Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 102, and reading from
our text, the first part of verse 23. He weakened my strength in
the way. The whole verse adds, he shortened
my days. Psalm 102 verse 23. This psalm is a psalm that speaks
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Many of the psalms indeed
do. And I want to think firstly of
how this is referred to in the book of Hebrews. In the very
beginning of that book we have this psalm quoted in Hebrews
chapter 1 and verse 10 and 11. Those equate to the same verses
that are here In verses 25 and 26, we read, and if we go back to verse 8
in Hebrews 1, But unto the Son, he said, thy throne, O God, is
for ever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity, Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And now we
have the quote from this psalm. And thou, Lord, in the beginning
hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the
works of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest. They all shall wax old as duffer
garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall
be changed. But thou art the same, and thy
years shall not fail. And we would remember then that
many of the Psalms do speak of our Lord. And when we think of
our text and a strength being weakened in the way, then we
think of that which is set before us in Philippians chapter 2.
where the Apostle speaks of our Lord, who being in the form of
God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself
of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, who was
made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. And we see the path
of our Lord, though great and high and lifted up, truly God,
and yet made man, humbled himself, brought down even unto death,
and then lifted up, And we see this pattern that is then also
reflected in the experience of the people of God. And there
is a reason why their strength is weakened and why it is brought
down low. And Paul, when he writes to the
Corinthians in his first epistle in chapter 1, he gives us the
reason again why that is so. With our Lord that He might be
made flesh, dwell among us, that He might redeem us and save us,
that He might be that offering and sacrifice made for sin, and
that the glory and honour of salvation might be His. But then
for man, we see how the Lord ensures that the glory is the
Lord's, it is Christ's, and is not man's. And so in chapter
one of Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, he says that
those things that have been chosen by God, the people of God, they
are foolish things to confound the wise. God had chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
and base things of the world and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught
things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, that according as it is written, He that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. And this is the real secret and
the background, the foundation to what we read in our text,
that He weakened my strength in the way. It is that no flesh
should glory in His presence, that it should be our wisdom
is in God, in Christ. He is our righteousness, He is
our sanctification, He is our redemption. We do not lay claim
to have redeemed ourselves, or have a righteousness of our own,
or made ourselves holy, or have wisdom in our own selves. It
is all in Christ. And for that to be so, then in
the experience of God's people, as our Lord humbled Himself in
bringing about that salvation of His people, So His people
to know God's salvation and to put the crown on His head must
also know what it is to have their strength, their supposed
strength, supposed wisdom weakened. He weakened my strength in the
way. Part of the ministry of the Gospel
is to make known to those that are in the way, those things
that they will experience, to be an interpreter, to show the
reason why they pass through these paths, the trial of faith,
or to bring down flesh so that Christ is exalted. And we need
that interpreter. The dear saints have gone through
these barns like Job and many others and found those ways very
perplexing until the Lord has brought them out and they've
been able to look back and see the need of what the Lord has
done for them and in their lives. So I want to look firstly at
where the weakening is And there's two real heads in this. He weakened my strength. It is a weakening of us personally,
my strength. But it is also a weakening in
the way. Not out of the way, but in the
way. Secondly, the path of those in
scripture. If we are to find a teaching
and a doctrine such as this, that God will take a man and
weaken his strength, whether physically, mentally, spiritually,
in the way, we should expect that we will find those in the
scriptures that have walked that path as well. And so I want to
look at some of those in our second point. Then thirdly, weakened to be
strengthened. The Lord's purpose in weakening
is not to crush and to put under and to never strengthen. But
it is to strengthen, but in the right way. in the right place,
not in ourselves, but in the Lord. So let us look first at
where the weakening is. He weakened my strength in the
