Man's Extremity God's Opportunity
JDeut. mii. 36. —” .for th.e Corfc 0l)all jufrge h.t0 people, anft repent I)hn0elf for!)ts seroante, tuljen l)e 0eetl) th.at tl)etr power 10 gone, ana th.ere 10 none 0l)ut up or left.”
To ungodly men the time of their fall is fatal; there is no rising again for them. They mount higher and higher upon the ladder of riches; but at last they can climb no higher, their feet slide, and all is over. This calamity hasteneth on. “To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste” (verse 35).
But it is not so with three characters of whom we will now speak; they are judged in this world that they may not be condemned hereafter (1 Cor. xi. 32). Of each of them it may be said: “Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down.” Ps. xxxvii. 24.
I. THE LORD’S OWN CHURCH.
1. A church may be sorely tried — “power gone, none left.”
By persecution the faithful may be cut off. Ps. cvii. 39.
By removals, death, poverty, a church may be depleted to a painful extent. Is. i. 8, 9.
Through the lack of a faithful ministry, there may be no increase; and those who remain may grow feeble and dispirited.
By general falling off of hearers, members, etc., a church may be sorely distressed. Various circumstances may scatter a people, such as internal dissension, pestilent heresy, and lack of spiritual life. Where there is no spiritual food hungry souls find no home. Job xv. 23.
2. But it may then cry to God.
If indeed his people, the covenant stands, and he will
judge them. If still his servants, the bond holds on his side, and he
will repent himself for them. His eye is ever upon them, and their eye should be up
to him.
3. He will return and revive his own church. He who
killed will make alive (verse 39). He pities his children when he sees them broken down under their sorrows.
4. Meanwhile the trial is permitted:
To find out his servants and drive out hypocrites. Is.
xxxiii. 14.
To test the faith of sincere saints, and to strengthen it. To manifest his own grace by supporting them under
the trying times, and by visiting them with future
blessing. To secure to himself the glory when the happier days
are granted.
II. THE TRIED BELIEVER.
1. His power may be gone. Personally he becomes helpless. Bodily health fails, prudence is baffled, skill is taken away, courage sinks, even spiritual force departs. Lam. iii. 17, 18.
2. His earthly help may fail.” There is none shut up or
left.” A man without a friend moves the compassion of God.
3. He may be assailed by doubts and fears, and hardly know
what to do with himself. Job iii. 23-26. In all this there may be chastisement for sin. It is so described in the context.
4. His hope lies in the compassion of God; he has no pleasure in putting his people to grief. “He will turn again, he will have compassion.” Micah vii. 19. Such sharp trials may be sent because:
Nothing less would cure the evil hidden within. Is. xx vii. 9.
Nothing less might suffice to bring the whole heart to God alone.
Nothing less might affect the believer’s future life. Is. xxxviii. 16.
Nothing less might complete his experience, enlarge his acquaintance with the Word, and perfect his testimony for God.
III. THE CONVINCED SINNER.
He is cleaned out of all that wherein he prided himself.
1. His self -righteousness is gone. He has no boasting of
the past, or self-trust for the future. Job ix. 30, 31.
2. His ability to perform acceptable works is gone.” Their
power is gone.” “Dead in trespasses and sins.”
Eph. ii. 1.
3. His secret hopes which were shut up are now all dead and
buried.
4. His proud romantic dreams are gone. Is. xxix. 8.
5. His worldly delights, his bold defiance, his unbelief, his
big talk, his carelessness, his vain confidence, are all gone.
6. Nothing is left but the pity of God. Ps. ciii. 13.
When the tide has ebbed out to the very uttermost, it turns.
The prodigal has spent all before he returned.
Empty-handed sinners are welcome to the fulness of Christ.
Since the Lord repents of the sorrows of the desponding, they may well take heed and repent of their sins.
NOTES IN AID.
The church in New Park Street was sadly reduced in numbers, and from the position of its meeting-house there seemed no prospect before it but ultimate dissolution; but there were a few in its midst who never ceased to pray for a gracious revival. The congregation became smaller and smaller, but they hoped on, hoped ever. Let it never be forgotten that when they were at their worst the Lord remembered them, and gave to them such a tide of prosperity that they have had no mourning, or doubting, but more than thirty years of continued rejoicing.
Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.
Extremities are a warrant for importunities.
A man at his wit’s end is not at his faith’s end.
Matthew Henry.
Grandly did the old Scottish believer, of whom Dr. Brown 011s us in his fforce Subsecivce, respond to the challenge of l*er pastor, regarding the ground of her faith. “Janet,” said the minister, “what would you say if, after all he has done for you, God should let you drop into hell?” “E’en’s (even as) he likes,” answered Janet; “if he does, he’ll lose mair than I’ll do” — meaning that he would lose his honor for truth and goodness. Therefore, the Lord cannot leave his people in the hour of their need.
“Every praying Christian will find that there is no Gethsemane without its angel.”
He brings his people into a wilderness, but it is that he may speak comfortably to them; he casts them into a fiery furnace, but it is that they may have more of his company. — T. Brooks.
A person who could not swim had fallen into the water. A man who could swim sprang in to save him. Instead, how ever, of at once taking hold of the struggling man, he kept at some distance from him until he had ceased struggling; he then laid hold of him, and pulled him ashore. Upon the peopie on the pier asking him why he did not at once take hold of the drowning person, he replied, “I could not attempt to save a man so long as he could try to save himself.” The Lord acts thus toward sinners; they must cease from themselves, and then he will display the power of his grace upon them.
So long as a sinner has a mouldy crust of his own he will not feed upon heavenly manna. They say that half a loaf is better than no bread, but this is not true; for on half a loaf men lead a starvation existence; but when they have no bread they fly to Jesus for the food which carne down from heaven. As long as a soul has a farthing to bless itself with, it will foolishly refuse the free forgiveness of its debts; but absolute penury drives it to the true riches.
“‘Tis perfect poverty alone
That sets the soul at large;
While we can call one mite our own
We get no full discharge.”