In verse 13, it says, "...Wherefore,
lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and
make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame
be turned out of the way. But let it rather be healed."
Now, I had a couple of titles for the message, but I think
this would be more beneficial for you, because it envelops
the three points of my message, and it is our weakness, our help,
and our healing. Our weakness, what is our weakness? The weak
hands that hang down and the feeble knees. What is our help?
Our help is lift up. Encouragement is our help. Encouragement, lift up, make
straight paths for your feet. And we know this, healing is
of The Lord. The Lord. So these are the three
points I'll have in the message, but I want us to go back a little
ways and kind of walk through this together as the Apostle
has for us. Now, remember the intent of his
message here is encouragement. encouraging these saints who
have left all, who are now persecuted for the gospel of Jesus Christ,
he is encouraging these saints to continue in the faith. He reminds them that all of their
troubles, all of our difficulties, all of our afflictions are not
by chance, but rather designed of God to train us up. in the way we should go. And
so he mentions this in verse 5 about chastisement. He said, My son, don't forget
this, My children, My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when thou rebuke of Him. For whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteth and scourgeth every son he receiveth. And so then, believers, see that
our Father is always faithful in training us up in the way
we should go. That our Heavenly Father's hand
of chastisement by no means is designed to destroy you, but
rather to instruct you. Instruct you. See that either
we are given gentle rebukes, or whether it is severe trouble
we are in. Either one. We should know this
and remember that God deals with you as with sons. This should absorb the blow of
His chastening rod. This should comfort us to know
when we are chastened, that we are chastened not as bastards,
but sons. God only chastens sons, those
He loves. This means that we were adopted.
If we're sons, it's by the eternal adoption of the Father. If we
are sons, it is because we have been redeemed by the blood of
Jesus Christ. We are sons, it is because we've
been called and quickened by the Holy Spirit of God. And seeing
our Father only purposes us good and not evil. We must be chastened
of Him, and we must trust His love, His wisdom, His power,
and His grace when we are. Trust. Trust. To believe on Him that all He
intends is good. He said in Luke chapter 11, He
said, You fathers, do you know how to give good gifts to your
children? How much more does God know how to give that which
is good to His children? He said if His children ask of
Him a bread, will He give them a stone? If He wants a fish,
will He give them a scorpion? No! Our Father knows what you
have need of. Our God, our Father, will not
give us that which is harmful, but what is good. So what do
you have? Believer, what do you have? Are you chastened? Are
you chastened of God? And consider God's discipline
an act of love. An act of love, and not an act
of wrath. Remember, you're not being punished
for your sins. Your sins were punished in Christ. You are being
chastened so as to keep you in the faith. You're being chastened
of God. Now in verses 9 and 10, he says,
he expounds on this about our fathers. He said we had fathers
of our own flesh, we respected them, we gave them reverence,
and they chastened us for what? Their own pleasure. I'll tell
you the truth, we as fathers and parents, we chasten for what
we think is right, what we think is good. Now we love our children,
Why don't we say, be quiet! No, we get tired of hearing them.
It's our pleasure. Now they should respect us, but
listen, God is not such a God as to do things for His profit. He does it for your benefit. He chastens you for your profit. Shall we not be in subjection
to the Father of spirits, and live? For verily they for a few
days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our
profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. And so then
he tells us that this chastening, he said this chastening is not
joyous but grievous. He's being honest here. This
is not easy. The hill is steep, the way is
hard and rough. There is no doubt. It's grievous
and not joyous. I remember John Powers. John Powers came to me and he
said, you know, I was watching those singers on television all
the time, Gaithers, what he said. I saw the Gaithers on television.
You know what really gets me is that they're always so super
happy. I said, don't worry, John, that's
just a front. They're just putting on a show.
That's not how it really is for the believer. The believer's
life is tough. It's hard. It's grievous. Why? Because we are always constantly
trained up by our God. You realize that everything that
happens is a training for us? Everything that happens, God
intentionally means to teach us something by it? Our father
is ever engaged in training us up. And so it's grievous, it's
hurtful, but what is it for? Look at verse 11, "...no chastening
seemed at the present joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterward
it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that
are exercised therein." You remember in Galatians, Paul mentions the
fruits of the Spirit. And this is the fruit here he
is talking about, the fruits of the Spirit. What does chastening
of God produce in the believer? a peaceable fruit of righteousness. Love, joy, meekness, long-suffering. Isn't that what he said? Tribulation,
work, and what? Patience, long-suffering. goodness,
faith, temperance. Doesn't these trials cause us
to be moderate as to how we treat the things of this world? We
hold on loosely to the things of this world. Matter of fact,
we count them as dead to us. That's how we're supposed to
view everything, as dead. So that we lose it, we lose nothing.