way. Religion, true religion, is a
personal thing, and it must be that which addresses our heart
and our soul and our way. Very often we can be listening
and we hear the word of God for someone else, or as a bystander
commenting on the race and commenting on doctrines, but when we come
to actually experience it and to walk it out, that is a very,
very different thing. We know this in natural things,
in life as well. There's many things that we can
study, we can know about, but to actually do it is a very,
very different thing. And that finds out where our
weaknesses are when we actually have to walk it. Well, I remember
as a teenager at school, learning how to sail, sail a sailing boat,
But then, out on the sea, and the Masters thought that I had
learnt my lessons well, I knew what to do. The situation arose
where I was going out to sea, trying to turn the boat, and
couldn't turn it. It kept going into the wind,
and then pushing straight out to sea again. And I had not taken
notice of the teaching, that before you turn across the wind,
you've got to head up harder and harder into the wind. And
so you've got enough way, enough speed to push you across the
wind and onto the other tack. And at last I managed to do it
and we got back home but got a good telling off because I
hadn't learnt the lessons well. But you know I've never ever
forgotten that because that is how I learnt by experience. I walked it out and God won't
have his children. the things of God as schoolboys
learn their task. It is learned by experience. And so, it is in a personal way
here. He weakened my strength in the
way. And so, dear friends, if you
are walking in a path and you feel well, it is my physical
strength, my mental strength, my spiritual strength, These
are all being weakened in the way. My own ability, my own mind,
my own ability to get myself out or change the situation that
I am in. I feel helpless, I have no power,
no mind to be able to do this. And you're feeling it, you feel
it very much. You realize that helplessness. It's personal. So do remember
this. The Lord is dealing with you
and I. He will deal with us in a personal
way that is known and felt, and it is a painful thing to feel
without strength. The Word of God says that when
we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for
us. The second aspect here is that
it is weakened in the way. We are quite liable to think
that because things come upon us that seem to just take away
what religion that we thought to have and to bring us into
some very dark and hard to understand paths that we couldn't possibly
be in the way. Now the Lord was speaking of
the way, a narrow way that leadeth unto life, few there be that
find it, because broad is the way, wide is the gate, broad
is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there are that go in
there at. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. But there
is a way that is the right way, and yet those who are walking
in it are trying whether they really are in the right way. And it's a good thing. If that
is our concern that we be in the right way, then those things
that we pass through cause us to really examine it, whether
we really are in the right way at all. Well, the test here,
here it says, that He weakened my strength in the way. As if
in the Holy Word of God, the Lord would say, here is a waymark,
here is an evidence of being in the right way, that God Himself
shall weaken our strength in that way. That our supposed strength,
what we are trusting in, what we are relying on, shall be weakened. There's a purpose and there's
a reason for that. You know there are, in a natural
perhaps illustration, those that are impossible to help because
they don't feel their need of help. How many times perhaps
we've either been in this situation ourselves or seen someone else
and they've been doing something And we know that they are doing
it wrong. We know that they are not doing
it in a correct way. It won't end up right. And we
offer to help them. No, no, no. We're all right.
I'm doing it right. And you can't help them. And
they don't accept any help. They don't want the help. Because
still in their own eyes, they're in control. They are doing it. They know what they're doing.
And they know the outcome will be right. You looking on can
know the outcome will not be right, but until they are convinced
of that, they won't turn to you for help. And we've been in that
situation, headstrong, not needing help, not thinking we needed
it, until we've fallen, until we've had to realize that actually
we don't have the wisdom and knowledge and we need that help.
And so in the way of salvation, This teaching is a vital teaching. In Romans chapter 10, the Apostle
Paul so desired the salvation of his people and he saw then
they had a zeal for God. It's a good thing to have a zeal
for God. But it wasn't according to knowledge. They were going about seeking
their own righteousness and not submitted unto the righteousness
of God. And that was their hindrance.
They were not seeking that which came from the Lord Jesus Christ
because they thought their own righteousness was good enough.
