I thought to have showed you what is required of us that we may be able to manage this plea aright, that it be not presumption in us ; as, a stable self-condemnation without reservation, a prospect and view of the atonement made by Christ, and casting ourselves upon him to undertake for us.
SERMON IV.
SPIRITUAL STRENGTH ; — ITS REALITY, DECAY, AND RENOVATION.
PREACHED JANUARY 9, 1672.
" But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." — ISA. xl. 31.
THE occasion of the words arises from the complaint of Jacob and Israel, verse 27, " Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, 0 Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God/' It was with respect unto the dark dispensations of God's providence towards the whole church, the church in general, that this complaint was made.
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I shall not stay to open the particulars; but as it is the complaint of the church in general, upon the account of God's dispensation in general, so it is the condition of particular believers, of many be lievers, internal and external, spiritual and temporal, that they may be brought to that state wherein, through their weakness and unbe lief, they may make this complaint.
God gives an answer hereunto, verse 28, " Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding." He proposeth his own infinite and glorious properties and excellencies for the relief of his people. When all other considerations fail them (as there is a time and sea son when nothing will relieve us but that which is every way in finite), it overbears and overwhelms them.
But in the following verses, and in that which I have read, he gives them to understand where the great mistake lay. They thought it was trouble that arose for want of kindness and evidence of kind ness from God, when indeed their trouble arose all for want of spi ritual strength in themselves; and therefore God speaks not unto them of further manifestations of his love and grace to deliver them out of those straits, but he speaks to them of giving them more strength, more grace, whereby they may be able to manage them selves better under it. All our troubles and all our despondencies, they are not from want of sufficiency in God to relieve us, they are not from the greatness of our troubles and temptations ; but they are all of them from the weakness of our faith and our grace. We think otherwise, but it is well if we could learn that that is the true state of things with us. When Peter was coming upon the water to Christ, the winds began to rise, and the waves to run high ; and Peter cried out, " Lord, save me." And now, if you should have asked Peter why he doubted, he would have answered, ( Because of the greatness of the danger/ — because the winds and waves of the sea were against him. Christ lets him know it was otherwise : " O thou of little faith, where fore didst thou doubt?" It was not because of the greatness of his danger, but because of the littleness and weakness of his faith, that he was put into that condition of doubting. " My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God/' ' Why/ saith the Lord, ' you must have more strength/ Therefore that is it which God promises in these words, " They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength/' And I think these things lie plain in it, which I shall but little more than name: — First, That all believers have a spiritual strength. Secondly, That this spiritual strength of believers is subject to decays, to weaknesses. And, Thirdly, That the way to renew this spiritual strength and to in-
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crease it is by waiting upon God. And then we may, in a word or two, show you what it is to wait upon God, and how we do renew and increase our spiritual strength thereby.
First, It is plain in the text that all believers have a spiritual strength : " They shall renew their strength." I acknowledge the word "their" is not in the original, but the very phrase carries it, " They shall renew strength ;" that is, their own spiritual strength. Who hath a spiritual strength by nature? We have no strength, we have no power, no ability to live the life of God, nor to do any thing that tends thereunto: Rom. v. 6, " When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly;" and till we are made partakers of the benefits and effects of the death of Christ, we are ungodly and without strength ; we have no strength at all. No unbeliever hath any strength.
But now all that do believe, they have spiritual strength : 2 Pet. L 3, " According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue ;" that is, whatsoever is re quired to lead a godly life is given unto believers by the divine power of God, a power that hath given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, — strength to enable us to live, and godliness for a holy and godly life and conversation. There are expressions to that purpose in other places: Eph. iii. 16, " That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man." Through the Spirit, the Spirit of God, that is, the author of all grace, he strengtheneth us with might, gives might and power. And the apostle affirms the same again, Col. ill, " Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering." And though there is a prin ciple, a seed of grace, a habit of holiness, inlaid in the heart and mind of all believers, enabling them to live unto God, a sufficiency of grace for that end and purpose, yet so as [that] what they do by virtue thereof is not done by themselves but by the grace of God. As our apostle said, " I laboured more abundantly than they all ; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me ;" giving him strength, power, and ability to go through with all those dangerous and labori ous duties wherein he was engaged in the work of the gospel. We have no strength by nature, we are dead in trespasses and sins; but when quickened by the Spirit of God, he gives us this spiritual strength and power whereby we are enabled to live to God.