Right now, if you would open
your Bibles with me to Ezekiel chapter 34. This will serve as
our text this evening. Ezekiel 34. I began studying
for the next passage in the book of Genesis this week, and there's
something there, but the Lord just didn't give it to me quite
yet. And when I turned to this passage, I found out why. I believe
this is the message for us this evening. Ezekiel chapter 34. And the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds
of Israel. Prophesy and say unto them, thus
saith the Lord God unto the shepherds. Woe be to the shepherds of Israel
that do feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed
the flocks? You eat the fat and you clothe you with the wool.
You kill them that are fed. You made them fat and you kill
them, but you feed not the flock. The diseased have you not strengthened.
Neither have you healed that which was sick. Neither have
you bound up that which was broken. Neither have you brought again
that which was driven away. Neither have you sought that
which was lost. But with force and with cruelty
have you ruled them. And they are scattered because
there's no shepherd. and they became meat to all the beasts
of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all
the mountains and upon every high hill. Yea, my flock was
scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search
or seek after them. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear
the word of the Lord. As I live, saith the Lord God,
surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat
to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd,
Neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds
fed themselves, and fed not my flock. Therefore, O ye shepherds,
hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God, Behold,
I am against the shepherds, and I will require my flock at their
hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock. Neither
shall the shepherds feed themselves any more, for I will deliver
my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.
For thus saith the Lord God, behold I, even I will both search
my sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his
flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered,
so will I seek out my sheep and will deliver them out of all
places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And
I will bring them out from the people and gather them from the
countries and will bring them to their own land and feed them
upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers and all the inhabited
places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture,
and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be. There
shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they
feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will
cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that
which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and
will bind up that which was broken and will strengthen that which
was sick. But I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will
feed them with judgment. And we'll end our reading there.
Let's bow before our Lord together. Our great God, our sovereign,
holy, merciful, heavenly Father, we bow before your throne of
grace this evening Father, a thankful people. We're so thankful that
though we're sinful, men and women, in the person of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we can come boldly before your throne of grace,
crying, Abba, Father. Father, we cry to you this evening
that you would be our teacher this evening, that you would
speak through your word, speak through your servant to the hearts
of your people. Father, I pray you would be our
teacher, that you give us faith to behold the Lord Jesus Christ
and to believe on him, to rest in him, to trust in him. Father,
enable the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to be exalted and magnified. Enable his person to be magnified
so that your people can behold him with awe and wonder and to
worship him from the heart, to bow to him and believe in him.
Father, I pray you deliver us from just going through the motions
of religion. But Father, I pray you give us
a true hour of worship. And what we pray for ourselves,
we pray for all of your people, wherever they might meet together
tonight. Father, cause your word to go forth in the power of your
spirit. In this dark, dark day in which we live, Father, we
pray you'd show us your glory. Father, we dare not forget to
pray for those who are in deep waters and in difficult times,
times you brought them to. Father, we pray that you'd comfort
their hearts with your presence. We pray that you would heal and
that you'd comfort, that you'd deliver as soon as it could be
thy will. In all these things we ask and we give thanks in
that name which is above every name, the name of Christ our
Savior, amen. Now, I've titled the message
this evening, You Won't, But I Will. Our text begins with
the Lord rebuking false prophets. You know, there's been false
prophets as long as there's been men, haven't there? It's just today they got TV and
internet, so they can spread themselves so much more quickly
than they ever used to, but there's always been false prophets. And
Lord has a word for them here, Ezekiel 34. beginning in verse
one. And the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds
of Israel. Prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God
unto the shepherds. Woe be to the shepherds of Israel
that do feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed
the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe ye with the wool. Ye
