a broken and a contrite heart. It's those with a broken and
a contrite heart whom God seeks to save. David writes in Psalm 51, the
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite
heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. A broken and a contrite heart. Have you a broken and a contrite
heart? It's not easy to find those who
have a truly broken and contrite heart. It's a rare thing, isn't it? Most have a proud and a strong
and arrogant heart, a hard heart or a cold heart. Oh, we may find those who have a downcast heart Your heart may be miserable,
sorrowful. Things may not go the way you
would have them. Your heart may be frustrated. It may be low, mournful. You may, at times, speak of having
a broken heart. If your emotions have been struck. If you've suffered misery or
loss. But it's not that sort of broken heart, the broken heart
of love gone wrong, of which David speaks in Psalm 51. That's simply a sorrowful heart,
a self-pitying heart. One that still thinks well of
itself but just hasn't got what it wanted. Now the broken and
the contrite heart of which David speaks is one that has been brought
low. One in which the pride of man has been struck down. One
in which the hardness of man has been broken up. One that
does not think greatly of self. One that has been taught that it is nothing. A broken
and a contrite heart. You may at times find those who
are broken, but they are not contrite. Others may be contrite,
but not truly broken. But David speaks here of those
who have a broken and a contrite heart. And it is a broken and a contrite
heart which God does not despise. You may come before God by nature
with the arrogance of your heart. with a proud heart. And should
you come before God with some strength in your own self in
this way, in the pride of self, with great self-esteem, you'll find a God who turns away. because God is not seeking the
proud and the arrogant, but he'll break them first. God saves those whose hearts
are broken and contrite. Can you say of your heart that
it's been broken before God? Can you truly say that you are
contrite? Has the Lord taught you something
of what you are? Truly, not simply on the surface,
not simply to be able to say, well, I'm not perfect, who is?
Well, I've done wrong, but then so has everyone else. I have
my faults and my failings. I try my best. I wish I was better. Everyone can say that. But it's
a greatly different matter to be taught that you are nothing,
to have your heart broken, to have your heart contrite. David, of course, penned this
Psalm, Psalm 51, at a time when the Lord had wrought
in him a truly broken and a truly contrite heart. He'd fallen into the worst of
sins. He'd been an adulterer. a murderer,
a deceiver. He'd coveted, he turned away
from his Lord with whom he had walked. He had, as it were, broken every
command which God had set before him in the law of God. He'd crashed down. And what made him do it? Why didn't he stand? Why did
this one who knew better, for David did know better, why did
this man who knew better fall so greatly? Why didn't he have
the strength or the wisdom to resist? This was not someone who knew
not God. This was not someone who knew
not the will of God. He knew the law. He knew how
God would judge. He knew what was right from what
was wrong. And yet in the hour in which
he fell, all the knowledge, all the upbringing, All the strength
which he had by nature could do nothing to save him. And you can know the scriptures
inside out. And you can be a Pharisee among
Pharisees, as Paul was. You can know the law of God. You can be the most upright man
or woman attentive to the word of God, attending church regularly,
listening to the gospel, and yet should circumstances come
your path like they did with David, should they come your
way, you will have no more strength
to stand in yourself than David did. when he lusted after Bathsheba
and had her husband killed in battle. David knew better, yet
David fell. You and I may know better, yet
like David we can fall. What does this teach us and what
did it teach David? It taught David that in his flesh,
in his heart, there is no good thing. That by nature, he will sin through and through. By nature, as he says in verse
five, he was shapen in iniquity. And in sin did his mother conceive
him. He knew that the Lord desired
truth in the inward parts. And yet he discovered that in
his inward parts, in his heart, there was no truth. There was
no beauty. There was no righteousness. He was corrupt to the core. There was nothing in David by
nature to make him worthy before his God or to give him the strength
to stand when circumstances came his way that could cause him
to stumble. If we stand, if we've not fallen
as David fell, there's only one reason for it. It's not because
we've done better. It's not because we're more righteous
than David. It's not because we did the right
thing and turned from the wrong things. It's because the Lord
God kept us from falling. And should God allow us to fall? Should God leave us to ourselves
as he left David to himself in this hour? then we come crashing
down as hard as David. And when David came crashing
down, the Lord taught him what he is. He taught him what his
heart is. He broke that heart and he made
it contrite. And until the Lord teaches you
and me what our hearts are, until he breaks them, until he makes
them contrite, we'll never truly know what the Lord's salvation
is. We need to be brought to where David was brought. Not
perhaps as a consequence of a fall as David's fall, but nevertheless,
we need the Lord to teach us what he taught David. For none know this except the
