Let us turn again to the psalm
that we were reading, Psalm 51. Read again verses 16 and 17. Psalm 51, 16 and 17. For thou desirest not
sacrifice, how else would I give it? Thou delightest not in burned
offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."
Taking in particular then these words of verse 17, the sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
thou wilt not despise. Remarking on the text, Luther
says that the words are worthy to be written in letters of gold,
worthy to be written in letters of gold. What do we have here? We have the sacrifice of a broken
heart. The gospel sacrifice, we might
say, that of one who is favoured with a spirit of true repentance,
that repentance that make us not ashamed not the sorrow of
the world but that godly sorrow that comes by the conviction
of the Holy Ghost that repentance of which the Lord Jesus Christ
himself is the giver and so to consider this theme for a while
tonight the sacrifice of a broken heart you may recall that John
Bunyan has a little work on the text entitled The Acceptable
Sacrifice. How important a part of our worship
then is such a sacrifice as this to come as true penitence as
we enter into the presence of the Holy One of Israel. And it is very much a part of
our worship when we look at the context here Verse 15, David
says, O LORD, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth
thy praise. Open thou my lips, and my mouth
shall show forth thy praise. The psalm, of course, is in the
form of a prayer, really. and isn't prayer in many ways
the highest part of our praises. If we go back to the beginning
the book of Genesis and there in the fourth chapter the end
of that chapter we read of how a son was born unto Adam and
Eve we know of Cain and Abel of course and how Cain The wicked
seed flew Abel. But then there, at the end of
Genesis 4, we're told of the birth of Enos. And it says, Then
began man to call upon the name of the Lord. Then began man to
call upon the name of the Lord. There was a godly seed again.
There were those who called upon God, those who prayed to God.
And prayer is such a vital part of our praises when we come together
to worship God. And as I said, the psalm is very
much a prayer. We find the psalmist addressing
God. In the opening verse, have mercy
upon me, O God, he says. He's praying, he's David. And
he's brought to this, of course, by the the faithful ministry
of the Prophet. We read that portion there at
the beginning of 2 Samuel 12. David had been guilty of the
most dreadful sin not only an adulterer but a murderer and
if you read the previous chapter there in 2 Samuel you'll see
how he sought to be so deceitful he wanted to cover his sin if
he possibly could and yet it was not possible because Uriah
acted so noble he wouldn't go when David summons him to come
from the front where he was fighting with the armies of Israel David
summons him to return to the court and wants this man to go
and lie with his wife Bathsheba so that it might appear that
Uriah was the father of the child that had been conceived but he
wouldn't do such a thing whilst the armies of Israel were in
the open field He would not go to the comforts of his own beings,
for he was much more noble than David. But now the prophet comes
and he is so faithful, and he begins as it were, as the Lord's
servant, to finger the conscience of the king. He tells David straightforwardly,
thou art the man. O David, thou art the man. And so David is brought to the
place of repentance, confesses his sin. And here in this psalm,
of course, we have such a wonderful expression of his penitence.
He's addressing God, he's speaking to God in prayer, in confession. And how remarkable it is, what
great beauty we see here throughout the book of Psalms. Because what
is the book of Psalms? It's part of Holy Scripture.
And what is the Bible? It's God's Word. And it's God
speaking to us. And yet, the strange thing is
that here God speaks to us, as it were, through the prayers
of those who are speaking to Him. David is speaking to God,
and yet through the words of David, God speaks to us here
in this psalm and in so well in all of the psalms really in
all of the psalms but how in prayer God's power
is so necessary God's enabling as he says here at verse 15 O
LORD open thou my lips If he's going to pray to God,
if he's going to praise God, God must open his lips. Open
thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. God's power, so necessary if
we're going to present anything to him that is pleasing and acceptable. We need that ministry of the
Spirit. He helps us, doesn't he, in all our infirmities. Oh,
He's the one who makes intercession with groanings that cannot be
uttered. We need Him to indict all our
prayers and all our praises and then they will be pleasing to
God. When we come to the end of the
psalm, the last two verses, see the connection here, do good
in thy good pleasure unto Zion build thou the walls of Jerusalem
then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness
with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings then shall they
offer bullocks upon thine altar it's not enough to have the externals
the right externals of course the children of Israel had all
of that as we see there in the opening chapter of the book of
the prophet Isaiah They followed all the Levitical rules. They offered all the stipulated
sacrifices. They observed the various feasts
and the various days. And yet, it was all obnoxious
in the sight of God. Their heart was not in it. But
what do we see here in these last two verses? That word, then,
the beginning of verse 19, this connecting word as it were. It
says God does good in his good pleasure in Zion. It's as God
is at work building up his people. It's only then that they shall
offer those sacrifices that shall be pleasing and acceptable in
his sight. There's cause and effect here.
