Hebrews 11:33-34 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions.… 1. See, first, how universal was the presence of this mark, in each of its two especial parts — of weakness growing into strength. Look back in thought on all. How surely did all begin in weakness! How was Samuel chosen in the weakness of childhood, and how was even that childhood strengthened till it bore all the burden of the prophet's office! How was Moses called amid great straits of external difficulty and internal self-distrust, and how was he made able to endure the burden of all the multitude, that gainsaying and stiff-necked generation which was committed to his guidance! Again, how did the weakness from which they were being rescued show its remaining presence in the partial unbelief of Abraham, and the deep fall of David, and in St. Peter's denial of his Master! Yet how evidently was there a process of strengthening going on in each one of these very saints, even until they were perfected! How firm was the faith of Abraham — how dear to David was the will of God! How strong was the courageous love of this same Peter, who once had trembled before a maid-servant. 2. And now mark next how, in all who bear the true mark, this marvellous change is accomplished. Clearly it is wrought by a power beyond themselves — for out of weakness they "were made strong." It was not of their own doing. A power out of themselves was moulding them; a higher Will was drawing up into its own blessed truth the lower and capricious actings of their weakened, dishonoured, and distorted will. A mighty love was brooding over and transforming them. The acting of that Holy Spirit to which they yielded was renewing and sanctifying them. He strengthened them to resist temptation, and in their resisting it He purified them. And then observe, further, what there was in them which thus brought them under the working of His strengthening power. All this chapter speaks of it; but it is gathered up into the fewest possible words. All this mystery of strength is revealed in this one utterance, "Who through faith." With more or less of clearness, as God had revealed it to them, they saw that He had laid help for them upon One that was mighty; and they clave to Him, and in them the mystery was accomplished; they sought to cast themselves in their weakness upon Him; and His mighty presence stood beside them. He was in them, and they who without Him could do nothing found His strength "perfected in" their "weakness." In each one of the saints this is the pattern character. Every one passes from weakness into strength through cleaving for himself to Christ. And what they were that we are — weak, faltering, unworthy, tempted souls, far beneath His love, infinitely unworthy of His care; ever ready to sink before any enemy, to be over-mastered by every temptation; ever ready to fall away utterly, yet held up by His hand, and from the crumbling brink of perdition brought safely through to crowns and to His presence. Oh, unutterable wonders of the lovingkindness and faithfulness of God! Oh, mysterious deep of His counsels of redemption! Oh, blessed work of the life. giving Cross and bitter agony of Christ our Lord! Oh, glorious hope for every one who cleaveth closely to His righteous life for acceptance and for strength! But there is another application of this truth, which we may profitably make; for this which we have seen to be a special note of the separate spiritual life of every saint of God, is also the character of the corporate acts of the Church which is their common body. From her earliest planting this note has been especially stamped upon all which has concerned her spread and upgrowth. Thus, when our blessed Lord Himself, in His earthly ministry, gathered in the first fruits of His elect, He so veiled His glory in the likeness of our flesh that in Him there was for the common eye of men no "beauty that we should desire Him"; and so, plainly, He meant that it should be with those who bore His commission to their brethren. His chosen followers were fishermen of Galilee; and when He sent out the seventy, He sent them "two and two," with no outward accompaniment of power or presence to challenge the attention of the world. How could the note of an external weakness be more plainly stamped upon the infant Church? Yet what a manifest strength sprang out of all that weakness! And so it has been ever since. It would not be difficult to produce a multitude of instances in which it would be clear that whenever the Church has made any signal advance, it has been not by the strength of any arm of flesh, but through the power of God's grace working mightily through feeble instruments. So (to touch merely upon one example) it was manifestly when the goodness of our God towards this land enabled our fathers here to cast off that long accumulation of corruptions in doctrine, discipline, and conduct which had been heaped upon her truth, and well nigh choked her life. By what unlikely instruments, and with what an apparent feebleness of means, did the arm of God begin and carry through amongst us the blessed work of the Reformation. So that we may take this as an undoubted mark of His working in His Church, that the work may be seen to be wrought "not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord"; and that we may even expect to find the chief instruments of her increase marked with this character, that "out of weakness they have been made strong." (Bp. S. Wilberforce.) Parallel Verses KJV: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, |
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