POWER GIVEN TO THE FAINT

There is not a more comforting declaration to be found in the whole of this prophecy than the verse before us. This is indeed “good news from a far country:” and how it is verified in the life and experience of the living family of God. How gracious and how condescending of the God of heaven and earth thus to show forth His mercy upon those that truly need it. We may well reiterate the portion, “Let the weak say, I am strong:” for power is imparted to them by Him Who has it to bestow: even by Him Who “was crucified through weakness,” and Who has become the strength of every saint: so that “the lame take the prey” through Him. Thus the Godhead has, in a manner, emptied itself into the Manhood, that it might spread itself abroad, as it were, and gather up unto itself the mystical members of the body of Jesus Christ, and wrap around them the great bond of the Everlasting Covenant, and confer upon them all the irreversible blessings of its most sacred and solemn compact, which insures to them the like blessing with Himself. As Man, is He to endure for ever? so are they to do the same. Is He to judge the world? they are to do the same. Is He to “possess the gate of His enemies?” it is written “blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Is He to dash in pieces nations like a potter’s vessel? “This honour have all the saints.” See Psalm 149, 6-9: Rev. 2, 26: Isa, 41, 15. All these great honours and peculiar privileges are conferred upon them through Jesus Christ as their Covenant Head, according to the goodwill and pleasure of their heavenly Father, Who has blessed them with all these heavenly blessings in Christ Jesus before the world began. Just as a child begins to recognise its parents by their care of it and attention to its wants and necessities, so are the characters described in my text brought to know the God of heaven as their Father by the necessitous circumstances that they are brought into by reason of their sin, and their sinful condition by nature, a state in which they feel themselves to be without strength Godward. This, and kindred portions, are recorded for their comfort and consolation, because they are so apt to judge of their state and condition according to what they see in themselves, and feel what they are of themselves: but God does not barter His gifts and grace away to men according to their merit, but exclusively according to the worth, the merit, and grace of Jesus Christ. Hence the apostle says concerning this matter, “Who of God is made unto us Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption,” that His people should glory in Him, and not in themselves. And surely the wisdom of God is seen in Jesus Christ as well as the love of God: and all that God has manifested in and by Christ has been manifested towards His people: for He needed none of the blessings for Himself, as He was daily God’s delight before He took our nature upon Himself; but loving His people with a love that “passeth knowledge,” even a love that “many waters cannot quench,” He became incarnate, taking the human nature into unity with the Divine, so as to impart excellency and glory to it, and bequeath His Divine legacy to all His poor brethren, who were without strength, possessing no might of their own. Thus did this Divine Surety empty Himself, that He might fill all things, and communicate to His poor, weak, and helpless brethren His own strength, that through Him they might be overcomers, and eventually overcome all their numerous enemies, and sit down with Him in His throne, even as He overcame and sat down with His Father upon His throne. But His “strength is made perfect in weakness,” that “the exceeding riches of God’s grace” may be manifested in Christ Jesus: hence the many trials, distresses, temptations, and sorrows of the poor and afflicted family of God, that God may display that grace in such a way as to convince them of His gracious character towards them, that their hearts may be instructed and directed “to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant,” and there find an all-sufficiency of “grace to help in every time of need:” for Christ Jesus is God’s storehouse, from whence every mercy is dispensed, and all grace bestowed, in order that all “should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father,” seeing that it is by His precious blood that every bond has been cancelled, as well as every law fulfilled. “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached:” that is, upon the basis of the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has openly proclaimed “remission of sins in His Name,” and has sent forth His heralds to announce the glad tidings of “peace by Jesus Christ,” “through the blood of His cross:” and so comprehensive are the blessings arising out of this matchless grace of Jehovah, that one of His messengers declares, that, “by Him all that believe are justified from all things, which they could not be justified by the law of Moses:” showing thereby that God’s justice has been fully met, when its sword was sheathed in the side of His beloved Son, and the prophecy was fulfilled wherein it is writted, “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd! against the Man that is My Fellow: smite the Shepherd.” The poet has well written:-

Worship God, then, in His Son:
There He’s love, and there alone:
Think that not He will, or may,
Pardon any other way.”