God is the cause of those praises that are pleasing, God is the
cause of those prayers that are acceptable or we're so utterly
dependent upon Him to present a sacrifice, a prize that is
His delight so let us consider something of this sacrifice of
a broken heart that we're to present under the gospel because
we're priests we are priests. We are a kingdom
of priests if we are the Lord's people. Doesn't Peter remind us of that?
And holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
in Christ Jesus. And what Peter says Paul also
confirms Hebrews 13,15 by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips.
All we are to offer the fruit of our lips praise is unto God
that are acceptable in the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it one of
the distinguishing marks of Baptists that we believe in the priesthood
of all believers. Every child of God you see. is
a sacrificing priest. Not in the sense that Rome likes
to imagine that its priesthood can offer a bloodless sacrifice
upon the altars of Rome. No, Christ has made that one
great sacrifice for sins forever. But all God's people, all those
saved by that precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, they
are spiritual priests. Who are we, those who are concerned
to bring such a sacrifice? The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. And all of this, of course, so
demonstrated in David and the experience of David there as
the Prophet comes to him and he's brought to that place of
real conviction of sin. I've got two headings tonight,
a simple division of the matter that I want to try to lay before
you. First of all to say something of what is the cause. The cause
of the broken heart. And then in the second place
to consider what is the cure. The broken heart is a bitter
thing to feel isn't it? Maybe sometimes something's happened
in our lives and we do feel our hearts are broken. It's painful.
So we do need a cure. First of all, to say something
with regards to the cause. What does the text say? It speaks
of the sacrifice of God. The sacrifice of God. In other words, it belongs to
Him. It's a genitive, it's possession
that we have here. This sacrifice belongs to God. He desires it. and he delights
in it thou desirest not sacrifice as would I give it thou delightest
not in burnt offering the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit says
the Psalmist now as God is the one who desires
such a sacrifice and delights in it so God is the one also
who broke the very heart of David. How was David's heart broken?
Well, he was brought to that place of the conviction of his
sin. When the Prophet came and uttered
those four words, he tells him that story of the rich man and
the poor man. And as he's telling this to David,
you can you can sense David's anger being riled against this
man who had flocks and herds and yet he won't offer to his
traveling friend anything that he takes from his own stock he
must go to the poor man who has just a little ewe lamb and that
little ewe lamb like a daughter to him and he slays that creature
and so feeds his friend oh David is so riled And then the prophet
so faithfully points the finger, David, thou art the man, thou
art the man. Well, what does Jeremiah say? The mouthpiece of God is not
my word like a hammer that breaketh the rocks in pieces. And so David,
whose heart was so hard in his sin, not enough to be an adulterer,
he must be a murderer to cover his sins. He is brought into that place
of conviction. His heart is broken. And he cries
out, doesn't he, I have sinned against the Lord. There in the
portion that we read, 2 Samuel 12, 13. I have sinned against the Lord. We have it more fully, of course,
here in the Psalm, verse 3, I acknowledge my transgressions. and my sin
is ever before me against thee the only have I sinned and on
this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou
speakest and be clear when thou judgest. Oh how he's conscious
then of his sin and it's a great burden that he has here he realizes
what his sin is he understands it in terms of its depth and
it's height and it's breadth, he feels it. There's a depth
of his sin. It's not just a matter of particular
sins. He's very conscious of original
sin. He's a sinner in his very nature.
