We live in a world where everything
seems to be out of joint. A world of broken things. Broken homes, broken lives, broken
hearts, broken bodies, broken minds. I talked to a very good
friend of mine This morning I've known his dad for 20, 25 years. Big, strong, sharp, sharp man. Now he gets lost driving to the
post office. Can't go anywhere, can't do anything
on his own. He was a broken man. We live in a world of broken
hopes, broken dreams, broken health, broken vows. Broken,
broken lives. What sadness those words express. But there is a brokenness to
be desired. A brokenness we must have. A brokenness, though painful,
as painful as any brokenness in this world. brokenness I desire
for myself and I pray God will grant to every one of you. I
want to show you this from the Word of God and we'll begin back
in Acts chapter 27. We read the context earlier.
A ship that Paul is sailing in
is about to be destroyed and And the soldiers fearing for
their lives said, let's kill the prisoners so they won't escape
and we'll be killed when they do. But we read in verse 23,
the centurion, here's a man who had no knowledge of God, no regard
for God, but God gave him a heart of compassion toward Paul. God
rules even the thoughts and hearts and intents of the most wicked
of men. The centurion willing to save Paul, kept the soldiers
from their purpose and commanded that they which could swim should
cast themselves first into the sea and get to land. And the
rest, some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship. So it came to pass that they
escaped all safe to land. as God used broken pieces of
this wrecked ship to fulfill his purpose toward those whom
he had determined to save. So in all things spiritual, listen
now, in all things spiritual, God uses broken pieces to accomplish
his purpose. God uses broken things, only
broken things. And that's what I want to talk
to you about for a little while this morning. I want you to see
just this one thing. The one point I hope God the
Holy Spirit will drive home to our hearts this morning is this
fact. God only uses broken things. For us, broken things are useless. Things we throw away, discard.
If we can't repair them, we get rid of them. And you know, a
couple years ago I had this arm broken, shoulder messed up. I
couldn't even pick up a fork and feed myself. Broken arm,
you can't do much with it. Broken leg, you can't walk on
it. Broken car, you're gonna get rid of it unless you can
get it repaired. That which is broken, we can't use. But God
won't use anything that's not broken. God won't use anything
that's not broken. A farmer breaks up the fallow
ground before he sows his seed. I know we have this no-till farming
today, but a wise farmer isn't about to sow his precious seed
for which he spent hard-earned money into ground among thorns
and expect to harvest. So God commands his servants
in Jeremiah chapter four saying, break up the fallow ground and
sow not among thorns. Now with those things in mind,
let me make three statements and I'll try to be as brief as
I can. But I pray God will stick his finger in your heart and
mine and speak by his spirit to us. Number one, God will never
sow the seed of his grace. God will never sow the seed of
his grace in the soil of unbroken pride. It's not gonna happen. Now this brokenness is not a
condition of grace. It's not a condition you must
meet in order to get God's grace. The brokenness I'm talking about,
Gary, is what happens when God sends his grace. If God sends
his grace to you or me, he's gonna send it in brokenness,
in a broken heart, in a contrite spirit. If God saves us, he'll
break us. You see, God breaks the objects
of his grace and graciously makes his people willing in the day
of his power, graciously forces chosen redeemed sinners to flee
willingly into the arms of his grace, and he does it in several
ways. He does it certainly by his providence.
Psalm 107, we've looked at it numerous times. God describes
His ways with men, His ways of mercy and grace. He brings down
our hearts with labor to make us call on Him. He causes us
to go down into the deep waters to reel to and fro as a drunken
man until we're at our wit's end. Then graciously, He causes
us to call upon Him. But providential judgment will
never of itself bring repentance. It won't bring brokenness. Providential
judgment, unless it is accompanied by grace, will only bring greater
hardness. It's like legal terror. God sends
the word of his law into the heart and conscience of a man
who's terrified, and his conscience screams and accuses him. But
all it does is harden him more in unbelief, unless with the
terror of the law comes the spirit of grace and brokenness. And
so the Lord God brings chosen sinners down and breaks us by
his spirit in the revelation of Christ. Turn to Zechariah
chapter 12. Let me show you this. Zechariah
12. Sometimes, well, always, unless
taught of grace, men and women in spiritual things get the cart
before the horse. Always do. You start to talk
about brokenness, contrition of spirit, repentance, and folks
say, well, I haven't repented enough. I'm not broken enough.
I'm not hungry enough. I'm not thirsty enough. Look
to Christ for it all. Don't look to yourself for anything.
