If you have a pure Bible, it's
on page 663. You'll need to keep your Bibles
handy. I want you to turn to some passages
of Scripture with me this morning. The heading of this psalm is
very important. It tells us the occasion of the
prayer itself, that King David prayed. If you'll look at the
heading there in your Bible, it says to the chief musician,
a psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came unto him after
he had gone unto Bathsheba." This is where David had committed
adultery with Bathsheba and then had murdered Bathsheba's husband,
had him killed. And Nathan rebuked David for
it from the Lord. And this is the occasion then
of this prayer. Let's begin reading here in verse
1, his cry for mercy. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of your tender
mercies. Blot out my transgression. And
then, verses 2 through verse 4, he confesses his heinous sins
to the Lord. Wash me thoroughly from mine
iniquity, and cleanse me from my sins. I acknowledge my transgression. I acknowledge what they deserve.
And my sin is ever before me. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that you may be
justified when you speak, and clear when you judge. And then here in verse 5, he
bewails the depravity of his nature. He traces the sins that
he's committed, the very cause and root of it, back to his nature. In verse 5, Behold, I was shapen
in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me, a sinner
by my very nature, he says. And then he goes on in verse
6 until he comes to verse 7, and he acknowledges a fear that
he has. Behold, thou didst our truth
in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you shall make me
to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop. He cries
to be cleaned. I shall be clean if you will
purge me. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. He prays to that end. Make me
to your joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken
may rejoice. And then he fears something here.
Hide not thy face, hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all
mine iniquities. That is what he fears, that God
is going to look upon his sins. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. And he fears this.
Cast me not away from your presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. And then he goes on praying in
verse 12. Restore to me the joy of thy
salvation. Uphold me with your free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors
the way and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Then he
desires you to be delivered from something that is awful. He acknowledges
the sin of murdering, that he has murdered a man, he has shed
innocent blood. Deliver me from blood guiltiness,
O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud
of thy righteousness. Open thou my lips and my mouth,
shall show forth thy praises. For thou desirest not sacrifice,
else would I give it. You delight not in burnt offerings."
And he comes here now to see something within himself that
God will accept, that God does delight in. He discerns within
himself, verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. a broken and contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise." So this is our subject this morning. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Now there are certain sacrifices
in the Scriptures that you and I are told of that are very acceptable
to God. And one of those sacrifices is
a crushed spirit, a heart that has been broken because of its
sins before God. And you will notice there in
verse 16 that the Lord prefers these sacrifices above the sacrifices
of animals, even in the day in which He was accepting these
And we'll look at that in a minute, but I want to show you, I want
you to take your Bible right quickly and look, before we get
to this sacrifice, of some sacrifices that God accepts, that God is
pleased with. Look first at Ephesians chapter
5 and verses 1 and 2. You that have your few Bibles,
if you'd like to turn there, you'll find that on page 1,275. Here's the sacrifice. Here's
the sacrifice of all sacrifices. We find it in Ephesians chapter
5 and verse 1, and you'll have to turn to these quickly. Be
ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in
love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for
us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling
aroma, sweet-smelling savor. Jesus Christ, in offering Himself
upon Calvary's tree, His body and His blood to God, is a sacrifice
that is very well accepted to God His Father. God looked upon
him and as though he smelt this sweet aroma coming from his bleeding
and his suffering son. And he accepted that sacrifice. This is the sacrifice that put
away sin. This is the sacrifice that reconciled
us to God. This is the sacrifice that satisfied
the judgment and justice of God on our behalf. And I tell you,
there is not another sacrifice like this sacrifice. This man,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down
on the right hand of God. This is the sacrifice of all
sacrifices. But let me quickly show you a
couple of more. Look in Hebrews chapter 13. Over
to your right, Hebrews chapter 13, page 1314. 13, 14 in your pew Bible, and look here
in Hebrews chapter 13, and look in verse 15. We have here two
more sacrifices that God is well pleased with. Let us look in
verse 13. Chapter 13 and verse 13. Let
us go forth, therefore, unto him without the count, bearing
his reproach. For here we have no continuing
city, but we seek one to come. By Him, therefore, by Jesus Christ,
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that
is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name." Praising
God with our lips, a praise and a thankfulness that comes from
our hearts through our lips in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
is said to be a sacrifice. And it is a sacrifice that God
loves. He saves us to praise Him for
the praise of the glory of His grace. And let me say this, brothers
and sisters, and you know this inside of yourself. Before the
Lord delivered you and saved you, you never praised Him a
day in your life, did you? There was no thanksgiving in
your heart. But now, Paul said, in everything
give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. And when this thanksgiving bubbles
up in our soul, and it comes and pours out our lips, it is
like the pouring out of that water on the day of atonement. It is well-pleasing in God's
sight. And we have another in verse
16 of chapter 13. Look at this. But to do good. To do good. To give and to visit
and to give advice and to listen. To do good. Especially to those
who are of the household of faith. To do good. That's a sacrifice. And to communicate. To share. That word means to share. To
share what you have. We all have thanks, don't we?
