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A Broken Crutch
I. The need for a crutch.
A. Judah was facing a situation in which they knew they could not
stand, the Babylonian forces were superior to theirs, thus they
knew that they would surely fall.
1. They were forced to reach out for help.
2. The issue is where do they look for help?
B. Their comes a time in each of our lives where we are facing
problems or circumstances that are beyond our ability to
handle, we must reach out for help, where do we reach?
1. Everyone has a crutch, no man is an island, no man
stands alone.
2. The question is not whether or not you have a crutch,
but who or what is your crutch.
II. Some crutches are dangerous because they will break under pressure.
A. In our text God is rebuking Egypt because when Judah leaned on
them they were like a crutch made of the reeds that grew in the
Nile, and they broke and Judah fell.
1. They looked substantial, they offered hope, but under
pressure they broke.
2. The reeds looked allot like bamboo. It would appear
that they could be leaned on, but they make a poor
crutch.
B. Let's look at some of the crutches that people are leaning on
today.
1. Relationships.
a. There is a person or several persons, that you
call to share the things that are going on in
your life.
b. You seek their support and assurances.
c. You want their advise and approval.
d. You know that if things go bad, they will stick
by you, at least you hope they will.
e. You often do not know who your true friends are
until you are in a severe crisis.
f. How many times has a person found to their own
dismay that the persons that they had trusted
on and had bared their souls to were unfaithful
to that trust, and had later turned on them and
used the information to their hurt.
g. Relationships are often broken, and prove to be
a broken crutch that in the end bring pain and
suffering.
2. Alcohol.
a. There are many fallen people today who could
not cope and turned to alcohol to help them
face the pressures of life.
b. It usually started with social drinking,
someone invited them to have a drink.
c. They found that as the alcohol hit the brain
cells that it gave to them sort of a pleasant
state of altered consciousness.
d. The realities of life were not so hard to face,
they felt that they could make it after a few
drinks.
e. The drinking in reality caused the problems to
increase, for they were not being faced or
dealt with, but the person under the influence
of a few drinks did not worry about it. They
were developing a distorted perception on life.
f. Friends could see what was happening, and tried
to warn them, but they scoffed at the idea that
they had a problem and finally drove their
friends off, for under the influence of a few
drinks that they could tell their friends where
to get off.
g. The very crutch that they leaned on, was the
very thing that destroyed them, it was a broken
crutch.
3. Drugs have become a crutch to many people. Prescription
and non-prescription.
a. We knew a fellow who was a Psychiatrist whose
wife would almost get wild at times with her
strong over reactions. When he would see things
building up, he would give her a Valium to
take, sometimes she would refuse to take it, so
then he would take it.
b. Drugs are not a solution to the problem, but
only allow a person to be able to live with the
problem.
c. In time the drugs often become a problem
greater than the original problem.
d. They can become a broken crutch.
4. Religion is a crutch.
a. Religion can be a very dangerous crutch,
because it gives such a false sense of
security.
b. There are millions today who are trusting in
religion to save them.
c. Religion can never save a person, what most
people fail to realize is that religion and
salvation are two different things.
d. Salvation can come only through Jesus Christ.
There is no other name under heaven whereby man
must be saved.
e. Many have been damned by religion, it is a
broken crutch.
III. God was angry at Egypt for letting the people down when they needed
help.
A. He rebuked them for breaking under pressure, if fact he
promised that they were going to be punished for their failure
to provide the promised help.
B. God knows that we all need crutches to lean on, He told us to
bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
1. In Judges 5 in the victory song of Deborah over the
defeated foe, their was a curse pronounced upon Meroz,
for the failure to come and aid in the battle against
Sisera.
2. We are to seek to lift the fallen, to help those who
are weak and in need.
3. We not to close our eyes to the needy, but support
those who have fallen.
IV. God knew that Egypt would be a broken crutch.
A. The prophet Jeremiah warned against looking to an alliance with
Egypt, as their salvation.
B. What God really wanted was for them to lean upon Him as their
crutch.
C. Sometimes people say, "Jesus is just a crutch."
1. Truer words were never spoken. I freely admit that
Jesus is my crutch, I lean upon Him every moment of
every day. If it were not for Him, I would fall.
2. I frankly confess my weakness, and inadequacies, I know
that I cannot stand against the pressures of this world
governed by Satan. I need something to lean upon. I am
so glad that His has allowed me to lean upon Him.
D. My crutch has never broken, He has never let me down. He
sustains me when I am weak, He holds me up when I have no
strength. I will lean upon Him until I die. I wouldn't trade
Him for all of the crutches in the world. For the world and all
of the desires of the world will fade away, but he that doeth
the will of God will abide forever. On Christ the solid rock I
stand, all other ground is sinking sand.
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