Brokenness is found in Christ found looking to him look in
Zechariah chapter 12 verse 10 This is what God says in the
word of his grace. I Will pour upon the house of
David not every house He doesn't pour out his spirit everywhere
But I will pour upon the house of David my chosen upon the house
of Christ my redeemed my Savior my Redeemer my Lord who is himself
God the Son and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem Those who are the
chosen people of God, Zion, God's elect. What will he pour? I will pour the spirit of grace.
And where God pours out the spirit of grace, he pours something
else. He pours out a spirit of supplication. The spirit of grace
causing us to supplicate the throne of God, the throne of
grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
And they shall look, here's the result, when I pour out the spirit
of grace, when I pour out the spirit of supplication upon you,
they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced, and they shall
mourn for him as one mourneth for his own son, his only son,
and shall be in bitterness, bitterness. Have you ever seen a father lose
his only son? He's a broken man. He's a broken
man. He's in bitterness. And God speaks
now spiritually and says when He sends His Spirit, when He
sends His Spirit to you or to me, He'll cause you to be in
bitterness as one mourning for his only Son. Not bitterness
against God, bitterness against yourself. Not bitterness with
God's goodness and grace, but rather bitterness with your own
sin. This is how John Newton expressed
it. I love the way he expresses things in this hymn. In evil
long I took delight, unawed by shame or fear, until a new object
struck my sight and stopped my wild career. I saw one hanging
on a tree in agonies and blood, who fixed his languid eyes on
me as near his cross I stood. Sure never till my latest breath
shall I forget that look. It seemed to charge me with his
death, though not a word he spoke. My conscience felt and owned
the guilt, and plunged me in despair. I saw my sins, his blood
had spilt, and helped to nail him there. Alas, I knew not what
I did, but now, by tears of age, Where shall my trembling soul
be hid? For I, the Lord, have slain."
A second look he gave, which said, I freely all forgive. This blood is for your ransom
paid. I die that you may live. Thus
while his death my sin displays in all its blackest hue, such
is the mystery of his grace, it seals my pardon too. Now,
with pleasing grief and mournful joy, my spirit now is filled
that I should such a life destroy, yet live by him I killed. You
understand what I'm talking about? God breaks the heart when he
reveals Christ in your heart. That's where the brokenness comes
from. Job was a broken man, broken when he saw the Lord God himself,
when he heard God speak. His friends spoke to him. And
when his friends spoke to him, he defended himself. When his
friends spoke to him, he vindicated himself. When his friends spoke
to him, he hardened himself. And he said, he said, why did
not I perish from the womb? Why, why did not I give up the
ghost when I came out of the belly? His wife had earlier said,
why don't you cuss God and die? And he said, you talk like one
of the fools, woman. And then he cussed God and wished
to die. Cussed the day of his birth.
Cussed the day of his birth. He was in misery. He was in misery,
but in hardness. Then, then God showed him himself
again. Then God spoke to him and listen
to what he says. Behold, I am fine. I've heard of you with the hearing
of the ear, but now mine eye sees you and I abhor myself. Now he blames himself and vindicates
God. Now he justifies God and uses
words to speak of his own reproach. Now he sees God in his glory
and loathes himself. No more haughtiness here. No
more pride here, no more self-vindication here, no more egotism. Once Job
saw the Lord, he was broken. He loathed himself, he blamed
himself. He honored God and vindicated
God. You see, the broken heart, listen
now, listen to me, the broken heart always vindicates God. The broken heart always declares
God just. The broken heart always blames
self. When Isaiah saw the Lord Jesus
Christ in his redemptive glory sitting upon his throne high
and lifted up his train filling the temple, when Isaiah knew
the grace of God, when the coals had touched his lips, he said,
woe is me, for I'm an unclean man and I dwell in the midst
of an unclean people. There was a woman in Luke chapter
seven, Described by our Lord and such was this woman that
our Lord says wherever the gospel is preached folks gonna talk
about her this woman was a sinner a sinner who had much to be forgiven
a sinner who had experienced that much forgiveness and She
came with an alabaster box of ointment spiked and precious
and anointed the Savior's feet She washed his feet with her
tears. She dried them with her hairs
and she kissed them with her lips and because this woman was
expressing the love of a broken heart, broken in love for Christ,
broken in the blessed experience of forgiveness, broken and in
bitterness for her own sin for which he was about to die. You
see, God the Holy Spirit always breaks the sinner he saves. It's a thing called conviction.