We've got time. We've got a listening ear. We
have a sympathetic heart. Whatever we have, we share with
the Lord's people. We share with those who are in
need and are poor. For notice this, for with such
sacrifices, God is well pleased. Paul was riding to the Philippian
church, and they, bless their hearts, They remembered Paul
everywhere that man went, even when he was in prison and wronged.
Those poor saints got together and supported him. They sent
him things, they sent him money, they found out what he was in
need of, and they sent these things to him. They just kept
sending these things to him. And he wrote to them in his letter
to the Philippians, and he said, I have all things and abound. I have need of nothing. But he
said, oh, this gift that you sent me, it wasn't so much to
help me, but he said it was a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savor well
pleasing to God. Can you imagine that? Can you
imagine sharing what you have, whatever it is, with the children
of God, and God calls that a sacrifice that is well-pleasing unto him."
Oh, brothers and sisters, don't ever underestimate. Don't ever
underestimate what you do for others. And the things that you
share and give to God's people, don't ever underestimate the
fillings of God towards you for doing that. He is well-pleased
with sharing. And look back over in our text
at this sacrifice. Here's another sacrifice that
David said is acceptable to God. And he says it like this in our
text in verse 17. He says, The sacrifices of God
are a broken heart, a broken and contracted spirit, O God,
thou wilt not despise. And if he doesn't despise it,
what does that mean? That means he accepts it, doesn't
he? If he doesn't despise it, that means he loves it. He takes
delight in it. It's a sweet-smelling aroma unto
him. But you notice how he says in
here in the text, Thou, O God, O God, will not despise it. He says God will not despise
it, but you know something, brothers and sisters, the world will. The world cannot endear to be
around a broken-hearted man and woman. Can you imagine somebody
being out in the world with a broken heart, and the world listens
to them as they pray? Can you imagine if the average
church would have a broken-hearted man to come into the pulpit and
lead us in prayer? And he begins to plead like King
David, O God, have mercy upon me. I'm a sinner. I'm depraved
by my nature. O Lord, wash me. My sin is every... Well, after a while, they would
say, please, you're disturbing our congregation. You're going
to run people off. Please, please, can you lighten
up? Can you pretty your prayer up
just a little bit? Can you quit talking about the
evil of your sin and the corruption of your nature and desire this
bloody religion? Oh, who is it, though, that desires
these broken hearts? Who is it that looks upon it
as a sweet-smelling Savior? Old David said it's God. It's
acceptable in God's sight, not the world. Not some carnal religious
people, but unto the world. And he tells us here in verse
16, as I began to comment there just a minute ago, that he esteems
this sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit more than
all of the sacrifices that were under the ceremonial law. He
says, Lord, if you wanted a sacrifice, if you wanted me to bring an
animal, I would go out and get me a lamb. I've got lambs, I've
got goats, I've got heifers. I could bring a sacrifice and
offer it. But that's not what you esteem. What do you esteem then? What
do you esteem over all the blood of the goats and the bulls? A
broken heart? And brothers and sisters, you
and I come here under the gospel today and all our outward performances,
we come here together. We sing and we read and we pray. We do all that outwardly. But
you know something? There's something that God esteems
higher than the outward performance of even as we worship under the
gospel. And that's a broken heart in
a contract spirit. What's a song of praise worth
if it doesn't come from a heart that's been touched? What's a
prayer worth if it comes from a heart of pride? What's singing
worth if it doesn't come with grace from the heart? God esteems
the broken heart above everything else. Look in Isaiah chapter
66. Look at some places with me.
Over to your right. Isaiah chapter 66. And look here
in verse 1, page 819. Look in verse 1 of Isaiah chapter
66. There's something else the Lord esteems. He esteems the
heart over this. Look at this. In Isaiah 66, and
look in verse 1. Thus saith the Lord, The heaven
is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house
that you built unto me? Where is the place of my rest? For all these things has my hand
made, and all these things have been, saith the Lord." But look
at this. But to this man will I look. See what he's saying? He's saying,
there's the heavens and here's the earth. And I've made all
of these things. I've spoken them into being.