Thus “Justice and judgment” have become “the habitation of His throne:” and every mercy becomes His as Man, and, as such, He can righteously confer them upon man, for which cause He undertook the Suretyship, that He might confer them upon His poor brethren, “without money and without price” at their hands. It was the great love that He bore toward them that prompted Him to pay such a costly price for their redemption. But as their redemption was to be an eternal one, and the blessings that were to follow were to be eternal, He joyfully undertook their desperate case. It is, therefore, said, “Who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despised the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of God.” Therefore, my fellow pilgrim, seek a very close acquaintance with Jesus: for you can be shown no mercy but through Him, obtain no favour but by Him. “Grace is poured into His lips,” He will pour it into your heart. All power in heaven and in earth He exercises on the behalf of the oppressed, the weary, and the heavy-laden. These are the characters that He is most in sympathy with, as they are partakers with Him in His sufferings, and He is in every way qualified to minister to their necessities, “seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” As He died for them, so He lives for them: and every act He does for them is in love to them. The Father so loved them, as to give His only-begotten Son for them. The Son so loved them, as to give Himself for them. The Spirit so loved them, as to take up His abode in their hearts, in order to keep them from the evil that is in them and in the world, and to communicate to them “the unsearchable riches of Christ,” that they “may know Him in the power of His resurrection” in the perpetuity of His love, in the abundance of His grace, in the plenitude of His mercy, in the constancy of His care, in the blessedness of His fellowship, in the virtue of His advocacy, and in the unchangeability of His character: so that there is no difficulty that we may be placed in, that He cannot extricate us from; no perplexity, however bewildering, but He fully comprehends it: no trouble, however great, but He can deliver out of it or sustain under it: no enemy, however powerful, but He can subdue: no temptation, however strong, but He can enable you to bear it, and, with it, make a way for your escape. His wisdom comprehends the things of time and eternity: His knowledge runs through all the ages: His power controls visible and invisible powers; so that nothing can take Him by surprise, or at a disadvantage. Every enemy that you have, whether great or small, He is perfectly aware of his designs and intentions toward you, and will take care that none of his plots shall prove fatal to you. Leave, therefore, everything in His hands, and “let your requests be made known unto Him.” He loves to comfort the weak-hearted, and bids His servants to command the feeble to be strong, the dumb to sing, the lame to walk, and the sorrowful to rejoice, because of His triumphant victory over all His and their foes.

“Come, heavenly Wind, celestial Breath,
Awake the souls that sleep in death:
Their fetters break of guilt and sin,
And gather, Lord, Thy chosen in.”

These poor, weak, and feeble ones are such as are generally despised by man, partly by the peculiar habits that they possess, as they can only feed upon food suitable to their divine nature, even living food, and not that which is gathered by the flesh, but that which is sent down from heaven; so that they cannot fill their belly with the husks of human will-worship, such as creeds, forms, ceremonies, traditions and opinions of men, knowing that they have a tendency to exalt and puff up the flesh, which they desire to see cast down, and see Jesus Christ alone exalted, because of His supreme excellency and glory, knowing that it is by Him alone that they have access into the grace wherein they stand. They, having learnt their own weakness, rejoice in Christ Jesus as their Strength: having learnt their own ignorance, they are made willing to receive Christ as their Wisdom, and thus to renounce the works and wisdom of the flesh, “that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ our Lord.” They, therefore, are “despised and rejected of men,” like their Lord and Master, for Isaac and Ishmael never will agree, as one is of the bond-woman, and the other is of the free: and although they are bereft of all help from themselves, they know in Whom they have believed and that He is able to keep that which they have committed to Him against that day: and O, what a day will that be! It will indeed and in truth be “a morning without clouds” to these poor and trembling seekers after Jesus. They often now have to “grope like the blind for the wall.” but then they will have emerged from every cloud, all mists will then surely have rolled away, every enemy will have forever dispersed into the everlasting shades of night, and every mourner will have become a songster, and every weeper a rejoicer. The marriage wine will be safely kept till then, to be drunk new in His Father’s kingdom. 0, cheer up, my poor and downcast brother or sister! The crowning day is surely coming, when you shall hear the grand Hallelujahs of heaven and earth, ascribing their united acclamations to Him Who was once the “Man of sorrows” for your sakes, that He might give you “an inheritance among them that are sanctified.” “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning:” and the almighty Deliverer has already begun to show signs of His coming: for “The clouds are the dust of His feet.” Therefore take courage, amidst all the perplexing things that surround you, and do not think it strange concerning the fiery trials that are to test your faith in God. Remember the words of the text, namely, “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might, He increaseth strength:” and He said: — “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee:” and out of the fulness of Christ Jesus He will confirm His gracious promise in your own soul, and cause you to “read your title clear to mansions in the skies:” and you will find that you are treading in the footsteps of the apostle, and will cheerfully say, “most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” You will find that it is for Him to make crooked things straight, rough places smooth, to still the tempestuous sea of life, and to calm the agitated waters of seeming adverse circumstances. Although these are the spots and places where we find most of the Lord’s people, yet how we personally dislike being brought there: but it is indeed the place of blessing. Here we find the love of God manifesting itself, the power of God displaying itself, the grace of God showing itself more conspicuously here than elsewhere. The children of God have to prove that they have a Father in heaven Who will not permit circumstances to quite overwhelm His poor, and tempest-tossed child. Wave may follow wave in rapid succession: but it will be only to prove the truth of the words of the text to you, that your confidence may be more firmly rooted in Jehovah: so that when He shall arise to shake not only earth, but also heaven, it may be found that your hope was not built upon your own doings, neither was it founded upon the creeds and opinions of men; for God “has put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away.” “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Therefore mind not high things of this world, and remember that it is passing away and all the glory of man is but as the flower of the field: but the kingdom and glory of the Lord is to endure for ever. Let us seek for grace therefore, to “run the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith,” and when He shall be revealed from heaven, He shall summons you from the dead as one of “the ransomed of the Lord,” who sought His daily guidance and protection while travelling through this world of sin and sorrow: where He was treated as an outcast, condemned as a blasphemer, and crucified as though He were a pest to society, an enemy to mankind, and abhorred of God. If such was His portion, while travelling through this sin-smitten world, expect no better treatment from the world for yourself; for their hearts are hardened, and their eyes are closed until this day. You may often suffer defeat from your enemies in yourself, but never in Him: and He has thrown around you His everlasting arms of faithfulness to guard your feeble soul from all fatal harm: for the Godhead and the Manhood have become one both to save and to succour those that put their trust in Him: and thus it is declared in the words of my text, “He giveth power to the faint: and to them that have no might, He increaseth strength.” Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

