In his sermon 'A Bruised Reed He Will Not Break,' Scott Brown discusses Matthew 12:14-21, focusing on the contrast between the Pharisees' opposition to Jesus and Jesus' mission to bring justice and healing. The sermon begins with Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath, which angers the Pharisees and leads them to plot against Him. Brown highlights the prophetic fulfillment of Isaiah's words about the Messiah's gentle and redemptive mission, emphasizing Jesus as the chosen, beloved servant of God who brings justice to the Gentiles. The sermon explores the preacher's responsibilities, including accurately representing God's word, revealing God's majesty, and guiding the congregation away from sin and towards spiritual growth. Brown also underscores the nature of human brokenness, likening believers to bruised reeds and smoldering flaxes, and emphasizes Jesus' compassion and restorative power. The sermon calls the congregation to trust in Jesus' unique mission and the transformative power of the gospel.

The sermon text this morning is Matthew 12 verses 14 through 21. As we enter the text, our Lord has just had the man with the withered hand stretch it out and made it whole, doing good on the Sabbath. Verse 14. Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against him how they might destroy him. But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew from there.

And great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all. Yet he warned them not to make him known, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased, I will put my spirit upon him, and he will declare justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench till he sends forth justice to victory. And in his name Gentiles will trust.

Lord God, Heavenly Father, we pray that you will use these words, that you will use the preaching, that we use our prayers today, that you use your whole word, the fellowship of the saints, to sharpen us, to cause the sparks that sometimes we feel your spirit in us becomes, they become bonfires. Lord God, make us your people wholly with all, with all your might, Lord. Work through us in the name of Jesus Christ. You may be seated. It's always a wonderful blessing to be able to consider the goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ as this text leads us to do.

But I want to say that something happens to me on Friday afternoons if I'm going to preach on Sunday, and there begins to sort of grow progressively over me a sense of inadequacy for the preaching that's coming on Sunday. I'm always aware of an increasing sense of my own weakness, progressively an understanding of my lack of insight, my lack of holiness, my lack of preparation, my lack of obedience, and I become very aware of the fact that if all I had to do was just deliver a message and go home, it would be an easy task. But there's a lot more to do than that in a time like this. A preacher has a number of responsibilities in times like this and hopes for the congregation, as I do this morning. And so I've written a number of these things down.

I want you to know what they are. And they have very much to do with our text here this morning. There are a number of things that one would pray would take place. Number one, that I would represent the words of God accurately so that the congregation can compare everything in their lives with the truth of Scripture. That's number one.

Number two, to give them a vision of the majesty of God. Number three, to help them find their greatest delight and happiness in God. Number four, to instruct them in the flow of history and their place in history. Number five, to show them the world as it really is. Number six, to equip them for the work of the ministry.

Number seven, to explain and dissect their problems in light of scripture so that they can see who they really are. Number eight, to bring the whole congregation to live no longer in the flesh but the Spirit. Number nine, to question the ungodly traditions of the congregation. Number ten, to oppose the sins that have taken root. Number eleven, to confront their prejudices.

Number twelve, to contradict their philosophy by scripture. Number 13, to expose the nature of paganism and how it is affecting them. Number 14, to stop them from drinking from the poisoned well of the world. Number 15, to terrify them with the law and the consequences of breaking it. Number 16, to kill their self-love.

Number 17, to destroy their comforts in their good works and their moralism and their high view of themselves. Number 18, to expose their self-congratulatory spirit. Number 19, to incite them to repent. Number 20, To show them their inner Pharisee. 21.

To confront their lack of love. 22. To counsel them to grow in love, to remercy and forgiveness. Number 23, to stand in the way of their current desires. Number 24, to lower their opinions of themselves.

Number 25, to raise their opinions of Christ. Number 26, to cast them hopeless on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Number 27, to convert the lost. Number 28, to console them with the gospel. Number 29, to comfort the brokenhearted.

Number 30, to give hope to those who have lost it. Number 31, to bind up the weak through him who is strong. And so I pray that somehow, God, by the power of his Spirit, these things would be accomplished in our congregation. But these last four that I mentioned are really at the heart of this text, to console them with the gospel, to comfort the brokenhearted, to give hope to those who have lost it, to bind up the weak through him who is strong. And that really is where this text is going as there's a disclosure of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and all of what he is about.