Holy Spirit conviction. I had to drive out the road this
morning, I was listening to one of the local broadcasts, just
before time for us to come on, time for our radio broadcast
to come on, and this buffoon, an idiotic religious buffoon,
just a buffoon, talking to men and women, come down here to
the altar and let Jesus come into your heart. damning to men's souls, damning
to men's souls. You'll never experience God's
grace till God breaks you. Bill Raleigh, he won't clothe
anybody. He doesn't strip. He won't heal the soul he hasn't
wounded. He will not lift up those whom
he has not abased. He will not give life to those
whom he has not slain. There comes this brokenness if
ever there's any experience of grace. And if God Almighty ever
does this work of grace in the hearts of his people, in yours
or in mine, not only will he break us, he will keep us broken. He'll continually break us. This
is a thing that's not a once for all lifetime experience. It is a lifelong daily experience. Because we have this thing called
flesh that rises its ugly head of pride and like a serpent hisses
at God. The Lord God will continually
crush us and make us to be warned before his throne with no rebellion
before him. He breaks, he breaks, he breaks,
thank God, he breaks. You remember when the Lord called
Gideon and sent him out to put to flight the Midianites. The
Lord finally whittled Gideon's army down to 300 fellows who
were scared to death. 300 fellows, they didn't stop
and drink a fresh fountain of water like an experienced soldier
who was confident in battle, but man, they'd run along just
scared to, give them a little water and go along, scared to
death. Useless fellows. And God sent them out against
the Midianites with nothing but a trumpet in their right hand
and a picture in their left hand. And those 300 men, at the command
of God through Gideon, broke the pictures. And when the pictures
were broken, the torch they held caused the Midianites to think
there were 300 companies of soldiers surrounding them, and they hightailed
it to the woods. God only uses broken things. Broken things. And here's the
second thing. God's ways are all ways. Are you listening? God's ways
are always exactly opposite to our ways. Turn to Isaiah 55. In the church and kingdom of
God, nothing is the way it is in the world. All things spiritual
are exactly the opposite of what men naturally think. All spiritual
principles are exactly the opposite of carnal principles. Whenever
you hear somebody say, well, you know, the church is like,
you say, no, it's not. Because you're not like that.
Whenever you hear somebody say, well, talk about riling me. I meet somebody, sometimes you're
playing golf or something, they'll match you up on golf courses.
with some idiot and finds out you're a preacher and he wants
to act religious and they'll start comparing things and saying
things. Meet up with a salesman. Say, wait, we're in the same
business. I want to take a one-iron and club him. No, we're not in
the same business. No, we're not in the same business.
There's nothing, nothing that men think naturally that's compatible
with spiritual truth. Nothing. Nothing is the same,
not even similar. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination to God, and that which men despise
as nothing and useless is what God honors and uses. Always that
way. Brother Skip and Sandy and I,
we had dinner together the other night and we were chatting about
this very thing. Some time ago he said he made a comparison.
of things he had learned in business school and things taught by our
Redeemer. He said, you know, everyone,
every one of the principles, everyone with that exception,
was exactly opposite. All right? No surprise to me. No surprise. Listen to this,
Isaiah 55a. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. God's ways are always the reverse
of ours. Grace is always the reverse of
nature. In natural things, the way up
is up. In spiritual things, the way
up is down. In natural things, in the world, first to first,
and last to last. In the kingdom of God, first
to last, and last to first. In the world, the young serve
the old. In the kingdom of God, the old
serve the young. In the world, the strong are
strong, and the weak are weak. In the things of God, the weak
are strong, and the strong are weak. In the world, we hear men
say, if you'd be great, you've got to rise above the crowd. You've got to rise upward. Our
Lord says the greatest among you are those who stoop to serve. Just the opposite. God's ways
are exactly opposite to our ways. And the sooner we learn this,
the better. If you and I are being broken by God, let us thank
him for it. God uses what we call tragedies
and accidents to accomplish his decree. We saw it in Acts 27,
didn't we? Read the next chapter, you'll
find out God had some other purposes he hadn't made known yet. God uses brokenness to bring
us blessedness. He takes a crooked stick and
draws a straight line. He takes broken vessels in which
he carries the water of life to thirsty sinners. We have this
treasure, Paul said, in earthen vessels, in just broken clay
pots. Why on earth would God use a
ragtag mob like this to proclaim the gospel? So that the excellency,
the power may be of God and not of us. Now let me show you this
in the scriptures. We can't turn to these references,
but you can jot them down, look at them at your leisure. The
word of God is full of illustrations of this. I got to studying this
yesterday and it's just shot plum full of illustrations. In
the book of Genesis, we read a broken fellowship between God
and man. Adam sinned against God with
his high-handed rebellion, with his fist shoved in God's face