But he says, I have no esteem for these things. When I take
my eye off the heavens someday and off the earth, they're going
to perish. They're waxing old. And I'm just
going to roll them up and change them. And there's going to be
a new heaven and a new earth. And this house, he said, that
you built, that was material that I gave you, and I'm going
to burn it up someday. And where is that temple, brothers
and sisters? It's gone, ain't it? But he said,
oh, there is something that I'll never take my eye off of. There
is something that I'm going to look upon to protect it and regard
it and uphold it and keep it with my eye that nobody can ever
hurt it. And what is it? A broken heart
and a broken and contrite spirit. That's where my eye is. I steam
that more than I steam heaven itself, more than I steam earth
or any worship building that anybody could ever build in my
name. A broken heart. I will look upon
it as if it's the only one in the world. It will have my attention
day and night. I'll look upon it. I remember
when Nathanael and John won. I remember when Philip went and
found his brother Nathanael. Nathanael was under the fig tree,
and I think he was praying. I think you can prove that by
Scripture, that he was praying. Probably God revealed Christ
to my heart. Let me know the King of Israel.
He's coming. I want to know Him. Well, here comes Philip and says,
We found Him. We found Him, come and see Him.
And Nathanael was coming, and the Lord looked at him and said,
That Israelite indeed, in whom is no God. And he said, How do
you know me? He said, When you were under
the fig tree. I saw you. I saw you, Nathanael. I see your
heart. I know it's broken. I know it's
crushed. And I'm looking upon you. My
eye is towards you. My eye is for you. Oh, brothers
and sisters, I tell you, If I had my choice about it, I'd rather
have a broken heart than to have heaven, wouldn't you? God esteems
a broken heart more than He esteems heaven itself. Look in Isaiah
chapter 57, just back over to your left, just a few pages.
Look at this. Here's something else he says
about a broken heart. Look here in verse 13. When thou criest, Let thy companions
deliver thee, but the wind shall carry them all away. Vanity shall
take them, but he that put up his trust in the Lord shall possess
the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain, and shall say,
Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, prepare the way, take
up the stumbling block out of the way of my people. For thus
saith," look at this, and lofty one, that inhabiteth eternity,
whose name is holy." Notice this. Old John Bunyan said, you look
at such a character and majesty like this, it's enough to make
a poor broken-hearted man want to crawl off in a mouse hole
and hide himself, he said. The majesty. He says here that
he's the high one. Oh, that's the way Isaiah saw
him, wasn't it? I saw the Lord high and lifted
up." Oh, He's not only above the earth. He's above the heavens. If you go outside of our universe
and you step into heaven and in some way you can get above
heaven, He's there. He has to humble Himself to behold
the things that's in heaven. He's high, but He's not only
high, He's lofty. That means in His position. He's
lofty. He's the Almighty. He's higher
than the kings of the earth. He's over all in His power, in
His glory, in His majesty, in His thoughts, in His purposes. He's lofty and He's holy. He's essentially holy. He's immutably
holy. He can never change. He's the
Holy One. Oh my, that is enough to make
you crawl in a hole, ain't it? When you hear of the majesty,
oh, when I said, when you hear of it, well, you may hear of
it. But I tell you when it'll make you feel like you want to
crawl off in a hole, when you see it. Job said, they told me
about you, but now my eyes see you. That's a different thing. Then what happened to Job? I
before myself. I repent in dust and ashes. Oh, He's the High and Lofty One,
and He says here that He inhabited eternity. And that simply means
no matter where you could go in eternity, He's there. He fills
eternity. That's what that word means.