kill them that are fed, but ye feed not the flock. Now the shepherds
of Israel, these are the men who are supposed to be God's
under shepherds. They're supposed to be the religious
leaders of the people. They're supposed to be the pastors
who preach to the sheep, who care for the sheep, who lead
and guide the sheep. God's people need a pastor. They need someone to lead them
and to guide them and to preach to them. And I tell you, if a
man's gonna care for God's sheep, now he's got to love them. He's
got to love them. If he's gonna lead and guide
these sheep, if he's gonna do it right, he's got to always
have their best interest at heart. He's gonna put their best interest
ahead of his, just like you parents put the best interest of your
children ahead of yourself. You know, if you only had one
hamburger, you're gonna give it to your kids, aren't you? You're
not gonna eat yourself. That's just the way it is. But the Lord
says these false prophets, now they haven't done that. They
haven't fed the sheep. And you know, one of the great
commandments to God's preachers is feed my sheep. And now what
the Lord told Peter, he said, Peter, do you love me? Well,
if you do, then you feed my sheep, you feed my lambs, you feed my
little ones. And that's not what these men
were doing because their first concern was not for the good
of the sheep, it was for themselves. They took care of themselves
at the expense of what's best for the sheep. They gather the
sheep around them. They get in the middle, they
put the sheep on the outside, use the sheep to protect themselves
from the wolves or predators or whatever. Instead of protecting
them, they use the sheep to protect them. They feed off of the sheep
instead of feeding the sheep. That's what they're doing. They
fleece the sheep. They leave the sheep cold and starving so
that the shepherd can be rich. Look at Romans chapter 16. The
apostle Paul here, has something to say about that. He tells us
why this is. There's a concrete reason why
a man who's supposed to be a shepherd is not taking care of the sheep.
Romans 16, verse 17. Now I beseech you, brethren,
mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the
doctrine which you've learned and avoid them. For they that
are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but they're serving their
own belly. And by good words and fair speeches,
they deceive the hearts of the simple. These prophets, these
false prophets and other divisive people, you know, they set themselves
up to be a big theologian. They're not feeding the sheep
the word of God. They deceive people by twisting the word of
God. They twist it to their own benefit.
They have some goal, you know, that they have, And what they
do is they wrap it in scripture to make their argument, you know,
sound better and sound very religious and with fair speeches. They
deceive people. And I tell you why they do it,
because they're not serving God, they're serving their own belly.
That's exactly why they're doing it. In Philippians 3, verse 19,
Paul said, God is their belly. That's what they're serving.
We'll read on our text, Ezekiel 34, verse four. You haven't fed
the sheep. The disease have you not strengthened,
neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have
you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again
that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was
lost, but with force and cruelty have you ruled them. And they're
scattered because there's no shepherd, and they became meat
to all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My
sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high
hill, yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth,
and none did search after them or seek after them. The Lord
tells these false prophets, my sheep are diseased and you haven't
nursed them back to health. You don't point them, those that
are sin sick, you're not pointing them to Christ the great physician. You're pointing them to the law,
you're pointing them to all these things they can do and get busy
doing, but they're sin sick. You're not pointing them to the
Savior. You don't care for the sheep. You don't point them to
Christ and teach them Christ so that they grow stronger in
grace and in the knowledge of Christ. You don't bind up that
which is broken. You don't have compassion on
the brokenhearted. You can't bind up the brokenhearted
because you don't know how. You don't know Christ, so you
don't preach Christ to them. You know, the only way a heart
that's ever broken over sin The only way that heart can be comforted
is by trusting Christ. Even a heart broken over loss
and pain and suffering in this life, the only way that heart
can be comforted is with the presence of Christ in it. Christ
can comfort your heart like nothing else can. But that's not going
to happen if nobody's preaching Christ to you. These men don't
bind up the brokenhearted. I'll get to this here in just
a little bit. I'd be right happy to find someone
that's broken hearted over sin. Because I got some good news
for them. I heard a man actually make, and this is a famous TV
preacher, got a big, big ministry, big, big, big money. You know
what he had to say about this matter of sin? I don't want to
talk about it because I don't want to bring people down. We
have a positive message. Well, nobody's heart's going
to be broken if we're not talking about sin. And what it is, The
Lord says you haven't bound up the broken hearted. And worse
yet, I guess you haven't broken their heart because you're not
preaching the truth, huh? And the Lord says my sheep are lost.
But you didn't go out and find them. You're not seeking them. You're not trying to find them.