This is what chastening teaches us. It takes these things out
of our hands. It pries our hands loose of the
things of the world. Now then, I ask you, sons of
God, do you need to grow in these fruits? Are there any of these fruits
that you have maxed out, that you've made the limit? Love. You laxed out on love? Faith? You maxed out on that? You can't
grow anymore? No, we can always grow, and God
realizes this and causes us to grow through suffering, through
tribulation. So we all need these things.
Therefore, God uses this. We need to grow in these fruits.
He gives us the new birth, and yet He will cause us to grow.
We must be a better witness for Christ. We desire to take better
care of our brethren and love them and serve our Lord Jesus. So then Paul begins then in verse
12 to exhort the brethren who are bowed down in trouble. Those
who are weary, weak, and tired and cast down, he now exhorts
them and listen. He says this to you weak and
weary by the chastening hand of God. Lift up your hands that
hang down. and the feeble knees. The feeble knees. He exhorts
us. He encourages us to continue
in this race that we are set on. Believer, he said run with
patience the race that is set before you. You see a runner
and he is bowed down. He is low. Don't look like he
could take another step. And then you have someone coming
alongside of him, helping him, encouraging him. It's okay, we'll
make it. And he gains some encouragement,
he gains some strength, and then he picks up his stride again.
This is how it is with us in our race. He encourages us to
continue to walk. And he says this, make straight
paths for your feet. This road we are on is straight
and narrow. It has one object, one goal,
and one way. Don't be turned aside to any
other way. That's the encouragement. The
encouragement is, lift up your hands! Now then, go straight. Go straight to glory. We are headed to glory. That's
where this road leads. And so then there are three things,
three things in these two verses. He says, lest that which is lame
be turned out of the way, there's warning for us, but rather let
it be healed. And these are the three things.
First of all, we should see our weakness in this. Our weakness,
lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees. Then he
not only shows us our weakness, but he shows us the encouragement. Lift up. Though you're weak,
yet here's the help you need. Lift up. Lift up. Make straight
paths for your feet. Why? Because you need to be healed.
Lest you fall away, you must be healed. And so first let's
look at this, the weakness of all believers. I know At times,
we are lifted up on eagles' wings. At times, the believer feels
so full of strength when the presence of God is so near, when
Christ is so real to us, when the Word of God comes in power
and demonstration of the Spirit, we're so full of strength we
could take on anything. That's a good feeling. Every
believer's had it. We understand what that is. We're
so full of faith and love for Christ. We so closely walk with
Him. We feel so washed from our sins. The Holy Ghost is poured out
to us in power. We feel so strong and confident. Now, I'd like to feel that way
all the time. I would. I would love to have that. That only happens after death.
You're only going to feel that way in full measure only when
this body is laid in the ground. But until then, we're always
going to feel that way. We're like Elijah. When he had
that clear word of God, he said, Elijah, you go before these false
prophets of Baal, and I'm going to answer by fire. I will answer. He had that clear message in
his head. A clear message was given to
him, a promise, and it was sure, so sure was he of that promise,
that he stood before those prophets of Baal, and he made fun of their
God. 400 prophets, one prophet of
God. He says, you're God on vacation? Maybe he's taking a walk, you
need to just yell some more. Maybe he's going to the bathroom.
He mocked their God. How confident is that? Is that
not what we desire, to be that confident? That bold? As to believe
God's Word concerning Christ, we should be that bold. And at
times, believers are that bold. We love that when we are bold
like Him. So courageous that even when
God answered by fire, He slew 400 of those prophets. Chased
them off. Slew them. What's the very next
thing you see about Elijah? He's hiding in a cave because
he's scared of a woman. Jezebel said, I'll kill that
prophet! And there Elijah goes running
away like a scared child. Why? He's weak. Didn't the scripture
tell us that Elijah was a man of like passions as we are? And so when we are found hiding
in a cave, trembling, what do we need? You need this exhortation. Lift up your hands that hang
down, and strengthen your feeble knees. Lift up your hands that
we are so often weary in the foundation of your knees of faith
that are shaken. We need encouragement. Therefore,
in our times of strength, we never lose sight of this. We
are all together by nature weakness. Even when you're strong, you
should realize what you are. If any man thinketh he stand,
what? Take heed, lest he fall. And how should you fall except
you not remember what you are? It is vitally important that
we remember that we are Weakness! That is all we are. Weakness. Weakness. The Lord calls us sheep for a
reason. Because sheep are the most stupid
and weak animals there are. This is not flattering, is it? But it's honest. It's something
believers know about themselves. The world, they don't like it. Believers know this about ourselves. We are the Lord's sheep. Sheep
are easily exhausted, easily fearful, prone to wonder, and
defenseless. Oftentimes sheep are either made
by their own foolish actions or by their wondering or by the
shepherd's rod have their feet to be broken."