All of us are, aren't we? All of us. Every one of us. Without
any exception. We're all born dead in trespasses
and in sins. That's how we come into this
world. We come with the fallen nature, with the offspring of
Adam and Eve, and they sin. And what does David say? Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. How that sinful nature has been
imparted from the beginning, from generation to generation
to generation. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Not one. Those words that we
have there in Job 14.4. How can sinful parents, those
who themselves were born dead in trespasses and sins, that's
their nature, how can they bring forth children that are not sinful? Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean, not one? How can man be clean that he's
born of woman? It's impossible. It's impossible. We have sinful natures. And what
does David say here in verse 6? Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. Rather, verse 6, that's verse
5, isn't it? Verse 6. Behold, thou desirest
truth in the inward parts. In the inward parts. In the very
depths of his soul. That's where God desires to find
truth. And what is the heart by nature? Why, it's desperately wicked. Desperately wicked. That's the
condition of man's heart, naturally speaking. There's a depth here
to his sin. It's the sin of our first parents
that has been imparted to him. He's born with a sinful nature,
as all men and women are. But you know, there's not only
the imparting of Adam's sin in scripture, isn't there? There's
also the imputation. Adam stands as a representative
head at the beginning of the human race. Adam in that sense is a remarkable
type of the Lord Jesus, because Paul doesn't make the point in
1 Corinthians 15 that there's the first Adam and the last Adam. There's the first man which is
of the earth earthy, there's the second man which is the Lord
from heaven. Christ is a representative head, the second or the last Adam,
as was the first man, Adam. By one man's disobedience, we
are told. Many were made sinners. Romans 5.19 Then again, previously
there, verse 12, As by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that, or the
margin says, in whom? all have sinned in whom all have
sinned when Adam sinned he sinned as a representative head and
his sin is imputed to us we sinned in Adam and of course the wondrous
thing is if we are in the Lord Jesus Christ by faith tonight
all that Christ did is imputed to us All the obedience of the
last Adam is reckoned to our account over against all that
we received from our father Adam. Oh, there's a depth here, you
see. A remarkable depth to the sense of this man's sin. He feels
what he is. He knows that God desires truth
in the inward parts. And yet he was shapen in iniquity. He was conceived in sin. but
not only the depth of his sin there is also
throughout the psalm really language that suggests to us the length
and the breadth of his sin look at the vocabulary that it uses
the different words that are used we have the word evil for
example there in verse 4 You go and see, the only one
who has sinned and done this evil, this evil thing in thy
sight, or the badness of this man, the dastardly deed that
he's committed, not only his adultery, but his murder of a
man. He's a murderer. And the Prophet
spells that out quite plainly there, does Nathan. But the word
that keeps on recurring in the psalm, of course, is the word
sin. Time and time again, verse 2, verse 3, verse 4, verse 5
and so on, almost every verse, we have that dreadful word, sin. And the word that we have, the
Hebrew word here, literally means to miss the mark. to Mr. Mark, that's what sin is. The Hebrew people, this is a language
of the East, they tend to think more in terms of pictures. I suppose we of the West tend
to think more in terms of different concepts and so forth, but the
languages of the East are more full of pictures, aren't they?
Of course we see it with the Chinese, or the Japanese, but
we see it also with those of the Middle East. They think in very concrete terms.
And this word, sin, has that idea, you see, you're aiming
at a mark. And you never hit the mark. You continually keep falling
short. Every time you fall short. It's sins of omission. Not just
sins of commission. David committed great sins but
he's also guilty of sins of omission. How we so often are guilty of
that. We fail to do the thing that
we should do. And instead of doing the thing
that we should do, we do the very opposite, we do the thing
that we should not do. And so, besides sins, we read
of transgressions. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law. Sin is a transgression of the
law. Sins of commission. The idea
of rebelling, rebelling against God, going contrary to God, contrary
to the Word of God. All these words are used here.
Evil. Sin. Transgression. Iniquity. Iniquity. It's another one of these words
that really conjures up a picture. Because the basic meaning of
the word is to bend and to twist. It is something that is warped.
Isn't that what sin is? All the preacher says in Ecclesiastes,
Lord, it's only if I found God's made man upright. But they have
sought out many inventions. God created man upright. He was
in the image of God. He was after the likeness of
God. But how he has made his inventions. All his inventions,
his theories. Always finding some way to deny
God. always trying to find some way
whereby he can deny his accountability to
God. I suppose the theory of evolution is evidently an invention
of wicked men. How warped, how twisted man is. That's his sin and this word
iniquity is used several times here, verse 2, verse 5 and verse
9. all their unends and breaths,
you see. And David seems to have such a sense of his sinnership
as he's brought to make his confessions in this psalm. He uses this language
and he uses it throughout. Sin is a dreadful reality to
this man. And then, ultimately, of course,
there's the height of his sin. the depth of it, the length and
breadth of it, but also the height of his sin. In verse 4, against
thee. Thee only have I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight. There it is. It's against God.