and said, I'll take over the God business. But God used that
broken fellowship to be the backdrop for the exhibition of his wondrous
saving grace. In the book of Exodus, we read
of God's broken law, but it is the backdrop upon which God displays
the great need of one to fulfill the law and shows us he and who
has done it, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, that Paschal Lamb
by whom Israel was at last delivered from bondage. Numbers presents
us with a broken covenant. There are the children of Israel
out in the wilderness, In their rebellion, sinning against God,
murmuring against God, griping at His providence, griping at
His goodness, they'd broken the covenant they vowed to keep with
God. But against the backdrop of their
broken covenant, God raises up a brazen serpent and says, look
here and live! And points us to Jesus Christ,
His faithful servant, for surety of a covenant that cannot be
broken. The book of Judges tells us about those 300 men of Gideon
who put to flight 32,000 Midianites with a broken picture. In Samuel,
David found a fellow by the name of Mephibosheth whose legs were
broken through a fall. And that lame, crippled, dirty
Mephibosheth was cleaned up by David and sat in his house, sat
at the king's table with his broken legs as one of the king's
sons. Matthew tells us that our Lord
Jesus on one occasion, actually two occasions, took two pieces
of bread and broke them to be fed 5,000
on one occasion and 4,000 on another. And that doesn't include
women and children. Mark tells us about a man who
was let down through a broken roof into the presence of Christ,
where God granted him God's salvation and free forgiveness. Luke describes
an alabaster box, avoidment, broken. And when the box was
broken, the fragrance filled the air so that all there knew
what was going on. And then John describes a broken
home. in a town called Bethany, broken
by the death of a beloved brother, broken by the death of one who
was loved of the Savior and loved of his sisters, broken in order
that the Lord Jesus Christ might come to that home and make those
in that home see the glory of God by raising that dead man
back to life again. Oh, thank God for the broken
home. Thank God for the broken experiences. Thank God for the pain of brokenness
when God displays now His glorious grace in raising dead sinners
to life. I talked to a very dear friend
of mine earlier this week Got two children. One, apple
of their eye. The other, a high-handed rebel. Both raised the same way. Both
raised by faithful men and women. Both raised in a home where God's
feared and worshiped and honored. And I said to her, his mother
was just weeping, I said, The only thing you can do is
commit your boy to God's hands. But that's not the only thing
you can do. Bless God, that's what you get to do. Maybe the Lord God is determined
to bring him down that he may lift him up. Many a prodigal
has found it to be so. Now look at 1 Corinthians 11.
1 Corinthians chapter 11. Here's the apex of God's revelation,
the zenith of his goodness, the glory of his grace. It is revealed,
known, and communicated to sinners only by a broken Savior. Look here, 1 Corinthians 11,
23. I've received from the Lord that
which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, same night
in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given
thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat. This is my body. Look at it now, which is broken
for you. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He put him to grief. He made his soul an offering
for sin, and now because his body is broken for you, he sees
in you the travail of his soul with satisfaction. Do you understand
what I'm talking about? He could not save were he not
broken. It wouldn't happen. No other
way for God to be just and justify the ungodly. And look at one
more text, and I'll wrap this up. Brokenness is a blessed token
of God's grace. Psalm 51, verse 17. David prayed, restoring to me
the joy of your salvation after his long period of cold and difference
and rebellion. He prayed, take not your Holy
Spirit from me. He prayed that the Lord God would
cause his broken bones to be healed and cause his dried soul
to bubble up again with living water. And he did. And this is what David said in
the conclusion of it. The sacrifices of God. What does
God require to be found in you and me? The sacrifices of God
are a broken, A broken and contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. You see, only broken hearts know
God. Only broken hearts need Him.
Only broken hearts walk with Him. Roland Hill said, if you
want to see the height of the heel of God's love, You must
go down into the valley of humility. Broken spirits, broken and contrite
hearts are nothing but the just and proper estimate of ourselves. Humility is neither more nor
less than an honest heartfelt sense of our nothingness and
of Christ's fullness. The Lord Jesus Christ will never
take us into his arms until we lay ourselves at his feet and
find everything in him. Oh, may God give you a broken
heart. This is the beginning of life. This is the root and essence
of revival in the soul. This brokenness, oh, it's painful. Our flesh opposes it. If you
get out there when Bobby plowed our garden this year, if you
could, if that ground could speak, when that plow hit the soil and
started to break it up, he'd cry out, stop! Don't do this
to me! And when God puts his hand in
your soul, you'll cry out against him. It's contrary to your flesh. But it must be done. We must
be broken. Because we won't and we can't
break ourselves. Oh, may God break us. Because buddy, he has come to
bind up the brokenhearted. Amen. Lindsay, listen to him. Game number 249.