I found this in a book written by a believer who was on the
23rd Psalm. He said, those sheep that are
prone to wonder, he said, sheep by nature are stubborn. And sometimes a sheep is so stubborn
that even the rod of the shepherd upon his back still does not
keep him from wandering. And what the shepherd does in
that instance is that he must, for the life of the sheep, break
his feet. He must break his leg. And so the Lord oftentimes gives
gentle reproofs. My son, don't do that. And then we still do. So He comes
in stronger terms and changes our circumstances and makes it
more painful and sometimes we still will not listen. Sometimes
He must break our feet But when he does, does he leave us to
ourselves? No. As a shepherd does, he would
bind the wound that he broke and bear the sheep on his own
shoulders until he is capable of walking again. Is it not so
with us? In our weakness, we take our
eyes off Christ. Our proneness is to cease to
depend upon Christ and to depend upon our own strength, our own
logic, our own human wisdom, so as to forsake Him who alone
can feed us and care for us. The world says, be self-dependent.
Isn't that the world? The world and the nature of man
is, you need to be more self-sufficient. You need to be independent. They say independence is a show
of strength. But God says, you being independent
is a sign of your weakness. It's a sign of your weakness.
We are as soon as we look to ourselves, it feels free. Doesn't it? When you look to yourselves,
you feel a little free. Like, oh man, I got a little
skip in my step. I'm doing well. But we know that
that does not last long. We feel strong and sufficient,
but soon we are made again to see the weakness of ourselves,
our hands begin to hang down, and our knees begin to shake.
Soon our hands drop, and our knees wobble, our strength is
gone, and we are again exposed to the truth, we are nothing
but weakness. So, this morning, are you weak? Are you weary in your walk with
God? Are you like Asaph when he said,
My feet were almost gone, my steps had nigh well slipped. Well, how do I know if I'm in
weakness? Is prayer difficult? Is it a burden to pray? Is it a burden to read? Do you set other things above
the worship of God? My friends, you are bowed down
and your weak knees are shaking. I know often times we come to
this Word, we read, and we read, and the words begin to run together.
They have no effect on our hearts. Why? Because you have no strength.
you've relied upon yourself, and you found yourself to be
utter weakness. Now listen, no believer ever
intends on backsliding, you know that? Nobody ever says, sets
out to backslide, right? Nobody! Nobody sets out to turn
out of the way, but yet we are prone to it. And if you don't realize this
soon, you will be turned out of the way. prone to these fits
of weakness? How weak and feeble are we? How
easily are we tempted to leave off the course and to forsake
the worship and Word of God? How easily do we give to the cause of our pleasures
rather than giving to the service of God? How foolishly do we put on weights
instead of casting them off? How prone are we to unbelief? Which, what, is the sin that
does so easily beset us? Is unbelief. And then when we are about to
faint, about to despair, we say, why? Why? Well, the answer is
clear. Because of our weakness. Because
we have sought our own way and not believed God. Yet here are the words of the
long-suffering grace of God. Though you are weak, though you
are prone to wonder, prone to leave the God you love here God
says this to you lift up it's alright lift up those hands that
hang down and strengthen those feeble knees in other words continue
on in your duty continue on in your service continue on and
gain strength why? I'm with you Why is it that you're just weak
and not falling away? Because you have strength still.