Lord teach them. As I said, it's a rare thing
to find one who has a truly broken and contrite heart. A truly broken
spirit. A rare thing. It's yours David could write in this state,
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according
unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions,
wash me freely from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, the only have I
sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. Now it takes a work of the Spirit
of God. It takes the work of God to bring
a man to this state. Many will say that, oh, I'm a
sinner. as everyone else's. Many will
say they've done wrong. But few can really speak with
the language which David uses here. Wash me freely from mine
iniquity. Wash me thoroughly. And cleanse
me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me. How freely do you acknowledge
your transgressions? How freely would you say that
your sin is ever before me? We don't very often. The heart
of man is always justifying himself. You always find somebody else
to blame for everything that happens. Every trouble that comes
his way is someone else's fault. Everything that goes wrong is
somebody else's fault. If this hadn't happened, I wouldn't
have done it. If they hadn't said this, I wouldn't
have followed. If I hadn't been in this circumstance,
I wouldn't have fallen. It's not my fault. I was simply
led along. They did worse than me. They
caused it to happen. This circumstance is the reason. I stole because I was poor. every excuse, everything to blame. How often do we say, it was my
fault and I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. And how often do we know that
those sins And those transgressions are not merely things that we
have done to other men. We may have stolen from another. We may have hurt another. We
may have hated another, as David did. But David wrote not that he had
sinned against other men. But he can say, as taught of
God, against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this
evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou
speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. David knew that his
sin and his corruption, though against other men, was ultimately
against his God. It set him apart from his God. It set a gulf between him and
his maker. He felt the corruption of his
heart. He knew there was no good in
him. He knew he needed a new heart. And he knew there was nothing
that he could do to make that heart clean. Behold I was shapen
in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. This is how
I am. This is what I'm like. It's not merely something I've
done. I've not merely blotted my copy
book through one or two incidents. But I am sinful. I am corrupt. This is my state. Those sins,
those iniquities, those transgressions which I fell into, which I committed,
I did because of this heart. He was taught to look deeper
than the actions, deeper than the transgressions. He saw the
sewer from which they sprang, the heart. You may know your
deeds, you may know what you've done, but do you know why? Do you know your heart? David says, Behold, thou desirest
truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part. Thou shalt
make me to know wisdom. The Lord wants truth, not simply in the head. Wisdom,
not simply in the intellect. Cleansing that is not simply
of the surface. You can reform your outer conduct,
You can perhaps, as some do, lead a fairly moral life and
never fall outwardly into the depths in which David fell here. That's what the Pharisees in
Jesus' day did. They made the outside of the
platter and the cup white. Outwardly, they were conformed
to the law. Outwardly they never murdered,
outwardly they never committed adultery, outwardly they worshipped
God according to all the rites and the rituals to which they
had been commanded, outwardly they were great, wonderful, upright,
but inwardly their hearts were just like David's. And it's there
that we need to be taught. David cries out, purge me with
hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. He knew he needed a cleansing. But there's nothing that he could
do to cleanse himself. Make me to hear joy and gladness
that the bone to which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy
face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in
me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. He knew he needed to be clean.
He knew he needed a new heart, a clean heart. a right spirit. But there's nothing that David
could do to make it. There's nothing that David could
do to clean that heart. And that's what God taught him. He brought him so low. He broke
his heart to teach him that there's nothing he could do to mend that
heart. Nothing. And that's why God broke his
heart. Because until our hearts are
truly broken and are truly contrite, we'll forever be seeking to patch
them up. Until we're brought as low as
David was brought here we go about forever seeking in our
own strength to please God or in our own strength to stand
upright in the presence of others. Every time we fall we just get
up again and we carry on going and we think well I'll try not
to do that again and perhaps if I turn away from this and
turn away from that My conscience will be clean. And God will weigh
my good deeds against my bad deeds. And perhaps if my good
deeds outweigh the bad, then he'll be happy with me. And that's
how we go on. We try to forget what we've done.
We lift ourselves up through the pride we take in some good
that we do. We turn ourselves back to the
scriptures or prayer. We immerse ourselves in some
good deeds and some good works. And we gain some self-esteem.