You and I fill one little space, don't we? Aren't you a big man,
but you just fill that little place on that stool. and a small
space in time. If we had a scale, an eternal
scale, how could we possibly put a mark to define the time
that we spend in this world? It would be impossible. But God
inhabiteth eternity. Now He's in eternity past. Now
He's in eternity to come. Now He's at present. He inhabiteth
eternity. The holy, high and lofty God. That's Him. That's who He says
it is. But oh, look at this. Look what
He says in verse 50. I dwell in the high and holy
place with Him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. Isn't that wonderful? He esteems the broken heart and
the crushed spirit. He put such esteem upon it. He said, that's the very place
that I have chosen to keep company with. That's the very heart that
I will dwell with. Oh, I've had company to come
to my house, and after a few minutes I wish they'd leave.
But I have some to come. I cried when they left. I tell
you, here's some company we value, don't we? We value all the stout-hearted
people. They don't want Him to dwell
with them. The old hard heart, they don't want Him. They say,
depart from me. I don't want the knowledge of
you or your ways. But boy, here's the broken heart.
Lord, dwell with me. Lord, abide with me. Those poor
disciples were on the road to a mess. They thought they'd lost
their Savior forever. They were so sad. They were so
crushed in their spirit. The Lord Jesus was walking with
them and they didn't even know Him. And He said, why are you
so sad? Why are you so cast down? Why
is your heart so broken? They said, we've lost Him. We
thought it was Him that was going to redeem us. And now He's gone.
He's in the grave. And the Lord began to open their
hearts to understand the Scripture. And their hearts began to burn
within them. And it was getting towards evening
time. And they said, why don't you come in and abide with us? That's a broken heart, ain't
it? And you know what the Bible says He did? He went in to tarry
with them. Oh, God esteems a broken heart. That's where He's going to dwell.
He's going to dwell there. He's going to abide there in
this broken heart. And I'll tell you this much.
Before he's welcomed in a heart, he's going to have to break it.
Because he ain't welcomed in a hard heart. He ain't welcomed
in a stout heart. He dwells in a broken heart because
it's only a broken heart that says, Lord, abide with us. Abide
with me. And bless God, that's what he
does. He's welcomed. He's welcomed
there. Look what he says here in verse
15. I love these words that he uses
to describe them. God not only esteems a broken
heart above all else and dwells with it, but look here what he
promises this broken heart. Why does he even dwell there?
I dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit. Look at this,
to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the
contrite Notice these words. Contract, humble, broken, poor. That word contract, that means
crushed. Broken means disabled. Humble
means to be brought low. Poor means you cannot support
yourself. You're in poverty. And what part
is depressed? What part is broken? What part
is crushed? Well, look at this. The spirit,
the heart, the essential part of a man, what makes us who we
are, what we really are. That's what's broken. That's
what's been crushed. Our spirits and our hearts. If you break your legs, if you
break one of your legs, Have you got some deep wound in your
body? What do you do? Does somebody
just throw you on the bed and say, heal yourself? What do we
do if we've got heart trouble? I mean, if that old heart starts
skipping and you start getting pressure and pain in your chest,
what are you going to do? You're going to say, get me to
the emergency room. Get me to a doctor. I need some
attention. I need some attention from a
physician." Well, what happens, brothers
and sisters, when the heart is broken? What happens when the
spirit is crushed? There is only one physician that
can heal the broken heart. There is only one physician that
can get underneath a poor, sinking spirit and hold it up. And that's
the heavenly position. The Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord esteems this broken
heart and this contrite spirit above all else because only He
can revive it and only He can heal it. Nobody else. Nobody else. God esteems this
broken heart above all else because the broken heart esteems Him
and His healing power above all else. David, have mercy upon me, O
God. Wash me. Cleanse me. Purge me. Make me to your joy and gladness.
Heal my bones. Create in me a clean heart. Renew
thy Spirit. Uphold me with thy free Spirit.
Restore unto me Why, if he could heal himself, did he go and lay
before the Lord and beg Him and wait upon Him to do it? I'll tell you one thing. We can't
give ourselves a broken heart and we can't heal it. That's
the Lord's work. That's the Lord's work. And only
He can do it. And the reason the world has
no esteem for this heavenly position Because they are not sin-sick.
