I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me. Sermons
I. THE STATE OF THRALDOM. This simply results from the fact that the affliction has mounted to such a height that it has overpowered the sufferer. 1. The trouble cannot be thrown off. There are troubles from which we can escape. Often we can beat down our adverse circumstances. We can face our enemy and defeat him. But other troubles cannot be driven back. When the enemy comes in like a flood, no human effort can stem the torrent. 2. The distress cannot be calmly endured. Milder troubles may be simply borne in patience. We cannot drive them away, but we can learn to treat them as inevitable. There is a strength that is born of adversity. The oak grows sturdy in contending with the storm. The muscles of the wrestler are strong as iron. But distress may reach a point beyond which it cannot be mastered. Patience is broken down. 3. The affliction absorbs the whole life. The pain rises to such a height that it dominates consciousness and excludes all other thoughts. The man is simply possessed by his agony. Huge waves of anguish roll over his whole being and drown every other feeling. The sufferer is then nothing but a victim, Action is lost in fearful pain. The martyr is stretched on the rack. His torturer has deprived him of all energy and freedom. II. THE EFFECTS OF THIS CONDITION. Such a state of thraldom must be an evil. It is destructive of personal effort. It excludes all service of love and submission of patience. And yet it may be a means to a good end. 1. It should be a wholesome chastisement. For the time being it is grievous. In its acutest stage it may not allow us to learn its less,ms. But when it begins to abate its fury, and we have some calmness with which to look back upon it, we may see that the storm has cleared the air and swept away a mass of unwholesome rubbish. 2. It should be a motive to drive us to God. Such a tremendous affliction requires the only perfect refuge for the distressed. So long as we can bear our troubles we are tempted to trust to our own strength; but the miserable collapse, the utter break-down, the humiliating thraldom, prove our helplessness and our need of One who is mightier than we are. Now, the very possibility of such overwhelming troubles is a reason why we should seek the refuge of God's grace. It is hard to find the haven when the tempest is raving around us. We need to be fortified beforehand by the indwelling strength of God. 3. It should make us sympathetic with others. If we have escaped from the thraldom, it is our part to help those who are in it. We know its terrors and its despair. 4. It should lead us to make the best use of prosperous times. Then we can learn the way of Divine strength. Martyrs have triumphed where weaker men have been in bondage. The life of unselfish service, loyalty, and faith is a life of freedom. God will not permit such a life to be utterly enthralled by affliction. That awful late is the doom of the lost. - W.F.A.
I cry unto Thee, and Thou dost not hear me. 1. There is no state so low but a godly man may have a freedom with God in prayer. Though a poor soul be in the mire, though he be but dust and ashes, yet he hath access to the throne of grace.2. It is our duty to pray most, and usually we pray best, when it is worst with us; when we are nigh the mire and dust, prayer is not only most seasonable, but most pure. 3. Affliction provokes a soul to pray to the utmost, to pray not only in sincerity, but with fervency, not only to pray with faith, but with a holy passion, or passionately. 4. When prayer is sent out with a cry to God in affliction, it is a wonder if it be not presently heard. 5. Not to be heard in a day of trouble and affliction is more troublesome to a gracious heart than all his afflictions. Job thought he was not heard, because he had not present deliverance; and in that sense, indeed, he was not heard. And thus many of the saints may pray and not be heard; that is, they may pray, and not have present deliverance. How may we know that we are heard at any time?(1) By the quietness of our spirits.(2) Though we receive not the mercy presently, yet if we receive fresh strength to bear the want of it, that is an answer.(3) We are answered when, though the evil be not removed, yet we have faith and patience to wait and tarry the Lord's leisure for the removal of it.(4) He is answered in prayer that is more heavenly, or more in heaven after prayer. He that is edified in his holy faith, hath certainly prayed in the Holy Ghost, and, sure enough, every such prayer is heard. Godly men are always heard of God, yet they often think that they are not heard. (Joseph Caryl.) People JobPlaces UzTopics Answerest, Attention, Consider, Cry, Gaze, Gazest, Heed, Lookest, Merely, Note, O, Prayer, Regardest, Stand, Stood, TurnOutline 1. Job's honor is turned into extreme contempt15. and his prosperity into calamity Dictionary of Bible Themes Job 30:20 5511 safety Library Christian SympathyJob, in his great indignation at the shameful accusation of unkindness to the needy, pours forth the following very solemn imprecation--"If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering; if his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; if I have lifted up my … Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 8: 1863 What Carey did for Science --Founder of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India Whether the Limbo of Hell is the Same as Abraham's Bosom? Of Confession of Our Infirmity and of the Miseries of this Life Epistle xxxvi. To Maximus, Bishop of Salona . Messiah Unpitied, and Without a Comforter Epistle Xlv. To Theoctista, Patrician . No Sorrow Like Messiah's Sorrow Love Second Stage of Jewish Trial. Jesus Condemned by Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin. Job Links Job 30:20 NIVJob 30:20 NLT Job 30:20 ESV Job 30:20 NASB Job 30:20 KJV Job 30:20 Bible Apps Job 30:20 Parallel Job 30:20 Biblia Paralela Job 30:20 Chinese Bible Job 30:20 French Bible Job 30:20 German Bible Job 30:20 Commentaries Bible Hub |
    |