of Proverbs chapter 18. Our brother
read to us out of the book of Hebrews chapter 12 and a very
timely passage or two there that we'll be referring to in our
message this morning as we go along. But our main text is found
here in Proverbs 18 and in verse 14 listen to what
it says, the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity. But a wounded spirit, who can
bear? I've been absolutely amazed recently
at some of the things that I've heard coming from the mouths
of the professed people of God. Many who have come, as it were,
seemingly at least, according to their testimony, to the very
end of themselves, and hardly knowing why that they have come
to the end of themselves, hardly understanding what God's purpose
could possibly be in them being so tried, in them being so dealt
with as they have. And I thought a great deal on
this and attempted to find the mind of the Lord this morning
about a message that would be right and proper, timely to bring. Having read our text in Proverbs
chapter 18 verse 14, there's a few other verses that I would
like to read. And I would like for you to listen
very carefully as I read these verses. I'll not ask you necessarily
to turn to them. You can if you want. Psalm 34 and verse 18, where
it says, the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart,
and saveth such as be of a contrite heart. That is Psalm 34 and verse
18. is to have a broken heart, it's
to have a crushed heart, it's to be broken in spirit, it's
to be dispirited, sad, to be dejected, broken, or wounded
in our spirit, having a contrite spirit. The Lord is nigh unto
them of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite heart. And then in Psalm 51 and verse
17, David says the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. He had just been saying that
God was no longer interested in sacrifices of bullocks and
rams, but the Lord The sacrifices that God wants is a broken spirit,
a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. A broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. For thus saith in Isaiah 57,
verse 15 and 16, let me read these two verses. For thus saith 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. For I will not
contend forever, neither will I be always wroth, for the spirit
should fail before me and the souls which I have made." Isaiah
chapter 66 and verse 1 and 2 reads thus, Thus saith the Lord, the
heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where
is the house she build unto me, and where is the place of my
rest? For all those things hath mine
hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord, but
to this man will I look. Even to him that is poor, and
of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." It appears to me
that after reading these verses, there are many others in the
Word of God that could have been read, that these verses indicate
to us that the Lord would have his people to be a humble people,
to be a broken and contrite people, to have a contrite spirit and
heart. Now, I think that we need to
get our eyes upon the purpose of God for our lives. We need to remember that God
does indeed have a purpose for each one of our lives. And he
means for us to live out our days in that purpose. He means
for us to walk with Him and to live circumspectly in this world
and to live courageously and to praise Him and honor Him all
the days of our life. He expects us to grow up and
to become ripe fruit, if you please, in His kingdom. And I
was reading the other day some comments made by a brother down
south in Kentucky who had been out picking blackberries. And
he was reminded as he looked at the berries as the vines were
full and were hanging low, the ones that had the ripest berries
upon them, he was reminded of some of the lessons that God
had taught him in the kingdom of grace. And I'd like to share
these with you at the outset of our message this morning.
He said the ripest fruit always hangs lowest. And in the kingdom
of God those who have grown the most in the grace and knowledge
of Christ know themselves to be the least. Those who are the
strongest know themselves to be very weak. Those who are the
most knowledgeable know that they know nothing. Those who
walk in nearest communion with heaven feel themselves to be
farthest away from heaven. The ripest fruit always hangs
lowest. Those who are the richest in
grace are poor in spirit. They know themselves to be poor.
