Alright, Matthew chapter 12.
Verse 10, the Pharisees had asked of this man with the withered
hand, they were asking the Lord if it was lawful to heal on a
Sabbath day that they might accuse him. Our Lord said, what man
among you shall have one sheep and if it fall into a pit on
the Sabbath day he will not lay hold on it and lift it out? How
much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore, it's lawful
to do well on the Sabbath day. And then he said to this man,
stretch forth thy hand. And he stretched it forth and
it was restored whole like as the other. And then the Pharisees
went out And they held a council, they took council together, how
they might destroy him. And when Jesus knew, he withdrew
himself from them, and a great multitude followed him, and he
healed them all. And he charged them that they
should not make him known, that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, 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 show judgment to the
Gentiles. He shall not strive nor cry,
neither shall any man hear his voice in the street. A bruised
reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench,
till he send forth judgment unto victory. And in his name shall the Gentiles
trust. You see here there is a great
contrast between the Pharisees and our Lord Jesus Christ. A
great contrast. The Pharisees acted powerful,
pious. They acted wise. They disdained
Christ. They disdained poor sinners. And they were ready to break
and quench and destroy Christ and poor sinners. In reality,
they were powerless. They had no power. They were
impotent. In reality, they were unholy
and unrighteous and spiritually ignorant. Now contrast that. The Lord Jesus is all-powerful.
He's omnipotent God in human flesh. He's God the Father's
beloved, as Isaiah said. Matthew's quoting here from Isaiah
42. He's God's beloved preeminent
elect. He's the one the Father upholds. That means He honors Him. He
holds Him up as honor. You remember when we saw How
the king of Israel came and he was leaning on one of his lords. That was a position of honor.
When you leaned on him, you trusted him. And it was a position of
honor. That's what it means. He upheld
him. He gave him this position of honor. He said, this is my
son in whom I am well pleased. Christ is holiness. He is righteousness. Perfect holiness. Perfect righteousness. Perfect wisdom. And therefore, how different
he acted, and still does, toward his weak, sinful people. Read
there in verse 20, a bruised reed shall he not break, and
smoking flack shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto
victory. I want to preach a message of
comfort for bruised reeds. I want to look at sinners saved
by grace, and then the Redeemer's tender mercy, and then the judgment
He sends unto victory. Now this metaphor fits a sinner
saved by grace. It could be applied to others,
but it really fits a sinner saved by grace. A bruised reed and
smoking flax. Now it fits His child when the
Lord first begins to teach us about our sin and teach us what
sinners we are and convict us of our sin and teach us the gospel.
It definitely fits that description. A bruised reed and smoking flax. But it also applies to the Lord's
child as He grows His child in grace and knowledge of Him. And
the more He grows us in grace and knowledge of Him, the more
He makes us to experience that in ourselves we are bruised reeds
and smoking flax. When he first calls us to faith,
we are far too confident in ourselves, far too confident in our own
strength. A new believer tends to use the
doctrine of election and the doctrine of particular redemption
with the same spirit that the disciples did when they first
began. You remember after the Lord called
His disciples, it hadn't been very long, and He had sent them
out to preach, gave them some power and a little ability, and
on one occasion the Samaritans rejected Him. And a few of His
disciples said, Lord, You want us to command fire to come down
from heaven and consume them like Elias did? And the Lord turned and He rebuked
them and He said, You know not what manner of spirit you are
of. For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives,
but to save. He didn't come to break the bruised
ribs and quench the smoking flax. He came to save His people. The
Syrophoenician woman came crying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son
of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil and his disciples. Fairly new in the faith. They
came and they besought him and they said, send her away. She
keeps crying after us. After years of trials, after
years of experiencing, themselves to be broken reeds and smoking
flax and experiencing the Lord's tender mercy and his continued
loving kindnesses and his continued grace and mercy. Later you find
those same disciples writing the epistles and you find them
humble, meek, delighting in mercy. Totally
different spirit in them. That's what the Lord does throughout
our life. And that's what He's going to
continually teach us throughout our life. And this metaphor is
very fitting for a sinner saved by grace. Bruised reeds and smoking
flax. Because bruised reeds and smoking
flax are weak things. They're worthless things. They're
offensive things. And that's a good description
of us and ourselves. A bruised reed has no strength.