You've not gathered my people together. Instead, what you've
done is you've driven them away. They're scattered everywhere
because you're the one that's driven them away. You drove them
away by preaching the law to them. You got out the rod of
the law, trying to straighten people up, and all you did is
drive them away. Because the law doesn't have
anything good for a sinner. None whatsoever. The law has
no comfort for a poor sinner. So here God describes, you know,
I know we talked a lot about these false prophets, but I want
you to, they're not the focus, okay?
The sheep are the focus. And here's the way God describes
his sheep. They're hungry, they're sin sick, they're broken, and
they're lost. They're lost and driven away.
Now that's every last one of us by nature, isn't it? We're
hungry, starving, we don't have anything spiritually to eat,
we're sick with sin, we're broken in sin, and we're lost. And we
can't do anything to help ourselves. We can't do anything to fix any
one of those four problems, and the false prophet can't give
us anything to fix them either. We're a mess, aren't we? We're
an absolute mess. Well, aren't you thankful the
Lord doesn't stop there? He goes on and tells Ezekiel,
you prophesy this, I'm not gonna leave my people to their own
devices. You know, if the Lord left us to ourselves, we'd be
reprobate tonight if the Lord left us to ourselves. If the
Lord left us to ourselves, we'd all be preaching and believing
a lie on a mad dash to hell. If the Lord left the church alone,
by the time the apostles got done writing the New Testament,
if he left the church alone, there'd be absolutely no truth
at all being preached anywhere in this world today. But the
Lord says, I'm not gonna leave my people. He said, here you
prophesy what I'm gonna do for my people. I'm gonna do for them
what nobody else would do and what nobody else can do. Verse
seven, therefore you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. As
I live, saith the Lord God, surely because my flock became a prey
and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there
was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock,
but the shepherds fed themselves and fed not my flock. Therefore,
oh you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord
God, I'm against the shepherds, and I will require my flock at
their hand, and I'll cause them to cease from feeding the flock,
neither shall the shepherds feed themselves anymore. I will deliver
my flock from their mouth. I'm gonna deliver my people from
the mouth of false religion, that they may not be meat for
them. The Lord says, you false prophets, You don't take care
of my sheep, and I'm gonna judge you for it. Now that's right
where we're gonna leave. God's gonna deal with them in
his time. And he says, since you false
prophets won't care for my sheep, I will. You won't care for my
sheep, but I will. I will seek and save the lost. Verse 11, for thus saith the
Lord God, behold, I, even I will both search my sheep and seek
them out. as a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that
he's among his sheep that are scattered. So will I seek out
my sheep and deliver them out of all places where they've been
scattered in the cloudy and dark day. Now we know from reading
scripture that God has a people he elected to save. He chose
those people unto salvation before God created anything. But now
when those people are born into this world, they're born lost. They're lost. I mean, they're
really lost. They're so lost, first of all,
they don't even know they're lost. They got no idea where
they're at and they got no idea how to get where they want to
go. They're lost. They're separated from God and
they're lost. They don't have the first idea
how to get back to God. Now they've got a few ideas.
You know, man knows, has some idea that I'm lost, some idea
I'm separated from God, so I'm gonna try to find a way, make
up a way I can get back to God. They got some religious ideas.
They say, well, let's go this way. And they go that way for
a while, and they're more lost than they were before, so they
say, well, let's go this way for a while. They go that way for a while.
You know, you've known people that have done that. You know,
they try every religion on the face of the earth. They just
keep trying to go this way and this way. but they can't find
their way. They're still lost. Everything
they do gets them more lost, doesn't it? And I'll tell you
why the sheep are lost. It's because they've been driven
away from God. Look at verse 16. The Lord says,
I will seek that which was lost and bring again that which was
driven away. Now, first thing we got to know
about being lost is how did we get lost? How did I get in this
shape? How did I get lost? You're the false prophet. He's
not telling the sheep that they've been driven away from God. He
wants to have a positive message. So he says, oh, God loves everybody.