Those who have greatest cause for joy are they that mourn. They mourn because they're keenly
aware of their depravity, of their sin, and of their unbelief. Those who are nearest what they
should be are meek. They know that they're indescribably
less than they should be. Those who are the fullest are
they which do hunger and thirst for righteousness. Knowing that
they are robed with the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed
to them, being born of his spirit, they hunger and thirst in the
depths of their soul. They hunger and thirst after
Christ to be like him in the totality of their beings. The ripest fruit always hangs
lowest. The more a believer grows in
Christ, the nearer he approaches heaven, the more unfit for heaven
he knows he is in himself. To be sure he knows that in Christ. He is meet to be partaker of
the inheritance of the saints in light. He does not question
the efficacy of the blood of Jesus Christ or the perfection
and the righteousness and the fullness of God's forgiveness
or the completeness of his acceptance in Christ. Regarding those things,
he may indeed have the full assurance of faith. Yet he knows that in
himself he is most unworthy and unfit for everlasting acceptance
with the Holy Lord God. Grace teaches those who experience
it by degrees that we're the least among God's servants. Then
we're less than the least of all saints. And finally, that
we're the very chief of sinners. Now these things we learn early
in our heads. And we do, we learn them early
as believers, but they are truly learned only by experience. And that's where a lot of these
problems, heartaches, troubles, infirmities, afflictions, depression,
and so on and so forth, that's where that comes in. Truly, as
they ripen for heaven, God's saints are a people who are learning
that the ripest fruit always hangs lowest. And then he ends
by saying, it is impossible to distinguish tares from wheat
until the harvest time. But at the harvest time, the
tares stand tall and the wheat bows its head. And so the Lord's
people are a tried and afflicted and tested people, and they're
a people of experience, and their experiences wound their heart
and saddens their heart in this world, and they're greatly tested
and sifted, as it were, in order that we might come to the place
where there would be ripe fruit but where we would have the right
attitude and the right heart about our growth in grace. And that is that we always become
smaller in our own eyes as we grow nearer being what God wants
us to be. And that's God's way of doing
that. Now then, let's get to our text
here in Proverbs chapter 18 and verse 14. The cause and cure
of a wounded spirit. It seems to me that every man,
sooner or later, whether he be a saved man or a lost man, has
some kind of infirmity to bear in this world. And that could
be due to poor health, it could be due to disease or pain of
some kind, or worse yet, maybe an infirmity of the mind, maybe
a mental condition that somehow or other is an infirmity to an
individual. Every man will have a cross to
carry of some kind. His health, his family, his relation,
his business, or in certain of his circumstances, he's going
to have a cross to bury. to bear. You cannot live in this
world without having to have a cross. This world is not the
Garden of Eden, you know, and we have not the power to make
it so. It is like the garden in this
respect that the old serpent is in it. The old serpent is
indeed active in this world. Now I'm persuaded that there's
no man or woman in this world who does not have trial in some
form than rather, unless it be those whom God permits to have
their portion in this life because that they'll have no bliss in
the life to come. In other words, they'll have
their heaven here, won't have any hereafter. Do you know anybody
that seems to be without affliction and trials in this world? Well,
let me remind you that God feeds his dogs very well. He really
does. And you can look around and you
see people that are absolutely without any affliction, without
any chastisement, without any trouble in this world it seems.
And they seem to be growing, growing stronger all the time
and having more and more of the creature comforts of this world.
And yet we know that those people It's undoubtedly because they
have been allowed of God to have their portion in this life and
will have none in the life to come. But Paul said in the verses
that our brother read this morning, if you be without chastisement,
God's people are a people that are chastened of the Lord. Wherefore,
all the true seed of God are partakers, then are you bastards
and not sons. And none of us would want to
be what that terrible name applied to us, bastards and not sons. We're legitimate children of
God if we're believers in Christ Jesus. If we've been washed in
the blood, if our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, if
we truly know the Lord, then we're legitimate children of
God. But if we're in this world and
God does not undertake to deal with us in our sins and in the
weaknesses and frailties of our life, then my friend, we are
considered to be, if we profess to be children of God, we're
certainly illegitimate children. Now there's no misery, I suppose,
like not having any misery. There is no affliction like not
having an affliction if that's what it means. In other words,
to be living in this world and not have God to be dealing with
us, then I would consider that to be an awful affliction and
an awful misery. Pity the poor soul upon whose
back God will not use one rod. God said, as many as I love,
I rebuke and I chasten. As many as I love. Whom the Lord
loveth, he chasteneth, and the brother read it this morning,
you heard him read it, and scourgeth every son whom he receives. Now, you may be driving down
the road. Let's say, for an example, a man is driving down the road,
and he drives by a certain particular corner in town, and there's a
group of boys hanging around on that corner, and they're throwing
rocks and breaking windows on the corner. And as he drives
by, he pays hardly any attention at all to what he's seeing, but
then suddenly out of the corner of his eye, he spots his own
son in the group throwing stones, breaking windows out of the building. Now, maybe it meant very little
to him that others were doing it, but immediately, when he
saw his own son involved in it, then that changed the situation.
