Bruised Reeds (Part 2)

The Compassionate Christ in Matthew 12 and Luke’s Gospel

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Ebendroff. Not the Michael Ebendroff that's got the bad theology, but Mike Ebendroff. I just completed my 28th year here at Bethlehem Bible Church, bbcchurch .org, two b's, two c's.

And what's my point? It's been a privilege. It's been an honor. I wonder after 28 years if I'm more New England-ish than I was when I got here. We arrived, I believe, April 2nd, 1997. Haley was four years old.

Luke was five months old. It had snowed April 1st in 1997, if memory serves, 30 plus inches, maybe 30, 31 or something like that. And I think maybe the first Sunday I was here, it might've been an Easter service or something.

And I think maybe I preached a few sermons on the attributes of God. I think I preached Romans 5, 1 to 11, 1 through 11, M-dash. Is it N-dash or M-dash in between those verses? I don't know. It's not a dash.

I know that. And who would ever know? We have a radio show called Duplex Gratia Radio. I'm just typing my little note here. I'm actually typing this to Matt Rosenblum. So this is for you, Matt. He just texted me.

B-y-r-n-e, David Byrne. Today is part two of Bruised Reads with Richard Sibbes. Richard Sibbes. If you don't have the book Bruised Read, just go to monergism .com, free PDF, and you put it in your browser, save as, put it to the desktop, and you can get access to it anytime your little heart is pleased to do so.

I was reading quotes about the Lord Jesus, in particular, the Isaiah 42 quote that's found in Matthew 12. My servant, behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.

I will put my spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory, and in his name the Gentiles will have hope.

Christ the Sanctifier and the Gospel of Grace

So it started off when I was at Luke, and I was talking about how compassionate Jesus was when Simon's mother-in-law had a very intense, a mega fever, to use the language of Luke, the physician. And we talked about how compassionate Jesus was, and in particular Mark 1 and Matthew 8 talks about Jesus actually touching Simon's mother-in-law and lifting her up and having great bedside manner, and how he takes care of his sheep.

And then I began to think to myself, I should probably re-read the bruised reed. English is a difficult language to re-read. Re-read with a dash, not an em dash or an N dash. Re-read bruised reed, R-E-E-D, by Richard Reed.

No, just kidding. Just kidding. What's that guy's name that, oh, Richard Simmons. I was thinking about Richard Simmons the other day, but I kept thinking his name was Gene Simmons. That was wrong too.

That would not be right. Gene Simmons, Richard Simmons. I think Gene Simmons' real name is something like Shlomo or something. It's a Hebrew name, and he goes by Gene now. Anyway, Richard Sibbs, bruised reed, 1630 is when the book was written.

According to what I have right here, when I said last show, late 1500s, that's probably when he was born. I think he died when he was 58 years old, Richard Sibbs, S-I-B-B-E-S. And so, I just was quoting some things that Sibbs wrote that would extol the Lord Jesus and his Father and the Spirit.

And I thought I would continue that today because my soul needs that and so does yours, I trust. So, I'm going to read certain quotes from the book and then I will just talk about them or I'll just let it settle in like a Selah moment.

Sibbs, Christ is our sanctifier as well as our Savior. Our Savior as well by the effectual power of the Spirit from the power of sin as by the merit of his death from the guilt thereof. Good. Christ for pardon, Christ for power.

That kind of sounds like a double benefit to me, a double grace, a duplex gratia. That's exactly right. Sibbs goes on. The first and chief ground of our comfort is that Christ as priest offered himself as a sacrifice to his Father for us.

The guilty soul flies first to Christ crucified, made a curse for us. Fence it is that Christ has right to govern us. Fence it is that he gives us his Spirit as our guide to lead us home. So, salvation is of the Lord, right?

Dear listeners, everything that's needed, he the Lord has taken care of. Your justification, monergistic, God alone working. Your sanctification, God alone working. Your glorification, God alone working.

Do you respond when God makes you born again? Of course, you respond with faith. It's a non-meritorious instrument. That's true. Is there a response to God's work of sanctification? Yes, we work out salvation with fear and trembling, but God is the sanctifier.

What we do is we say no to sin and yes to righteousness. Our response is mortification and vivification, even with the Spirit of God in us for power. This ought to be remembered, Sibbs said, in the course of our life after we are in a state of grace.

If we are overtaken with any sin, we must remember to have recourse first to Christ's mercy to pardon us, and then to the Spirit, excuse me, then to the promise of his Spirit to govern us. So, we sin, and then we have to remember Jesus is merciful to pardon, and the Spirit can give us power to overcome it.

So, let's just think about that right now. I don't need to know what sins you commit. You don't need to know what sins I commit. Oh, we could give the broad umbrella of self-righteousness and a lust and arrogance and prayerlessness and other things.

That's certainly true, but there are probably other things too we don't really want to admit. So, off to the Lord we go for mercy, for pardon, and for the promise to govern us. Wise advice from Richard Sibbs.

