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The Best Strengthening Medicine (Hebrews 11:34) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. So think about the dashboard of
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your car for a second. OK, the dashboard.
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Right. You know that feeling when the
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gas gauge is just dropped way below the red line?
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Oh yeah, and the low fuel light has been glaring at you for like
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20 miles, yes. And you were just hoping to
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coast into a station before the engine sputters out?
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Well, apply that to your own life.
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That is a harsh, harsh reality check.
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It is right, But have you ever felt like you are running on
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absolute 0? Like you look at the demands of
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your day, the relational friction you are dealing with,
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the expectations weighing on your conscience.
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And you realize the internal tank has completely bottomed
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out. Spot on.
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There is no hidden reserve. There is no secondary fuel cell
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kicking in. You are completely, totally out
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of strength. And if you are nodding your head
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right now as a listener, you are going to want to hear this one.
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Definitely. For our deep dive today we are
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opening up a rather astonishing piece of source material.
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We are looking at a sermon preached in 1891 by Charles
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Haddon Spurgeon. It is a fascinating 1.
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It really is. The title is The Best
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Strengthening Medicine and he bases the whole message on a
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tiny, almost hidden phrase from the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11,
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verse 34. Out of weakness were made
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strong. That is the one.
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Our mission today is to take a very close look at the
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counterintuitive reality Spurgeon presents here.
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Right, we are going to unpack the idea that admitting total
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absolute inability is the required prerequisite for
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obtaining any genuine capability.
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Which is wild because that text completely upends modern self
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help philosophy. Oh, totally.
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The prevailing culture narrative, you know, the one we
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are fed from childhood, tells us to dig deeper.
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Right. Look inside yourself.
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Yeah, it says you need to find the hidden potential inside
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yourself to manifest your own reality through sheer willpower
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and positive thinking. But Spurgeon's thesis goes in
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the absolute opposite direction. Completely opposite.
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He does not tell anyone to look inward for a spark of greatness.
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He insists that we must look entirely outside of ourselves.
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So in this framework, weakness is not just like a temporary
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lapse in an otherwise stellar performance record.
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No, not at all. Weakness is the baseline human
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condition. And accepting that requires a
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massive shift in how we view our own resources right, and how we
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approach our daily struggles. Absolutely.
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Let us get right into that baseline, because Spurgeon
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organizes the Christian life into two distinct camps of duty.
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He does. He says we are called to doing
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and to suffering. Right.
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And to illustrate this, he uses a military analogy.
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He can cares believers to soldiers on a battlefield.
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OK, so on one side you have warriors out on the field,
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conflict, right, engaged in active duty charging the enemy
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line. Exactly.
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I mean, yes, precisely. And on the other side, you have
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sentries stationed in the box of patients bearing up under trial,
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just holding their post. They are both vital roles,
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obviously, but they require entirely different types of
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endurance. So true, and Spurgeon makes a
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very keen observation about these two types of soldiers.
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He knows that patience is actually a rarer grace than
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zeal. That is so interesting.
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A lot of people can labor relentlessly on the active
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battlefield without growing weary.
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Well, because when you were doing something active, the
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adrenaline is pumping. Right.
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Yeah, The objective is clear, and the physical action itself
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provides a sort of momentum that keeps you going.
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But take that same active warrior, pull them off the front
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lines, and place them in the sentry box of suffering.
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Tell them they simply have to wait.
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Right. Wait, endure, and bear up under
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a trial without being able to fix it, and they immediately
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fall into impatience. Because suffering without
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complaining is a vastly harder task than working with
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enthusiasm. It really is.
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I was thinking about how we naturally approach this and an
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analogy came to mind. Oh, let's hear it.
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Well, we often treat faith like a performance enhancing
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substance. Oh, that makes a lot of sense.
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Like. We think of ourselves as
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athletes who are already fairly healthy, well trained and
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capable. Yeah, we just need a little
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extra boost from God to win the race or break a record.
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Like a spiritual steroid or something?
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Right, but reading through the source text, he describes faith
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much more like life support for someone who possesses absolutely
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nothing but weakness. That is a stark contrast.
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Yeah, we are not capable athletes needing a vitamin
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supplement. We are entirely dependent
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patients needing a ventilator to breathe for us.
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That analogy hits the mark perfectly.
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Spurgeon makes the explicit claim that weakness is all we
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possess. It meets us everywhere we turn.