And it wouldn't be too long before that man is what he ought to
be, that he would be applying the Board of Education to the
seat of learning. He would be dealing with his
son about this particular wrong that he was doing. And so it
is with God. God has and will exercise the
privilege of dealing with and scourging his sons and his daughters. I say it again, that every child
of God will have to bear some infirmity of some sort or other
in this life. The Lord said, you only have
I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish
you for your iniquities. The Lord will sometimes lay a
very heavy hand on his beloved. on those that he loves the most,
God will lay a heavy, heavy hand upon them. The Lord trieth the
righteous, and the Lord deals with their sin. Now to bear that
infirmity is not impossible, it's not easy, but it is not
impossible. I mean the infirmity that God
lays upon us. I mean the chastisement that
the Lord brings in our life. He read where that it's, at the
present, it's very grievous. And it is grievous. It's very
painful. It's very difficult to have to
bow under the rod of God and to know that God is chastening
you for some weakness or that God is teaching you through afflictive
circumstances. It's very, very difficult for
one to submit himself and for one to deal with this. Now, when
the spirit is sound and strong, when a man's spirit is sound
and when it's strong, then the spirit of a man will sustain
his infirmity. That's what we read in verse
14 of Proverbs 18. But first of all, let us try
to answer the question, what is that sound spirit which will
sustain a man's infirmities in this life? Now those that are
the true people of God knows that as we've tried to emphasize
that no escaping it, sooner or later you will have afflictive
circumstances in this life. You're going to have it. Many
are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out
of them all. God does send circumstances that
crush the heart, that breaks the heart, that causes a man
to have a poor spirit and causes him to cry out to God as one
whose heart is dispirited, needing help and strength from Almighty
God. Well, such a spirit may be found
in a minor degree in merely natural men. I have read astounding stories
and wonderful stories really of the patience and endurance
of natural men on the battlefield and just living life in general.
But beloved, it makes no difference how brave and how courageous
and how strong the natural heart is. It will sooner or later fail
under the strain of the burdens of this life. The creature at
his best state, the Bible says, is altogether vanity. He must
have many props and crutches. And I believe this generation
is giving itself over to alcohol and drugs because they have not
a sound spirit, because they have not a spirit that will enable
them to be able to sustain in the time of afflictive and infirm
circumstances. And I recognize that, beloved,
that even some that are numbered among the people of God have
also given themselves over to alcohol, and they just gotta
have something to somehow or other soothe their minds and
to get themselves to where that these circumstances don't cut
and don't tear like they would otherwise. And I warn you that
you're going to have to come back. I warn you that God will
deal with you for not looking to Him and seeking that kind
of a sound spirit which will bear whatever infirmity that
he puts upon you. Now the strength of heart and
soul of the Christian who's able to bear their infirmities is
of a higher kind than that which comes from natural sternness
or from obedience to any of the precepts of human philosophy. The spirit which will bear infirmities
is, first of all, a renewed spirit, a gracious spirit that's wrought
in us by the Holy Spirit of God, the new birth. If you would bear
your burden, you need to be born again. And children of God, they
are born again. They are regenerate people. The
Spirit of God is in them. They are alive unto God. But if you would bear your burden
without fainting and without complaining and without just
collapsing, you must have the life of God within you. Because
God has particular and peculiar circumstances that he leads his
people in. And as we said, God doesn't chasten
the wicked. God chastens his people. And
the rod of God upon his people is different than the problems