No, you're not lost. You know the way to God. Oh,
if you just let him into your heart, you're not lost. That's
not so. The sheep have been driven away
from God by Adam's sin. After Adam's sin, God, He met
them. He talked to the man, the woman,
to the serpent. He made coats of skins for Adam
and Eve. And you know what Genesis 3.24
says? That God drove Adam from the
garden. God drove him. He can't be in
God's presence anymore. He'd driven away from God because
of his sin. It's his sin that separated him
from God. And God drove Adam out of his
presence. He drove us out too. because we were in Adam, our
representative. We've been driven away from God
ever since. It's our sin that has separated us from our God. And man can't figure the way
how to come back. But there is a way. Now there is a way, man
can't figure it out on his own, but there is a way. We can come
back to God if somebody else brings us. But somebody else
has got to bring us. When I was a little boy, I mean,
I was little. I was three, four years old,
probably. I was at some sort of a store
with my mother, and we passed by an escalator. And, Sean, I
was so fascinated with that escalator. I didn't see anything else. And I just started doing my hands
on that. You know, I was rolling down,
just looking at that, just so fascinated. By that escalate,
I mean just, I can't even tell you how fascinated I was. And
a minute I looked around and I saw a bunch of people, but
you know who I didn't see? My mother. I was lost. And I was petrified. I was petrified. Who are all these people? Where
in the world am I? You know? And I started crying
and just, oh my goodness, I was just, I was lost. And you know,
I never would have found my mother. except somebody in that store
said, come here and I'll take you to your mother. I was lost
and somebody had to bring me. Somebody else had to get me unlost.
They had to find me and take me where I needed to be. That's
what Christ has done for his people. Let me show you that
first Peter chapter three. 1 Peter 3, verse 18. For Christ
also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit. And here's how Christ brought
his people back to God. It wasn't like that woman that
found me lost by the escalator, took me by the hand, took me
back to my mother. Christ did something a whole lot better
than that. He brought his people back to God by being made sin
for them, the just for the unjust. He took the sin of his people
and he put it away by his sacrifice, by sacrificing himself, by the
blood of his sacrifice. And once that sacrifice was complete
and he cried, it is finished, sin's gone. All of the sin of
all of his people is gone. Now there's no reason for the
elect to be separated from God anymore. It's sin that separates
from God. Christ put sin away so the good
shepherd could find his sheep and bring them back to God. They're
not lost anymore. He found them. And you know the
worst thing about the false prophet is he leads the lost sheep out
further and further and further out into the wilderness because
he's not telling them the truth. He's not telling them they're
lost. He's not telling them how they got lost. He's not telling
them the direction to go to get back to God. Oh, he'll try to
lead them, but he leads them with the law. But what does the
word say? By the deeds of the law shall
no man be justified. That won't work. He leads them
in the way of emotion. He's like that fellow who wants
to have a positive, upbeat message. Makes everybody feel real good
about their flesh. but you can have a real positive, feel good
emotion and go to hell. You sure can. He's not gonna
find those lost sheep. So God says, I will seek them
and I'll find them. I'll find my lost sheep. That's
what the Lord Jesus came to do. He said in Luke 19 verse 10,
the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Those lost sheep, They're going
to be found, and they're going to be saved. You know the person who is truly,
truly lost? It's when they've given up all
hope of being found. They've given all hope of getting
back to civilization or whatever, and they just quit. They just
lie down and die. There's no hope. They just quit.
That's lost. And that's the way we are by
nature. In John six, verse 44, the Savior said, no man can come
unto me except the father which has sent me drawing. Now that's
how lost we are. We can't come back to God. Now,
if that person is so lost, they can't come back to God. Somebody
else is going to have to find them and save them, aren't they?
That's what Christ does for his people. And I got a question for you.
I don't want this just to be religious theory. I want you
to answer this question in your heart. Do you know what it is
to be lost? Do you know what it is to be
lost? Well, I hope you do. Because
I'm telling you, you'll never be found until you're lost. Look
at Luke chapter 15. This is the parable our Lord
told in three parts. The first part is about the shepherd.