You take a reed, you know what he's talking about, it grows
out by the swamp or by the creek. And it doesn't take much to bruise
them. And they bend over and they have
no ability, they just bend over, they're just weak. A baby could
just blow on it and just blow it over. He describes a believer
bruised by his own sin. bruised by reproach from those
that would break him and quench him, bruised by weak faith, little
assurance, bruised by unbelief and doubts
and fears. If you tried to blow air through
a bruised reed, if you took, you can take reeds and make a
pipe, you know, and blow in it and make music, but if you tried
to do that through a bruised reed, if it did make any sound,
it'd be offensive. It's usually in this state of
bruising when we unbridle our tongue. A lot of times it's in, a lot of
times the Lord's, the Lord's greatest lessons He's not only
concerning our personal sin, but our reaction to sin. And we become bruised reeds,
smoking flax. But the Lord can make a bruised
reed His workmanship. He can make a bruised reed His
workmanship. He doesn't break them. He makes
them His workmanship. He brings them to make sweet
music By showing them mercy and grace and loving kindness, so
they sing His praises. That's what's going to make us
love mercy and loving kindness. It's His mercy and loving kindnesses.
Smoking flax is offensive to smell. It's offensive. pollutes
the room and burns the eyes. Flax was like a hemp that you
set on fire. And the thing about smoking flax
is there's fire present, but there's more smoke than there
is fire. There's fire in the Lord's child where He's taken
the coal off the altar and put it on our tongue and put it in
our heart and revealed Himself in us. We come into these times
where there's not much fire, just a
lot of smoke. Smoking flax is not really good
for anything. It doesn't light the room. But he doesn't quench it. He
doesn't snuff it out. Our Lord hides our sin nature
from every eye except His own. He doesn't even let us see it
in fullness. If He did, we'd perish. This
is the place from where our bruising comes and our smoke comes and
is our sin nature. Sometimes, brethren, our faith
is so small and our unbelief is great. Sometimes the waves are going
and you're at the crest of the wave and you've got some faith. And then not very long, you're
down there in that bottom of that swell again. But thankfully, Our Lord said,
Christ shall not fail and He shall not be discouraged. We
become discouraged. We become full of just smoke
and just bruising and we become discouraged. But thankfully Isaiah
said, the Lord said through Isaiah, He shall not fail nor be discouraged. He will never fail. He will never
be discouraged, the Lord Jesus. He knows where He created the
fire. He knows where He created the fire in His children. And
where there's smoke, there's fire. And He knows where the
fire is. And He knows how to kindle that
fire and make it flame up again. We come into affliction, all
kinds of afflictions. Have your mind ever just been
troubled by sin and wicked thoughts and just blasphemous thoughts
against God? And you think, how could I think
that? How could I be a child of God and think that? And you
become troubled by it. What about God's afflicting providence? Wave upon wave comes and you
become just overwhelmed. You're like a drowning man. And
you cry out like David did in the psalm, I cry unto thee when
my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that's higher
than I. I can't even get to Christ. Our Redeemer was a man of sorrows
acquainted with grief. A man of sorrows acquainted with
grief. When He bore the sin of His people
and He hung on that cross, He said, I am a worm and no man. This is part of the reason He
is so lowly and meek toward His people. He knows what we are. He knows exactly what, He knows
we're dust. He knows what we are. And if
He's going to grow us in faith to look only to Him, and He's
going to grow us in communion with Him, to have really true
communion with Him, we sing about a near walk with Him. If He's
going to do that, you know how He's going to do that? We're going to suffer affliction. We're going to suffer affliction.
That's how He's going to purge us and wean us and make us more
trusting in Him and less trusting in ourselves. And that suffering is going to
be severe to us, but it's light compared to what He suffered.
And it's light compared to the consolation that He gives to
us in the midst of it. What about temptation? I just
read James. Temptation comes from when we
are tempted to sin. That comes from us. And he shows us what sinful bruised
wreaths we are in ourselves and what smoking flax we are in ourselves. Murder and adultery was already
in David. It was in his sin nature. It
is what his sin nature was. It is what our sin nature is.
