Seeking for the help of the Lord
I direct your prayerful attention to Isaiah chapter 40 and reading
for our text verses 29, 30 and 31. He giveth power to the faint and
to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the
youth shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly
fall. But they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as
eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk
and not faint. Isaiah 40 verses 29 through to
31. Renew my spiritual Strength, Lord, that is my desire. In this chapter, we have beautiful
prophecies of the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Chapter beginning with the, Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. And then we have in
verse three, the foretelling of John the Baptist. Then we have The Lord Jesus Christ
coming, verse 9, behold your God, behold the Lord God will
come with strong hand. And going on to verse 11, as
the Lord a type of shepherd, the good shepherd, he shall feed
his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm, carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that
are with young. It is a chapter that points to
gospel days and the blessings that flow to the Church of God
through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. If we look at the verses that
come prior to our text first, we have in verse 26, the Creator,
and this theme it runs right through this passage. And we
would remember how often throughout the Word of God, people try and
undermine the Genesis account and undermine the creation, not
realizing they're going against the words of our Lord and against
nearly every book in the Bible. And certainly wherever the gospel
is set forth, we think of the apostles in Acts 4, in Acts 17,
All of them, they're pointing first to the God of creation,
and then leading to the God of salvation. And we read in Jeremiah,
the gods that have not created the heavens and the earth, let
them perish from under the heavens and the earth. And so we have
in verse 26, lift up your eyes on Chaim, setting forth this
Holy One, one who has no equal. Behold, who hath created these
things, that bringeth out their host by number? He calleth them
all by names, by the greatness of his might. For that he is
strong in power, not one faileth. And then we have not only the
declaration of God, but we have the complaint of the Church of
God, set forth as being Jacob. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and
speakest thou Israel, my way is hid from the Lord and my judgment
is passed over from my God. The church speaking as if God
does not know and does not regard them and does not see their way
and does not regard what is happening in their hearts and in their
lives. And it may be you gather this
evening and your thought is that my life, my experience, my feelings,
My troubles, my sorrows, my position is not known by God. He's not
taking any notice of it. He's not listening to my prayers. He's not appearing for my help
at all. And you find here in the words,
750 years before Christ came, 2750 years before now, and we
find the church has got still the same language as what you
may be saying. and feeling tonight. The Lord's
people walk the same path, and this is the comfort. Not only
is our God the same God, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and
today and forever, but the people of God are the same as well.
They're still sinners, and they still have the same exercises,
feelings, and what they go through in their souls is described in
the Word of God. That which was written aforetime
is written for our comfort and may it be that this word here
is for the comfort of some here this evening. And so then we
have the reminder following this from Jacob and Israel that the
Creator, He does not faint. that the everlasting God, the
Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither
is weary, there is no searching of his understanding. And so
before our text is laying the groundwork, first this is a gospel
context, then it is a context as the provision of that help
is from this God, this eternal God that made heaven and earth,
the stock, the store, the provision is being made known, and really
when we think of our Lord Jesus Christ and his sufferings at
Calvary, the blood that was shed, a means that that provision could
be bestowed, because you might say with all the might and power
of God, he could still do all of these things, but not in justness,
not in righteousness, not while there's still a debt to be paid,
not while there's still sin to be put away, but when we have
in the Lord Jesus Christ the sins of his people put away and
the justice of God satisfied, then he is free to do what he
will with his own and to help his own and to appear for his
own people. So I want to then look at three
points. Firstly, what the Lord gives
to the faint and those that have no might. And in looking at that
point, we would also describe those and see why, what is meant