He goes on that we should remember number three, and when we feel ourselves cold in affection and duty, the best way is to warm ourselves at this fire of his love and mercy in giving himself for us. I feel cold in my admiration and affection and duty for the Lord at times.

I feel, a lot of times, I feel far away. I feel distant. Even these days, as I've confessed here on the show before with some of the leukemia drugs that I'm taking, just not so joyful, not so happy. The old Mike is probably still there, but because of the medicine and other stuff, it's just harder.

It's just a hard season in life, tired and lethargic and emotional and confessional. And how long have you been on that medication? Uh, Judge Judy, I've been on that medication about four months. Four months.

But when you feel yourself cold in affection and duty, warm yourself at the fire of his love. God loves you. God loves you. You're a Christian. He loves you. Sibbs also said to remember number four, that Christ rules us by a spirit of love from a sense of his love whereby his commandments are easy to us.

He leads us by his free spirit, a spirit of liberty. His subjects are voluntaries. The constraint that he lays upon his subjects is that of love. He draws us sweetly with the cords of love. Yet remember also that he draws us strongly by a spirit of power, for it is not sufficient that we have motives and encouragements to love and obey Christ from that love of his whereby he gave himself for us to justify us.

But Christ's spirit must likewise subdue our hearts and sanctify them to his love without which all motives would be ineffectual. And that's probably the hardest thing I've read from Sibbs last show and this show combined.

What is he after there? He's after that when he gives you commands, remember it's from the hand of Christ, to quote the Erskine brothers and Thomas Boston and some of the Merrill men. It's not from a taskmaster.

It's not from the first use of the law as a covenant of works to do this or else. No, the commandments are easy because remember the one who gave them to you loves you as he has proven it by your salvation.

And it's also in a sense that it's powerful because the spirit of power is in you. And so then now you have motivation to obey. You have power to obey and you're a new creature in Christ. So you're able to do what the father asked you to do.

That's all that means. Isn't that nice to have a little translator, Google Translate? Sibbs, weakness without, or excuse me, let's just start over. Weakness with acknowledgement of it is the fittest seat and subject for God to perfect to strengthen.

For consciousness of our infirmities drives us out of ourselves to him in whom our strength lies. When we are weak, we would admit our weakness, our frailty, propensity to sin, struggles, and falling to temptation.

Then we look to the one who's strong. If we think we're strong, then we don't look to him, right? My worst days are when I just think I can put it all together on my own and I don't need the Lord. Sibbs, this is maybe the most famous Sibbs quote, top five Sibbs quotes.

There's more mercy in Christ than sin in us. There can be no danger in thorough dealing. It is better to go bruised to heaven than sound to hell. Like sound, hygienic, healthy. More mercy in Christ than sin in us.

So when you really think you've sinned a lot, I'm glad you're honest. It's called confession and agreement with God. When I think I've sinned too much and too often, same things over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Unlike Piper who said, I think if you struggle with the same sins in the same way, 30 years being a Christian for 30 years, maybe you're not a Christian. What in the world is that? There's more mercy in Christ than sin in us.

So when you see the awful nature of your sin, even as a Christian, even as a pastor, remember there's more mercy in Jesus than sin in you. Did I mention there's more mercy in Jesus than sin in you? And by the way, if you have a spouse or children or parents or people at church, and you see them in sin, you see what they do unrighteously, what they do sinfully.

Did you know there's more mercy in Christ than there is sin in them? And if Christ is merciful, do you think maybe you could be merciful? I mean, one of the blights of Christianity in my mind, and probably this is the way our church functioned a long time ago when I was the pastor.

You better not admit your failures because you're going to be relegated over there to people that are backsliding, carnal, and everything else. And so let's look good on the outside, happy peppy people holding hands, as Michael Stipe might say.

I think it was Stipe, right? When I first got an REM album, I thought, I can't understand what this guy's saying. And there was no liner notes with lyrics in there. Now you can just type lyrics .com and you've got it all.

It still doesn't make any sense. Afraid to go to church because you're a sinner and you might be looked down on? Afraid that your sin might taint other people, the Lord's day worship? That's not a good look.

I don't want that here. I want a long line of sinners, just and sinful, lined up to worship the Lord on Sunday and give Him honor and praise and adoration and thanksgiving for being more merciful than they slash we are sinful.

That's what we're after. People afraid to confess their sins, afraid to show up because they know they've have sinned and they would never confess it, but they know they're sinners and they better not show up.

We as preachers, we as Sunday school teachers, we as parents, as we teach our children, we as VBS teachers, home groups, Bible studies, ought to make sure we're going to whack hard on sin and the holiness of God.

Amen. May it be. It must be. But there's more to be said when we deal with sin that's in us, with confession and forsaking, hatred, repentance, then we realize there's more mercy in Christ than sin in us.

And when He says there can be no danger in thorough dealing, then okay, just confess, just open up, not hiding anything anyway. Are you encouraged, dear Christian? Wounded, broken, bruised, smoldering?