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It really does. He says that if we want to
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achieve anything worthy of being listed in the role of the nobles
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of Faith, we must rely entirely on strength from above.
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We bring the weakness, God brings the strength.
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Precisely. This is not a partnership of
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equals where we meet God halfway.
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No, it is a relationship of total dependence.
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And without that divine strength, even the most basic
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tasks of the Christian life become impossible mountains to
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climb. OK.
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So if we are operating from this baseline of total inability, how
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does this actually play out in the real world?
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Good question. Let us look at the first realm
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Spurgeon identifies, which he calls Holy doing.
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He starts with the simple act of obedience.
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And he makes it clear that true obedience is agonizingly
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difficult. He does not sugarcoat it at all.
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Not one bit. Spurgeon states that true
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obedience goes directly against the grain for proud flesh and
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blood. By our very nature, we love our
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own will. We'd love to chart our own
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course right to be the captains of our own soul.
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Yes, subjecting ourselves completely to the law of the
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Lord, you know, loving Him with all our heart, soul and mind is
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not something we will ever do through our own natural
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inclinations because. We are ingrained rebels.
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Exactly. I mean, yes, spot on.
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Obeying God requires A submission that our natural
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disposition aggressively fights against at every single step.
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He uses this brilliant nautical imagery to explain the friction
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of that rebellion. Of the sailing metaphor.
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Yeah, he says that if you chart a course to follow God, you will
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quickly find that the current of the world does not run that way.
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The wind is dead against you. You are not going to coast into
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obedience. Not at all.
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Every inch of forward progress will require intentional effort
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against the prevailing environmental conditions.
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And those environmental conditions come with a high
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social cost. They really do.
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Spurgeon lists the specific friction points a person will
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encounter. Right, he says.
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If you choose the right course, it will likely involve the loss
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of money, the loss of physical ease, or the loss of personal
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honor. You run the risk of being
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labeled a fanatic. Or being mocked as a hypocrite.
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Or being entirely despised as a fool.
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The world does not reward true biblical obedience, it penalizes
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it. Wait, hold on a second.
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Let me play devil's advocate here.
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Go for it. Shouldn't basic human psychology
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and willpower be enough to get past people calling you a
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fanatic? You would think so.
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Like, if someone is thoroughly convinced of their principles,
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why do they need supernatural intervention just to handle some
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social friction? Cannot sheer human resolve and
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philosophical conviction carry you through the fear of
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ridicule? Well, if we follow Spurgeon's
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logic, the answer is a definitive no.
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Why not? Because he argues that human
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nature is fundamentally driven by self love, and the self love
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creates an intense craving for a good name for social validation
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and a profound well, a massive unwillingness to be ostracized
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by our peers. So we just naturally cave to the
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pressure. Right.
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Without supernatural faith, a person facing that kind of
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severe social pressure will naturally, inevitably slide from
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their integrity to find a smooth, pleasing Rd.
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They will rationalize A compromise to relieve the
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pressure. Yes, faith is the mechanism that
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allows a person to stand firm and say God commands and he will
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recompense me. It allows a person to set their
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face like a Flint against the wind.
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Not because they do not care about the pain of ridicule, but
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because their trust in God overrides their natural self
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love. Wow, that is a harsh assessment
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of human willpower. Yeah, but it rings true when you
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look at how easily people fold under peer pressure.
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It really does. And it's fascinating how this
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individual obedience bleeds straight into our daily
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interactions with others. Spurgeon moves from the internal
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Battle of the Will right into family dynamics.
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He claims we are either blessing or cursing the people in our
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households based entirely on where we draw our strength.
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It is a heavy statement. Very He draws on biblical
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history here, citing Isaac, Jacob and Joseph as men who left
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legacies of benediction for their families.
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But the crucial point is that they could only bless others
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because they had faith in God themselves.
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Right. You cannot impart a spiritual
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blessing using natural human strength.
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You cannot guide others out of of the bondage of sin if you are
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relying on your own cleverness or moral superiority.
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He gives one of those vivid images in the text when talking
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about a wife with an ungodly husband.
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Oh, this part is striking. He warns her against trying to
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change her husband's heart through her own human effort.
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He says attempting to do that is like trying to catch Leviathan
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with a hook. Catch Leviathan with a hook.
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Think about. That it is crazy.
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You are dealing with a massive, untamable sea monster and you
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are standing on the shore with a tiny fishing pole.