by their fainting and lack of strength. And then secondly,
the way to receiving from the Lord. We have this in verse 31,
they that wait upon the Lord. shall renew their strength. And
then lastly, the effect. We have a contrast in verse 30,
even the ewes shall faint and be weary, young men shall utterly
fail or utterly fall, but, and then the effect of renewed strength,
they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and
not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. And we look
at that in a spiritual way. But firstly, what the Lord gives
to his people, and why are they faint? Why are they weary? Perhaps just to think about it
in a natural way first, if we were to run a race, or do some
hard physical manual labour, then at the end of that we might
feel faint, we might feel to lack strength. That would be
one way of experiencing that feeling of faintness and lack
of strength. But another situation might be
that we've got something before us, maybe we've got to give a
presentation, or we've got to do an examination, or we've got
to do something we're really fearful about. We're not used
to perhaps appearing in the spotlight. We're not used to having to appear
before strangers or speak to others, maybe about our faith
even. And just the very thought of
it makes us to have a pit in the stomach and we're fearful
and we're frightened and we're faint. And so the same faintness
and lack of strength is felt from a completely different reason
altogether. And so we think of it in a spiritual
way. We, the people of God, are brought
to feel faint and to lack strength for reasons that belong to what
God is doing in their souls and how he's leading them in providence
and in their lives. I just want to suggest several
ways, several reasons where that faintness comes in. The first
I mention is that concerning sin. In Hebrews 12 verse 4, we
read, You have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. The one thing common with all
the people of God when the Lord begins in their hearts in a more
or less measure, they will have to come face to face with their
sin, that which they did not realise before. That the Apostle
Paul, as a Pharisee, that I was alive without the law once, when
the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and he explains that
effect of being brought guilty as a sinner. And that doesn't
just begin, that's not just at the very beginning, but right
through the lives of the people of God, as soon as the Lord opens
their eyes, then they begin to see what sin is, and they'll
have a struggle with it. God's people, one of the ministers
of old said that, impress upon a young believer that he is called
to do a daily battle with the corruptions of his own heart,
his own sin and own evils. Being blessed with faith, being
blessed with being a believer doesn't make us not a sinner,
but it makes us that sin, though it dwells in us, we do not dwell
in sin, but we strive and wrestle against it, and that can be very,
very wearying. It can make us very faint, very
disheartened, very cast down. You feel, how can we continue
to fight, to press on, to carry on in this fight? So much easier
to give way, we might think sometimes, and sometimes do, and then we
find out the way of transgressors is hard. But whether it is in
outward, though the outside, says the hymn writer, be kept
clean, He knows the filth within. And that is one reason why the
people of God know what it is to faint and to be weary. Another is under the chastening
of the Lord. In that same chapter, Hebrews
12, and the following verse, that we are not to faint when
we are chastened by Him. Every son, every daughter, everyone
that God receives, instead of casting them away, He chastens,
He corrects them. And that is liable to cause us
to faint, to be discouraged, to lose strength, to give up,
but we're encouraged there not to do so. But nevertheless, that
is a cause. of faintness is not easy, no
chastening for the present, seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. And we have in Proverbs 24 verse
10, that if we faint in the day of adversity, and though all
the world, the ungodly as well, they have times of, when they
have adversity, things go wrong in their lives and in providence,
yet with Those that are exercised in their souls before God, often
there's an added dimension. Why has the Lord permitted this? And it may be then that they
strive and fight against it. Maybe at first they're like Job,
the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name
of the Lord. But later on, he sought to justify
himself and really struggle the fire, It brought up many things
that Job did not know was there in his heart. And the Lord says
that in the world you shall have tribulation or great trouble,
in me you shall have peace. And that tribulation, that also,
and even the Apostle Paul was concerned with those that he
wrote to, lest they faint at hearing of his tribulations.