All it took was the Lord permitting David, just take his
hand off of him. And David was made to see he
was a murderer. He was an adulterer. He was made
to become well acquainted with that's what he is, a murderer
and an adulterer. Never forgot it. It seems we're
ever before him. So that he saw he was a bruised
reed and a smoking flax. But did the Lord break that bruised
reed? Did he snuff out that smoking
flax? He didn't. He showed him mercy. He showed him kindness. He restored
him. What about Hezekiah? Pride was
in Hezekiah's nature. It's what his nature was. It's
what our nature is. It was there. And the Lord gave
him sickness and sent his apostle to him and sent his prophet to
him and said, you are going to die. Set your house in order,
you are going to die. And he went to chattering to
the Lord. And the Lord in mercy gave him 15 more years. He just,
it was already determined, but he just came into it and said,
okay, you are going to live 15 more years. And then He brought
all this abundant riches in from all over the land to give to
Hezekiah and just enrich the temple and enrich the palace
and enrich the kingdom. And He made the sun go backwards.
And the Babylonians came, they didn't care about God. They didn't
care about what God did. They was interested in, we want
to find out about that sun going backwards. Because they worshipped
the sun. And it was already in his heart,
but what Hezekiah found out is after the Lord had given him
health, after the Lord had restored his health, after the Lord had
given him riches, he brought those Babylonians in there and
showed them all that wealth and showed them everything he had
and was just proud of it all and never once gave God the glory. That was temptation. Where did
that come from? It was in him. It was pride that
was already in him. All he had to do was just be
tempted to show off that brand new shiny vehicle he had. That
new chariot. And not tell the people, God
gave me this. And not only that, He gave me
life. Job. was brought to see how sinful
he was. He made to see the Lord like
he had never seen Him in a greater light than he had ever seen Him.
And beholding Him, he saw what he was and he said, I abhor myself. I repent in dust and ashes. I'm
just a bruised reed. I'm just smoking flax. Did God
break Hezekiah? Did He break Job? Did He just
say, I'm done with them. I'm snuffing them out? No. Only our Lord Jesus, this is
what He's teaching us. Only our Lord Jesus could say,
the Prince of this world cometh and He hath nothing in me. You
and me can't say that. It's in us. It's all we are. It's all we are. We can't say
that if it hadn't happened to me, it's only because the Lord
ain't let it happen to you. I promise you that. Pride goes
before a fall. A haughty spirit is going to
bring us down. If it hadn't happened, it's just
by His restraining mercy. But if it does happen, and it
is, He's not going to break the bruise tree. He's not going to
quench the smoking flax. He's our strength to bind us
up. Our head who is going to send
the Spirit and pour in the oil and make the fire burn. The oil of the Spirit. We are
these broken reeds and these smoking flags. Now let's look
at His tender mercy. It says there in verse 20, a
bruised reed shall he not break, smoking flags shall he not quench.
We see this all through the scriptures and how he dealt with sinners,
poor sinners that nobody else would have anything to do with.
Harlots, nobody would have anything to do with them. Religious folks
wouldn't. Religion can be mean. Religion
can be cruel. Our Lord didn't come to cater
to established religion. He came to save. He came to save true orphans
and true widows, the most helpless, ones that couldn't offer any
political gain, ones that couldn't offer any monetary gain, ones
that couldn't offer Him anything. That's who He came to save. True
sinners. And you take a child of God that's
a bruised reed and he's smoking flax, and the Lord's brought
him to see himself, Absolutely without any strength. Have you been there? You been there? Brings him to see himself unworthy
of even the least of God's mercies. I'm not just talking. I mean
really unworthy of us, any mercy. He brings him to a place where
he sees himself and he's offensive to himself. Have you ever been
offensive to yourself? Have your sins ever been offensive
to you? It brings him to see he's offensive
to God. It brings him to see he's offensive
to everybody he loves. Brings him to see really all
he deserves is to be broken and snuffed out. And if God did it,
he'd be the least surprised of anybody. That's a broken reed. That's
smoking flax. Weak. Offensive. Worthless. He brings you to that place where
your own eyes are burning and teared up from the obnoxious
smoke that you are. And then Christ makes him to
know he won't break the bruised reed. He won't quench the smoking
flax that he everlastingly loved. But He'll bind him up, He'll
pour into all, He'll speak grace to him, and He'll by this grow
His child in grace and knowledge of Him. This is so true, this is so real,
this is so what the Lord does in His people. With a word, He turns you to
the cross and He makes you to see Him on that cross. And I
don't mean just, I mean to see Him broken on the cross. To see
Him broken. To see God's hand on Him, breaking
Him on the cross. See His body broken for His people
by the justice of God. And the Lord says to you in this
bruised state, in this smoking state, He says, this is why I'm
not going to break you. This is why I'm not going to
break you, bruised Reed. He makes you to see the fire
of God's justice coming down, that fierce flame, that perfect
fire heated seven times like that furnace heated seven times
that melts perfectly. It comes down upon Him and you
see Him bearing it. You see Him bearing it and extinguishing
that fierce flame of God's wrath. And he says to you, this is why
I'm not going to snuff out the smoking flax you are. This is
why I'm not going to let that ember I put in your heart to
go out. This is why I'm not going to let it to fade into nothing.