But perhaps you are ready to say, “I am become so feeble and faint, that my hope seems ‘perished from the Lord’, and nearly every snare that presents itself, I seem ready to fall into.”

Be it so: the more does that bring you within the compass of text; for it comes down to those that have “no might,” which is as low as it can go, or you can come: for you must ever remember that God’s great object, in this dispensation of His grace, is the glorifying of His Son Jesus Christ, as Christ’s great object, while here below, was the glorifying of Jehovah’s great and holy Name; and in that glory was your salvation included, because Jesus Christ made it possible for God to be just and yet be the Justifier of them that believe in Jesus. You, therefore, “Have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” by Christ Jesus: and so the instrumental act of faith, by which we believe, takes us right away from self to Jesus, as the everlasting Foundation Stone that God Himself has laid for the hope of eternal salvation of a poor, lost, helpless, and undone sinner to rest his soul’s eternal weal upon. Surely, what God has laid, no created power can remove: and so it is properly called, “A good hope through grace”: and it is also called, “A lively hope, by the resurrection of Christ from the dead.” The hope was laid in Him, and when He rose from the dead, it received its life and vitality on behalf of those that should believe on Him to life eternal; which is one reason why that the Holy Ghost so often speaks of the comforts of the Gospel, as designed for the poor and needy, the hungry, the thirsty, and such-like characters, showing that a man has to go out of himself, as it were, to another source for a supply, and that is, Jesus Christ; Who, in His incarnation, has become “the true Bread from heaven,” the “Living Water,” the “Rock of Ages,” “The Resurrection and Life,” “the Good Shepherd,” and “the Bridegroom” of His Own Bride. And that He may be made known to His people in His relationships that He bears toward them, He often leads them “ by a way that they know not;” in order also that they may look to Him to guide them. He makes them feel their poverty, that they may realise His riches: their emptiness, that they may know His fulness: their weakness, that they may experience His strength perfected therein. As a Shepherd, He loves to lead them into green pastures: as a Saviour, He loves to deliver them in time of trouble: and how often we need Him, none can be more sensible than the writer!

Glory to His sacred Name!
Jesus’ love’s a constant flame.
Hell may rage, and sin conspire,
All to quench this heavenly fire,
Still the flame vehement grows:
Jesus’ love no measure knows:
Hills of guilt, like smoke, retire,
Touch’d by this eternal fire.”

He will ever prove the truth of His Own words in the hearts of His Own poor and despised people: for “to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Him;” and the words of the text are still verified, “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might, He increaseth strength.”

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