his persecutions and what he was going through that caused
them to faint. And so that has that effect as
well. Also there's to fight the good
fight of faith. We have many adversaries, the
world, the flesh, and the devil. We read of Gideon in a literal
way, fighting against the enemies of the people of the Lord, the
Midianites. And we read how that he was faint
yet pursuing after them. We think of Jeremiah in Lamentations,
when he saw the desolations of Zion, then he was faint, his
heart was faint when he saw what had happened to the temple, what
had happened to the people of God and the enemy in the sanctuary. And so to the end of time as
well, when we see the state of the churches, when we see and
feel the state of our own soul, and of the brethren, and of the
empty pews, all of those things make one faint and to lose strength. And so it is to those who are
walking in this way that the Lord gives, as in verse 29, he
giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he
increaseth strength. And so immediately it is pointing
to the work of God, the powerful work of God. The Lord does use
means, and we'll look at those in a moment, awaiting upon the
Lord, But we must not lose sight of the power of the source, that
the apostles, when they went forth to preach, had to tarry
at Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. When our Lord worked the miracle
of the loaves and the fishes, we read that there are those
that followed him over the sea, And he reproved them because
they sought him, not because they saw the miracles, but because
they ate of the loaves and were filled. He said, labor not for
the bread that perisheth, but for that meat that endureth to
eternal life. But what I want to bring out
from that, the people had failed to notice the power, the miraculous
aspect, that from those few loaves and fishes, The Lord had brought
food that strengthened all of that multitude, thousands, and
it came from the Lord. We are not used to, shall I say,
miraculously given gifts. Naturally, we We just see the
means, we just use means. But when the Lord came on earth,
He worked miracles that showed that the effect, like giving
sight to the blind, or making the lame to walk, or raising
the dead, it was purely due to His power. The Lord did that.
And this is what is emphasized here. This is for those that
are faint and have no strength. They're looking to that power
from on high. In these gospel days, our Lord
has fulfilled what is in this chapter. He has suffered, bled
and died, risen again, and is in heaven. And there he makes
intercession for his people. We have the great evidence. I will pray, the Father, he will
give you another spirit that shall abide with you forever,
towering in the city of Jerusalem." And at the Day of Pentecost,
when that came, he might say, here is the answer to our Lord's
intercession. This is the power that he said
he would bring forth. And every miracle that the apostles
ruled, again it was said, greater things shall ye do because I
go to the Father. They always worked the miracles
and said they did them in the name of the Lord Jesus. The power
came not from them. Peter said, why look ye on us
as if we have some might or power? And they pointed to the power
above. And this verse as well, verse
29, that's where it points us. It points us to God, it points
us to what he gives. He giveth power to the faint,
And to them that have no might, He increaseth strength, physically,
mentally, spiritually, gives them that which they have not
got themselves, and enables them to continue and to grow. And may we look then at the way
to receiving that from the Lord. but not lose sight of this is
coming forth from God. And maybe before we pass on,
just think of every blessing. The Hymn writer says, every blessing
comes to us through Jesus' precious blood. Every blessing the people
of God have to comfort, to give remission of sins, to give assurance,
to give direction, everything comes from the Lord. comes from
the Father of Light, in whom is no variableness of changing. He is the Eternal God. He delights
to give to His people. That is the great word of the
Gospel, isn't it? What the Lord gives. By grace ye are saved, through
faith, and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not duty, but a gift. And all
the gifts of the Gospel, they all come to us through the Lord
Jesus Christ and by His power. And the more we realise that
in receiving those gifts and helps, then we trace our interest
in Christ, Christ's care of us, and the blessings that we're
receiving. from his hand. So we'll be able
to say with the Apostle, having received help of God, I continue
unto this present day. And the soul would be able to
say, having received power, I faint not. Having received mind, I
have strength to continue day by day and tracing it to the
Lord. and not to themselves. And sometimes
the Lord will really prove this to us, that it is not in us. And the apostles said that, they
hadn't just learnt that as schoolboy learnt it by, just wrote, it
is by experience, it is not in us. That's when the Lord has
been pleased to give us much help, maybe over years, We can
be left to think perhaps maybe that wasn't from the Lord. Maybe
he hasn't been helping us. Maybe we haven't had that strength
from him. Maybe it's just in our own strength. And the Lord says, I'll show
you where then. I'll take away your strength. I'll make you
to faint. I'll make you feel your weakness.
