Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2209
“Out of weakness were made strong.” Hebrews 11:34.
THOSE who out of weakness were made strong are written among the heroes of faith and are, by no means, the least of them. Believers “quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong.” Who shall tell which of the three grand deeds of faith is the greatest? Many of us may never have to brave the fiery stake, nor to bow our necks upon the block, to die as Paul did, but if we have Divine Grace enough to be out of weakness, made strong, we shall not be left out of the roll of the nobles of faith—and God’s name shall not fail to be glorified in our persons.
Brothers and Sisters, as Believers in the Lord Jesus, we are called to two things, namely, to do and to suffer for His name’s sake. Certain saints are summoned to active marching duty and others are ordered to keep watch on the walls. There are warriors on the field of conflict and sentries in the box of patience.
Both in doing and in suffering, if we are earnest and observant, we soon discover our own weakness. “Weakness” is all we possess. “Weakness” meets us everywhere. If we have to work for the Lord, we are soon compelled to cry, “Who is sufficient for these things?” And if we are called to suffer for Him, our weakness, in the case of most of us, is even greater—many who can labor without weariness cannot suffer without impatience. Men are seldom equally skilled in the use of the two hands of doing and bearing. Patience is a Grace which is rarer and harder to come at than activity and zeal. It is one of the choicest fruits of the Spirit and is seldom found on newly-planted trees. The fact soon comes home to us that we are weak where we most of all desire to be strong.
Our longing is to be able both to do and to suffer for our Lord—and to do this, we must have strength from above— and that strength can only come to us through faith. I have read you this glorious 11th of Hebrews which describes the mighty men of faith, the men of renown. They accomplished all their feats by a power which was not in them by nature. They were not naturally strong either to do or to suffer. If they had been, they would not have required faith in God! But being men of like passions with ourselves, they needed to trust in the Lord and they did so. They were quite as weak as the weakest of us, but by their faith they laid hold on heavenly strength until they could do all things. There was nothing in the range of possibility, or, I might say, nothing within the lines of impossibility, which they could not have performed! They achieved everything that was necessary in the form of service and they bore up gloriously under the most fearful pressure of suffering, simply and only by faith in God, who became their Helper.
You and I may be very weak at this time, but we can be made strong out of just such weakness. We need not wish to have any strength of our own, for by faith we can reach to any degree of power in the Lord! We can have all imaginable strength for the grandest achievements desirable, if we have faith in God. Upon this simple but most practical matter I am going to speak to you at this time. We all wish to be strong. Medicines, lotions, foods, baths and all sorts of inventions are advertised as means of increasing strength. We are all, in heavenly things, so weak that the idea of being made strong should be very attractive to us.
Let us learn, then, how others “out of weakness were made strong.” And let us follow on to enjoy their privilege by copying their conduct. Let me ask you to note, first, faith makes men strong for holy doing. And, secondly, faith makes men strong for patient suffering. We shall go over the ground which I marked out in my introduction.
I. To begin with—FAITH MAKES MEN STRONG FOR HOLY DOING. Here, indeed, all our strength must come to us by faith in the thrice-holy God.
The first duty of a Christian man is to obey God. Obedience is hard work to proud flesh and blood. Indeed, these ingrained rebels will never obey through our own efforts. By nature we love our own will and way and it goes against the grain for us to bring ourselves into such complete subjection as the Law of the Lord requires. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Who among us has done this? Who among us can do this unless a power outside of himself shall come to his aid? Only faith takes hold of the Divine strength and only by that strength can we obey! Hence faith is the essential point of holiness. Ah, my dear Friend, if you start on the voyage of life, by Divine Grace, with the resolve that you will follow the track marked down on the chart by the Lord, your God, you will find that you have chosen a course to which the Lord’s hands, alone, can keep you true!
The current does not run that way. Before long you will find that the wind is dead against you and the course to be followed is hard to keep. What will you do, then, if you have not faith? When duty is contrary to your temperament, what will you do without faith? When it involves loss of money, or ease, or honor—what will you do, then, if you have no faith? If you believe that God is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, you will persevere, but no other way. Suppose the right course should expose you to ridicule, cause you to be spoken of as a fanatic, or mocked at as a hypocrite, or despised as a fool—what can you do without faith? If you trust the living God, you will do the right thing and bear the loss or the shame. But if your faith fails you, self-love will create such respect for your own good name, such fear of ridicule, such unwillingness to be singular, that you will slide from your integrity and choose a smooth and pleasing road.