Yes, all, if the Lord is taking away your own righteousness,
making you see your sin, making to see your guilt, making to
see your helplessness, your inability to fulfill the law of God, inability
to walk pleasing unto Him and in His right ways, your efforts
to manage your life, to do what's right, all come to nothing, don't
work out. The Lord is preparing that way
so that you look to Him and trust to Him alone. How easy it is
to have that secret trust in man or in ourselves. And so this is not a mark that
we are out of the way, but in the way, in a way in which God
is dealing with us. He weakened my strength in the
way. And may we even broaden that
to any thought where the Lord's hand is upon us, where the Lord
is working in our lives, in our hearts is a blessed thing to
be the subject of the work of God. Whether it is to chasten,
whether it is to bring down, whether it is to correct or instruct,
it is a blessed thing to have a mark that the hand of the Lord
is upon us. So in our first point then, to
think of a personal work, a work that is done in me, weakening
my strength, and a work that is being done when we're in the
way, not out of the way, but in the way that leadeth unto
life. And the Lord is then instructing
and teaching us in that way, and in this time it is in the
form of weakening us, bringing us down. It seems to be the opposite
to what we thought would be the case for weakening. I want to look then secondly
at some of those in the scriptures of truth. We think firstly of Abraham. Abraham and Sarah. Abraham, to whom the promises
were given, that his seed should be as the sand of the seashore
in multitude, and that the Lord would so bless him. But did it
look like that as time went on? It didn't, because Abraham started
to get older, so as Sarah, and Sarah became past bearing naturally. And in a natural way then, his
and her strength was weakened. If God was to bring about the
promised seed, a child to Abraham and Sarah, it would have to be
a miracle. You might look at things in your
life and you think if God does for me, it appears for me, it
will have to be a miracle. Because I have tried, and I am
at the end of my strength, and is impossible with me. But what
God said to Abraham, that that which is impossible with man
is not impossible with God. Well, Paul refers to this in
Romans chapter 4, And he says of Abraham, of the obedience
of Abraham and his faith and how that it was
exercised in this way. And if we read in chapter 4 and
verse 17, it is written, I've made thee a father of many nations,
before him whom he believed even God, who quickeneth the dead
and calleth those things which be not as though they were, who
against hope believed in hope that he might become the father
of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall
thy seed be. And being not weak in faith,
so you see God strengthened his faith, gave him faith, Though
his body was weakened, being not weak in faith, he considered
not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years
old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God." It is And it was, with Abraham, necessary
to, in a natural way, bring right down so that it was just by faith. It's by faith that he believed
God would bring about the promise and appear for him, because naturally
speaking, all other way was gone. It wouldn't happen, it couldn't
happen in that way. And so God used that, Abraham
and Sarah, they would not be commended for their faith if
they were still looking in natural ways. We think then also of Gideon. Now Gideon was raised up by God,
called by God to deliver Israel from the Midianites who'd come
up over the land, kept destroying their crops, and invaded the
land of Israel. And we read of this in Judges
7, how that when God raised up Gideon, Gideon then had an army
to go with him to fight against the Midianites. We read in verse
2, chapter 7, The Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with
thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands,
lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own
hand hath saved me. God saw that if they had the
army the size it was, and he gave them the victory, they would
take the glory to themselves. And so began a process of reducing
that army. First, there was asked that those
that were fearful and afraid, that they should go home. And
many went home and left still an army that was still too many. You read that their return to
the people, 20 in 2000, And there remained 10,000, 10,000. The
Lord said that was too many. So he brought them down to the
water and tested how they were to drink from the stream, whether
they put their hand to their mouth or whether they lapped
down with their faces into the stream. And by that way, the
Lord chose those that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth
were 300 men. and those the Lord said he would
use. So an army of 32,000 reduced
down to 300, and the Lord then did use them in a most strange
way. They would arm themselves with
pitchers, empty pitchers, with lanterns in them, and with trumpets
in their hand, and they were to go on the three sides of the
camp in the night. and that they are to cry the
sword of the Lord and of Gideon and to break those pitches and
to blow the trumpets. The Lord caused every man's sword
to be against his brother and brought a great deliverance.