I'll bring you down low. I'll bring you utterly dependent
upon me and upon my word. And then you'll know. Then you'll
understand where that has come from. Everyone is in that position
here. And the Lord is proving so that
you're able to say as well, it is not in me. There's a blessed
thing to know where it is and where the help is. My help cometh
from the Lord which made heaven and earth. You see, the testimony
of the people of God through the ages, they know where that
help comes from. Well, that means that I want
to look at the way to receiving from the Lord. And we're told
this in the verse 31. But they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. They that wait upon the Lord. We mentioned the very first point
of those of sinners. And the remedy there in Hebrews
12, that we are consider him that endured such contradiction
of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your
mind. And it's put there in a way of
a preventative. And he's looking unto Christ
and considering his path and his way out of weakness made
strong. And we think of our Lord on this
earth, how he became man, how he grew up, and then how he accomplished
the salvation of his people in what you might say in weakness,
in death, and yet with what power and with what blessing. Well,
what is it to wait then upon the Lord? The first way is that
way in prayer. Our Lord says that men ought
always to pray and not to faint. He joins the two together in
Luke chapter 18. Always to pray. Very often when we feel faint
and have no strength spiritually, one of the, shall we say, symptoms
is that our prayers get shorter. We get discouraged in our prayers. We're tempted to give up in our
prayers. And yet the very path, and we
see it in Psalm 107, where they fell down, there was none to
help again and again. It was only when they cried unto
the Lord in their trouble that then he appeared for them. Then
he sent his word, and then he healed them. The Lord uses these
means to bring into fellowship with him, bring back to him,
so that he hears his people's voices, he delights to hear his
people in prayer. The gospel is that which reconciles
God and man, brings sinners to the Lord. If everything went
well, if everything was smooth, if we had every strength and
there was no danger Fainting in the way, if we could persevere,
we wouldn't need prayer. We wouldn't go to the Lord in
prayer. We wouldn't be asking for help. Some of us are like
that. People say, you ask for help.
You go and get someone to help you. No, I'll do it myself. All
the time we've got strength, then we do it myself. And it's
only when we're brought down and we're weak and low, and then
we've got to ask for help. And then someone's got to help
us. But in a spiritual way, we're not to be independent from the
Lord. It's not a good thing if we can
say, well, we can manage our sin, we can manage every trial
and every tribulation and every chastening, and we've got such
a sufficiency in self. But we never come to the Lord,
we never receive from the Lord, we never have a token from the
Lord, we're never humbled enough to feel that we do not have that
might and help ourselves. So maybe be encouraged to see
what poor prayers, or faint prayers, or weak prayers do. Never give up praying. And then the means of grace.
That is the reading of the Word of God, our family worship, our
private worship, coming to the house of God, joining with the
people of God, public prayer, private prayer, these means of
God's grace. They're the means that He gives
to His people in the ministry. We're exhorted, instant, in season
and out of season. And without that, I can assure
you there'd be many times that I'd rather stay home and just
could not preach and would not preach. But it is through the
word and through the means of grace, and often as a preacher,
through the very word preached, that help and strength is given. Another way of waiting is that
our eyes upon the Lord expecting. trusting, looking, waiting for
his time, his time. You think of the children of
Israel in Egypt, how weary, how tried they were on all their
bondage. But in the Lord's time, he raised
up Moses, took 80 years to train him, but then brought them up. You think of Jacob brought down
so low, all these things are against me. But you wait a few
days, Jacob, and you'll see different. How many times we think of our
Lord saying, your time is already ready, but my time is not yet. You think of the two on the way
to Emmaus, that they there were, walking, despondent. Three days
ago, they'd seen the Lord crucified. They were downcast, they were
faint, but the Lord drew near to them. Their heart burned within
them as He talked with them by the way. And even though it was
evening, they still could walk or go back the miles, the seven
and a half miles, back to Jerusalem when the Lord appeared. strengthened
them so much. They that wait upon the Lord. Those who are looking to Him
for the help that they need. There's another aspect of waiting
and that is continuing to serve Him. You might go to a restaurant
and there's a waiter, and they're coming to the table, they're
bringing things to the table, and the Lord's servants, they
wait upon the Lord, they serve the Lord, they walk in His way,
not just His servants in ministry, but His people seek still to
walk in His ways, to do His bidding, do His will, Perhaps to put it in this way, if we were faint and weak and
then take the view, well, until the Lord strengthens me and helps
me, I'm not going to continue to go to the means of grace.