This is one of the most beautiful texts of Scripture that explain the ministry and the motivations and the work of the Son of God. It's just, it's incomparable. And this, our passage though, begins in a whole context of conflict. It begins with an announcement of a plot to kill Jesus and then his withdrawal and then the things that he did after his withdrawal. And then Matthew explains all these things by quoting Isaiah 42, which is the voice of God about the Son of God.

It's a Father speaking of His Son, of His nature, his work, his ways with mankind. And then finally, the results of his work as the Gentiles will trust him. And so, in this passage, there's this very striking contrast between, on the one hand, You've got the brutality of the Pharisees, and then this suffering servant who takes away the sin of the world, who binds up the bruised reed, who fans to flame the smoldering wick that's about ready to go out. So these are the two prominent things that rest in this text here. In many ways it's a very simple, simply organized passage of Scripture because these are the two prominent thoughts that are there.

First, the hatred of the unconverted man against Jesus, and then Secondly, the Father's mission for His Son to heal a bruised reed and to fan the flame, a smoldering wick. And what we know about this passage, among many other things is that Matthew wants us to know that Jesus is the Son of God and that as the Son, He is the servant of God. And the Lord Jesus Christ is on a mission for his Father to accomplish particular goals. And all the imagery that's here is rolled up in this prophecy of Isaiah. So when we get to verse 14, we read, then the Pharisees went out and plotted against him.

The Pharisees went out and plotted against him how they might destroy him. So the first thing that we encounter here is the Pharisees plot. Now remember, this comes after Jesus, he just heals a man with a weathered hand on the Sabbath. He tells the Pharisees that the Sabbath was made for man, to be a blessing to man. Here the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who is blessing mankind at every move of His feet.

And the Pharisees are resisting Him, and now they're plotting to kill him while at the same time his father's blessing is upon him and sending him. The servant of God is being slandered by man. That's what we see here in this verse 14. And it's a fulfillment of the prophecy in Genesis chapter 3 that he, Satan, will bruise Jesus' heel, but Jesus will bruise his head. This is the conflict that is engaged here.

And so this whole chapter is profiling the difference between the Pharisees and the Lord Jesus Christ. And now They plotted against him. The word that Matthew uses has to do with the forming of a council. They had a little get together there on the Sabbath. And they are plotting to kill him on the Sabbath.

Jesus and his disciples are being slandered because they're eating grain on the Sabbath, while the Pharisees are having a council to plot murder on the Sabbath. It's so incredibly ironic what's happening here. And so Their true heart is being exposed in every phrase, really, of Matthew chapter 12. Now, the conflict is over a number of things. And I just want to identify one of the things that this conflict is over.

It's over the doctrine of scripture. The Pharisees felt free to add to the commandments of God. In the previous text, in Matthew 12, there's a conflict over the Sabbath. And the Pharisees are adding to the Word of God regarding the Sabbath. Jesus is correcting them and saying, no, I am the Lord of the Sabbath.

And there is only one way to celebrate the Sabbath. And that is my way. And the Pharisees, though, want to do it a different way. They want to add all kinds of things to the celebration of the Sabbath. They had interpreted the Fourth Commandment wrongly.

They were adding to the commandments. They were committing the sin that we read of in Deuteronomy chapter 4 in Proverbs 30, verse 6. And they have rejected the idea that there are works of necessity and mercy that are lawful on the Sabbath. And so they have actually added to the Word of God. This was the great sin of Phariseeism then and now.

They had found themselves crosswise with Revelation chapter 22 verse 19. If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in the book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the book of life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. So this thing that the Pharisees are doing has enormous consequences for them in their eternal state. And so now they're consulting, Mark says that they have consulted with the Herodians who were the ones who asked Jesus if it was lawful to pay taxes.

They were followers of Herod Antipas. They were united against Jesus. These were strange bedfellows gathering together, the Pharisees on the one hand, and then the Herodians of all people gathering together. This often happens in times of times of conflict where there are strange bedfellows who are lined up against the Son of God. So they are conceiving murder on the Sabbath and this is just nothing new.