that are created in the world when people have ordinary problems
and afflictions in the world. You must be born again. You must
be born from above. You must be in a living union
with him who is the strong one. And he, by the life which he
implants in you and gives you, can give you and will give you
his strength. This is the only way the martyrs
could endure their suffering and their pain and their death
at the stake. And the only way that whole churches
could endure in the time when they were chained together as
members and pushed off into raging waters of rivers. is because
they had the strength of Christ infused into them. They were
in union, in a living union with the Lord Jesus Christ. I do not
believe that anything short of that which is divine will stand
the wear and tear of the trials that God's people have and the
troubles that God's people have in this world. The Lord Jesus
said, in the world you shall have tribulation. Through much
tribulation you'll enter into the kingdom of God. Now all men
may be in the furnace to some degree. Everybody may be on the
hot seat now and then, but God's people are in a distinct, different
type furnace wherein they will be refined, where the gold will
be refined. It's a furnace that burns hot
and God's people are there refined, and mere mortal power shall fade
and die, but the strength of Christ being in his people will
enable them to endure. youthful vigor ceases, but they
that trust in the Lord, derive power from Him, will press on
even to victory, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was spread before Him endured
the cross, despising the shame thereof, and is sit down at the
right hand of God, looking unto Jesus. Well, that's the first
point I want to make, is that we must be in a living union
with Christ if we would have strength to bear our trials here
in this world. And secondly, it is a spirit
that's cleansed in the precious blood of Christ that breeds courage
and conviction and resoluteness in this world. You know, conscience
makes cowards out of us all. It is only when our conscience
are pacified by the blood of sprinkling that were able to
sustain our infirmities. Oh, to see the cleansing wave,
as the song said, and to know that we've been washed in the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody said, oh, you're one
of those that believe that the blood covers it all. My friend,
I surely do believe the blood covers it all. And I'm here to
tell you that if the blood doesn't cover it all, that we're in for
an eternity of absolute, total hell and misery, because the
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, must cleanse away our sin. If my sins are forgiven, and
they are, and if we're on our way to heaven, and we feel we
are, then what else really matters here in this world? What else
really matters in this world? If you had to spend the rest
of your life in a dungeon and to live on bread and water, yet
as long as you were sure that you were cleansed from your sin
by the precious blood of Christ, could you not bear it all? Could
you not bear it all? Could you not bear living in
those conditions? If your sin had been purged away,
take sin away, wash our soul in that fountain that's filled
with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and we ought to be able
to get through anything and everything, the Lord being our helper, the
Lord being our sustainer. Now if sin, the poet said, be
pardoned, I am secure, death hath no sting beside. sting of
death is sin. Now the kind of spirit then that
a man needs to sustain his infirmity is one which has been renewed
by the Holy Ghost and washed in the blood of Christ. Next
it is the spirit which is daily growing in confidence in God. As we're living out our days
one by one in this world, then our spirit needs to be growing
in confidence in God. A spirit of doubt and fear and
mistrust, my friend, will never do. It will never do. You will
wilt every time you turn around, every time you turn a corner,
you wilt right there if you don't have the spirit faith in the
living God. There's no power about a spirit
that is full of unbelief and is full of doubt no more than
there's any strength in the body that doesn't have any bone and
any muscle. What would you be without bones and with muscle?
