Lame Sheep

We sometimes meet with those who are fleet of foot and joyous of spirit. Would to God that all were so! But as they are not, the lame must be considered.

The road should be cleared for tottering steps.

Our desire is that the whole band may reach the journey’s end in safety.

I. IN ALL FLOCKS THERE ARE LAME SHEEP.

1. Some are so from their very nature and birth.

   • Ready to despond and doubt.
   • Ready to disbelieve and fall into error.
   • Ready to yield to temptation, and so to prove unstable.
   • Unready and feeble in all practical duties.

2. Some have been ill-fed. This brings on a foot-rot and lameness.

   • Many are taught false doctrine.
   • Many more receive indefinite, hazy doctrine.
   • Many others hear light, unsubstantial, chaffy doctrine.

3. Some have been worried, and so driven to lameness.

   • By Satan, with his insinuations and temptations.
   • By persecutors, with their slander, taunting, ridicule, etc.
   • By proud professors, unkindly pious, severely critical, etc.
   • By a morbid conscience, seeing evil where there is none.

4. Some have grown weary through the roughness of the road.

   • Exceeding much ignorance has enfeebled them.
   • Exceeding much worldly trouble has depressed them.
   • Exceeding much inward conflict has grieved them.
   • Exceeding much controversy has worried them.

5. Some have gradually become weak.

   • Backsliding by neglect of the means of grace.
   • Backsliding through the evil influence of others.
   • Backsliding through pride of heart and self-satisfaction.
   • Backsliding through general coldness of heart.

6. Some have had a terrible fall.

   • This has broken their bones so as to prevent progress.
   • This has snapped the sinew of their usefulness.
   • This has crippled them as to holy joy.

II. THE REST OF THE FLOCK MUST SEEK THEIR HEALING.

1. By seeking their company, and not leaving them to perish by the way through neglect, contempt, and despair.

2. By endeavoring to comfort them and to restore them. This can be done by the more experienced among us; and those who are unfit for such difficult work can try the next plan, which is so plainly mentioned in our text.

3. By making straight paths for our own feet.

   • By unquestionable holiness of life.
   • By plain gospel teaching in our own simple way.
   • By manifest joy in the Lord.
   • By avoiding all crooked customs which might perplex them.
   • By thus showing them that Jesus is to us “The way, the truth, and the life.” No path can be more straight than that of simple faith in Jesus.

III. THE SHEPHERD OF THE FLOCK CARES FOR SUCH.

1. Their fears: they conclude that he will leave them.

2. The reason: to do so would be by far the easier plan for him.

3. Their dread: if he did so, they must inevitably perish.

4. Their comfort: he has provided all the means of healing the lame.

5. Their hope: he is very gentle and tender, and wills not that any one of them should wander and perish.

6. Their confidence: healing will win him much honor and grateful affection; wherefore we conclude that he will keep them.

Let us be careful to cause no offence or injury to the weakest.

Let us endeavor to restore such as are out of the way, and comfort those who are sorely afflicted.

Sheep-Lore

Sheep are liable to many diseases, many of them are weak and feeble; these a good shepherd takes pity of, and endeavors to heal and strengthen. So the saints of God are subject to manifold weaknesses, temptations, and afflictions, which moved the Almighty to great compassion, and sorely to rebuke the shepherds of Israel for their cruelty and great remissness towards his flock: “The diseased have you not strengthened, neither have you healed that which was sick,” etc. And therefore he says he would himself take the work into his own hands; “I will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick,” etc.—Benjamin Keach.

Many preachers in our days are like Heraclitus, who was called “the dark doctor.” They affect sublime notions, obscure expressions, uncouth phrases, making plain truths difficult, and easy truths hard. “They darken counsel with words without knowledge”: Job 38:2. Studied expressions and high notions in a sermon, are like Asahel’s carcass in the way, that did only stop men and make them gaze, but did no ways profit them or better them. It is better to present Truth in her native plainness than to hang her ears with counterfeit pearls.—Thomas Brooks.

Now Mr. Feeble-mind, when they were going out at the door, made as if he intended to linger: the which, when Mr. Great-heart espied, he said, “Come, Mr. Feeble-mind, pray do you go along with us; I will be your conductor, and you shall fare as the rest.”

Feeble-mind: “Alas! I want a suitable companion: you are all lusty and strong; but I, as you see, am weak: I choose, therefore, rather to come behind, lest, by reason of my many infirmities, I should be both a burden to myself and to you. I am, as I said, a man of a weak and feeble mind, and shall be offended and made weak at that which others can bear. I shall like no laughing: I shall like no mirthful attire: I shall like no unprofitable questions. Nay, I am so weak a man as to be offended with that which others have a liberty to do. I do not know all the truth: I am a very ignorant Christian man. Sometimes, if I hear any rejoice in the Lord, it troubles me because I cannot do so too. It is with me as it is with a weak man among the strong, or as with a sick man among the healthy, or as ‘a lamp despised’; so that I know not what to do. ‘He who is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease’: Job 12:5.”

“But, brother,” said Mr. Great-heart, “I have it in commission to ‘comfort the feeble-minded,’ and ‘to support the weak.’ You must needs go along with us: we will wait for you; we will lend you our help; we will deny ourselves of some things, both opinionate and practical, for your sake; we will not enter into ‘doubtful disputations’ before you; we will be ‘made all things’ to you, rather than you shall be left behind.”—John Bunyan.

It should be between a strong saint and a weak as it is between two lute strings that are tuned one to another; no sooner one is struck but the other trembles; no sooner should a weak saint be struck, but the strong should tremble. “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them”: Hebrews 13:3.—Thomas Brooks.