Men have always conceived to kill Jesus Christ. This week that the famous atheist, Christopher Hitchens died at age 62. He had waged a philosophical and lifestyle war against the Son of God his entire life long, and he finally met his end. And here, what the Pharisees are doing here is what people have done from that time forward, and that is to wage war against the Son of God. And all of these plans will always fail.

Even though Pharaoh mounts a genocide against the Hebrew boys, he will fail. He cannot stamp out the seed. Even though Herod tries to kill the boys as well to try to stamp out the seed, it will not work. These are futile efforts that governments and individuals try to mount that they cannot succeed. And so here in this first verse, we see the raging hatred of mankind toward the Son of God.

The demons are raging, the politicians are plotting, but the angels are singing to enter to Welcome in the Son of God into the world. And so here we're first in verse 14 confronted with this whole idea of the conflict against the Son of God. And then in the midst of this conflict in verse 15, something really strange happens. The one who can call down legions of angels to destroy everyone and do anything he desires, he withdraws. It's a strange thing that most of us would not have done.

We would have exercised our power. Jesus Christ exercises his wisdom and it says in verse 15, but when Jesus knew it, he withdrew from there. Now this term that Matthew uses, knowing this, implies omniscience. He knows everything. He knows everything that is going to happen and he is completely knowledgeable about everything And he knows your name, he keeps your tears in a bottle, he knows you're sitting down and you're rising up, and he knows your thoughts from afar.

And he knew the thoughts of those who were around him. And so he withdraws himself from there. He wasn't fleeing out of fear. It just was not his time. He was walking according to a prophetic timeline.

He was as wise as a serpent, and he was as innocent as a dove in his withdrawal from that moment and he was really taking his own advice that he gave to the disciples that they persecute you in one city flee to another and continue your work. Now Mark offers a more detailed explanation. I'd like you to turn to Mark chapter 3 and look at verse 7 and we'll go to 14. You'll just see there's some other things that we know happened during this occasion that give context. Now Matthew typically is more brief.

He focuses in on fundamental issues to drive the particular issues that he wants to drive, which are typically the prophetic issues that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, He's the long-waited Messiah, and He is fulfilling all of Scripture. That's really Matthew's purpose, to proclaim Him as King. Mark typically has other details that are really very interesting that give us other insights about what's happening. So in Mark chapter 3 verse 7 we read, but Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea. So we learn from Mark that he went to the sea, his destination.

And then we read that there's this great multitude growing and because of all the things that Jesus was doing. And a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judea and Jerusalem and Edomia and beyond the Jordan and from those of Tyre and Sidon. So from all over the place you can imagine people are streaming from these various geographies to meet Jesus to go to the sea And because they had heard how many things He was doing. And then the disciples do something interesting. They get a boat to keep him from being crushed by the crowd, because the press of the crowd is so great.

He needs to be relieved by getting out in the water in a boat so that he wouldn't be crushed. We see that in verse 9. So he told his disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for him. He's playing his options. Get a boat ready.

I need to get away from this crowd. And because they are going to crush him in verse 9, because he healed so many, and they're pressing in. And Then the unclean spirits start crying out as is recorded in verse 11, declaring that he was the son of God. And whenever they saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, saying, You are the son of God. But he sternly warned them that they should not make him known.

And he went up on the mountain and called to him those he himself wanted. And they came to him. So again, this just gives a broader context. When Jesus says, do not tell anyone, we know there's actually a broader context. The demons are crying out, and all these other things are happening.

And he's healing the multitudes, as it says in Matthew, and he has healing in his wings. He's a great physician. He's constantly going about doing good. And then this warning is issued by Jesus. Again, He does this a number of times.

Verse 16 is recorded here. And yet he warned them not to make him known, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying. So We learn that there are two things that are fulfilled by prophecy. His withdrawal and all the things that he is doing. But it's very interesting here that Matthew has us thinking this way, that he warned them not to make him known that it might be fulfilled.

It's often asked, why did Jesus say, you know, don't speak of this? And here is your answer. The things that he is doing are fulfillments of prophecy. That's the reason. Now, it may not make sense.