Maybe the church you're at, maybe they don't have much use for you because you've got so many problems, so many sins. You're not a happy, peppy person holding hands. You're wallowing, you're struggling, you're behind the scenes.

You know how to smile, but they know past the smile. I want you to know there's more mercy in Christ than sin in those other people at church. Long pause. Of course you're going to get burned by people at church, but there's more mercy in Christ than sin in us.

It just popped in my mind. That's my communion message this Sunday. Drinking bad coffee again on No Compromise Radio Ministry. Well, if you want to write me, you can. Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com. I've gotten some interesting emails and encouraging emails these days.

Spencer weeds out all the spam and the hate mail. You can disagree with me and I'll read the email. If you're just going to be rude, you're just going to be just a doofus about it, then I don't care. I don't need to read it.

Don't want to. Richard Sibbes talking about the Lord Jesus and how he deals with bruised reads. All right, here's the next quote. Moses, he's talking about the law, without any mercy, breaks all bruised reads and quenches all smoking flax.

Well, the law can't save, right? Law just says do. Law just says make it happen. It's unflexible, Sibbes. For the law requires personal, perpetual, and perfect obedience from the heart, and that under a most terrible curse, but gives no strength.

It is a severe taskmaster, like pharaohs, requiring the whole tail of bricks and yet giving no straw. Christ comes with blessing after blessing, even upon those whom Moses had cursed. The law. And with healing balm for those wounds which Moses, the law, had made.

Don't you want to go read Richard Sibbes? I know you do. I know. Law, gospel. Here we go. Law has no motivation. I think it's Fonville. I first heard him say it. Probably somebody else did. The engine of the gospel.

I mean, the engine for obedience is the gospel, Jesus incarnate, and the law is just the GPS. It can't get you anywhere. It just leads. Binding up the brokenhearted. I pause because it's such a good truth.

What else does Richard Sibbes say? We are weak, but we are his. I like that. I like that. Encouraging. Sibbes. Christ is pure grace clothed with our nature. I like it. Do you like it? Sibbes. Christ will not leave us until he has made us like himself, all glorious within and without, and presented us blameless before his Father.

Let us strive a little while, and we shall be happy forever. Man, that's good. It is so good. Cast yourself into the arms of Christ, and if you perish, perish there. They seek for heaven in hell that seek for spiritual love in an unchanged heart.

Whoa. Our discord is the enemy's melody. The lower Christ comes down to us, the higher let us lift him up in our hearts. In time of temptation, believe Christ rather than the devil. Believe truth from truth itself.

A little thing in the hand of a giant will do great things. A little faith strengthened by Christ will work wonders. My groaning is not hid from thee. Psalm 38. God can make sense out of a confused prayer.

God accepts our prayers, though weak, because we are his own children, and they come from his own spirit because they are according to his own will and because they are offered in Christ's mediation. There is never a holy sigh, never a tear we shed, which is lost.

Bruce Reeds, Richard Sibbes, Mike Evendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. We see salvation not only strongly wrought, but sweetly dispensed by Jesus. I mean, just one after another after another. What mercy may we not expect from so gracious a mediator who took our nature upon him that he might be gracious?

He is a physician good at all diseases, especially at the binding up of a broken heart. Heavenly Dr. Sibbes, no wonder they called him the sweet dropper. Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote a book called Preaching and Preachers.

I think it was from Westminster Seminary lectures that he gave. He might have been retired when he gave those. And he said in that book, I shall never cease to be grateful to Richard Sibbes, who was balm to my soul at a period in my life when I was overworked and badly overtired, and therefore subject in an unusual manner to the onslaughts of the devil.

The heavenly Dr. Sibbes was an unfailing remedy. The Bruce Reed quieted, soothed, comforted, encouraged, and healed me. Would you, dear listener, like to be soothed, comforted, encouraged, healed? Well, it's not Richard Sibbes.

It's the Lord Jesus. A bruised Reed he will not break. A smoldering wick he will not quench. He binds up the broken hearted. Sibbes, God sees fit that we should taste of that cup of which his son drank so deep that we might feel a little what sin is and what his son's love was.

But our comfort is that Christ drank the dregs of the cup for us and will help us so that our spirits may not utterly fail under that little taste of his displeasure, which we may feel. He became not only a man, but a curse, a man of sorrows for us.

He was broken that we should not be broken. He was troubled that we should not be desperately troubled. He became a curse that we should not be cursed. Whatever may be wished in for an all-sufficient comforter is all to be found in Christ.

The Servant of Isaiah 42 and the Hope of the Gentiles

Mike Ebenroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. Are you encouraged? Are you happy? Are you glad? Are you saying to yourself, there's no one like the Lord Jesus? I praise him. I thank him. I cast myself into his arms by faith, and I'll just stay right there.

I think that's all I have to say. I think that's all I have to say. Behold my servant, whom I have chosen, God said in Isaiah 42, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory, and in his name the Gentiles will hope.

Hallelujah. What a savior. Mike Ebenroth, No Compromise Radio. Oh, we like to wait to this little part right there.