Absolutely nothing. And you're nothing without faith
and confidence in God. Strength lies in faith. Strength lies in confidence in
God. The spirit that can sustain a
man in his infirmity is the spirit that can say with Job, though
he slay me, yet will I trust him. I'll trust God whatever
happens. O with David, although my house
be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things insure. Now, if God calls you
to do business in deep water, brother and sister, you will
need the anchor of faith to endure. We will not feel safe without
it. Do you believe God? Are you growing
daily in strength and confidence in God? You're trusting the Lord. You're less and less inclined
to trust anything else. and you're less inclined to trust
your own mind and your own wisdom, more inclined to trust God, more
inclined to believe Him, more inclined to wait on the Lord. So we must have a renewed spirit,
a blood-washed soul, and a believing spirit if we're to bear as believers
our infirmities. Next, let me add to this, to
what we've said, that no spirit can... sickness, loss, bereavement,
trial, sorrow, as a totally consecrated spirit or soul. Now, a totally
consecrated spirit, one who is totally consecrated to the purpose,
the plan, the will, the ultimate end of God in our lives. The fruit that's the ripest hangs
the lowest. God is going to give you a contrite
heart, a broken heart. God is going to bring you to
that place where you are ripening for eternity by giving you the
right mind. And you need to be totally consecrated
to the ultimate end and purpose that God has in your life. I'm talking about the man who
is free from all secondary motives. Why are you living in this world? You're a child of God. Why are
you living in this world? Well, do we live only for God's
glory? Well, we ought to be. We ought
to be. If a man is sick, he says, how
can I glorify God upon this bed of illness? How can I glorify
God? I'm to glorify God whether I
eat or drink or whatsoever I do. You see, we're dealing with a
generation of professing believers who some days talk about taking
their own life. Who some days you hear them talking
and they'll say, well I don't really know that there's any
reason why I should live anymore. Well, you know, my life is so
miserable, I am so absolutely without the comforts of life,
creature comforts, I don't have friends, I don't have any loved
ones that are near, I just simply am the loneliest person alive,
and I just really see no need for me to be here any longer.
But you see, beloved, That is the ultimate selfishness. Let
me tell you this, that God Almighty has invested in His people His
Son. He has invested in His people
His only begotten Son. His only beloved begotten Son. His one beloved Son, Christ Jesus,
He has invested in their life. And here they are talking about
God has a purpose. My friend and the Bible says
in that that he died for all they which live should not live
unto themselves But unto him who died and rose again You do
not have any choice my friend if you're a believer You must
live out your days on this earth and serve the will of God in
your generation You must do it You must commit yourself unto
the Lord and be sustained by His grace and be one who is giving
God the glory and living for His glory. My friend, I want
to live, I want to suck every breath that God will give me,
every breath that will sustain me and sustain my life in this
world. Because, you know, God just may
appear. The Lord Jesus may come back
from glory. He may come back. Wouldn't it
have been something if you snuffed out your life some way or another
and then in a week or two the Lord Jesus come back? Wouldn't that be one of the most
horrible things that a person could think of? God's people
are to be looking and watching and waiting for the Lord to return. And you're not to go out here
talking that way. We know that unbelief is catching,
and we need to be encouraging one another, and we need to be
trying to lift up one another, and to lift up the feeble hands,
and strengthening the weak knees, and so on. We need to be doing
these things, and God's people need to be aware that in this
life, when all these trials come upon, I'm here for one purpose.
I'm just here for one purpose, and that's to glorify God. I
have no secondary motives. for being here. I have one reason
for coming through that door on Sunday morning. I have one
reason for going through what I go through day after day, day
after day in this world. And no secondary motives whatsoever. It's for the glory of God. And
if it's not, then my friend, we just might as well cash it
in. and give it up. It's for the
glory of God. No secondary motives. It's either
we're consecrated to the ultimate end and purpose of God Almighty
in our lives or else we're wasting our time in His too. We need
to be consecrated Figure it out once for all. I'm in this thing
until God takes me out of it, and I'm going to serve his will
until it's over with. I'll glorify God the best I can. And if I'm sick, I'll say, how
can I glorify God upon this bed? And if I have health, how can
I glorify God in my strength and in my vigor? All else is
vanity, brother, sister. Nothing but the will of God will
give honor to the sinner. I've told you that before. But
to serve the will of God will give you honor indeed. Now if a man has means, he would
say, how can I glorify God with the possessions which he's placed
under my stewardship? If he be poor, then he would
say to himself, Lord, there must be some advantage about being
poor. There must be some advantage
to it. How can I best use it for the
glory of God? There's got to be. I mean, if
God put me where I'm at, if God placed me in the circumstances,
if God put the people that are around me, if God put them there,
whatever has fallen out to me, God surely has had a hand in
it, and surely, if I have no secondary motive for being here,
then surely, my friend, I will be sustained in my spirit as
I deal with all the afflictions and the difficulties of life.
