of the gospel
is moral madness. It doesn't make sense. Why would
you not want to put yourself unconditionally in the hands
of a Savior who says, if you do so, I'll pardon all of your
sins, I'll break the chains that bind you, I will give you a title
to eternal life, and I will be to you the kind of Savior I was
prophesied to be by Isaiah, and that Matthew says I was manifesting
myself to be in my earthly ministry, I do not break. bruised reeds,
and I do not quench smoking flaxes. My unconverted friend, I ask
you to think on this question. What reason can you give for
not putting yourself in the hands of so gracious a Savior? Unbelief
is moral madness. That's why when Jesus said, come
unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give
you rest, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek
and lowly of heart and you shall find rest to your souls. Why
would you not come and take a yoke that brings you rest? Your present
master gives you no rest. He promises you pie in the sky
and all he gives you is an accusing conscience. And however sweet
the momentary taste of sin may be, its bitter aftertaste, it
isn't worth it. Here is a Savior who is committed
to so dealing with all of His people that the bruised reeds
among them He does not break, and the smoking flaxes He does
not quench. I ask you sincerely, why would
you not want such a Savior to be yours? Then I close with this
solemn warning. Yes, I've asked a sincere question,
but I must close with a solemn warning. While he'll cherish,
nurture, and preserve the weakest of those who truly trust him,
he will utterly crush all who oppose him and die in that opposition. I want you to hear his own words
from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21 is our closing passage. You
see, this is where some people can't hack the Jesus of the Bible.
They want a Jesus who's all lamb, but no lion. Alas, there's some
who would have him all lion and no lamb. But let the Lord Jesus
himself tell us what he will be to some. Matthew 21. Verses
42 to 44, Jesus said unto them, Did you never read in the scriptures,
The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the
head of the corner. This was from the Lord, and it's
marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I say unto you, the
kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given
to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof." Now this is
Jesus speaking, the one who will never break a bruised reed, who
will never quench a smoking flax. This is Jesus speaking. Listen
to His words. He that falls on this stone,
Jesus said, I am that stone spoken of by the psalmist. I am that
stone, and whoever falls on that stone shall be broken to pieces,
but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will scatter him as dust. It will grind him to powder. Hear the same servant of Jehovah,
of whom it is said, his gentle hands will never break a bruised
reed. They will never quench a smoking
flax. He said, I am that stone rejected
of the builders. but chosen and appointed by the
Lord Jehovah in the building of His spiritual temple. And
if you do not by faith become incorporated into that chief
cornerstone rightly related to Him, if you fall upon Him thinking
you are going to do Him harm, no, no, you fall upon Him, He
says, and you shall be broken to pieces and If he falls upon
you, if he comes upon you in the fury of his righteous judgment,
he will grind you to powder. My friend, don't you mistake
the gentleness of Jesus for an effeminate, carnal, unprincipled
indulgence in your willful unbelief. He that believeth not shall perish. The same Jesus, who will never
break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax, will grind
to powder everyone who says, I'll take my chances, maintain
my own independence and self-will and pride. My friend, don't you
become an eternal exegete. of what it means to be ground
to powder by God's chief cornerstone. Some of you wonder why we don't
indulge in telling jokes and creating a climate of laid-back,
relaxed, easy, low-key, cool communication in this pulpit.
I'll tell you why. We believe what Jesus said. The day is coming! when people
who sat in this building and heard of the love and mercy and
compassion of Jesus said, No! No! No! No! And Christ will have the final
no. And He'll grind you to powder.
May God have mercy on you that this day the Spirit of God will
apply the Word with power to your conscience. and cause you
to see why, why should I be a monument of His right and power to grind
to powder when I could be a monument of His gentleness and tenderness
in never breaking the bruised wreath and never quenching the
smoking flats. One of the interesting things
I believe when we get to heaven, dear fellow believers, is to
have the Lord Himself show us all the times when we didn't
even know we were bruised reeds, but he did. And we were so close
to bending and breaking, but he secured that we would not
be broken. And we were the smoking flax.
And he nurtured the life that he implanted until at last he
brings us home to the consummation of that life in his very presence. May God grant that this sight
of our Savior will draw out the hearts of all of us who know
Him, to admire Him and worship Him, to trust Him to be just
such a Savior to us, and to pray that we may imitate Him in our
dealings with one another. And for those of you who are
not in Christ, may that question follow you to your home. Why
would you refuse such a gracious Savior? and may the solemn warning
fasten itself upon your conscience and give you no rest until you
turn to Him. Let us pray. Our Father, how we thank You
that You have sent Your only begotten Son into the world and
we thank You that when He came, He perfectly fit that picture
given by the prophet Isaiah 800 years before he came upon the
scene of this world's history and we thank you that many of
us in this room have known him to be just such a gentle and
a gracious and a patient Savior to us and oh how we pray for
those who do not know the Savior that this day they would have
no rest until they lay hold of Him and the mercy and pardon
and forgiveness offered in Him. Help those who are bruised wreaths
and smoking flaxes this morning that they may with renewed determination
turn to the Savior from whom perhaps they've even drawn back
in shame and in unbelief. O Lord, this day may they be
living proofs of the very text upon which we have meditated.
Bless Your Word to our hearts, seal it to our prophet and to
Your praise, and dismiss us with Your blessing resting upon us,
we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.