I think that nothing in all the
world is more painful than a broken heart. A stout heart can withstand troubles and difficulties of
the body and of life, but a broken heart finds trouble where there
is none. When trouble gets into a person's
heart, All troubles are magnified, blessings are unseen, and it
is well nigh impossible to bear the daily experiences of life. Getting out of bed is misery,
living day by day is torment, and going to bed is agonizing
loneliness and isolation. Nobody understands a broken heart
except someone whose heart has been broken. I can think of nothing,
nothing more difficult to experience and more difficult to behold
or more difficult to deal with than a broken heart. And yet,
in a spiritual sense, I can think of nothing that is more promising,
more hopeful, and more blessed than a broken heart. You may
think that seems strange or contradictory, but a heart that is broken before
God is a heart that has been touched by the finger of his
grace, for whom the sweet balm of salvation has been prepared
and shall be applied. God specifically promises grace. He specifically promises healing. He specifically promises mercy
to the brokenhearted. Turn to Psalm 34. Let me show
you three or four passages. There are only a few passages
of scripture where this term broken heart is used, and they
are very instructive. Let's look at three or four of
them. Here in Psalm 34, verse 18, here's God's promise. The
Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. what a blessed promise. And saveth
such as be of a contrite spirit. In Psalm 51, 17, David's heart
has been broken over his sin, and you can read the psalm and
hear how he cries to God with a broken heart. And in verse
17, he says the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. In Psalm 147, verse 3, the psalmist
again speaks of a broken heart. Psalm 147, verse 3, He healeth
the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. He who numbers
the stars healed the broken in heart and he binds up the wounds
of those who are broken in heart. And in our text this evening
over in Isaiah chapter 61 and verse 1 the Lord Jesus describes
himself. Now we know that this is talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ because he reads it in Luke chapter 4
and says this day the scripture is fulfilled in your ears and
is talking about his life and ministry. The spirit of the Lord
God is upon me. because the Lord hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to
bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. He hath
sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. That's the business upon which
the Son of God came into this world. The Lord Jesus Christ
came with this mission from God. He came here, anointed especially
by God the Holy Spirit, sent specifically by God the Father,
to bind up the brokenhearted. The title of my message this
evening is Broken Hearts Healed, and I have nothing to do tonight
but with utmost simplicity to direct your hearts to Jesus Christ
the Lord, and that's what I want to do. I want to talk to you
about five things with regard to the healing of broken hearts.
First, as I've already suggested, our text describes a sad, sad
condition, the brokenhearted. Now, I'm not going to attempt
to define what a brokenheart is. I have read sermons and heard
them. I have read books, a good many,
that have been written about brokenheartedness. But I fear
that the sermons and the books are more harmful than helpful.
You see, the word of God Nowhere defines what a broken heart is.
I read all the scriptures relating to a broken heart in preparing
this message, and nowhere does the word of God say that this
is what a broken heart is. Nowhere does the word of God
describe broken heartedness or define it in any way. It simply
gives promises of grace and mercy to the broken hearted. Now, I
think there's a good reason for that. Because the scriptures
seem to assume that if you experience a broken heart, you'll know it. If your heart's broken, you won't
need anybody to describe what brokenheartedness is for you.
If your heart's broken, it would be utter folly for someone to
try to stand in front of you and tell you what brokenness
of heart is. And so the scriptures leave this matter right here. The Lord has sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted. And I'm thankful for that. I'll
leave it there. You see, God does not make specific
descriptions and conditions to be descriptive of a broken heart,
and I'm thankful that's the case, because if such descriptions
were given, If you would be called upon to look at yourself and
see whether or not you meet these certain characteristics and conditions,
then you would be left looking at your heart instead of looking
to Jesus Christ, and that would be horrible. The object of preaching
the gospel and the object of the teaching of scripture is
to have you looking to Christ, not looking to see if your heart
is broken, but looking to Jesus Christ who was sent to bind up
the brokenhearted. if the Word of God defined brokenheartedness
in specific characters. then I would not and could not
confidently tell you to come to Christ, and promise you that
if you come to Christ, he will heal your broken heart. The scriptures,
however, do not give qualifications. They don't give conditions and
say, now, if you have this broken hearted condition, or if you
have that broken hearted condition, or if you've experienced this
thing or that, oh no, the scriptures call upon sinners, broken hearted,
to come to the Savior. And the promise of Scripture
is, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. The brokenhearted
are a people who are downcast, dejected, and despairing because
of their perception of things. Because of their perception of
things. I have some experience personally,
I hope you have, and I have observed people brokenhearted both spiritually
and carnally. And the brokenness of heart arises
because of a perception that people have. Broken-hearted folks
think that no one cares for them. You ever been there? They imagine
that nobody cares. Nobody. Doesn't matter what demonstrations
of love they have seen, no matter how tenderly and carefully folks
have expressed their care for them, they perceive that nobody
really cares for them. That's the condition the prodigal
was in. No man would give him even the hoof that the swine
ate. He said no man gave anything
to him. No man cared for him. Oh, now
when he had a little money in his pocket, and when he was throwing
a party and everything was going well, he had plenty of friends.