Luke chapter 15. Verse 1. Then drew near unto him all the
publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and
scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth
with them. And he spake this parable unto
them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he
lose one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness,
and go after that which is lost until he find it. And when he
hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And
when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors,
saying unto them, rejoice with me, for I found my sheep which
was lost. I say unto you that likewise
joy should be in heaven over one sinner that repented, more
than over 99 just persons which need no repentance. Now, if you're
not lost, you need, need no repentance, Christ is not for you. But that
lost sheep, that's a different story, isn't it? That lost sheep
belongs to Christ. The father gave it to him and
he goes out and seeks that sheep in love. Not in anger, not mad
because the sheep wandered away, not mad because the sheep was
driven away. That sheep belongs to him and
in love, he goes and he finds that sheep. He seeks it till
he finds it. And he tenderly carries that lost sheep all the
way home, carrying it in his bosom, rejoicing while he does. Now that's how Christ the shepherd
cares for his lost sheep. If you're a lost sheep, you're
going to meet the shepherd. You are, he's going to find you.
See, there's absolutely no doubt the Savior is going to find all
of his lost sheep and none of them will perish. None of them
will. Now the Lord's gonna use men
to preach to them. He's gonna use men to pastor
them, to be the under shepherd, to lead them and to point them
to Christ. But the Lord is the one who's doing the work of making
that message effectual. The preacher, he preaches. That's
what God's given him to do, to preach. But the Lord's the one
that's gonna call out his lost sheep by that preaching of Christ.
We just leave it up to Christ. He's gonna find the sheep. I
tell you, I'm right happy to have it that way. I'm happy that's
his responsibility, not mine, because he won't mess it up.
Well, Lord said, I'll find my lost sheep. Second, he says back
here in our text, Ezekiel 34, I'm going to feed my sheep. Verse
13 says, I will bring them out for the people and gather them
from the countries and bring them into their own land and
feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers and all
the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture.
And upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be. There
shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture. And in
a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.
I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith
the Lord God. Now the false prophet, he didn't
care about the sheep. He didn't just feed the sheep
any old thing. He feeds them the briars of the law. You know,
the sheep trying to chew on those briars. Maybe goats can do that.
Sheep can't. It just hurts their mouth, cuts
up their gums and their lips and makes them hurt and bleed.
The false prophet, he just, he feeds the sheep the junk food
of emotion and feel good, you know. It's just like feeding
a child, you know, all just junk food. Just never feeding them
anything. Junk food, well, you'll fill their belly, but they ain't
gonna be healthy. The sheep are starving. Now they know they
need something. They're starving, they don't
know what they need, but they know they're not getting what
they need. Now, have you ever been there? Do
you know what that feels like? Do you know what it is to be
spiritually starving? You're starving to death and
you must have something. You don't know what it is, but
you must have something. Do you know what it is to be starving?
Do you know what it is to be empty? Do you know what it is
to be able to that you can't feed yourself? Well, I hope so.
Because those sheep that need to be fed, you know what the
Lord says? I'll feed them. I'll feed them. Look down here
at verse 23. And I will set up one shepherd
over them, and he shall feed, this is, he's speaking of Christ
here. One shepherd over them, he shall feed them. Even my servant
David. Now David had been dead a long
time here. He's not talking about King David. He's talking about
the son of David. He shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. The Lord's gonna feed His sheep.
And He says here He's gonna feed them with the green pastures
of His Word. This Word, oh it's a good pasture. It's full and rich, it's fat,
it's full of good things for God's sheep. This Word, it's
got no briars in it. It's just tender, sweet grass
for God's sheep to graze in. And notice this, when Christ
feeds His sheep, They feed peacefully. Peacefully. There's no fussing
and bickering and fighting and trying to guard your territory.
They're feeding peacefully. The Lord causes His sheep to
lie down in green pastures. They lie down because they're
at peace. They don't have to be standing up on watch for somebody
coming to attack them. They've got nothing to be afraid
of. The shepherd's with them. The shepherd led them there.
I'll tell you another reason they lie down. It's because they're
full. I do that all the time anymore.
When I get full, I just gotta close my eyes and meditate for
a few minutes now. I'm full. That's the way the
sheep are. They're just fed, they're full,
and they rest. That's what we have in the Word.