But he reduced their strength, he weakened their strength first
with the very clear reason that the glory should be God's. and
not man's. And what was very kind of the
Lord in this, that the Lord realised that Gideon would have been very
fearful to go with such a small army. And when the Lord weakens
our strength in the way, we can be very fearful, very afraid
as well. But here the Lord used a dream
that was being told in the camp of the Midianites to strengthen
Gideon. They were told to go down into
the camp and to hear what they would hear. And when Gideon came,
there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow and said, Behold,
I dreamed a dream, and lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into
the host of Midian and came unto a tent, and smote it, that it
fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay long. And his fellow
answered and said, This is nothing else, save the sword of Gideon
the son of Joash, a man of Israel, for into his hand hath God delivered
Midian and all the host. And the effect upon Gideon was,
when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation
thereof, that he worshipped and returned into the host of Israel
and said, Arise, for the Lord hath delivered into your hand
the host of Midian. So on one hand, Gideon's army
was weakened, brought down. On the other hand, God encouraged
him and strengthened him. So physical, numerical weakening,
and yet strengthening in his soul and in his belief in the
Lord. It's like with Abraham, on one
hand, weakened in his body and Sarah's body, but strengthened
in his soul, entrusting in the Lord what the Lord would do. And then really you have the
case with Israel as a nation right through their history.
Again and again they were brought low, God chastened them through
the nations round about them, and yet he raised them up again,
brought them into Babylon, reduced their numbers to be almost a
number of even just one tribe that came into Egypt, and yet
he raised them up again, brought them back to their land, and
that the promised seed came to them. There's been many nations
that have been completely obliterated from off the face of the earth,
but Israel, even to this day, still continues, and certainly
in the purpose of God, continued until the promised seed came,
the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. We think of the case with the
Apostle Paul, sore as he was. When he became an Apostle, called
to God, the Lord appeared to him. The Lord gave him a thorn
in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet him. And three times the Apostle Ask
the Lord to take away that thorn in the flesh, that weakness.
But the Lord said to him, My grace is sufficient for thee,
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. The apostle said,
Therefore will I rather rejoice in my infirmity, for when I am
weak, then am I strong. And so God's method with the
apostle was to give him that in his flesh, in his life, that
which was unpleasant, that which weakened him, and it made him
dependent on the grace of God and the help of God constantly. And there will be those things,
and God is the chooser of those things. Some of the Lord's servants
have been plagued all their days a weak chest or weak voice in
each service. They wonder whether they will
get by, whether they will have strength enough. Others have
had different afflictions and trials that seem to go so opposite
to what they're being called to and the work that they are
to do. And yet God is the chooser and
the pointer of their way. He weakened my strength in the
way. It is a path then that God's
children, and we've only just spoken of a few of them, have
known. We think of Elijah brought down
low and yet then brought into Mount Horeb and strengthened
again. Many of the Lord's people brought
down low through the things that they have passed through. Dear
Job as well, and the psalmist, cast down, why art thou cast
down, or David at Ziklank, and to encourage himself in the Lord
his God, all those round about him were talking of stoning him,
and it throws us upon the Lord, and it may be your path this
morning, that the Lord has brought those things to throw you upon
the Lord, to make you lean upon him, and to trust in him, and
to look away from flesh and away from hope in things where we
can see the hope or see the expectation. We always like to be able to
see something that will bring forth fruit or some sign that
things are going well. But when everything seems dark
and luring, then it is a work of faith and a work of trust
alone in the Lord. The people of God are to walk
by faith, not by sight, and this applies to their own strength
in every way. And so I want to not then thirdly
add weakened to be strengthened. We've already spoken of how that