But when he was busted, nobody cared. When he had nothing that
he could offer, nobody, all of his familiar friends had forsaken
him, and he's utterly destitute, and he perceives that nobody
cares for him. The brokenhearted have concluded
that there's no hope for them. Hope for others may be, but not
for me. One of the songs I love to hear sung goes like this,
I was once far away from the Savior, and as vile as a sinner
could be, and the thought filled my heart with sadness, there
is no hope for a sinner like me. The brokenhearted are condensed. There is no hope. No hope. And
the brokenhearted perceive that God is against them in every
way. Turn over to Jeremiah chapter
3. Let me show you that. Or Lamentations, rather, chapter
3. Listen to the words of Jeremiah. Jeremiah the prophet here says
22 times that God did this. 22 times he said, Lord, you did
it. You set me as a mark for your
errors, and so on. Listen to what he said. We won't
read it all, but let me just pick out a few verses. Verse 1, I am the
man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. Now
that's a little bit of an exaggeration. It really is. The prophet is
here recording what he felt. But he speaks as though he's
the only one who's ever seen this. He says, I am the man who
has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me
and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against
me is he turned. His hand attains me all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he
made old. He hath broken my bones. He hath
built it against me and compassed me with gall and travail. He
hath sent me in a dark place, or dark places as they that be
dead of old. He hath hedged me about that
I cannot get out. He hath made my chain heavy.
Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer." And
on the prophet goes. until it comes down to verse
21. He says, This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. Because his compassions fail
not, they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The
Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in
him. So that when Jeremiah sees things
as they really are and ceases to look at things as he merely
perceived them to be, his heart's filled with hope and with joy.
But in his brokenness of heart, he perceived that God was against
him when all the while God was working for him. Secondly, we
may from our text draw a very reasonable and safe conclusion. The scripture says in our text,
he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. Now listen up. If the Lord God meant to destroy
you, why would he have sent his son specifically to heal the
brokenhearted? If God meant to slay you, would
he gently woo you to Christ by his word and assure you by his
spirit that he has deep, eternal designs of love toward broken-hearted
sinners? I think not. Turn over to Judges
chapter 13. Here's a real familiar text of
scripture to you. Here in Judges 13, you remember
Manoah's wife had a revelation of God given to her. And when
she had this revelation of God, she went and called her husband
and her husband came out and he saw the glory of God. And
in verse 22, Manoah said unto his wife, we shall surely die
because we've seen God. We shall surely die. We've seen
God. But his wife understood things
better. His wife had a better perception. His wife said unto
him, if the Lord were pleased to kill us, He would not have
received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands,
neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would
he, as at this time, have told us such things as these. She
says, oh no, you don't understand. God didn't show us these things
to kill us. God showed us these things to
be gracious to us. And the Lord Jesus has not come
to heal the brokenhearted because he's determined to destroy the
brokenhearted. He's come to heal the brokenhearted
because that's what he intends to do. Well, do I recall that
dark, lonely hour of brokenness when a voice whispered sweetly
to me, saying, Christ the Redeemer has power. to save poor sinners
like thee. I listened, and lo, t'was the
Savior that was speaking so kindly to me, and the thought filled
my heart with gladness. Yes, there's hope for a sinner
like me." We can safely conclude that. Since Christ was sent to
heal the brokenhearted, if your heart's broken, there's reason
for you to reasonably say, the Father sent Him to heal me. If
your heart's broken, there's reason for you to say, he has
come to heal my broken heart. If he's come to heal the brokenhearted,
why not me? Thirdly, look now at the one
who has been sent to the brokenhearted and find in him a sweet cordial
of grace and hope. A text says he. The Lord Jesus
is speaking here. He says he, God my father. He,
the God of all grace and mercy, has sent me. Not just anyone,
but me. The incarnate God, me. That one
who suffered and died in the place of sinners, me. The sinner
should have said, He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. Oh, what a suitable healer the
Lord Jesus Christ is. I can't spend much time on this,
but it won't need much time. All you need is a little directions
and suggestions and it'll make a way for joyful meditation.