A consecrated spirit will enable a man to sustain his infirmity,
but a selfish spirit will weaken him so that he will begin to
complain and whine and murmur at his afflictive circumstances. Well, that's how we're going
to be sustained, is with these things that we've mentioned.
Well, what is a wounded spirit really? Well, a wounded spirit,
it says here, who can bear? A wounded spirit, who can bear? It cannot bear its own infirmity,
so it becomes a load to itself. The question is not, what can
a wounded spirit bear? The question is, but who can
bear it? Who can bear a wounded spirit? What, then, is a wounded spirit?
Well, sometimes we live around people who wants us to believe,
at least, that they have a wounded spirit. Well, let me try to help
you see what it's not right quick. First of all, it's not to have
been disappointed in love. That's sad, but that can be endured. Let me remind you that if you
make an idol, if you make an idol out of anything or anybody,
and God loves you, He will break that idol. If He loves you, He
will break that idol. There was a Quaker woman who
was in a service one night, and you might know something about
the Quakers, some of you may, but they sit, and that's all
they do, they sit until the Spirit of God moves somebody to say
something. So they were sitting in this
meeting place, a good many of them, and directly this woman
got up and she said, I perceive that sometimes we make idols
out of our children. And she said later, I don't know
why I said it. I didn't know why she said it.
But come to find out a little bit later that there was a lady
there who was wearing black and that her child had been taken
from her a number of years before that. And she had never forgiven
God for taking that child. And so those words came with
power. We are not to comfort people whose idols have been
slain of the Lord. We're not to comfort them. My
friend, any time we make an idol out of anything, God's gonna
break it down. If he loves you, you see, he
wants your heart. And he will have your heart.
He will have your heart. So don't make an idol out of
a woman or out of a man or out of a boy or out of a girl. Don't make an idol out of one
of your children. Don't do it. Keep your heart
right before the Lord and leave all human relatives, relationships
in the hands of the Lord. Keep your own heart right toward
God. Now then, It's not to have your
ambitions frustrated. Somebody said, well, I've really been disappointed.
You know, I thought things would turn out better for me in life
than what they have. But that's not really a wounded
spirit. Who are we that we should never
be disappointed? You've got a high conception
of yourself, high opinion of yourself. that you feel that
you should never be disappointed. My friend, this world is not
what it seems. And in this world, there are
disappointments everywhere. And if you haven't had your share
of them yet, stick around. You'll have your share before
it's over with. Why are we that we should have
everything according to our own hearts and according to our minds? If the Lord was to deal with
us according to our sins, we would have something to bear
far worse than our present disappointments, brother, sister. Can you say
amen to that? If God was dealing with you according to your sins,
You may think you've got some hard times right now, but I'll
tell you if God was dealing with you according to your sins, you
would really be smarty. I've heard people say nobody
ever suffered as I have. Nobody ever was treated as bad
as I've been treated. Nobody. This is altogether wrong. It's not so. I tell you it's
not so. Many others have gone through
equal or greater trials than you have. Don't fret yourself.
Allow your spirit to be wounded with these things. Don't allow
it. Now, there are some forms of wounded spirit which I believe
are very serious. Very serious. One of them is
this, when a soul is under a deep and terrible sense of sin. I
don't think in this generation we know too much about it because
there are not too many people that you ever see under deep
conviction. I was talking with a gentleman
this summer who told me that He heard for a long time that
there were some sinners in the world. And one day somebody quoted
to him Romans 3.23, all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. And he said that arrested his
heart, that God spoke to him and said, you mean I am one of
these sinners that's in the world and I'm a sinner? Well, it led
to his salvation. Told me that right there in the
back of the room. It led to his salvation. All have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. In Romans 6, 23, the wages of
sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so when a man is able,
when he comes under conviction, and when his spirit is broken,
he's guilty, he has a wounded spirit, and only God can give
him relief, you may try to help him in many ways. You may try
to help him, but I'll tell you it'll be to no avail until God
helps him. And that's the wonderful thing about it, when a man truly,
really gets a wounded spirit. He'll walk the floor. He won't
eat like he normally does, maybe. And he'll just be a different
character because he has a wounded spirit, and it's serious. He
must get over it, but only God can enable him to get over it.