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It is an exercise in total futility.
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That image perfectly captures the absurdity of trying to
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change a human soul through manipulation, nagging or
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psychological tactics. The human heart is the Leviathan
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here. Precisely.
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Spurgeon then extends this warning to parents dealing with
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unruly or defiant children. What?
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Does he say to them? He points out that parents can
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do serious mischief by relying on their own behavioral methods.
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One parent relying on their own natural affections might become
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far too indulgent, Thinking love means no boundaries.
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And the other side of that. Another parent, relying on their
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own natural sense of order, might become far too severe,
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breaking the child's spirit. So what is the solution?
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The solution is taking the children to God, recognizing
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that the wisdom and strength to head a household correctly must
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come as a divine gift placed into the open hand of faith.
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I also noticed the advice he gives to a young person entering
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an ungodly workplace for the first time.
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That is such a perilous moment in life.
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It really is, he says, that if this young person starts
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compromising, like if they try to trim their sail to the wind
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just a little bit, showing hesitation or shamefacedness
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about their beliefs, that tiny compromise ripens into apostasy.
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You cannot just blend in for a while and hope to emerge strong
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later. To illustrate the danger of that
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early compromise, Spurgeon uses a specific historical reference
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from Psalm 78. He mentions the children of
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Ephra. The biblical text says they were
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fully armed and carrying bows. They had all the equipment
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necessary for battle, but they turned back in the day of
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conflict. Because they showed cowardice at
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the starting line, they could never be relied upon again in
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the time of war. Exactly.
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Spurgeon is warning the youth that a faith beginning with
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equivocation cuts out a terrible pattern for the rest of life.
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If you hide your colors on day one, you will likely keep hiding
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them. It is intensely practical
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advice, but what is so interesting is that Spurgeon
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claims there is a specific action required to make any of
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this obedience or family leadership happen.
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Right. He introduces the act of prayer,
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and he holds it in the highest possible regard.
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He calls prayer the leverage that moves the universe.
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His phrasing is wonderful. Here.
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He quips that he would rather be a master of the art of prayer
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than an MA of both universities. I love that line.
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He views prayer not as a religious formality or like a
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mindfulness exercise, but as the actual deployment of almighty
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forces. But he places a massive
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condition on this Prayer without faith is vanity.
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OK, So what about the person listening right now who feels
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like their prayers are just bouncing off the ceiling?
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That is a very real struggle, right?
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They are trying to pray, but they feel entirely weak in the
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very act of praying. Their knee feels out of joint,
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much like the biblical story of Jacob wrestling the Angel well.
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Spurgeon addresses that exact feeling of spiritual exhaustion.
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He says that out of this specific weakness in prayer, you
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can only be made strong by faith.
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How does that actually work though?
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He explains the underlying logic of why faithful prayer works.
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God has made promises in His Word.
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If a person pleads those promises in faith, God cannot
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refuse to hear them. Because to refuse a believing
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prayer would be to falsify his own word and change his own
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character. Spot on.
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Since God's character is immutable, meaning it cannot
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change, an impossibility is created.
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God cannot ignore faith. So faith is the thing that
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confirms those feeble knees and allows the weak person to take
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hold of the leverage that moves heaven and earth.
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Yes, that shifts the burden off of our eloquence and onto God's
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character. And we really need that
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leverage, especially when Spurgeon transitions to talking
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about confronting ingrained habits and lingering sin.
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He uses some heavy dark imagery. Here he really does.
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He describes men who are sunk 1000 fathoms deep in black
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filthy waters. These are people imprisoned in
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dark caves of habit addictions, raging tempers, behaviors that
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seem impossible to break. The analogies he uses to
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describe how sin clings to us are visceral.
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What does he use? Well, he mentions the fabled
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tunic of Hercules, a mythological garment that could
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not be torn away, but literally burned into the hero's flesh and
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bone. Ouch, that is an intense image.
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And he compares lingering sin to a chased away dog that keeps
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returning to its former master's door, constantly waiting for a
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chance to get back inside. Just lurking there.
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Right. And then he even uses the image
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of the massive eupus. True.
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Oh, the Eupus tree. For context, the Eupus tree is a
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legendary tree from Java that was said to be so toxic it
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killed all plant and animal life for miles around it.
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Yeah, so Spurgeon is painting a picture of sin as a heavily
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entrenched, highly toxic, almost inescapable force in human life.