And their spirits aren't crushed with a sense of their own unworthiness
and their own depravity. They are whole. And the whole
need not a physician. But they that are sick. Look what he says here in Isaiah
57. Look in verse 16. I will not
contend forever, neither will I be always rocked, For the Spirit
shall fail before me, and the souls which I have made. For
the iniquity of his covetousness was I wrought, and I smote him. I hid me, and was wrought, and
he went on forwardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his
ways, and I will heal him. I will lead him also, and restore
comforts unto him." and to his mourners, to his spirit that
is mourning, to his heart that is mourning, to his soul that
is mourning. I create the fruit of the lips,
peace, peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near,
saith the Lord, and I will heal him." Who is this talking about? He gets very specific here. In
Isaiah 61, look here. Look over here who he is talking
about. In Isaiah chapter 61. Look what he says. The Spirit
of the Lord God is upon me. Isaiah 61. Because the Lord hath
anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek, He hath sent me
to bind up the brokenhearted. Who is this to speak? Who is
this that's taken upon himself to bind up the brokenhearted?
We know who this is, don't we? And one of the reasons we know
who this is, this is the first message, this is the first text
that we know of. Jesus Christ took when he came
into this world and began to preach. He was in Nazareth where
he was brought up. And he went into the synagogue
and they handed him a scroll and he turned to Isaiah 61 and
he began to read it. And he says, God has sent me
to heal the broken heart. And he sat down and he said,
this day is this scripture fulfilled in your hearing. I have come. Lord Jesus, what have You come?
I've come to be a doctor. I've come to be a physician.
I've come to heal the brokenhearted. I've come to bind up their wounds. I've come to revive them. I've
come to get underneath their sinking souls and hold them up. You remember that wonderful parable
our Lord told about the Samaritan, the good Samaritan? A man that
went down from Jerusalem to Samaria, to Jericho, and he fell among
thieves and they stripped him and they wounded him and left
him half dead. And a Levite and a priest, they
came down and they passed by on the other side of the road.
See what I'm telling you, if you're a wounded man, religion
doesn't want anything to do with you. They'll pass you by. They'll leave you there sobbing
in your wounds. They passed him by. And here
comes a Samaritan. And the first thing the Scripture
says about this Samaritan, he saw him. He saw him. Why did he see him? Well, the
Father that sent this physician said, You be careful, my son.
If you see any with a broken heart, you be careful. They need
to be healed, and only you can heal them. So he's out here looking
for the wounds and the brokenness heart and spirit. And he sees
him. He says, you're the one. And
he has compassion on him, he says. And then he goes over to
him. But he doesn't stop there. He
pours oil into his wound. And he binds him up. And he puts
him on his little donkey. And he takes him down to the
end. And he cares for him. And He leaves money with the
innkeeper. And He says, you take care of this man until I return.
If I owe you anything, I'll pay you when I get back. Oh, Jesus,
the great Physician. He binds up our wounds. He heals
the broken in heart. That's what the Father sent Him
to do. Are you here this morning and
your heart's broken? Jesus is a Physician that can
heal it. But he only can do it. Look at this with me for just
a minute. How was David's heart broken? The Lord did it. The Lord broke
it. It's the sacrifices of God. The sacrifices of God are a broken
heart. I wound and I heal. I kill and I make alive. Only the Lord can break the heart. Who is that heretic that lived
back in the 1700s and 1800s? I can't even think of his name.
Over in Ohio, I am always telling you that heretic. I read after
him and can't think of his name now. He said that when God commanded
us to make a new heart and a new spirit, that God would have never
commanded us to do it if we couldn't. Can any man make him a new heart
and a new spirit? Then why does God tell us, well,
one thing to let us know we can't do it, go ahead and try it. Try
it. If a man can make him a new heart
and a new spirit, I'd say he could heal it when it got broken,
wouldn't you? We can't make it and we can't heal it. He makes
it and He heals it. I wound and I heal. And remember
the occasion? You find this in 1 Samuel 11
and 12 in that area somewhere. Remember the occasion when David
had sinned with Bathsheba? She became pregnant. He sins and gets her husband
killed in war and lies about it. Job comes back and says,
well, you wanted me to get him killed. I got him killed. Yeah,
he's dead. Good man is dead, David. David
said, well, you know, the battle gets one as well as the other.
Lying. Oh, he began to lie and deceive.
Deceived himself. But the Lord knew, didn't He?
Oh, God knows these things, you see. We think we've got things
here. He knows. And He sent His prophet, Nathan.