You have strength. Not in you. I am your strength. I am your strength. I'm the reason
you're still here. That's what God says. Therefore,
when I give you this command, with command is there not power
to obey? When God gives His people command,
lift up your hands and strengthen your knees, is there not power
that goes with that? Yes, there's always power to
go with His command. Lift up, God says, your hands
which hang down your feeble knees. We are exhorted to active duty,
to be courageous against every foe, to do good, to be of good
cheer. which can only be by the casting
off of the burdens of this world. So you weak? Here it is. Throw
off every burden. Throw it off! And lift up your
hands in praise to God. Throw it off! What does it say? Casting all your care upon Him. Now your weakness is this. Your
cares for the things of this world. That is a weakness. Cast
it off. You've put too much weight on
yourself. Set it aside. Set aside that
sin that does easily so beset you and believe God. The Scripture, when you were
born again of the Spirit of God, when the Gospel came to you,
Did it not come in power so that you might obey? It did. The Scripture came in power of
the Holy Ghost and it said, Believe on the Son of God, which you
had no power to do of yourself. But when the Word came with power,
it also came with ability, right? you were then able to believe
and here it is the word when it comes in power in your weakness
it says lift up and so what do you do you're able then with
this power to lift up listen what the hymn writer said you
we like to sing this song though bowed bound down with ten thousand
ties let me hear thy call my soul shall in confidence rise
shall rise and break through all Are you bound down? Are you weak? With this command
comes strength. Lift up. Lift up. And be strengthened. Now then,
the second thing is, how does God help the weak? How does God
help the weak? Well, let me ask you this, how
did this word come to you? Now, we know this is a word of
God, isn't it? Lift up. Matter of fact, we're
going to see this in just a minute, that this is a prophecy in Isaiah
that he is quoting here. Paul is quoting a prophecy of
Isaiah. Lift up! Well, so then this is the Word
of God, but how did it come to you? Well, God used this man,
the Apostle Paul, to write it to you. God helps the weak. He does so
through the encouragement and the means of His saints. Now, today, I am encouraging
you. This is God's intent by this
word, using this man to encourage you who are weak. Lift up. He
uses the means of his saints. Here the Apostle Paul used the
Word of God to encourage us in our time of need, so I, as well
as a child of God, as well as other children of God, may come
alongside you in your time of weakness and encourage you."
Encourage you. Elphaz said this to Job. which should have been an encouragement
to him. He said, Behold, thou hast instructed
many, and hast strengthened the weak hands. Thy words have upholden
him that was fallen, and thou hast strengthened the feeble
knees. Who did that? Job did. God used
Job in many instances to strengthen his brethren. And so then, let's
go to that prophecy. Let's go to Isaiah 35. Go to
Isaiah 35. Isaiah 35, verse 3. Thus saith the Lord, Behold,
O Mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand
against thee, And I will make thee most desolate. I will lay
thy cities waste. I'm sorry, I got the wrong passage
here. Hold on. What's that? Three. Okay, I'm in the wrong
book. Praise God. Thank you. See, you
encouraged me. to go the right place. I had
the wrong one marked. I knew that wasn't right. There
it is. Okay. Verse 3. Strengthen ye
the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees, saying to them
that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with
vengeance, even God with a recompense. He will come and save you. Are you weak? And are you wearied,
brother? Are you hobbling along in this
race? And let us all come alongside that one who is weak. Come alongside,
as Isaiah here was constructed of God. He said, Strengthen ye
the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Behold, your God
will come with vengeance. What is He coming for? He's coming
to save you. See then in the performance of
this duty and fulfillment of the command of Christ, by this
we are loving brethren. Loving brethren. Our Lord says
this, love you one another. Now how is this love exercised?
It's not just a sentimental thing, is it? When we say we love one
another, when we're commanded to love one another, it's not
just some natural outward thing that is to only benefit ourselves. No, it has got to be a true,
intimate love for the brethren. It's not only in word, but it
must be in action. In Galatians it says, the Apostle
says this, exhibiting brotherly love is this, brethren, if a
man be overtaken in a fault, if a man be weary, if a man be,
his hands are hanging down, his knees are very feeble, you which
are strong, you which are spiritual, restore such in one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, what, considering your weakness,
lest you also be tempted. Bear you one another's burdens,
and so fulfill the law of Christ. This is the idea of one who has
a broken limb. This idea that Paul says in Galatians. He says, you that restore such
an one. If you had a broken arm, and
someone was to restore it, how would you desire that to be restored? Would you desire someone harsh,
someone cold in his hands, someone quick? No. You want someone gentle. This is how we're to restore
those who are weak and feeble. You see a weak brother, you don't
condemn him, you rather try to bring him up. You encourage him. And how should you encourage
him? Here it is. Thy God is coming. That's an
encouragement. To do what? To save you. God
is coming to save you. That's an encouragement to us.