And we gain some feeling that God is now pleased with us. And
yet our hearts within are just the same. Create in me a clean heart, oh
God. and renew a right spirit within
me. We need to be broken. We need to be broken. Because until we're broken, we'll never truly call upon God
to be our saviour. For our hearts rest in ourselves. Until we're truly emptied, we
cannot be filled. Until we're brought to nothing,
we will never see Jesus Christ to be our all. Until we're brought
to an end of self, then Christ will not be all our salvation. Until we're brought to an end
of our deeds and our works, then we will never received the grace
of God. God saves through grace, entirely
by grace, grace from start to finish. It's of his tender mercies
that David's transgressions were blotted out. According to God's
loving kindness, according to his grace, And God never mixes grace with
works. And whilst David still had some
strength, whilst David's heart still had some strength in itself,
whilst David's heart still had some pride in it, some haughtiness
in it, some self-esteem, David would never truly know
the grace of God that brings salvation. And until God breaks
your heart, you'll continue to rest in yourself. You need a broken heart. And that's why when God sends
his gospel, when he sends it in power. It begins with a breaking,
a breaking. It begins with a voice crying
in the wilderness which makes way for the coming of the Lord. Christ doesn't just come freely
to whoever and patch them up in their natural state. There's a proceeding work. There's a breaking down of the
proud heart. There's a sounding out of the
wrath of God which burns from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men. There's a breaking. People speak of accepting Jesus,
of inviting Jesus into their heart. But until that heart be
cleansed, do they really think that Jesus is going to enter
in? Do they honestly think, do you
honestly think that Jesus is going to enter into your filthy
heart? What sort of an invite is it
to give to Almighty God? To welcome him in to an unbroken,
a corrupt, a wicked, a filthy, guilty, rebellious heart, an
iniquitous heart. What sort of a place is that
for God to enter? There must be a way prepared. God saves the worst of sinners,
yes. God saved the chief of sinners
in Paul. That iniquitous Pharisee, who
was clean on the outside but filthy on the inside, who hearing
of Christ and those who followed him, sought to slay those who
followed him. God saved him. but he didn't
save him without breaking that heart first and without cleansing
that heart and without preparing a perfect and a righteous entrance
for the Son of God to enter in. God gave Paul a new heart that
Christ might enter into Paul and be his Saviour. God saved
David Despite his iniquity, despite his fall, he saved him with an
almighty and an everlasting salvation. But not before he gave David
a new heart. Not before he'd broken the old. Not before he'd broken the hard
and the proud and the arrogant heart which David had by nature. not before he'd shown David what
he was, not before he'd shown David his need and caused David
to cry out unto the Lord to save him. The heart must be broken and
the gospel begins with the breaking of the hard heart. The gospel is good news It's good news, it brings the
news of a finish and an almighty salvation. It brings news of
righteousness for those who are unrighteous. It brings news of
eternal life for those who are dead. But that good news comes
when they are shown, when these people are shown that they are
dead. And when they are shown that
they are sinners, and when they are shown that they have a need,
has God shown you your need? For when you're shown your need,
you will love the one who came to fulfil that need. You will
love with a true love. The one who came to take away
your stony and your hard heart. The one who came to create a
new heart. The one who came to give a new
spirit. The one who came to breathe life
into those who are dead. Then you will love. Then you
will cry out and then you will know. But not until you're brought
where David was brought here. Not until you can cry out with
David unto the Lord. Cast me not away from thy presence
and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation. Uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors
thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver
me from blood guiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation. And
then my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness. David knew he was guilty. Guilty of blood. Iniquitous through and through.
His heart was broken and it's from a broken and a
contrite spirit that the Lord heard his cries. It's when David's
heart was broken and contrite that the Lord did not despise
his cries, that the Lord did not reject his prayers, that
the Lord came unto David in grace, came unto David to heal, came
unto David to take him who was wounded and heal his wounds,
came unto David to cleanse his lips, to cleanse his words, to
put a right spirit within him, to open his lips to show forth
the praise of God. Then David was lifted up. Then David was lifted out of
the pits of death and lifted up to stand upon a rock of righteousness. Then David knew In a way, he
had never known until that point what it was to be in Christ,
what it was to be saved with an almighty salvation, what it
was to be delivered from all his iniquity. David may have known what it
was to walk with the Lord, but the Lord needed to break
him. and show him that his all was in Christ. Has he broken
you? Has he broken you? Micah, we read of the Lord's
love for his people, his flock. Micah chapter two, we read of
how The Lord breaks his people. He says in Micah 2 and verse
12, I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee. I will surely gather
the remnant of Israel. I will put them together as the
sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold. They
shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. Yes,
there's this promise of salvation The Lord will gather Jacob, he
will gather the remnant of Israel as the sheep of Bozrah. But he
begins with what he says in verse 13. The breaker has come up before
them. They have broken up and have
passed through the gate and are gone out by it. And their king
shall pass before them and the Lord on the head of them. The
Lord breaks his people first before he leads them forth. Like
a horse which needs to be broken in, their wild nature needs to
be destroyed. And having been broken, then
he cleanses. Then he sends his gospel. Then
he proclaims to those who are broken, those who are low, those
who know their need, those who cry out from the depths of their
heart unto their God, Lord save, Lord have mercy upon me, Lord
turn not thy face from me. Then he speaks gladness to their
hearts. As Isaiah says in chapter 61,
the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath
anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He sent me to
bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our
God, to comfort all that mourn. The Lord heard David's cry, David
mourned, he cried, he was a captive seeking liberty, he was broken-hearted. And the Lord came unto him preaching
the gospel, he heard him, and he heard him for Christ's sake.