God needs to take away supposed strength to give us that which
is real. Our supposed righteousness to
give us Christ's righteousness, that which will stand at the
last day. How we need to be taught upon
what we are really leaning for salvation. And God's purpose
in doing it then is not to crush or destroy us, but to bring us
to trust in the right place. Know when we die, when the people
of God die, they have no strength then. You might say that is the
pinnacle of their weakness. The strength of mind is gone,
the strength of body is gone, we have the continuing on in
the verse here, He shortened my days, and we're brought down
into death. Who then is going to bring our
soul to God? Who then is going to raise our
body up from the dust? No power in ourselves. That's
not going to be our work. Not going to be us putting our
mind to it, our strength to it. It must be solely in God. And how much then should that
be while we are alive, that we trust in the Lord. And those
trials and things that we pass through are designed to that
end. All our sicknesses, all our infirmities,
are designed to bring us before we come to death, before we lay
down this life, to have our trust and hope in the Lord. How oft, as we mention from Romans
10, that our supposed strength is a barrier, is a hindrance,
is not helping us, but our felt weakness is actually a help,
because then we seek unto the Lord. When our Lord was on earth,
we had the scribes and the Pharisees opposing Him, And they despised
the poor people. They said, these poor ignorant
people, they don't know anything. They're just gullible. They're
going after the Lord. But the Pharisees' strength in
themselves was keeping them from the Saviour. The Lord rejoiced
in spirit that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and
prudent and revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so
it seemed good in Thy sight. And often the Church of God is
those that are despised, those that are simple folk, that, as
the hymn writer says, have sharpest eyes and learn to walk the best. We are told there must needs
be heresies among you, real errors in the Church of God among you. that they that are approved might
be made manifest. In other words, God's approved
people, those who truly know the Lord, are not made manifest,
they are hidden, hidden amongst the staff until an error comes.
And then they're the ones that raise their hand, they're the
ones that say, no, we can't go along with this, this is wrong,
this is not true doctrine, this is an error, resist it. And the Lord has ordained that. The wisdom must come not from
ourselves, but the Lord. Sometimes it is in a physical
strength that the Lord takes away our strength, lays us on
a bed of affliction in a physical way. And He has purposes and
reasons for that. Maybe strengthening spiritually
or in his time away to strengthen again physically. Those ways
that he takes down the strength of the people of God. Sometimes
it is numerical strength. We've spoken of that with Gideon. It might be in the Church of
God or in our families. Where there is strength in numbers,
the Lord takes away those numbers. How easy we can do that. I remember years ago here when
the Lord had blessed us with a goodly congregation. Now a
former deacon used to very often after the services relate how
many he counted amongst the numbers. It's sad to remember that because
we do not want to be just trusting in numbers and looking for that. May the Lord be pleased, wherever
He does give numbers, to not trust in those, but to look for
the Lord's blessing, look for His Spirit, look for His presence
and the work of grace in sinners' hearts and to rejoice in that. We think of the solemn way that
God visited King David when he wanted to number the people,
not in a time of war, but in a time of peace. And the Lord
brought the pestilence then that slew 70,000 of them. The law
in Israel was if they did number the people, then they had to
pay, I think it was five shekels, into the sanctuary. for everyone
that was numbered, and we don't read of that being done at all
at that time, that's towards the end of David's life. But
the Lord then weakened in that sense, and the Lord may do that
numerically, brought down low. We think of the times in the
history of Israel when it seemed amazing that there should ever
be the line to Christ at all. And yet the Lord raised that
up again. And so our Lord did come as promised. We think of having strength to
stand. Peter had a supposed strength
and he said, though all men forsake thee, yet will not I. And he
was so adamant that he would never deny his Lord. And yet
the Lord said that Satan had desired to have thee to sift
thee as wheat, but I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.