Only God can deliver his soul from these times of great conviction. Sometimes the spirit is wounded
by the fierce temptations of Satan. Now, to doubt is an awful
It's an awful thing to doubt God, to not believe God, to live
with a spirit of unbelief, and you just cannot believe God. You just can't. Tormenting and
terrible, and it brings a great, great sadness to the heart, and
as we said earlier, it'll just, actually, it'll just, you'll
just be just like you was hollow on the inside. You won't have
any strength. And some people are tempted to
blaspheme God when things go bad, when things go wrong. That
is a serious, serious wound in the spirit. Now another one comes
when we feel deserted by God for a season. Did you ever as
a believer feel like that God had left you to yourself? Did
you ever feel like the heavens were brass? And that regardless
of how much you prayed, it didn't do any good? Didn't seem like
the prayer got out of the room? Didn't feel like it went up to
heaven at all? That generally happens when God not necessarily
has deserted us, but we've deserted Him. Because we have not walked
in the light that He's given us, and we've fallen into some
sin. and he has hid his face for a
season. My friend, we must be very careful to walk in the light
that God has given us. Now, I realize our time's about
gone, but please, let me finish this. How can we avoid a wounded
spirit? How can we avoid it? Well, first
of all, by never offending our conscience. When the light of
God's presence is gone from you, you will say, well, why did I
ever do that? Or why didn't I do so and so? But neglected duties and rebellion
and willful sin and wickedness is what gets us into trouble.
just rebellion against God. I'm fed up. I've had all I can
take. I am going to do such and such
and so and so regardless of the consequences. My friend, you
are in serious, serious trouble. You'd be better off if you went
off someplace and took a clothespin and put it on your lip and begged
God to give you some help in your heart. and stop this business
of saying, I'm going to be willful in this thing. I'm not going
to church anymore. I'm not going to do this anymore.
I'm not going to do that anymore. My friend, that's a sure way
of coming down with an awful affliction. Again, if you would
avoid a wounded spirit, get a clear view of the gospel. Now, there
are many professing Christians that have seen the gospel just
as that blind man did. who had his eyes half open when
he saw men as trees walking. That's the way they've seen the
gospel. They do not know the difference between the covenant
of works and the covenant of grace. They frustrate the grace
of God every day thinking that maybe righteousness does come
by the law and Christ is dead in vain. Now they do not know
how a Christian stands in Christ. accepted in the beloved one,
accepted in Christ. You must learn to spell the word
grace, my friend. Talk to yourself, meditate on
free grace, regardless of what the theologians around you say. Talk to yourself, I say, about
free grace, free, rich, sovereign grace. Know that you've been
saved as a sinner. That's how you got saved. You
got saved as a sinner. That Christ died for the ungodly. That was you. And that your standing
is not in yourself or in your attainments, but whole and entirely
in the finished work of our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this
will often prevent our getting a wounded spirit if we understand
the difference between things that do really differ and don't
mix them up. You know, when we go mixing at
any point, law works. With the grace of God, we're
going to end up in trouble. And we need to learn that whether
it's in election, whether it's in redemption, whether it's in
justification, glorification, sanctification, we never at any
point mix our works with the work of our blessed Redeemer,
the Lord Jesus. Because to do that is a denial
of the whole work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not mix. law and grace. Secondly, you
will avoid a wounded spirit by living near to God. The sheep
that gets bitten by the wolf is the one that does not keep
near the shepherd. When that sheep gets away from
the shepherd, way out on the perimeter, the wolf looking for
what? Looking for the sheep that's
the furthest away from the shepherd. That's exactly what he's looking
for. And I tell you, if you don't, you don't need for me to tell
you this, there's only one who can bind up and can heal one
who has a wounded spirit. But the Bible says by His stripes
we're healed. By the stripes of our Lord Jesus.