And Nathan comes to David. He said, David, I've got a message
for you. I need to talk with you. Well, David said, dear brother,
sit down. I always love your company. Well, he said, let me
tell you a story. There was this rich man. He had cattle. He had all kinds
of sheep. And his neighbor over here was
a very poor man that had one little lamb that he had raised
it up from its youth. And it laid in this bosom and
he loved it. It's the only one he had. And
this rich man had some company come by and he wanted to feed
them. Instead of getting the lamb out of his flock, he sent
over there and took this little lamb. from this man. And they slew it and ate it.
And David said, let that man die. You bring him here and I'll
kill him myself. He said, David, you're the man.
You're the man. God's given you all this stuff
that you've got. All these wives that you've got.
This kingdom. If that wasn't enough, He'd have
given you more. And you sent over there and took Uriah's wife
that he loved dearly. And you lay with her and she's
pregnant and now you've killed him. You've lied to God and you've
deceived your own heart. And David said, Oh, I sinned
against God. And what happened? God smote
him. God smote his conscience. That's what he did. That's what
David said. It's you that's done this. You've
done it through your preacher. You did it through your Word.
But you've done it. And it's like the breaking of
bones. Ain't that what he said? You broke my bones. It's like
you laid my leg down on the wall and you touched your big hammer
and you broke it! And you've disabled me! And now
I'm hurting. I'm in pain. Who is it that breaks
the heart? It's God. Boy, I tell you what, when the
Lord breaks the heart, it changes everything, don't it? Notice
how sensitive it was back over here in my text. Notice how sensitive
the broken heart is. Old David's heart wasn't sensitive
before. It got so hard and so callous. But I tell you, it was sensitive
now. You know, you can take a whole man and you can box him around
a little bit, trip him, wrestle with him. But you take a man
who's got a broke leg, and you've got to handle him tenderly. You
touch him, I tell you, go to old Larry Baker and tap him right
there on this wounded knee. You'll see him hit the ground. What did David begin to say now?
Now he said, Lord, I want you to deal with me very, very tenderly,
because I'm a broken man. Notice how he says it here in
verse 1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness,
according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Oh, I don't just want mercies.
I want tender mercies. Deal with me, Lord, tenderly.
Oh, be careful with me, Lord. I'm sick. I'm broken. I'm crushed.
I'm ready to fall and be no more. Handle me tenderly. I've said
this so many times. Somebody raised up and said,
I don't want anybody's pity. I want the Lord's pity, don't
you? I may fight with you. I may hold my own with you. But
I tell you, when it comes to Him, oh, God, you can take me
away with a breath. You can crush me, be tender. That's a broken heart. It begins
to feel. It's a heart that's sensitive.
And not only does he talk about mercy, but he talks about mercies. And not just mercies, but multitudes. One mercy heaped upon another.
I don't just need mercy. I need mercies. I need the multitude
of your tender mercies. I tell you, that's a broken heart,
ain't it? That's a feeling heart. That's
a sensitive heart. heart that's been broken. A broken heart feels every touch
of God's hand upon it. It's sensitive to God's justice. It's sensitive to God's anger.
It's sensitive to God's loving kindness and His mercy. Oh, David was aware of God's justice
here. For God in justice smote and
broke his bones. Now he searches to see if there's
mercies in God that are tender to heal him. And he begs for
them. Are you sensitive to God's tender
mercies? Do you beg for them? Do you plead
them? That's because he's broken your
heart. That's because he's broken your heart. Here was a king. Nations looked upon this man. He held life and death in his
hands of so many individuals. He was a great king. And yet
here he is crying. Here he is, humble and broken
and crushed. This poor man cried. I'm a poor man. Those who walk
in pride, He is able to abase. If you are going hard, you may be
like David. Deceive yourself. Fighting against
God. Disobeying Him. Proud. Arrogant. Stout-hearted. But
I tell you this, He is able. He is able to break you. He is
able to crush you. Those who walk in pride, He is
able. And your stout heart will be
laying on the ground before Him, looking up, begging for tender
mercy. I was on the internet the other
day. I was telling a girl about it on the way to work this morning,
on the way to church this morning. It said, not a time, to act tough. That was the main move. And I
thought, what's that about? So I clicked on it and showed
these two boxers. Some of you may have seen. And
the fight was ready to start, and boy, one of them. Man, he's
tough. You could tell looking at him.
Man, he was big, flexing them muscles. Man, his eyes. Oh, boy. Man, he's tough. Those announcers
were laughing at him. Said, man, wouldn't you hate
to face that fella? Never took his eyes off of his opponent.