He heard his cries, he heard David's cry, he saw David's broken
heart, and he had compassion on him. He had compassion on
him. The Lord didn't break David's
heart to cast him off forever. The Lord wasn't out to destroy
him. The Lord wasn't out to bring
him to ruin. And should your heart be broken,
should the Lord teach you your state? Should the Lord bring
you into these straits and cause you to call out and cry for mercy? Know this, if that's the Lord's
doing to bring you to where you are, He's not out to destroy
you. He's not out to cast you out. He won't turn a blind ear to
you. He won't turn a deaf ear to you. He hears the break-ins but for
a moment, but for a time. It has an end in view. is to bring you to cry out to
the only one that can heal, the only one that can cleanse, the
only one that can give you a new heart, the only one that can
give you a true heart, the only one that can put truth in your
inward part, the only one that can write wisdom within you,
the only one who can save. The only one that can bring you,
a dead sinner, unto life. The only one who can purge your
iniquities. The only one who can blot out
your transgressions. He brings you to call out unto
Him. To call out unto the Lord God,
who sent His Son to die in the place of sinners. who sent his
Son to die for David, who sent his Son to die for Paul, who
sent his Son into this world. God made man. God walking amongst
men as man. The Son of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the God who sent this one into this world, for one
end, to go to a place of sacrifice, to go to a cross, to go to a
place where he should be slain, where he should be destroyed
instead of David, where he should die instead of Paul, where he
should be judged for the iniquities of David and of Paul, instead
of David and instead of Paul, where he should die in the place
of the sinner and where God should destroy him and judge him for
those sins instead of that sinner. If the Lord has taught you that
you're a sinner, then know that Christ died for sinners, and
Christ died to take the sins of sinners upon himself, that
their sins might be judged, not in them, not in you, if you're
his, but in Christ. This is the one to whom David
looked. And this is the one who purged
his sins. Because his sins were purged. And his sins were judged. And
his sins were blotted out. Just not in David. But in one
who stood in David's place. And God could forgive David. God could make David clean. God could give David a new heart. Because Christ, his saviour,
his salvation, had taken away those sins, and had taken away
that sin, and had taken away that stony heart. And by blotting
out those sins and that sin, he could give David a new heart,
and a new spirit. And having died, Christ on the
third day, rising again from the grave, in everlasting life,
in newness of life. Having nothing to keep him in
the grave for every last one of David's transgressions, every
last one of Paul's transgressions, every last one of the transgressions
of all God's people in Christ had been judged and there was
nothing to keep Christ in the grave. So Christ rose victorious,
rose with a mighty salvation. And David rose in Christ with
everlasting life. And Paul rose. And all those
who were given a broken and a contrite heart at the hand of God, who
were then cleansed by Christ in his death. rise with him too
and are given by his grace a new heart and a new spirit oh have
you looked unto this one upon the tree have you looked unto
this one who comes to heal the brokenhearted Unto this One who
comes to bring peace where there was no peace. Unto this One who
brought in righteousness where there was only sin. Unto this
One who brings life where there was death. Unto this One who
heals, who binds up the brokenhearted, who brings comfort to those who
mourn, and who brings liberty to the captives. Oh flee unto
Christ, flee unto Christ, may God show you your heart and may
he give you by his grace the heart which he gave David, a
new heart, a perfect heart, a clean heart, a heart which is whiter
than snow, a heart of righteousness, a heart of righteousness. May
He give you a new life, a perfect life, the life of Christ within. May He give you a new spirit,
the spirit of Christ within. And may He grant unto you a salvation
which can never be taken away. No matter how much you fall,
no matter how much you stumble, no matter what you may do, between
now and the day in which you enter into eternity. May he give
you a salvation which can never be taken away. For it is wrought
not by the hand of man, not by the hand of Paul, not by the
hand of David, but by God's hand, a mighty hand, an almighty hand,
with everlasting strength, with a sure and a certain salvation.
which brings everlasting peace. And may you be given the lips
which David was given to show forth God's praise as the one
who came to save sinners. Amen.