Listen to me. He who is the man of sorrows
is acquainted with sorrow and grief of every kind. Sometimes we think that no one
experiences what we experience. Sometimes we think no one knows
what we're going through. Sometimes we imagine that no
one has ever been where we are, and we begin to feel terribly,
terribly dejected and despairing because we can't really express
ourselves, and there's no one on earth to whom we can turn
and say, this is what I feel, and this is what I sense, and
this is what's going on in me. I want you to hear me now. I
don't care what you're experiencing. I don't care what pain there
is in your heart. I don't care what trouble it
is that weighs down your soul. The man of sorrows is well acquainted
with it. He's been there. He's been there. But you don't understand. Are
you brokenhearted because of temptation that has set upon
you and would destroy you? He was tempted in all points
of life. Yet without sin. Are you broken
hearted because you've been abandoned, forsaken by those whom you consider
to be your dearest companions and dearest friends? Lover and
friend, he says, thou hast put far from me. And he was abandoned
by those whom he came to redeem in the hour when he redeemed
them. Are you broken hearted because of bereavement? The Son
of God went to the tomb of Lazarus, and standing by the tomb of Lazarus,
beholding Mary and Martha and his friends at the tomb of Lazarus,
a bereaved man, who is God, wept for Lazarus and Mary and Martha
and the experience of the day. Do you know what you go through? You say, well, but I've got this
terrible pain. This horrible fever, this terrible
convulsion, this horrible sickness that's just eating away at me. When the Son of God hung upon
the cursed tree, no words can describe the fever and the sickness
and the pain and the convulsions he felt in his body as he bear
all the consequences of sin for you and me. You understand that? He's a man of sorrows well acquainted
with grief. But preacher, I've been betrayed. Boy, nothing breaks the heart
like betrayal, does it? He says, my own familiar friend
hath lifted up his heel against me. But I, I experience slander and
ridicule and mockery. You think he didn't? He knows
what the broken heart is. He knows what causes your heart
to ache. But nobody understands me. I'm
so misunderstood. His own disciples didn't understand
him, much less anybody else. He knows exactly what it is that
afflicts you. But pastor, my heart's broken
because of sin. So was his. Sin. He who knew no sin. For us, was made to be sin. And when he was made to be sin,
His father turned his back on him. He cried, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? He knows what you go through. The Lord God has chosen one to
heal broken hearts, whose own heart has been broken. He said
in Psalm 69 20, reproach hath broken mine heart. The reproaches
of them that reproach they have fallen upon me and reproach have
broken my heart. When the Lord Jesus was in Gethsemane,
as he anticipated being made to be sin for us, the scripture
tells us, he cried, my father, my father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. And as he made that prayer before
God the third time, We're told that he sweat, as it were, great
rocks of blood falling to the ground. I understand that to be a literal
statement in the scriptures. And the cause was the rupture
of his heart. He who is sent to heal the brokenhearted
was himself broken-hearted like no one can imagine. This one
who is sent to heal broken-hearted souls has already healed multitudes
of others. Let me tell you about a man I
know. He was a young man full of rebellion,
haughtiness, and pride. live with his fist in God's face
and in everybody else's face, despising authority and wreaking
havoc wherever he went, so that soon no one, literally no one,
would allow him in their company who had concern for their reputation
or their name. He couldn't live with his folks
and couldn't live with friends. He was alone, utterly alone. His mind, his thoughts ran continually
to the very real consideration of doing away with his life and
nothing stopped him but the fear of hell. And one day, The Lord God spoke
in grace and mercy and turned his heart and eyes to Jesus Christ
the Redeemer and healed his broken heart. And bad as things get sometimes,
things have never been the same since. And I know because I'm
that man. He has healed brokenhearted sinners. That's his specialty. He had
sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. Here's another sweet cordial
for your soul. The Lord Jesus never becomes
irritated or grows weary or gets discouraged with your feeble
broken heart. I have to confess, I do. I'm
so blooming callous and hard-hearted sometimes. I get a little irritated
and a little weary, forgive me, but I do, with repeated complaints
and sorrowful tales of troubled souls who appear to me to have
no trouble at all. Christ never. Isn't that amazing? He bids us by his servant come
boldly to the throne of grace. That is to come with free speech
to the throne of grace, anytime you want to. That we may obtain
mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And I'm telling
