Is there any help within me now that success is driven from me? Sermons
I. IT IS WELL TO BRING THE DESPAIR OF THE SOUL TO GOD. The despair is not utter and complete if it has not stifled the fountains of prayer. When it can be said of any one, "Behold, he prayeth," all hope is not yet gone. Although for the time being he had lost sight of it, still there is a point on which hope for better days may lay hold. When all things seem to be rushing to ruin, and there is no other outlook for the soul, the outlook to heaven is still open. If we can do nothing else, the way is still before us to cast our burden upon the Lord. Though the very prayer be one of horror and despair, like Job's, still it is a prayer. There is the saving element. The Soul is looking up to God. It is not quite alone in its desolation. II. GOD UNDERSTANDS THE PRAYER OF DESPAIR. He is not like Job's purblind censor Eliphaz, who judged in ignorance and wounded when he thought to heal. The breaches of conventional propriety in religion, which shock the more precise sort of piety, are not thus misapprehended by God. He views all with a large eye of charity, with a penetrating discernment of sympathy. The wild utterance that only scandalizes the superficial hearer moves the compassion of the Father of spirits. He knows from what depths of agony it has been forced, and he pardons the extravagance of it in pity for its misery. III. THE PRAYER OF DESPAIR IS FOOLISH AND SHORT-SIGHTED. These two words "prayer" and "despair," are quite incongruous. The one should utterly banish the other. If we quite understood the meaning and power of prayer, despair would be impossible. For prayer implies that God has not forgotten us; or why should one pray to heedless ears? When we carry our grief to God we bring it to Almighty Love, and such a haven must be more congenial to hope than to despair. IV. GOD REFUSES TO ANSWER THE PRAYER OF DESPAIR, There are prayers which God will not answer, and that, not because he is inexorable, but because he is merciful; and as the mother is too kind to give her infant the flaming candles for which it cries, God is too good to bestow on his foolish children the evil things which they sometimes crave from his hand. Thus the very refusal to respond to the prayer is a result, not of disregarding it, but of giving to it more than that superficial attention which would have been enough for an unquestioning response. God sifts and weighs our prayers. We cannot present them as cheques on the bank of heaven, expecting immediate payment, exactly according to the measure of what we have set down in them. God is far better than our prayers. He exceeds our fears even when we beg him to act according to them. His sane mind corrects the wild fancies of our haste and passion. Therefore we need not shrink from the utmost freedom in prayer. God will not deal with us according to our words, but according to his love and our faith. - W.F.A.
I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. 1. The testimony of a good conscience is the best ground of our willingness to die.2. The counsels of God, His truths, must be revealed. It is as dangerous, if not more, to conceal what God hath made known, as to be inquisitive to know what God hath concealed. 3. The study of a godly man is to make the Word of God visible. 4. It is a dangerous thing for any man to conceal the Word of God, either in his opinion or in his practice. (J. Caryl.) 1. Radically and fundamentally, because the Divine nature is the root and original, the spring of all holiness and purity. 2. God is the Holy One by way of example and pattern, or in regard of the rule and measure of holiness. 3. By way of motive. He is, as the rule of holiness, so likewise the reason of our holiness. 4. God is the Holy One effectively, because He works, conveys, and propagates all holiness to and in the creature. Man can no more make himself or another holy, than he can redeem another or himself. 5. He is called the Holy One by way of eminency, or super-excellence, because His holiness is infinitely beyond all the holiness of men and angels. Holiness in angels is a quality; holiness in God is His essence. God is above men and angels, because He is absolutely perfect in holiness. And God is ever equally holy, ever in the same degree and frame of holiness. The holiness of man consists in his conformity to the holiness of God. There is a two-fold conformity: a conformity to the nature of God, and a conformity to the will of God, or to that which God wills. These make up the total holiness of the creature. (Joseph Caryl.) I. HERE IS A SIN TO BE AVOIDED — CONCEALING THE WORDS OF THE HOLY ONE. 1. We can conceal these words from ourselves. We do this when we will not permit this word to search our own heart and ways — when we conceal the Gospel, and go about to find out some way of our own for self-salvation. We should hide the Gospel in our heart, but not from our heart. We conceal it when we do not receive the whole of revelation, but pick and choose out portions of it. 2. We conceal these words from others by not confessing the truth at all, or by a sinful silence after confession, or by concealing the words of the Lord by our own words, or by clouding the truth with error, or by an inconsistent life. We must shine as lights. II. ARGUMENTS FOR AVOIDING THIS SIN. 1. The man who conceals the Word is out of order with God. The design of words is to make known the speaker's mind. If you conceal His words you are not in harmony with anything God has made. All declare His glory. Think of the consequences which would have followed if others had done so. 2. The motive to conceal is sinful. It may be cowardice, self-love, or the avoidance of shame. 3. By concealing God's words we are disloyal to God and unlike the Saviour. Think of how this will appear on a dying bed — "I knew the saving secret, but I never told even a child of it." How will this look at the last day? III. TWO METHODS BY WHICH WE MAY AVOID THIS SIN. 1. By taking care that you make an open profession of your faith and unite with the people of God. 2. When you have done that, by keeping yourself clear of sinful silence by very often speaking to others of the things of God. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) People Job, TemaPlaces Sheba, Tema, UzTopics Completely, Deliverance, Driven, Isn't, Myself, Quite, Resource, Soundness, Substance, Success, Truth, Wisdom, WithinOutline 1. Job shows that his complaints are not causeless.8. He wishes for death, wherein he is assured of comfort. 14. He reproves his friends of unkindness. Dictionary of Bible Themes Job 6:1-13Library July 12 EveningLet us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.--HEB. 10:24. How forcible are right words!--I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. They that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.--If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. … Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path Of Sufferings "Now the God of Hope Fill You with all Joy and Peace in Believing," &C. "Thou Shall Keep Him in Perfect Peace, Whose Mind is Stayed on Thee, Because He Trusteth in Thee. " The Holiness of God The Sinner Stripped of his Vain Pleas. Joy A Solemn Address to those who Will not be Persuaded to Fall in with the Design of the Gospel. "And we all do Fade as a Leaf, and Our Iniquities, Like the Wind, have Taken us Away. " Job Links Job 6:13 NIVJob 6:13 NLT Job 6:13 ESV Job 6:13 NASB Job 6:13 KJV Job 6:13 Bible Apps Job 6:13 Parallel Job 6:13 Biblia Paralela Job 6:13 Chinese Bible Job 6:13 French Bible Job 6:13 German Bible Job 6:13 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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