If Christ is being our shepherd, if He's the one feeding us, it
is. And also notice this. The Lord's not feeding those
individual sheep. They're scattered here and there
and everywhere. But He's not feeding them scattered all around
the mountains and all the valleys and all the different places.
Christ goes and He gathers His sheep into folds. Into sheep
folds. He puts them all together. The
sheep fold is where the sheep lie together. They get warmth. They get encouragement. They
get comfort from one another. And that's God's church here
on this earth. At least that's what it's supposed to be. That's
what it's supposed to be. This is supposed to be a place
where the sheep can gather together and be fed the Word. That's what
this place is supposed to be. This is a sheepfold. This sheepfold
is a place where the sheep are supposed to be able to come and
rest. They don't have to be on their
guard from the other sheep here, or sheep. This is the place where
the sheep come to get warmth and encouragement. They should
find some love and care for one another. Because this is the
sheepfold. This is where God gathers together His sheep. And
the Lord's commandment to Peter and all His other preachers is
this. Feed my sheep. You feed my sheep. You get in that study and you
study and you pray and you seek God's message. You seek God's
message for His people for this hour. And you pray for God's
Spirit to enable you to open your mouth and to preach Christ,
to rightly divide the word of truth. That's the job of the
under shepherd, to preach the gospel, to preach Christ, to
feed the sheep. But I'm telling you this, we
are completely dependent upon the Lord to make that preaching
effectual. And I'm just real happy it's that way. If I had
to be a salesman and convince y'all to do something, I'd starve
to death. I couldn't do it. It's not in
my skill set. but I can depend on the Lord
to make his word effectual, to feed the hearts of his people.
Aren't you glad the Lord does this? Listen to this statement
from Charles Spurgeon. If the Lord did not interfere
with his church continually, the church would cease to exist.
The Lord's gonna make it effectual in me. All right, here's the
third thing. The Lord says, I will bind up
that which was broken. Verse 16, I will see that which
was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and I'll
bind up that which was broken. That word broken means destroyed. When Adam fell, all of us were
destroyed. We're ruined. Our nature died. Our hearts died. Our hearts,
now they remained intact, but they are broken in this way.
They don't work right anymore. They're dead. Our natural heart
is so hard and it doesn't do what a heart's supposed to do.
Our natural heart, it can't love God. You know, that's a symbol
for love, right? A heart. Our heart can't love
God. It isn't doing what it's supposed to do. It's broke. Our
heart can't trust Christ. Our heart can't believe on Christ.
It's a spiritually dead heart. And I'd say one of the very first
things God the Holy Spirit does when He comes to His people is
break their hearts. He breaks their heart over sin.
And this, when the Holy Spirit breaks our heart, it's not just
being sorry over the consequences of our sin. You know, I know
I'm going to be damned for my sin. I don't want to go to hell.
All that is, is being sorry I got caught. That's all it is. A heart
broken by the Holy Spirit is sorry for who I am. It's sorry
for what I am. I'm sin. There's no hope in myself. I see that God would be just
and right to send me to hell. That's exactly what I deserve. You know what it is to have a
broken heart? You know, humanly speaking, is
there anything worse than a broken heart? Remember when you were
a teenager and your boyfriend or girlfriend broke up with you,
you just broken hearted? I mean, it's just the worst thing
in the world. I mean, it's just so horrible. I know a broken
heart is a painful thing. But do you know what it is to
have a heart broken over sin? And not just a boyfriend or a
girlfriend, not things, you know, not going your way. I'm telling
a heart that's broken over sin. It's consuming. It's so painful. Do you know what that is? I pray you do. I pray you do. because you have a heart that's
broken over sin. I want you to look at what the
Lord said He's going to do. Look first at Psalm 34. The Lord has
a promise of what He's going to do for folks that have a broken
heart. Psalm 34, verse 18. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart, and He saveth such as be of a contrite
spirit. If your heart is broken over
your sin, the Lord promised he's gonna be nigh. He's gonna be
near. He's gonna be the one to comfort
you. Look at Psalm 51. Verse 17. The sacrifices of God
are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart,
O God, that will not despise. If you have a broken and a contrite
heart, God's not going to despise you. Now look at Psalm 147. Psalm 147 verse two. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem.