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And he insists that human resolve might conquer a specific
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sin for a short time, but human resolve is not a sin killer.
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No, it is not. You might trim the branches of
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that eupus tree with willpower, but the toxic roots remain in
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the soil. He says the only axe that can
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actually cut down the eupus tree is the blow of the Lamb.
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The atoning sacrifice of Christ is the only instrument that
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kills the root of the issue. This raises an interesting point
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about how different sins die, too.
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Spurgeon notes from his pastoral experience that certain sins,
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like the habit of blasphemy or taking oaths, are often the
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first to die. They are, in his words, shot
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through the head by true repentance and faith.
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Yes, the person turns to the Lord, and suddenly the urge to
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curse is completely gone. But other sins.
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The deeply, I mean the intensely ingrained habits of the heart.
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Right, the subtle prides and long standing coping mechanisms,
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they die very hard. They require a prolonged
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faithful application of that divine acts.
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It is a grueling process, demanding total reliance on the
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Spirit to overcome what human effort cannot.
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OK, so having tackled that massive internal battle with
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Sin, let us look at how this weakness translates into
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external action. Specifically, Spurgeon talks
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about the daunting task of sharing your beliefs with
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others. We have all been there.
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Oh, definitely you. Feel this intense desire to say
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a good word to a neighbor or a friend, but suddenly you were
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possessed by what he calls a dumb spirit.
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Yes, you stammer. You drift into talking about the
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weather. And you walk away feeling like
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you made a total failure of the interaction.
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That fear of speaking is universal.
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We mistakenly believe that God requires our eloquence, our
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sharp arguments, and our flawless delivery to change
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someone's mind. We think our intellectual
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strength is what will convince them.
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But Spurge encounters this with a story to prove that God
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actually prefers to use our weakness.
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The Story of the Bearish neighbor This is such a
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memorable anecdote in the text. Let's hear it.
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Sprigeon tells of a man who is very coarse, very stiff necked,
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and completely hostile to religion.
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He answered all appeals with rude, grumbling remarks.
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But one morning his neighbor comes to his door very early,
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weeping. The neighbor says he was awake
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all night crying over the bearish man's soul, terrified
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that he might die without hope. And how does the bearish man
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react? True to form, he rudely
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dismisses him and tells him to mind his own business.
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But the story does not end there, right?
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No. The bearish man goes back to his
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forge and he tells his wife that while he can easily defeat the
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arguments of the local Parsons, his neighbor's tears have
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completely beaten him. Wow, He is overwhelmed by the
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realization that someone else's heart is breaking for him.
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Exactly. I mean, yes, that is spot on.
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Out of a mixture of pity for his neighbor's perceived weak
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mindedness and an awakened conscience, he goes to hear the
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preaching of the word and is converted.
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The lesson of that breakdown is so clear.
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The neighbor did not have a polished theological argument.
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He had a breakdown in speech fueled by genuine earnestness.
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God took that absolute weakness, a weeping, stammering neighbor,
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and use it as an instrument in His mighty hand.
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It achieved more than the most polished rhetoric ever could.
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And that principle applies not just to sharing beliefs with a
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hostile neighbor, but to defending the truth against
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cultured mockers. Right.
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Spurgeon brings up the scenario where friends or colleagues mock
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you for holding what they call a worn out creed, or they accuse
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you of being behind the age in a world of scientific progress.
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That is a massive conceptual hurdle.
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When you are being mocked by intellectuals, your natural
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instinct is to bristle up. You want to fight back.
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Yeah, you want to prove that you are just as smart, just as
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widely read, and just as capable of delivering a sharp rebuttal.
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But Spurgeon warns against relying on that defensive
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instinct. What does he suggest instead?
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To explain how we should handle this, he unpacks a military
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analogy regarding God's timing at the Red Sea.
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Oh. This is so good.
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He says that if humans had been in charge of the Israelites
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leaving Egypt, we would have executed a pre emptive strike.
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We would have snuck into the Egyptian camps and taken the
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wheels off Pharaoh's Chariots before they ever left the gates.
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Yes, we would have stopped the threat immediately to avoid the
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anxiety of being chased into the wilderness.
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That is precisely what we would do.
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It is like playing a game of chess and wanting to win the
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match on the third move just to avoid the agonizing stress of
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steering through the mid game. That is a great way to put it.
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We want the threat neutralized before it can even form.
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But God's strategy at the Red Sea was entirely different.