You know that's found in Isaiah 53, that great chapter. By His
stripes we're healed. Now if you would be healed, go
to Him. You did so once, didn't you?
Do it again. Come to Him. Though you have
come a hundred times before, just come to Him as a sinner. Come now, just as you are without
one plea, but that His blood was shed for you. Come to Him.
You'll never have a peace-filled spirit if you stay away from
Him. And then, next let me say just
a word about this. Study your Bible more. And listen
to plain preaching. Let this be the rule as to what
you listen to. Where Christ is everything and
the creature is nothing. Isn't that plain preaching? Where
Christ is everything and the creature is nothing. Where it
is salvation, all of grace, through the work of the Holy Spirit. Get a clear view of the gospel,
as we said, and many a doubt will fly away when knowledge
takes the place of ignorance. Try to get a clear view of your
own trouble. Now you got your troubles, I
got mine. Try to get a clear view of them.
We're frightened more by what we do not know than by what we
do know. Half the fears in the world have
no real ground to them. You write them down, all of your
fears and your troubles, write them down. Maybe get a brother
or sister in the Lord to read them. The fact is you read them
yourself first. Most of the troubles that people
have, if someone else had them, we would think that they were
stupid for worrying about them. Isn't that right? I think we
would. Absolutely stupid for worrying
about them. Number four, how are we to be healed? Remember
Christ's sympathy for you. You remember I read Isaiah 57,
16, the Lord said, unless the Spirit said, I'll not always
be wroth, The Lord said, unless the spirit would fail before
me and the soul that I've created, I'll revive his heart. Revive
the heart of the contrite one. Are you tossed with tempest and
not comforted? He is in the vessel with you.
Every pain in your heart, he's felt it first. He has gone before
you in all things. He drinks out of the cup with
you. Is it bitter? He has had a cup full for every
drop that you taste, and this ought to comfort you. And then
I guess a choice remedy for a wounded spirit is an enlarged view of
the love of God. Do we give God credit for being
as kind as we are? Do we? Is there a pain that your
children have that you wouldn't relieve if it was in your power
and if it was the best thing for them? Well, do you give God
credit for being as good as you are and as kind as you are? Surely
the Lord knows your frame. Surely He knows your condition. Neither does God afflict willingly
or grieve the children of men, the Bible says. He would not
allow you to be cast down, but would cheer and comfort you if
it was good for you right now. There's a needs be. Remember
the ripe fruit hangs the lost? Remember that. He has a reason.
He put it there. Dare to take it and think well
of God as you're doing it, and it shall be well with your soul.
And if you don't seem to get any relief from all that's been
said, remember how brief life is. Your affliction and infirmities
will last just that long until the daybreak and the shadows
flee away. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently
for Him. Well, we did get through. Time has gotten away from us
and I apologize for that. I don't know that it would have
made any difference, but I am preaching with new teeth. And
so maybe I can blame it on that. You heard the story, didn't you,
about the fella that went to try out for a church and they heard him and he only preached
15 minutes. Boy, they liked that. Man, they
liked that. And so they called him and said,
that's good. That's 15 minutes. That's about the kind of sermons
we want. So they called him in the first Sunday or two after
he moved there and started preaching. Oh, he preached an hour or so,
just on and on and on. And so they got him downstairs,
the deacons did, and said, we just want to understand what's
going on here. I hear you preaching an hour or so, but when you try
it out for the church, you only preach 15 minutes. He said, well,
when I first came here, he said, I just got a new set of teeth
and it's hurting my mouth so bad I couldn't talk for about
15 minutes. But he said, since I got here I borrowed my wife's
teeth. And I just can't get them stopped. And so anyway, these are not
my wife's teeth. But may the Lord bless what has
been said here this morning to His glory and honor. And while
we may have a like moment now and then. There's some people
that we need to pray for. There's some folks in this world
that, you know, we can sit here and maybe, maybe this didn't
mean a whole lot to us, this sermon. But there's some people
in this world that really need to hear what we said this morning.
Trust that maybe on this tape might be able to send in some
folks that really are desperately in need of hearing what we had
to say here today.