I'm not going to continue to serve the Lord. And if in the
ministry I'm not going to continue to preach, I'm going to wait
until the Lord appears and it helps me, that if we look at
it in this way, that they that wait upon the Lord, or continue
while they are faint, and while they are weak, and while they
haven't got strength, they still continue. They still continue
to serve. We read in Galatians, be not
be weary, in well-doing, and sometimes we can. We can be weary
in the Christian life and Christian walk. But when it is that way,
they that wait upon the Lord, instead of sitting down and waiting
in that way, is waiting and actually continuing, and seeing what poor,
weak followers, believers, And I find that way an encouraging
way to view this way of receiving from the Lord. And what a contrast,
verse 31, it begins with a but, but they that wait upon the Lord. And there's a picture of youths
or young men with great strength And they're fainting, young men
utterly full. But they that wait upon the Lord
shall, one of the Lord's shalls, not maybe, not might, but shall
renew their strength. In the margin it says, change
their strength. Psalm 84, they shall go from
strength to strength, every one appearing in Zion. given a little
strength, using up that strength, given some more strength, using
up that strength. They go from strength to strength. It's in that way. The Lord doesn't
just give a great stock of strength. We think of our lives, really.
We have a night's sleep, our strength is renewed, we do our
labours in the day, we get down to the end of the day, and we're
weary and we're tired, and the Lord has given us rest and we
go and sleep for the night and we've got fresh strength for
the morrow, our whole lives are like that way. And in a spiritual
way as well. There are times we get very low
with our strength and then the Lord renews that strength. And
we're to wait upon the Lord to do it. The help, the strength,
that comes from the Lord as we had in our first point. He giveth power to the faint
and to them that have no might increaseth strength. The Apostle
Paul says at one time, God that raises up those that are cast
down, he strengthened us by the coming of Titus. And you think what the Lord used
that means of one of his sons in the faith coming to him The
Lord does. He can use a letter, an email,
a phone call. He can use a friend. He can use
many things to pick up the people of God and to encourage the people
of God. I've no doubt mentioned it before
about the time that I was preaching at Ebenezer Luton and feeling
so discouraged and And my dear one said, if you don't go now,
you're never going to get there on time. But I just hardly knew
how to get in the car and to drive and go. And I was feeling
so low. And then when I pulled up outside
that chapel and turned off the car engine, the phone rang. And
that was my dear one saying that my sister had rung. My father
had been taken into hospital. She knew I was low. She didn't
want to cast me down further, but thought I should know. It
had the opposite effect. I thought the Lord knows exactly
where I was when I turned off that engine to take that phone
call, and the Lord knew where my father was, the other side
of the world, and it picked me up, it strengthened me, and I
had a really good day. Just by the fact the Lord impressed
upon me, He knew where I was. My father did recover at that
time too. But the Lord uses these means
to bring us from a low, discouraged, despondent place to have fresh
strength and health. I want to look at the effect
in our third point. It's put in some vivid ways,
isn't it, in verse 31, at the end of that verse. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall
walk and not faint. Even when we don't look at the
spiritual meaning of it, just the very picture that is put
there, you think, what a contrast, what a difference, what a change.