And Peter had to lose his pride, and have to deny his Lord even
before a maid, and to swear and to curse that he never knew the
Lord, changing his speech when they recognized his speech as
a Galilean. The Lord said, when thou art
converted, strengthen thy brethren, when thou art restored. But first
he needed to be weakened. And afterwards then feed my sheep
and feed my lambs. And so the strength, the stand,
his own supposed strength was taken away. Other times the Lord
can take away our strength by bringing into places of bondage. We think of Jonah. What strength
had Jonah in the whale's belly? He thought he had strength before
to run away from the Lord. The Lord shut him up in the whale's
belly, and if the Lord hadn't delivered him, he would have
perished there. But he said, salvation is of the Lord. In
that place he prayed unto the Lord, the Lord spoke unto the
fish, and he was delivered. We think of the case with Joseph. Joseph had the expectation through
the dreams that God would do something in his life, something
major, bring him to a place where his brothers bowed down themselves
to him. But he ended up in a pit. Then
he ended up falsely accused. Then he ended up in the prison.
And though his expectation was that the butler would remember
him, the butler forgot him. And there he languished in the
prison. In all natural ways, impossible,
he couldn't get himself out. And one that he'd spoken and
had his hopes on to get him out, he didn't get him out. And yet
the deliverance came very suddenly, very quickly. When Pharaoh had
a dream and the butler then did remember, and Joseph was brought
out of prison. But it is that being weakened
in a helpless position You can't change the providence you're
in. You can't change the position you're in. In your soul, you're
powerless to deliver yourself. That was the path that I walked
in and the exercise of the ministry. The first time I preached was
when I was 25 in 1986. But then I went into great bondage. And for seven years, I could
not preach. I had to just read services,
bondage spiritually, myself personally, and as regards venturing in the
ways of the Lord and ministry, I could not. And yet the Lord
broke that bondage very quickly in the end and thrust me out
in the ministry. I well remember being in it,
wondering what would need to be done, how would the Lord How
would he appear in that circumstance? But he did. And these things
are to be remembered, those impossible places. And it may be some of
you have those in the past you can think on and remember when
the Lord already has appeared, where he has helped you. Maybe
you say, but that was in a small thing, and what I'm in now is
a big thing. But he's the same God. is the same power, and that
which is impossible with man, is not impossible with God. And we always remember this aiming
view, that the glory is to be the Lord's, the honour is to
be the Lord's, deliverance is of the Lord, salvation is of
the Lord, says Jonah. And we read in the prophet Isaiah,
that the Lord, he does give power to the faint, and they that are
without strength, the increase of mine." We have the list of
those in Hebrews 11, those that walked and died in faith, in
faith of the coming Messiah. But one of those descriptions
was that out of weakness were made strong. And may that be
our description also of those that by faith walk, trusting
in He that has come, in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we shall
fall under that heading, out of weakness, we're made strong. Not in ourselves, not in the
same way, not what we once were, but more and more to say like
the hymn writer, if ever my poor soul be saved, His Christ, must
be the way, because the Lord has made it that you cannot look
for any other way, cannot expect in any other way. I have ruined
my life. I have destroyed everything.
I have gone the wrong way. But he's looking to the Lord
that he would save us, put forth his hand and deliver us. I feel
like dear Peter, seeing the waves and the billows beginning to
sink. And to cry, Lord, save me. Or like the woman of Canaan,
Lord, help me. Are we looking to the Lord? Is
there hope, our expectation in Him? Can we say we're dear Peter? To whom can we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. We have no other help, no other
refuge. Other refuge, says the hymn writer,
have I none. hangs my helpless soul on Thee. May this end be realised by the
Lord's dealings with us in His present time. He weakened my
strength in the way, and His time away, He strengthens us
again in the Lord, and gives us that faith to trust in Him
and look unto Him. You might feel like, Dear Job,
O that I knew where I might find him, where the Lord found Job,
appeared to Job, and blessed Job. May we remember that. When the Lord rose from the dead,
it was not the disciples finding the Lord, it was the Lord that
found them in every case. May the Lord then come to us
when we feel so low, so down, the Lord Fulfil that promise. I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you.