We can think of all kinds of reasons why Jesus would tell people not to say anything. But here it just says explicitly that He warned them not to make Him known, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying. So his telling his disciples this and his behavior, the very things that he's doing is a fulfillment of prophecy. So the next time someone asks you, why was it that Jesus asked people not to tell them? You can go right to verse 16, and you can at least give some semblance of the answer that it was actually a fulfillment of prophecy.

And Jesus is constantly quoting the prophets and establishing a connection between him and the prophets. And already In Matthew, Jesus has quoted the Old Testament over and over and over again. I just want to give you a flyover of some of the things that he's already quoted. And I want to give them to you because they're so beautiful. They're so compelling and they say so much about the Son of God.

In chapter 1 verse 23, Isaiah 7, 14 is quoted, Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel." Which is translated, God with us. In chapter 2 verse 6, Micah 5.2 is quoted, But you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah for out of you shall come a ruler who will Shepherd my people Israel and that same text In chapter 2 he quotes Hosea 11 1 out of Egypt. I have called my son In chapter 2 18, Jeremiah 31 15 is quoted, a voice was heard in Rhema, lamentation weeping in great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children refusing to be comforted because they are no more. In chapter 3 verse 3, Isaiah 40 verse 3 is quoted, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. In chapter 4 verse 15, Isaiah 9, 1 and 2 is quoted, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned.

In chapter 8, verse 17, Isaiah 53, verse 4 is quoted, He himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses in chapter 11 verse 10 Malachi 3 1 is quoted Behold I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you." So even just reciting those quotes again, didn't you just see the whole outline of Matthew up to this point? I mean, he is quoting the Old Testament. We didn't even speak of the Sermon on the Mount in chapters 5 through 7, where he quotes the Old Testament over and over and over again. So the whole outline of Matthew can easily be seen by just walking through various Old Testament texts. So now here in chapter 12, Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 42 to give a picture of his mission from his father.

And the whole idea that is being presented here is that man's understanding of the mission of the Messiah is different than God's. God has a completely different understanding of it. Now, this is the longest single quotation that Matthew, of the Old Testament, that Matthew uses. And notice that it is the Father who is speaking. The Father speaks here, but if you step back in Matthew chapter 12, you'll see that this is a very Trinitarian chapter.

You have the Father speaking here. Earlier, the Lord Jesus says, the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath. In verse 28 we see the work of the Spirit because He is casting demons out by the Spirit of God. So you have the Father and the Son and the Spirit all giving particular messages about their role and their ministry. Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath.

The Father is speaking about his son and the Spirit is casting out demons. So the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, all of the powers of the Godhead are displayed in their work here. The mighty power of God is on display. If anyone doubts the mighty power of God for their life. Matthew chapter 12 is a great place to go, to see what God can do, what he does do, what he will do, and what will happen as history moves on.

So there's so much here to see regarding the whole nature of the Godhead here. But what we find here is that God the Father is disclosing something, and that is his way of saving and sanctifying sinners. And he is speaking of the purposes of the incarnation of the Son of God. And His work is to fulfill the plans of God the Father. Again, this whole Trinitarian aspect is on display.

There is a plan in this world. And there is a history that we are experiencing. It's predetermined. God the Father is ordaining every single step in history. And he has ordained that his son would have a particular kind of ministry in the world.

And His quoting Isaiah 42, to me, it's almost like a voice from heaven. Here the Pharisees are raging, there's this cacophony of confusion, people are pressing in, and it's now the voice of a father to explain the work of his son in the midst of all of all of this activity that is here. Now Isaiah 42 is a fascinating chapter of scripture And we could spend all of our time dissecting Isaiah as a whole to see the first 39 chapters as distinctive from 40 to 66 and how they have different focuses. The first half of Isaiah focuses on the terrible sin of Israel and God's judgment. The second half beginning in chapter 40 is the work of the Messiah, the failure of the failure of Israel to do their work and to follow God and the hope for this one person who would finally restore, this one person who would bear the punishment of sin.