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What was his strategy? His strategy was to let the
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Egyptians pursue the Israelites all the way into the very depths
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of the sea. He allowed the enemy to feel
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victorious, to seem to triumph. So that their presumption placed
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them precisely where they would be permanently and entirely
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crushed. Yes, the destruction was so
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complete that the Israelites never had to fear the Egyptian
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army again. And Spurgeon applies this to the
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intellectual and cultural enemies of the truth, doesn't
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he? He does God.
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God often allows error to proceed, to gain traction, and
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to seem like it is winning the day.
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He does this so that when the error collapses under its own
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weight and His divine judgment, it is permanently defeated.
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So our job and our witness is not to panic and try to fix it
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ourselves, but to wait on God's timing.
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Right. Waiting for God's timing while
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error seems to be winning requires an immense amount of
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endurance. And that bridges us perfectly
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into the second-half of Spurgeon's text.
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Patient suffering. Moving from the active battle to
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the sentry box we discussed earlier.
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Yeah, he starts by discussing the chronic sufferings of the
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daily grind. He paints a stark picture of
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daily poverty and the struggle for existence in a massive city
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like London in the late 19th century.
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The physical and economic toll on the working class was
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staggering. He uses the biblical imagery of
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feet like fine brass burning in a furnace to describe the
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chronic, inescapable pressure of simply trying to survive the
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weak. He also brings up the visceral
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horror of physical agony. He mentions the Surgeon's
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Lancet. And remember, this is 1891, and
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aesthetics and surgical procedures were rudimentary and
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terrifying. The instruments themselves
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looked grim. But he tells the story of a
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patient who took the doctor's case of surgical instruments and
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filled them with roses. What an incredible act of
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defiance against despair. It really is.
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That image of the roses is a brilliant illustration of divine
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comfort. Spurgeon contrasts two ways of
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handling severe physical or emotional pain.
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The worldly way is to seek the intoxicating cup, to numb the
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pain, or to rely entirely on friends who frankly, cannot
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steer through those lonely seas of suffering with you.
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Right, because no friend can actually feel your physical
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agony. Exactly.
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The spiritual way is to see even diseases as a chariot bringing
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benedictions from Jehovah Rophi the Lord that he lift thee.
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It is recognizing that God is holding that lonely sea of
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suffering in the hollow of His hand.
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But suffering takes many forms, obviously.
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Spurgeon observes the changing face of persecution.
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He has this acute historical awareness.
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He points out that Christ conquered Caesar, so believers
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are no longer being thrown to roaring lions in the Roman
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amphitheater. The state sponsored execution of
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Christians in that specific public manner was over for his
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audience. But the enmity against God has
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not disappeared. It is simply found a meaner,
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more hidden mode of torture. Spurgeon identifies the modern
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arena of persecution as the living room.
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The living room. Yes, it is the jeering husband,
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the scoffing youth, the relentless taunts from ungodly
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relatives. He calls this secret martyrdom.
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That is heavy. There are no crowds cheering
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your bravery, it is just a daily, exhausting barrage of
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unkindness from the people who should love you most.
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Yet Spurgeon encourages these secret martyrs by telling them
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that angels are the spectators to their endurance, and Christ
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himself suffers in them. That concept of secret martyrdom
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is really intense. But while physical pain and
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social rejection are tough, Spurgeon identifies A cerebral
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affliction that can be even more debilitating.
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You were talking about the assault of unbelief and internal
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darkness. Yes, he lists the intellectual
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threats of his day, specifically naming men like Huxley and
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Tyndall. For context, Thomas Huxley was
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known as Darwin's bulldog for his aggressive defense of
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evolutionary theory. And John Tyndall was a prominent
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physicist who argued for a purely naturalistic view of the
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universe. Right in the late 19th century,
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these men were the Titans of skeptical science, actively
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trying to strip the supernatural out of the public consciousness.
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Furthermore, well adding to that, Spurgeon notes that modern
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divines theologians within the church were spreading infidelity
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alongside the courser blasphemy found in the streets.
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Spurgeon gives a very specific warning about how to engage
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these intellectual assaults. He says do not use the wooden
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sword of your own reasoning to try and answer every quibble on
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the spur of the moment. He bluntly admits that no single
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human brain is capable of answering every objection that
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another human brain can raise. If you rely on your own
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intellect, you will eventually be beaten.