Oh, that's the height of it. It's against that one who dwells
in the highest heaven. whose abode is in the very heaven
of heavens and heaven that holy place that place where even the
sinless seraphim must veil their faces though they be sinless
creatures burning in their purity and yet they cannot bear the
sight of the purity that is God's and this is the one that David
confesses he has sinned against A broken spirit and a broken
and contrite heart. All these are the sacrifices
that God will not despise, we're told here in the words of our
text. What is a broken spirit, a broken
and contrite heart? It's the end of self. And that's
what David brought to the end of himself. The end of himself. It's the very opposite, isn't
it, of pride? In our pride we're full of ourselves. It's me, me, me. That's pride. And isn't that
what we see in the fall of our parents Adam and Eve? Or when
the serpent comes, what does he say to the woman? Ye shall
be as gods. All partake of this fruit, the
fruit of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I know God
forbade it, but take it. Or you'll be like God, you'll
be gods. Pride. Paul calls it the condemnation
of the devil. Pride, the condemnation of the
devil, the apostle calls it. And yet, it's in my heart. Surely it's in my heart. It's
in your hearts. It's in all our hearts. Pride,
accursed pride. The Spirit, my God above, do
what we will. It haunts us still. It keeps
us from the Lord, this pride. Against its influence pray, it
mingles with the prayer, against it preach, it prompts the speech,
be silent. Still it's there. I don't have
to say things, I know it's there, it's there all the time. Pride. And we're told, aren't we, in
Psalm 10, the wicked through the pride of his countenance
will not seek after God. Oh, is that true of us? Any of
us tonight? We will not seek after God. Why
will we not seek after God? Why will you not seek after God? Listen to the word of the Psalm.
Psalm 10 verse 4, The wicked through the pride of his countenance
will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts.
Is God really in our thoughts? Do we think much of God? Do we
meditate upon the wonder of God? Do we consider the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ, God, manifest in the flesh, the wonder of the
incarnation? Do we really think of these things
and meditate in these things? It's pride that keeps us from
God. And that pride in man is not very easily overcome. Not easily overcome. How do we
overcome pride? We can't. It's God's work. It's God who has to do it. It's the sacrifice of God. Remember
what we said at the beginning. It's this generative of possession.
It's God's sacrifice. It's what God does. The sacrifice... Sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit. And this is what David clearly
experienced. He says in verse 8, the bones
which I was broken. The bones which I was broken. God broke him, but God didn't
just break him in a physical sense, did he?
There was nothing physical. He was all what was transpiring
in the depths of his soul but it was like broken bones he's
a broken man when Nathan has come and dealt with him so faithfully
in terms of the word of God and the wickedness of his sin how
God works, how God works those friends of Job say remarkable
things I know they are miserable comforters But there's that one
who comes at the end, Elihu, and he's somewhat different to
the others. He makes a very long speech, and he does say some
quite remarkable things. Look at the language that we
have there in Job 33, verse 17, and the following verses. Speaking
of God's dealings, the chapter begins, Job, I pray thee, hear
my speeches, hearken to all my words. and so on and he speaks
of God and he says this concerning God and the ways of God verse
17 that he may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride from
man he keepeth back his soul from the pit and his life from
perishing by the sword he is chastened also with pain upon
his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong pain so
that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. His
flesh is consumed away that he cannot be seen, and his bones
that were not seen stick out. Yea, his soul draweth near unto
the grave, and his life to the destroyers." Is he not describing
in some measure a man who's in that situation that David was
in, a man who has sinned? And the Lord is bringing this
man to the realization of what his sin is, bringing him to that
place of conviction. And what is he doing? He's hiding
pride from man, he's bringing the man down to his nothingness.
This is the work of God. Our religious performances aren't
enough. Our religious performances, our
regular attendance, in the house of God, anything that we do is
not enough. The children of Israel were to
offer sacrifices. And David speaks of those sacrifices
in the last verse of the psalm. But what does he say here at
verse 16? Thou desirest not sacrifice,
how else would I give it? Thou delightest not in burnt
offering. What can we do? God brings us to the end of self,
we have to look to Himself. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God. Thou wilt not despise. So David really prays, doesn't
he? He has to call upon God for help. O Lord, open thou my lips. and my marriage shall show forth
thy praise. The only way we can offer acceptable
prayer, acceptable praise, acceptable worship is when the Lord God
deals with us. But it's a remarkable thing when
the Lord does deal with us and take us in hand. But when He
does, what does He do ultimately? He cures us. He cures us of our
sin, He cures us of our pride, He cures the broken heart, that's
what the Lord God does. There in Job we're told aren't
we, how God make us sore and bind us up, He wound us and make
us whole. There's always two sides to the
works that the Lord does. He makes sore, yes, And David
was made sore, brought under the conviction of sin, brought
really to the need for real repentance. He maketh sore and bindeth up,
he woundeth. And then his hands make whole.