I'm not going to let it be quenched. I'm not only not going to break
you, I'm not only not going to quench you, I'm going to come
and heal you. I'm going to restore you. I'm
going to bind up your wounds. I'm going to pour in the oil
because I'm the Savior of sinners. He makes you to see that He's
fulfilling prophecy for you. Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me. You look at the Lord Jesus and
you think, well that was the Spirit of the Lord Jesus. That's
the Spirit of the Lord God. The Spirit of the Lord God, holy
God, righteous God, who owes us nothing. We're just maggots
before Him. Sinful, writhing, vile, wicked
maggot. But his spirit is, he said, the
Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. To proclaim liberty to the captives. To open up the prison to them
that are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. To comfort all that
mourn. What are we mourning? What are
they mourning? Mourning what we are. Mourning
what we think. Mourning what we say. Mourning
what we do. Mourning how we breathe. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. to pour unto them that morning
sun, to give unto them beauty for ashes." Why were we in sackcloth
and ashes? Because we were broken reeds
and smoking flax in the dust. He said, I'm going to give you
beauty for ashes. The oil of joy for morning. How is this smoking flax, how
is this flame going to burn? How is it going to burn? I'm
going to give them the oil. And it's going to be an oil of
joy for mourning. The garment of praise for the
Spirit of heaviness. That they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He might be
glorified. And He don't stop working this work. He never repents. He never says of one He purchased
with His blood. I'm just going to break that
bruised tree. I am just going to snuff out that smoking flax. He is Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He says, For I am the Lord, I
change not, and therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
The father promised his son shall not fail, and he proves it over
and over. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. He is bruising, makes us rejoice
in His strength, makes us know all we are is smoke and no fire.
He keeps us glorying in the oil of the Spirit. He keeps us down
from pride and keeps us contrite. It is Christ's meekness and lowliness
that makes Him the High and Lofty One. That is what differentiates
Him from the proud Pharisee. He is the High and Lofty One. How did He manifest it? Meek
and lowly. And who does He dwell with? How
does He keep us in low communion with Him by making us meek and
lowly? For thus saith the High and Lofty
One, that Inhabitant of the Eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in
the high and holy place with Him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble. Why
do we need to be revived? Smoking flax. to revive the heart
of the contrite one. Why do we need our heart revived?
Bruised reads. He says to Ephraim, return you
black backsliding children. I'll heal you backsliding. And
he makes us say, behold, we come unto thee. For thou art the Lord
our God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped
for from the hills and from the multitude of the mountains. Truly
in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. That's what He works
through this. His tender mercy, His love, His
compassion. He healeth the broken in heart
and bindeth up their wounds. The Lord will not cast off forever,
though He calls grief, yet He'll have compassion according to
the multitude of His mercies. My flesh and my heart faileth,
but God's the strength of my heart, and I'll pour out my portion
forever. When Zion cries, the Lord's forsaken me, my Lord's
forgotten me. He says, can a woman forget her
sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son
of her womb? Yes. Yes, they may forget. Yet I will not forget thee. Why,
behold, I've graven thee on the palms of my hands. Your walls
are continually before me. He says, because I live, you
shall live also. Who does he say this to? We just use the word sinners
too much. We use the word sin too much. He does it to those who He makes
to know are sin. And only sin. And this is the
judgment He sends forth unto victory. You see, in the hidden
part, they said in the hidden part, make me to know wisdom.