Chapter 41 ends up talking about the idolatry of the world and the inadequacy of Israel to save herself. The solution is there is a servant, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is on a mission. The servant, And this servant will go outside of Israel to give God disciples for himself. And so that's why we read in Isaiah 42, 1, Behold my servant whom I uphold, my elect one in whom my soul delights. Now, you'll notice differences in the translation of Isaiah 42 and what comes out of the mouth of Jesus in Matthew.

And Jesus is speaking accurately. He is interpreting Isaiah 42 accurately. There are some different details that you find in Isaiah 42 that you don't find in the Matthew rendition of it. But suffice it to say, what's happening here is that Jesus Christ is being presented by his father as the suffering servant, the promised Messiah, who will come and bring salvation to the true Israel, but he will also bring salvation to the Gentiles. And here the Father says a number of things about his son.

There are particularly four things that he says about his son. First of all, He is directing the crowd where they should look. In verse 18 he says, behold, to look to his son. This is an appeal to look to the son of God. Their eyes would have been downcast for the judgments against the people of Israel in Isaiah chapter 42.

Isaiah 41 ends with the disclosure of the idolatry of Israel and the heaviness of that idolatry. And now Isaiah is calling for the eyes to look in a different direction, to look in the direction of the Messiah. To look to Christ in the midst of your idolatry is the most helpful, hopeful, wonderful thing anyone can ever do. And so these words, behold, and then my servant, this is a disclosure of who he is. He is the servant of God.

Matthew does not use the word for slave, doulos, but rather he uses the word son to speak of this kind of servanthood. It's the kind of servanthood that a son gives his father. And the Jews were looking for a single person. John says, are you the one? Simeon was looking for one person who was the Messiah.

And that's the whole idea here that well, there are various sons of God spoken of in the Bible. Here's how you can see it. Israel is called my son. Picture sort of a pyramid. At the base of it is Israel, his son.

And then there is the true Israel in the second tier, the true believing Israelites. And then there is the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. These three are called his son. And here the Lord Jesus Christ is being presented in an isolated way as the true Son. And there is this one Savior of the world.

It's not Israel as a whole. It's not even converted Israel. It is the Son of God. And He is the One. He is the servant.

He is, as God says, my servant, which takes us to Isaiah chapter 53, That amazing passage which speaks of his servanthood where we read, By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. He poured out his soul unto death. For he was numbered among the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." That was his work of servanthood. He was serving his father to find himself in the earth to suffer and die for the sins of mankind. That is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then he would be resurrected so that all who would believe on his name would be saved. This is his servant, this prophesied servant of Isaiah 53. And then number three, he is the chosen one. He says, God says, whom I have chosen. This is part of God's eternal plan to save mankind.

Redemption has a history. It begins in the heart of God, and it ends before the throne of God. And then for all eternity, in the presence of God, He is the chosen one. And there are no other saviors in the world. Nothing else can atone for the sins of mankind, only his chosen one.

And then he calls him my beloved, fourthly, in verse 18 at the end of that verse, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased. And so here is the whole idea of the beloved nature of the Son of God. Of the love of a father toward his son. The father is pleased with his son because his son does his will. And he only says the things that his father says.

He only does the things that he sees his father doing Because He is a beloved Son. In Hebrews chapter 10, verse 7 we read, Then I said, Behold, I have come. In the volume of the book it was written of me, To do your will, O God. And so He is the beloved. He is my beloved, as God says.

And we are included in the beloved as Hebrews 1 6 says just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the beloved." In other words, we are accepted in the beloved Son. This is my beloved Son." When God speaks of His Son that way, He's also speaking of His adopted sons who are in the beloved, who are in Him, or in Christ. We are, He is the beloved Son. We are in Christ making us beloved and adopted sons of God. So God is speaking of His Son as my beloved.

And so these are the things that the Father says about the Son. He says, behold, look there, he says that he is his servant, he says that he is his chosen one, and he says that he is his beloved. So the Father is speaking of his Son. Just consider his Son. Consider your own heart response to the Son of God.

Here before us is displayed the doctrine of the Son of God and the mission that his Father sent him on and what that means for us. Then in 18 to 21, it's very interesting, There are eight consecutive future tense verbs that speak of what the Son does, or what the Father will do for the Son. The first speaks of how his father will equip him. I will put my spirit upon him. This is what God the Father has done with his son.