There's not just that negative side, there's always the other,
the positive side. And what is it that God does?
He cleanses his people from all the guilt of their sin. But not
only from the guilt, He also cleanses them from all the filth
of their sin. What does David say as he prays? Blot out my transgressions, he
says. Blot out my transgressions, wash
me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. The promise of the Gospel, isn't
it? That great promise that we find at the end of the Old Testament, the
words of Zechariah. In that day there shall be a
fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. Oh, what is that fountain? Is
it not that precious blood? There is a fountain filled with
blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath
that flood, lose all their guilty stains. That's the only place
of cleansing. No other place of cleansing but
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrifice that He
has made, that great sin-atoning sacrifice. Or is He not the very
heart of the Gospel? This is why Christ came. As soon
as Peter makes that great confession at Caesarea Philippi, remember
Matthew 16, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And God had revealed it to Peter.
Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven." What a confession it was, blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-Jonah. Oh, now you're going to be called
Peter. Changed name, you see, he's made
a great confession. And then we're told from that
moment, from that moment, when With Peter as their spokesperson,
the disciples had confessed that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ,
the Son of the Living God. They recognized his person from
that moment. He begins to speak about how
they must go up to Jerusalem. And he's going to be betrayed
into the hands of men. He's going to be crucified and
slain. That's the purpose of his coming.
The fountain must be opened. for sin and uncleanness. Well, David is a real Israelite,
he's David. Not just an ethnic Israelite,
he's a spiritual Israelite. And look at how he prays in verse
10, creating me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit
within me. Is he not pleading in terms of
the covenant, the new covenant? the new covenant. How is that
covenant spoken of? Well remember the language of
the prophet Ezekiel there in Ezekiel 36 verse 25 then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and
from your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give
you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you, and
cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments
and do them." Well, these are the promises of the New Covenant. a new heart, a new spirit. And this is what David is pleading
for, an interest in that great work of Christ, gospel promises. That's what he pleads for, the
cleansing from all his guilt, the cleansing from all the filth
of his sin. That's the cure. but is it not
the Lord Jesus Christ himself whom we see as that one who has
a mission to cure the sinner even of his broken heart when
he begins his ministry there in the synagogue in Nazareth
He goes there, as was his wont on the Sabbath day, and the minister
gives him the book of the Prophet Isaiah. He turns to that 61st
chapter and begins to read those words. The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because He has anointed me. Oh, is He anointed one! God,
give us not the Spirit by measure unto Him. He had been baptized
by John there at the River Jordan. The Father had spoken from heaven,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. The Spirit
had descended upon him in the form of a dove. He'd been led
of the Spirit into the wilderness, tempted of Satan forty days. And withstanding all those temptations,
overcoming Satan there in the wilderness, the devil leaves
him for a season. Oh, he'll come again. He'll come
again and again. how the disciples were those
who were continuing with him in all his temptations. But now
he resists Satan, then he returns, we're told, in the fullness of
the Spirit into Nazareth, where he grew up, and he goes into
the synagogue and he reads those words. He's about to commence
his ministry. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because he hath anointed me. And amongst the various aspects
of his ministry he utters those words, anointed me to heal the
broken hearted. Oh, he heals broken hearts. That's
the wonder. And so we're able to continually
present to the Lord that acceptable sacrifice. We bring our broken
hearts, our contrite hearts. And the Lord doesn't despise
that. or the Lord will minister to us when we come to Him again
and again and make our confessions and acknowledge our sins? Is
it not a round of sinning and seeking forgiveness? A round,
a continual round of repenting and believing? Is it not what
is involved really in the walk of faith? This is how we are
to worship our God. we can't present anything to
him altogether an unclean thing all
our righteousness is hard as filthy rags we fade like the
leaf our iniquities like the wind they carry us away and we
just have to come and keep on coming with that selfsame sacrifice
sorrowing over our sins and seeking that we might grow in knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, or to be growing in that
sort of grace, to grow in grace and that knowledge. The sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
thou wilt not despise. The Lord favour us then with
such a spirit. Amen.