you, if you can't go to anyone else, you may always go to the
Son of God. He's always willing to hear your
sad story. He's always willing to help. And He's always able. and he
always will. You can bank on it. That hymn
we sang earlier, written by Joseph Scriven or
Scriven, however you pronounce his name, he was a man who was
engaged. His fiancée, just shortly before
they were to be married, just a day or so before they were
to be married, was drowned and he left England or Great Britain
and came to Canada, spent his life just working and helping
folks out, never married, never dated anyone again, lived in
a little, just a little room with some friends, and he spent
his time helping widows and poor folks with their homes and carpentry
work and that kind of stuff. And when he was laying on his
bed dying, the lady he was staying with came in, she picked up a
piece of paper, And she read that and she said, Joseph, did
you write that? And he said, the Lord and I did. What a friend
we have in Jesus. Oh, what a friend he is to brokenhearted
sinners. Fourthly, as I read this text
and hear it fall from the lips of the Son of God, I see that
he was sent into this world with a specified commission. He hath
sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. Christ was sent not to tell you
how your heart got broken, or to scold you for your brokenness
of heart, but to bind up the brokenhearted. There are a good
many who are ready enough to tell you that you shouldn't have
fallen into that pit of muck and mire that now engulfs you.
And they will be glad to point out the slips along the way and
say, if you hadn't done this, if you just hadn't done that,
if you'd have just listened. And they're happy to do so. But
that's not much help. I've been in that pit. And I'm
so very thankful for Him who came and lifted me out of the
deep, mighty clay and set my feet on the rock, Christ Jesus. And He did it Himself. He didn't
just come to tell me I oughtn't have gotten in the mess I was
in. He came and lifted me out. He binds up the brokenhearted.
The Lord Jesus was not sent to bring medicine to you by which
you could apply it to your broken heart and heal yourself. Oh,
no. He healeth the broken in heart. Some folks They preach as though
the gospel of God's grace is just the offering of sinners
a balm with which they can heal their souls. They preach as though
grace somehow is something God puts in your hands and says,
now there, take care of yourself. Oh, oh no. The Lord Jesus comes
like the good Samaritan and finds you beaten and left for dead,
alive physically, dead spiritually. and picks you up and pours in
the oil and wine of his grace and heals the broken heart. He
heals the broken heart. When the Son of God binds up
the broken heart, he does so so thoroughly and so effectually
that the deeper the wound was, the more utterly broken the heart
has been. the greater the joy and gratitude
when the heart is healed. I can't help but think of a good
friend of mine I met recently out west. He was a drunk, a womanizer who
spent his days in rebellion and ungodliness. But God broke his heart and healed his broken heart.
And he's one of the most contagiously happy fellows I've ever met in
my life. I mean, every time he speaks, he's laughing at you.
He's just delighted with God's mercy and grace. Oh, that's how
he healed the broken heart. He takes away brokenness and
floods the soul with joy. He binds up the broken heart. Our text does not speak of a
possible cure, but of a sure cure. He has sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted. Now, if that's what the Son of
God was sent to do, you can be sure of this, he will bind up
the brokenhearted, for he shall not fail. Let me show you some
of the medicines and methods he employs to heal the brokenhearted. I read in the book of God a fallen,
broken-hearted saint whose heart was healed by the ointment of
divine forgiveness. Turn to 2 Samuel 12. In my opinion, this is one of
the most marvelous, marvelous texts of Scripture to be found
in all the Old Testament. And Nathan said to David, the
Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. And he concluded
the sacrifices of God are broken spirit, a broken and contrite
heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. He wrote, O blessed is the man
unto whom the Lord will not impute because he had the ointment of
divine forgiveness applied to his broken heart. Nothing binds
up broken hearts of believers out of fellowship with the Lord
Jesus like fresh discoveries of his love and grace. The Lord Jesus rose from the
dead, and in Mark 16, verse 7, He said, you go tell my disciples,
I'll meet them where I told them I would, like I told them I would.
And Peter. Oh, I'm so glad he added those
words. Be sure to tell Peter. Be sure to tell Peter. His heart's
been breaking. He heard the rooster crow. And his heart's been aching these
three days. His soul was downcast. He's gone
fishing because he thinks nothing will ever make up for what he's
done. You be sure you tell Peter, I'll meet him just like I said
I would. My heart's not changed. My grace is not changed. My love
is not changed. He's still mine. I'm still his.