See, he's the one that builds his church. He's the one that
makes the preaching effectual. He's the one that calls out his
people and gives them faith. The Lord hath built up Jerusalem.
He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken
in heart and bindeth up their wounds. The Lord is gonna heal
every broken heart. Every heart broken over sin,
he's gonna heal it. And you know what he does, how
he heals it? It's by giving you a new heart. But it's by giving
you a new nature that does trust Christ, that does love Christ. I can't do that for you. You
can't do that for yourself. But the Lord will. The Lord will. And you know how he did it? It's
by his sacrifice. The Lord gave his body to be
broken as a sacrifice for sin so that he could take the hearts
of his people and make them whole. It's by his sacrifice, by applying
the blood of his sacrifice, he binds up the broken heart. And
then here's the last thing. The Lord will heal the spiritually
sick. In verse 16, he says, I'll strengthen
that which was sick. Now being sin sick, sin is not
just breaking the rules. Sin is a disease. It's a disease
that kills the body and damns the soul. Look back at Isaiah
chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1. In verse 5, you hear Isaiah, he's
going to describe you and me by nature. He said, why should
you be stricken anymore? You'll revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick. The whole heart is faint. From
the sole of the foot even to the head, there's no soundness
in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores that have
not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Sin is a disgusting disease. Now that picture there that Isaiah
painted, if you really take a lot of time to think about that,
That's disgusting. Something like that to wounds
and bruises. They haven't been treated. They
haven't had any ointment put on them. I mean, besides looking
disgusting, they stink. They just, you know, they're
so quickly going to kill the body. And the half's not been
told about how horrible, how disgusting our sin sickness really
is. And there's no human cure for
it. There's no human cure for this soul sickness. The Lord
says the false prophet's not even trying to heal you, and
you can't heal yourself. Now, do you know what it is to
be diseased? Not spiritually diseased, spiritually dead. There's
no life in you. I mean, you're just disgusting
to yourself. Do you know what that is? Well, I hope so. I'm not wishing
something bad on you, but I hope you know what that is to be sin
sick. Because the Lord says to those who are sin sick, I will
heal my people. I'll heal them. And do you know
how Christ healed all of his people from all their sin sickness?
It's by taking our sin sickness and his own body on the tree
and trading us his health. Look at Isaiah chapter 53. We'll
close here. Isaiah chapter 53. Verse four, surely he hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes,
with his bruising, with his beating, with his bleeding, we are healed. Christ heals his people by taking
our sin sickness and giving us his health. Now that's a great
position. And all I can do as a preacher
is I can tell you about him. I can point you to him. Are you
sin sick? Go to Christ. Go to Christ. That's all I can
tell you. Preach the gospel. And I'm right
happy to leave it there because the Lord's gonna make that effectual
to his people. He's the one that's gonna come to his people. And
he's gonna make them believe. Make them believe. He's gonna
give them a nature that can't not believe. He's gonna do that. He's gonna come to his people,
and he's gonna be like that good Samaritan who pours in oil and
wine. His sin-cleansing blood. And I tell you, when Christ,
the great physician, comes to his sin-sick people, and he makes
them whole, buddy, they're whole. You know how old they are? They
can never die. When Christ heals His people,
He gives them eternal life. So they can never be sick, they
can never be bruised, they can never be wounded again. Now are
you sick? Are you sin sick? Well, come
to Christ. He said He was going to heal
the sick. That's what He promised to do for His people. Now come
to Him. And I'm just right happy to trust him to do it, aren't
you? All right, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for these precious, precious promises of your word, what you
promised to do for your people, to do everything for us that's
required, to do everything for us that we cannot do for ourselves.
Father, how we thank you for your mercy and your grace that
seeks out your people finds them, saves them, feeds them, binds
up our broken heart, gives us eternal life. Father, how we
thank you. Father, I pray that you would
bless your word tonight, that you'd cause it to go forth, to
comfort the hearts of your people, to bind up the brokenhearted,
to find those that are lost and bring them to Christ. Father,
we pray that you do it for your glory and your honor. It's in
Christ's name. For his sake we pray, amen. All
right, Sean.