This is Christology. This is the nature of the Son of God and what God has done with His Son. He has equipped Him by putting His Spirit upon Him. We know that He received the Spirit, as John says in chapter 3, verse 34, without measure. He had a deposit of the Spirit of God without measure, which makes him wonderful counselor, mighty God.

He's your helper. He's your comforter. He is your advocate. He has been given this deposit of the Spirit. I will put my Spirit on him.

And the words of Jesus are spirit and they are life. Here is a disclosure of what the Father has done in giving us his Son. And then we learn what he will do with the Gentiles and he will declare justice to the Gentiles. This is what God the Father has given him to do, to declare justice to the Gentiles. All those words are very important.

He is governing, he is bringing justice, he is indicating rulership. He was sent to rule the Gentiles who will trust in the legal activity that took place on the cross. The justice that comes to the Gentiles is the act of justification by faith alone that was accomplished at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So here is brought before us the whole matter of his death on the cross and his resurrection that was a declaration of justice to the Gentiles who would have faith in him. So it is about the conversion of the Gentiles.

But quite likely it's broader than that. He is bringing justice to the Gentiles for all of eternity, which he's speaking of his salvation of the Gentiles and his reign over all things in heaven. He is bringing justice to the Gentiles. And how does he do it? It speaks of it here in verse 19.

He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. This is a strange way to bring justice to the Gentiles. He's not looking for publicity, he has no pomposity, he's not proud, he's not self-flattering. This is so in such contrast to the way that the Pharisees are bringing their disciples to salvation. He doesn't stand in the corners of the streets.

He's not crying out injustice if he is wrong. He doesn't complain. He silently absorbs his abuse. He doesn't fight back his kingdom. It is not of this world.

One of the men in the Bible study on Tuesday said he's not a revolutionary. He's not a rabble rouser. Well, they tried to make him their king. They tried to make him that, but that wasn't who he was. That wasn't his methodology.

His methodology was the methodology of the Spirit to enliven people. And so Then Matthew turns by giving us two images of the way he deals with his people. And he is giving a bruised reed and a smoking flax. Those are the two images that he uses to describe those whom he will redeem. He uses these two images of incredible weakness to describe the church.

This is who we are. We are sheep, but we are also bruised reeds, and we are also smoking wicks or smoking flax. Jesus Christ is teaching us who we are. He's showing us what we are like and what He is like before us as the suffering servant of God to come and redeem us. He's telling you and I who we are.

And so this first image is the image of the bruised reed. And again, you know, this image is like the other one of the smoking flax, and that it really illustrates the kind of pastoral care that the Lord Jesus Christ has toward his people in the midst of their weaknesses. Now you might say, well I'm weak. You might say, I have so far to go. You might say, I've sinned against the Lord in this way.

This is who you are. You are being described by your Savior. This is our reality. And so the first image is the bruised reed. And it's a picture of a reed that has been bent and now it's bruised.

If you can picture that, you know, reeds are very slender. They wave in the wind. They're very weak. They don't stand up too much. Here is a picture of a reed that is no longer holding its shape.

It has been bruised and now it's even weaker. And it's half broken. This picture is the broken people who are in the Church of Jesus Christ. He's describing us. I often marvel at the brokenness that's in our Church.

I marvel at the brokenness that's in my own life. And this long, slow healing process that's in motion in us. And you would think that He would just make everything right immediately at our conversion, but He doesn't do that. We are his bruised reeds. The Lord Jesus has spoken in many different ways about his people.

Even in Matthew 9, 36, he says that we are harassed like sheep without a shepherd. In Isaiah 61, we learn that it's the intention of the Son of God to bind up the brokenhearted. Is there anyone here with a broken heart about anything? In Matthew 5, 3, Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit. In other words, Blessed are those who are not proud of their righteousness.

He said to us and to his disciples, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. In the last chapter of Matthew. We know from Psalm 34 that the Lord is near to those with a broken heart. So this whole subject of the brokenness of the people of God is all part of the ministry of the Son of God. To take the broken reed and to bind it up, to take the smoking flax and to fan it, to flame so that it has strength again.