Now looking at him with his fist. He was ready. Mean, tough, stout
fellow. And he showed his opponent, and
his opponent, I told you, he looked like a teddy bear. He
didn't even look like a boxer. He was sitting there with his
shoulders flipped over. Looking down, just looking around.
Wouldn't make any show at all. I thought something was going
to happen here. It said something about, you know, be careful that
you don't act too tough. Something's going to happen.
And boy, they rung the bell and this big stout guy, he screamed
and took off after that guy. And that big old fellow stood
there and hit him with a few blows. And in a minute, it's
almost like he thought to himself, man, let me show you something. You think you're mean. You think
you're stout. And he raised up his big old left hand and caught
that guy right here. And down he went, flat of his
face. And he started to get up and
he caught him with his hand. And there he laid. Those who
walk in pride. You think God's not a fighter?
Oh, this world don't see him as a fighter. This world don't
see him as strong. They don't see him as sovereign.
But let me tell you, one blow to your heart, One finger put upon your spirit,
and He can crush you. You may be a king. He crushes
kings as well as the poor. And when He does, when He does,
I'm telling you, He'll humble you. The old proud Saul of Tarsus,
killing Christians, hated the Lord Jesus, made war on heaven.
The Lord thought, one day, I'll show him. He met him on the Damascus
road, just one blow, and down he went. On his face in the dust,
who art thou, Lord? And you talk about humble. The Lord, after that, appeared
to him in a vision and said, Saul, you get out of Jerusalem,
Paul. They're not going to hear your testimony concerning me.
And you talk about a humble man. He said, Lord, they know. who I am. You know who I am.
You know what I am. You know what I've done. I hated your little children.
I persecuted them into strange cities. I put them in jail. I put them to death. When your
martyr Stephen was stoned, I was standing there, a proud, arrogant
fool, and they laid their coats down at my feet. I tell you, those who walk in
pride, he's able. He's able. One last scripture. Look at Psalms
34, and we'll close with this. Look in verse 18 of Psalms chapter
34. This is a wonderful, comforting
passage to the broken in heart. Psalms 34, 18, The Lord is near
unto them that are of a broken heart, and he saveth such as be of a
crushed, contrite spirit. He saveth them. He's going to
save every broken hearted man. There's coming a day when a lot
of people are going to find out they're lost. But not a broken-hearted
man. He's going to find out he's saved.
Saved in the Lord, too. Saved with an everlasting salvation.
When others hear, Depart ye cursed, the broken-hearted man is going
to hear, Come ye blessed in my Father. When others begin to
mourn and weep, the broken-hearted man is going to begin to rejoice
and leap for joy. When others are filled with indescribable
sorrow, the broken heart will be filled with indescribable
comfort, for he'll be saved. When others see the frowning
face of God, they'll see the smiling face of Jesus, and they'll
be saved. Things are going to change. Things
are going to change. Blessed are you that mourn now.
You mourn. You mourn over your sin. You
mourn over your depravity. You mourn because you can't please
the God that you love. Everything He commands you to
do, you long to do it, but you see skin mixed with it all, and
it just breaks your heart. It burdens you. And you cry,
oh, wretched man that I am. But there's coming a day, He's
going to wipe your tears. He is going to remove that wretchedness
from you. You shall weep in lament, the
Lord Jesus said, but the world shall rejoice. They are going
to make merry. They are going to have their
parties. And you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into
joy. Things are going to change. I
do not be sorrowful here. I do not weep before my Lord.
Depend totally upon Him to support me and revive me and hold me
up and forgive me. Walk humbly before Him here and
be saved by Him, yonder. Then be proud here, unbowed, unsubmissive, and be
broken, yonder. Say ye to the righteous. Say
ye to that broken-hearted man. Say ye to the person whose spirit
is crushed. Say ye to them. It shall be well
with them. It shall be. Oh, here God puts
His rod upon His children's back, brothers and sisters. He hurts
you. He hurts you. But He said, I'm
not going to contend forever. I'm not going to be like this
forever. Now's the time to chasten you. Now's the time to crush
you. Now's the time to keep you down,
looking to Me, depending upon Me. But there's coming a day,
that's all going to change. I'm going to save you. I'm going
to save you. God bless these words. Let's
pray.