Hearts broken with a sense of sin and guilt and condemnation
are healed by the word of grace applied by God the Holy Spirit. I don't know how to preach about
this except tell you what I've experienced. There was a time when I knew hell was my rightful
portion, and I knew that should I be taken out of this world,
I'd be cast into hell forever, and that was right. And I heard
the word of grace declare, redemption's accomplished. And God the Holy
Spirit gave me eyes to see and a heart to believe on Jesus Christ
the Lord, and he said, it's accomplished for you. This blood was shed to put away
your sin, and your sin's gone. Oh, what peace, what joy, what
satisfaction, what gladness of heart. He has put away my sin. Well, how do you know He put
away your sin? Because He gave me faith in Him. I believe it.
And He put away the sin of those who believe, for all who believe
that He is the Son of God, then born of God. is imputed to man. I don't have
any. I can't get any. I can't produce
any. Oh, but God the Holy Spirit has
given me grace to call him Jehovah-Centennial. His name is the Lord my righteousness. How about you? I have righteousness
such as God will Righteousness such as God Himself is pleased
with. The righteousness of His dear
Son. And I can't persevere. I can't hold out. I can't hold
on. I can't endure. The way is too
rough. The battle is too hot. The struggles
are too hard to bear. The difficulty is too much to
endure. I can't make it. My sin's too
great. The trials are too great. The
warfare is too much. I can't make it." But he said,
my grace is sufficient. And I'll tell you what I've discovered.
His grace is sufficient. It sure is. Believing hearts,
broken by great troubles and sorrows, are bound up and made
strong by the balm of God's providence. Oh, our God, my friend the other day told
me with weeping eyes, his voice broken, he said, our God is too wise to earth. He's too good to do wrong. He's
too strong to fail. I'll trust him. I'll trust him. All his propitence. Bless God
for the knowledge of his propitence. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the call according
to his purpose. All things are ours. for of him
and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever." And hearts broken by bereavement
are healed and strengthened by the venement of love to Christ. You see, he's jealous of our
love. He will have all our And sometimes the way he gets our
love for him to grow, be strengthened, increased,
is by taking away anyone that we have loved too much. Long, long time ago, During the
plague in England, a man was away from home on business.
When the plague hit, he had two twin boys he loved dearly. He doted over those boys. He
cherished those boys. Shortly after he left home, the
boys were stricken with the plague, and both of them And his wife sought from God
some wisdom how to help her husband bear this thing when he'd come
back and get the shocking news. And so she had the boys prepared
for burial. He was to return in just a few
days. And when the husband came in,
those boys that normally ran out and greeted him as he came
home weren't there. And he was concerned. He asked
his wife, said, where are the boys? She said, well, let me
ask you something. I've got to talk to you about
a real difficulty. And she took him into the kitchen
and sat down. She said, one of my friends loaned me some of
her jewels a few weeks ago. And I became so fond of them. And I really did enjoy those
jewels. And I got a word from her this
week. that she wanted her jewels back.
What should I do? He said, well, honey, that's
silly. They're her jewels. Give them back to her. She said,
I knew that's what you'd say. And she took them to the living
room and said, God called for the jewels. He just loaned them
to us. And he often, often heals bereaved
hearts by causing our hearts to turn to him in fuller love,
in greater appreciation, in greater adoration for him. He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted. How often our hearts have been
bound up observing this blessed ordinance. It's quite possible for men to
make a mockery of God's ordinances. But if you're a believer, this
table is spread for you. Someone asked me the other day
about the Lord's table, wrote to me, was concerned about taking
the Lord's table. If you're God's child, it's for
you. It's for you. This bread represents the holy humanity
of God the Son. in which he established and brought
in perfect righteousness for guilty sinners. The bread broken
is an indication of his body bruised under the wrath of God
on yonder cursed tree. The wine represents his blood
of the new covenant, his blood shed for the remission of our
sins by his death upon Calvary. his blood by which he put away
our sins. And we eat the bread and drink
the wine now, like Israel did of old, with the staff of faith
in our hands, with the coat of his righteousness on our backs,
waiting to go out of here, waiting for his return. Oh, God help
you now so to eat and so to drink in remembrance of him and bring
once more to him, your crucified risen Savior, your broken heart. He has been sent of God to bind
up the broken heart. He'll do it. He'll do it.