You couldn't mistake that. It's made a tremendous change. Now the blessing of the Lord,
it maketh rich, he addeth no sorrow with it. It does make
a difference. And so looking at it in a spiritual
way, their affection rises upward as eagles. They shall mount up
with wings as eagles. Those that have the Blessing
and joy of the Lord. Oh, what happiness arising from
the life of God within. Those are blessed times. Those are times when the soul
is realizing conquest over sin and hell. That's hymn 735, made
precious to me once. It's a blessed thing when our
thoughts Our whole expectation has been one of doom and looking
down, and suddenly we have the blessing of the Lord, and we
can believe, and we have the joy of the Lord, and happiness
in the Lord. That's so different. One of the first blessings I
ever had. I've still got the desk that I had in those years
when I was just 20. gone oppressed with sin, the
wickedness and evil of my heart, trying to resist it, go against
it, and I felt weary down with it. And I just put my head on
my hands on that desk and I said, Lord, I just cannot stand anymore. I cannot cope with it anymore.
And the Lord just took it away in an instant. It just, the burden
of it, the trouble of it, just went. I remember getting up off
that desk and it was just as if the sun was shining brightly,
the whole weather, everything was just so different. The burden
lifted off me. No words, nothing at all, but
the difference. And the Lord did that for me
then. And this is what is speaking of effect. You know, I know the
Lord does sometimes speak through the word and gives you words
so that you can put it down as part of your testimony. But sometimes
your testimony will be the effect, the effect. And there'll be those
things that in our lives that if there was an effect wouldn't
have happened, wouldn't have been done. We wouldn't have actually
had to act or done as we did if there wasn't that effect.
I'd rather have the effect that you can remember, and no words,
than words, and not remember any effect. It's a better thing
when we know the power. He giveth words to the faint. No, he giveth power to the faint.
And to them that have no might, he increases strength. Then they shall run. They shall
run and not be weary. I thought of this running in
the ways of the Lord with delight and pleasure. Come and hear all
ye that fear God, I will tell what he hath done for my soul.
You cannot say that when you're down, when you're low, when you're
faint, when you're discouraged, when you're despondent. But when
the Lord lifts that burden, when the Lord takes that away, then
you can, then you want to tell And I've often thought this with
the psalms. Sometimes you might start with a psalm and you think,
I can go with the psalmist there, he's in a real low place. You
get a little way along and he's on the mountaintops and he's
singing the praises of the Lord. You think, that psalm's not for
me, I'm not in that. But yes you are, you're in the
beginning of it. You continue and you wait on
the Lord in the beginning like the psalmist did, and eventually
you get to the end. And when you're blessed, you'll
be like the psalmist, then you've got the whole psalm, not just
half of it. May that be encouragement when
you're reading the psalms. Begin with them, wait with them,
then the Lord's time to be blessed like them as well. And when the
Lord does bless, then may we walk and run in His ways, in
His commandments, in His ordinances, with his people. And people would
say, well, how do you know it's the right time? Well, what a
change was wrought here. There's something to tell. You might have been thinking,
well, I haven't got words to tell. But if you've got something
to tell of what the Lord's done to lift you up and to deliver
you from your fainting and lack of strength, that's something
to tell. And they shall walk and not faint. Continue to walk. Endurance unto
the end. An abiding effect. It doesn't
mean to say that we won't get low again and faint again. But
it's a blessed thing when a blessing does abide for some time and
helps us. And it's like the meat given
to Elijah when he was so faint. And he lied down and Jezebel
had been saying she was going to kill him. Just before that,
he'd brought the wonderful miracles on the top of Carmel and the
rain had been given, but now he is so low, so despondent,
wishes that he might die. The angel comes and awakes him
and gives him food, gives him sustenance, and he went in the
strength of that meat 40 days and 40 nights. Well, my James say, Elijah, as
a man subject to like passions as we are. He needs to be strengthened
and we do too. He got discouraged and down and
faint and we do as well. He got discouraged just by the
words of a wicked woman and we can get discouraged by words
as well and by many other things. But what a blessing the Lord
can give out of our low condition, out of our fainting condition,
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they
shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not
be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Will the Lord grant
his blessing and grant this power and increased strength.