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So instead of the wooden sword of human logic, he insists on
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relying on the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.
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You take the defensive ground of saying let God be true and every
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man a liar. Yes.
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You do not have to untangle every scientific or
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philosophical not presented to you.
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Your strength in those mental conflicts comes from an absolute
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childlike reliance on the revelation of God, not your own
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apologetic prowess. That shifts the burden of proof
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entirely off our shoulders. But the internal darkness
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version addresses goes even deeper than intellectual doubt.
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He transitions into a raw, remarkably honest discussion
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about mental depression. He uses this incredibly
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evocative description. He says some people are born on
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a foggy day and they swallow so much of that fog that it shades
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their spirit forever. It is a striking admission from
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a man known for his booming voice and massive global
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influence. He admits to envying those who
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live in the cool, sequestered veil of life, people who never
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experience intense emotional highs because they also never
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experienced the crushing, despondent lows.
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He recognizes that mental depression is a genuine,
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agonizing affliction for many believers.
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So what is his anecdote to The Fog?
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He does not offer a quick fix or a cheerful platitude.
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No, he says. The cure is a stubborn faith
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that God is the same whether you sing or sigh.
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He uses geographic metaphors from the Bible to explain this.
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Right, he does. He says God's character does not
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change whether you are standing in the sunlight on Tabor Summit,
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which references the Mount of Transfiguration where Christ's
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glory was revealed. Or hiding in the shadows of the
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veil of Baca, which references a valley of weeping mentioned in
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the Psalms. Your safety is based on being in
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the city of refuge, not on whether you currently feel ill
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or well in your mind. This brings us to the absolute
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climax of the text, where Spurgeon illustrates how this
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internal suffering can be leveraged for the sake of
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others. He tells a story from his own
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pastoral experience that just ties it all together.
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He was preaching on Christ's cry from the cross.
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My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?
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And as he preached, he felt an awful, terrifying darkness fall
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over his own spirit. He felt a visceral sense of
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being abandoned by God, and he could not figure out why.
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He searched his conscience for some hidden sin, but found
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nothing. He steps down from the pulpit,
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enveloped in this horrific gloom, and he goes into the
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vestry. And there, waiting for him is an
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elderly man who is on the very verge of total insanity.
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The man is suffering from the exact, I mean the very same
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horror of great darkness, feeling completely forsaken by
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God. This is where the Providence of
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God becomes clear. Spurgeon realizes in that moment
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why he had to experience that sudden, terrifying depression.
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Because he had just been in the same miry clay.
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Yes, he was able to sit down with this man, understand his
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terror perfectly and guide him back to peace.
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If Spurgeon had been in a state of joyful exuberance, he never
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would have been able to connect with a man teetering on the edge
26:09
of madness. That dynamic is staggering.
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The best guide to help you out of a deep dark pit is not the
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guy standing at the top shouting instructions down at you while
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enjoying the sunshine. No, the best guide is the one
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who has been dropped into the darkness with you, who sits side
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by side in the mud and lends you a hand because his eyes have
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already adjusted to the dark. Spurgeon's weakness, his sudden
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bout of depressive terror, was the precise instrument God used
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to save that elderly man's mind. Synthesizing Spurgeon's closing
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arguments, he connects all of these highly individual
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experiences. The obedience, the family
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dynamics, the prayer, the evangelism, the physical pain,
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the mental fog. Right.
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He connects it all back to a massive global scale.
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He makes the bold declaration that this kind of absolute
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reliance on God is the only thing that can save the church,
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the nation, and the individual. Human strength, political
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maneuvering, and intellectual posturing will.
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Fail. Admitting our total weakness and
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relying entirely on the strength of God is the only medicine that
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actually works. That brings us right back to
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you, the listener. We've covered a lot of ground
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today, but the core mechanism we have discussed is shockingly
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simple. Your weakness is not a barrier
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to your usefulness. Your weakness is the required
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raw material for it. God is not looking for your
27:27
strength, He has plenty of His own.
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He is asking for your weakness so He can display His
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capability. Think about that internal gauge
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reading absolute zero. What if?
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The specific weakness you are currently begging God to remove.
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That physical ailment, that difficult relationship, that
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mental fog, that stammering tongue.
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What if that is the instrument He plans to use to display His
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strength in your life? That is something to sit with
27:52
for a while. It really is.
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Thank you for joining us for this deep dive.
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We'll see you next time on Reform Thinking.