And what He is doing in this is in the hidden part. In the
new man, He is making us know wisdom, capital W. That is what
He is doing. He's making us know Him, Christ
our wisdom. He's making us know that He didn't
fail to establish judgment on the cross and He doesn't fail
to establish judgment in our hearts, in discernment in our
heart. He won't let His work be interrupted
by anybody. He made His child a bruised reed
and smoking flack. He shall not fail to give discernment. He shall not fail to send forth
judgment. He shall not fail to bring His
child to see that Christ is our victory. We are more than conquerors
through Him that loved us. He is going to send forth this
judgment into our heart and turn us from us and turn us to Him
and He is the victory. And this is growth. He makes
himself to increase and makes us to decrease. That's the judgment
he sends. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15,
9, I'm the least of the apostles. I'm not meek to be called an
apostle because I persecuted the church of God. A little bit
later, a few more afflictions and troubles and trials He said,
unto me whom less than the least of all the saints. Oh, that's
a little broader now. I'm less than the least of all
the saints. Is this grace given that I should
preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ?
And then in the end, he said, this is a faithful saying worthy
of all that acceptation. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. What a wondrous work to make
a bruised reed into a tree of righteousness. Do you know what's
going to happen when he does that? Tender mercies to a weak
and worthless, offensive, broken reed makes you to see that it's
only in Christ that we're trees of righteousness. We're just
the branches. He's the tree. He's the righteousness. They'll be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified. Thy people
shall be all righteous. They shall inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the work of my hand, that I may be
glorified. The judgment He increases in
our heart unto victory is to know more and more that Christ
is the righteous tree, and we're just branches. that He makes
fruitful by Him. He's the date palm that flourishes. We're branches in the date palm
and all our fruits of Him. He's the cedar in Lebanon. We're
evergreen because we're His branches. He makes us bring forth fruit
in old age to show what? The Lord is upright. He's our uprightness. He's our
rock. There's no unrighteousness in
Him. That's all that's in me. There's none in Him. Is that so? It is if we're bruised wreaths.
It is if we're smoking flax. I mentioned how the disciples
began strong in themselves, they were ready to cry down fire,
but after years of tender mercy, when they were bruised, razed,
and smoking flax, and they just beheld His mercy and His mercy,
and they decreased and He increased, the more they experienced of
His mercy, the more merciful they wanted to be, to bruised,
razed, and smoking flax. The more they experienced his
compassion in outbreaking the bruised reeds that they were,
the more they wanted to show compassion on bruised reeds. The more loving kindness he showed
the smoking flax that they were, the more loving kindness they
wanted to show the smoking flax. more consoled by Christ, the
more they wanted to console only with Christ. Paul said, The sufferings
of Christ abound, and so our consolation abounds by Christ. Whether we be afflicted, it is
for your consolation and salvation. If we are afflicted, it is for
your consolation and salvation. It is effectual in the enduring
of the same sufferings which we also suffer. And whether we
be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. Our
hope of you is steadfast, knowing as you are partakers of the suffering,
you shall be of the consolation." And listen to this old age fruit,
Peter said. This is old age fruit right here. He wrote, humble yourselves under
God's hand. Is the hand on you? Are you bruised?
Are you smoking? Is the providence more than you
can bear? He said, just humble yourself
under His mighty hand. and cast all your care on Him,
because what He's doing in this is He's caring for you. And He
said, and while you do this, know the same afflictions are
being accomplished in your brethren. He's accomplishing the same thing
in each of your brethren. And here's what He said. He said, the God of all grace,
who called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
you've suffered a while. He'll make you perfect, He'll
establish you, He'll strengthen you, He'll settle you, and to
Him will be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. What's
He declaring? What's he declaring? What's this
old disciple who's been around a while and seen some things,
what's he declaring to us? A bruised reed shall he not break,
and smoking flack shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment
unto victory. That's what he's saying. Just
wait a little while, that's what he's going to do. Father, we pray you bless this
word. Pray you make it effectual in us. Lord, we pray that you
bring forth discernment. Make us see that you're our victory
in every facet, every trial, every trouble, from every enemy. And make us cast our care on
you. Thank you, Lord, for your tender mercy. Thank you for your
compassion, for your loving kindnesses. Thank you, Lord, that you save
sinners. In Christ's name, we ask it.