Richard Sives, the English Puritan, wrote a book called The Bruised Read, and he speaks of the good effects of the bruising in this way. He says, this bruising is required before conversion, so that the spirit may make way for himself into the heart by leveling all proud high thoughts, and that we may understand ourselves to be what indeed we are by nature. We love to wander from ourselves and to be strangers at home until God bruises us by one cross or another. And then we begin to think and come home to ourselves, like the prodigal son. Likewise, this dealing of God establishes us the more in his ways, having had knocks and bruisings in our ways.

This is often the cause of relapses and apostasy, because men never smarted for sin at the first. They were not long enough under the lash of the law." In other words, what he's saying is that the brokenness is good for us because it drives us completely to the end of ourselves. And the things that break us, they can be even the lash of the law to break us in such a way so that we know who we really are. To know that we are broken and that's the beginning of our salvation. And I would just suggest it's also the continuation of our sanctification as we continue to realize the weaknesses of that.

Richard Siv says this, a man truly bruised judges sin, the greatest evil, and the favor of God the greatest good. He would rather hear of mercy than of a kingdom. He has poor opinions of himself and thinks that he is not worth the earth he treads on. Towards others he is not censorious as being taken up at home but is full of sympathy and compassion to those who are under God's hand. He thinks that those who walk in the comforts of God's Spirit are the happiest people in the world.

He trembles at the Word of God and honors the very feet of those blessed instruments that bring peace unto him. He is more taken up with the inward exercises of a broken heart than with formality and is yet careful to use all sanctified means to convey that comfort. He says this, sometimes our grief from outward grievances may lie heavier upon the soul than grief for God's displeasure. Because in such cases, the grief works upon the whole man, both outward and inward, and has nothing to support it but a little spark of faith. What he's saying is that often, often our broke, we're more concerned about our outward brokenness because people see it than we are our inward corruptions and brokenness.

We're more embarrassed for people to see our outward brokenness than we are at our inward sin. That's what he's trying to say. So here the Lord Jesus Christ, in many ways, is a Father who does discipline His children. He handles His children delicately in many ways. He handles us like a bruised reed.

He knows our frame, he binds up our wounds, and he does not destroy us, but he saves us. You have to ask, who is the bruised reed? I think it's the unconverted and it's the converted. That's what I believe. That's what I believe the Bruce Reed is.

I've read a lot on the subject. That's pretty much what most people think it is. And then he shows us how he will treat those whose spark is waning and his smoking flax he will not quench. This is the one person who's on his last leg. He's almost out.

His faith is just a flicker. And there's almost nothing there. Is that you? Is it possible that anyone is in that place? And they say, this is me.

I just have a little spark left. He's addressing us here. The wick that's only smoking is the weakest kind of fire you can get. It's kind of a fire, but it's almost not a fire at all. But there is something left.

It's filling the room with smoke. It's annoying in one sense. Many believers are that way. There's so little fire that they're just an annoyance. And there's hardly anything there.

There's no light and there's no heat from them at all. But there is something there though. All is not lost when there's just a little bit there. It describes someone who's just at the end of his faith rope, and is not sure if there's anything left. God knows if something is left.

People get to the place where they're just grasping for their last chance. And who would be there? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the one who does not put out the smoking wick. He doesn't put it out because it's been unfaithful, because it's been worldly to bring it to such a state.

He doesn't do that. He doesn't snuff it out. He fans it to flame. This is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This should teach us a lot about how we deal with one another in our church.

When someone is just smoking a lot and filling the room with a lot of smoke and not a lot of light and not a lot of heat, what do you do? You have to recognize God. You have to recognize the power of Jesus Christ in the midst of that situation with that person. You have to trust God. You have to know that God is able to bring back that spark and make it into a flame again.

You have to be able to trust Him to do that. Sib says that there are reasons that He doesn't snuff it out. He says the first reason is that the spark is from heaven. It's his own spark and it is kindled by his own spirit. And he says he also doesn't snuff it out because it tends to the glory of his powerful grace in his children that he preserves light in the midst of darkness, a spark in the midst of the swelling waters of corruption.

Now there are many ways that people lose their fire and there are many ways that people get their reeds bruised. They're always from sin. Always. You can always trace the bruised reed and the smoking flax to some sin in some way. It may be that you are sinned against.