Look at Christ. Look to Christ. That's the encouragement
here that causes us to lift up our hands and strengthen our
feeble knees. We're too Strengthen these feeble
knees of our brethren, not by the force of rebuke, but with
gentleness and patience, considering ourselves. Now then. He says
in verse 13, "...and make straight paths for your feet, lest that
which be lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be
healed." Now, God's healing of these lame folk. How has God
healed the lame? He says this, "...make straight
paths for your feet." Religion doesn't make straight
paths. They're very confusing. A man's weary and he's troubled,
and what do they do? They give him a whole bunch of
things to do. They make his way harder. They
set stumbling stones in front of the man. Obstacles that he
must overcome. No! In order for God to heal
His people, He clears the path. He makes that path as plain and
clear and free of obstacles as He can. Make straight paths for your
feet. This refers to the believer's
walk. Now to the religion, there's
many paths, many ways a man can go. But we know this, that in
order to restore a true believer, we must set them on the right
path. The only path. The straight and
narrow path which is not law, but grace. Mercy. Grace and mercy. The only way
declared by the Word of God, the only path for the feet of
the saints is Christ. Scripture says in Jeremiah, thus
saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the
old paths. The old paths. Where is the good
way? and walk therein, and you shall
find rest." You see, our path is an old path. It's not a new
path. It's the same old path. God's
eternal election. Christ's perfect redemption.
The Holy Spirit's effectual call and keeping of the saints. This
is the old path. Our gospel is as old as God. It's as strong as God. It's as
sure as God. It's as eternal as God. Behold, thy God cometh to save
you. Be strong in the straight path
that always sets our eyes on Jesus Christ. Add nothing to
the Gospel, take nothing from it. Neglect not to worship the
God in His ordinances, in prayer and praise. Do not neglect the
exhortations of thy brethren, lest you become weary. But let
rather that which is lame be healed. We all have this lame
nature to bear. We all have this weak nature. So then, in our times of strength,
let us then care for those who are lame. If you saw someone broken and twisted and laying
on the ground, would you not have compassion? And believers, I want you to
consider those in our own congregation who are right now weak and weary. Those who have seemingly turned
aside out of the way. Why should we not come alongside
them and encourage them to come back? We should. We should. This is our brotherly love. for them. We should come alongside them,
and I am convicted of my own self. We should call and care for them
and hope that God would be gracious to bring them back. You know
that faith is the evidence of our election and redemption,
but what's the evidence of our faith? Love. Faith without love
is not real faith. And so then, if we really believe,
we would really love. And if we would really love,
we should really pity those who have turned away. We should call
and care for them. Call on them to return, what?
And set a straight path for them. We leave no obstacles. If they
desire to come, we leave nothing here for them to do, just come.
Come back. Worship God. Believe on Christ. The way is open. There's no obstacles
for you to return. No program for you to go through.
No disciplinary action. No! I like this. Isaiah 57. I'm going to read
this and I'll close. Make sure I go to the right book
this time. Isaiah 57 and verse 14. This is what God says to His
church concerning His gospel. He says, Cast ye up! Cast ye
up! Prepare the way! take up the
stumbling block out of the way of my people. For thus saith
the Lord, the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth 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, and to revive the heart of the
contrite ones. where I will not contend forever,
neither will I be always wroth." Talking about his chastisement.
Isn't that good? Isn't that something to encourage
you that he's not always going to be wroth in his chastisement?
For the Spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have
made, for the iniquity of his covetousness. I was wroth, and
smote him. I hid me, and was wroth, and
he went on forwardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his
ways, and will heal him. Now is that not encouragement?
Cast up the stumbling blocks! Here it is! Even though you've
been rebellious, here's what God says. I'll heal you. I'll
heal you. I will lead him also." Isn't
that the right path? He set a straight path. He said,
God said, I'll set him in the path. I'll restore the comforts
unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips,
peace, peace to him that is far off and to him that is near,
saith the Lord, and I will heal him. Is that not encouragement
enough? This is how we're to deal with
the brethren who are weary. And listen, we're all weary at
times. God will chasten us because we are His sons and we will be
weary. Our hands will hang down, but
here's the help. He says, lift up. And how does
He do it? He does it by the brethren, by
using us, His church, to call His people to lift up their hands
and be encouraged. Why? I will heal thee, even though
you've rebelled against me, I'll heal you. We cast up every obstacle
out of their way so they can return, so they can be healed. I do pray that God would heal
the weary. Use us to do so. But listen,
if a man will not be healed, what is the evidence of that?
Nothing but apostasy. If a man will not heed, and he
will not turn back to Christ, it's because that man never had
faith to begin with. God keep us from such things. I pray you will, in Jesus' name.