It may be that you grew up in a certain kind of family and you've been broken in certain ways. That everybody else isn't broken that way. But you can always trace the bruised reed and the smoking flax to some sin somewhere, some work of the devil. But that's not the end of the story, is it? Because Jesus Christ does not break the reed, amen.

And he doesn't snuff out the smoking flax. This just illustrates human weakness in the face of the grace of God. While on the one hand, Job 18.5 says, the lamp of the wicked, the light of the wicked, will be put out. But the Lord Jesus says, come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." You know, the Lord Jesus offers really the shepherd's staff, in that sense. It's like what He said in Romans 15, where He said, we then who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak.

This is what He has done. And He gives that same ministry to us for one another. And That doesn't mean that everything that we are commanded to do regarding speaking the truth and love, or reproving and rebuking and exhorting, which is what we're supposed to do, or going to your brother, it doesn't mean that we stop that, but it does mean that we understand the true nature of the soul of man, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Governor and the Lord of the soul of man. And He is able, He is able to bring healing back to that reed and fire back to that smoking wick. That's the power of the Gospel.

And so Then we see that he is going to accomplish something and he sends forth justice to victory. He sends forth justice to victory. This is success. Christ will not rest until he has accomplished the salvation of the elect. And he sends forth justice to victory at the beginning of the cross.

Of course, he actually began it in Genesis 3.16 and 17, Genesis 3.15, where he told the truth of the whole sweep of history, that he would bring justice to victory. This is another example of it. And he will bring everything to a victorious end. And then he will speak of how the Gentiles will respond in verse 21. And in His name, the Gentiles will trust.

The Gentiles will trust. So here the Lord Jesus Christ is being explained by His Father In the midst of all this confusion, all of this hatred being heaped on Him, the Father speaks and says, no, this is the work of My Son. This is what I have done for Him, and this is the result of it, he will bring justice to victory and the Gentiles will trust. So here in this very short passage of Scripture is really the whole sweep of the history of the world right before our eyes as Jesus withdraws himself and God discloses the true nature of the ministry of the Son of God. So, let's move to some applications quickly here.

First of all, We've just been reading about Jesus Christ. And I just want to say, the question, what would Jesus do, is the wrong question. That's the wrong question. You are not Jesus. Jesus is on a very different mission.

You cannot follow His example in all the details that are here. While your life is to be like His, this is the Son of God. Our question this morning is, what did Jesus do? That's our question. What did Jesus Christ do?

What was the gospel? And that's what we've just read about. Do you understand that? What has happened? That Jesus Christ has come to rescue sinners.

The bruised reed and the smoking flax to bring them to victory. That is the gospel. And then The other thing I just want to acknowledge is that this whole matter of brokenness, it is true that some people need a kick in the pants, But they don't always need a kick in the pants. And, you know, there are hurts here. There are hurts here in this congregation.

There's a hurt in every single home in this congregation. There are dozens of hurts and disobediences and consequences of sin in every single person in this room. We are that bruised reed. We are that smoking flax. And this is just such a wonderful opportunity to turn to your shepherd, to understand who he is and how he relates with you.

And so you've been given a vision of what of his this whole disposition toward you as his son or as his daughter. You know as we move as we move toward the Lord's table we're really moving toward a an ordinance that speaks the whole truth of this, that He builds you up, He preserves you, He takes you to victory. He designs the Lord's Supper for the bruised reed, and He will not break it, and He will not put it out. He gives us this ordinance where He engages all of our five senses so that we understand the mercies of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the cup of blessing with which we bless.

This is the blessing that we have been given in Jesus Christ. And that we're about to celebrate in just a moment here. That he who began, O good work, will complete it. That you are his reed and he will restore you. And it is his fire and he will keep it alive.

And now it is for you to come and examine yourself before the throne of grace that you might receive mercy in time of need and to celebrate with all of your brothers and sisters. Someone once said, the weak saint costs just as much as the strong one. And that's what we're going to celebrate here in just a few moments. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, You've given us a vision of Your Son.

You've spoken about Him so carefully for us so that we might know Him. Oh God, that You would help us to love Him all the day long now. Amen.