It goes again to Ezekiel 34. It's such a great mercy, such
a great mercy that God never leaves his church. Our Lord Jesus
said to us, Lo, I'm with you always. I'm with you even to
the end of the earth. Recently, I preached from Revelation
2, verse 1, in which it says, Our Lord walks among the candlesticks,
the candlesticks being the churches and the stars being his pastors
or preachers. He said he walks among the candlesticks
and holds the stars or the angels of the churches in his right
hand. God is pleased to use men as
instruments of his grace. But the flock is his flock. The
church is his church. The sheep are his sheep. The
building is his building. The garden is his garden. Let
me read to you from 1 Corinthians 3, where he talks about the ministry. And the Apostle Paul is writing
here, and he says in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 6, I planted the seed, Apollos is
watered. One plows, another plants, another
waters, but God gives the increase." You see, salvation is the work
of God, it's not the work of the minister. Paul said, I don't
want your faith standing in the wisdom of men, but in the power
of God. And while Peter may plow and Paul may plant and Apollos
may water, God gives the increase. Verse 7, So then neither is he
that planteth anything, nor he that watereth, but God. is everything. He gives the increase. Now, he
that planteth and he that watereth and ploweth and so forth, they're
one. They're one. They're labors together with
God. They're one. Every man shall receive his own reward according
to his labor. We're labors together with God. But you're God's farm,
you're God's church, you're God's building, you're God's sheep.
Actually, if he didn't hold the church in his hand, it ceased
to exist. If the church is left in the hands of men, it will
perish. I tell you this, if the Lord
God had left his doctrine and his gospel entirely to men, it
would have degenerated by degrees and we wouldn't even have one
ounce of truth left if he left it only to men. But he walks
among his churches. He holds his ministers in his
right hand. It's his building, his flock,
it's his sheep, it's his farm. The conversion of sinners is
his work. He said, No man can come to me
except my Father which sent me draw him, and there be taught
of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. We're his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. The protection and provision
of the flock is his work. It says, the Lord is my shepherd.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside
the still waters. He restoreth my soul. The preservation
of truth is his work. My word will not return unto
me void. The gathering of the elect is
his work. He'll gather together all things
in Christ. Send forth his angels and gather
his elect. The under-shepherd or the pastor
are just servants of the Lord. They are servants who shall give
an account. I was reading this last night in Luke 16. I want
you to look at this, especially all the preachers here in Luke
16. You know in Hebrews it tells us that we are to submit ourselves
to the elder, we are to obey them that have the rule over
us as those who must give an account, that they may give that
account with joy and not with sadness. But look at this verse
here in Luke 16 too. And he called him and said to
him, How is it that I hear this of thee? What is this report
that I hear of thee? Give an account of your stewardship. Give an account of your stewardship. That's what we are, stewards
of the grace of God. Give an account of your stewardship. Turn back to the text. Let's
begin with verse 1. And what I'm saying is this.
The Lord, it's His church, it's His flock. We're His people. He never leaves us. It's a mercy
that he walks so much. He permits some things to go
on, but he never leaves his church. He never leaves his people. He
uses men as instruments. He uses men as stewards of the
manifold grace of God. He uses men as pastors and teachers
and so forth. But he uses these men as men
who will give an account. And here in chapter 34, The Lord
visits his church and calls some pastors to give an account, some
preachers. Now look at verse 1, if you will.
The word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, prophesy
against the preachers, against the pastors, and say unto them,
Thus saith the Lord, Woe be to the pastors that do feed themselves. Their first concern ought to
be the sheep. But these pastors, their first
concern has been themselves, not the flock, but themselves.
That's your first concern. You do not feed the flock, you
feed yourselves. Shouldn't shepherds feed the
flock? You eat the fat, you clothe you with the wool, you kill them
that are fed, you feed not the flock. You're supported by the
sheep, you do not feed them. Down in Tennessee recently I
heard about a pastor who came to a certain large church, auditorium
seats 1,500, something like that. He said, in order to come to
this church, he took a decrease in salary, a decrease now, not
a salary, but a decrease of $16,000. But he said, I still make plenty.
Wonder what that other church paid him. Men who stand in the
pulpit today, all over this nation, this is what he's saying here,
the sheep feed you. They furnish your home. They
furnish your automobile. They furnish your expenses. They
furnish your clothes. They put food on your table.
They take care of your family. Shouldn't you teach them the
Word of God? Shouldn't you feed them the Word
of God? Now, I know they that preach the gospel are to live
by the gospel. I know that there are some denominations
today who do not believe in paying preachers. I don't believe in
paying preachers either. I believe in supporting the ministry.
There's a difference. If a man is not in the ministry,
is not committed to the ministry, is not dedicated to the ministry,
is not faithfully serving in the ministry, then certainly
he's not to be supported. Those that don't work aren't
supposed to eat. And that goes for the pulpit as well as the
pure. But the people who preach the gospel full time are to be
supported by the people to whom they preach. They spend their
time in prayer, in the Word of God, in preparing messages, in
teaching the people of God, in feeding the flock. And Paul said,
if I've ministered to you spiritual things, then you ought to minister
to me natural things, or carnal things, and take care of those
who minister to you. But here's what the Lord is saying
here. They are taking care of you, and they feed you, and they
supply your need, but you're not feeding them. You're not
feeding the flock. Rather, you're destroying the
sheep and scattering the sheep, and you're ruling over them with
force and cruelty, and you're not feeding them, not teaching
them thy work. Now look at verse 4. Here we
encounter for the first time the words that are found later
in our text. The word lost, the word driven away, the word broken,
the word sick. This is a character which vividly
describes and plainly identifies the sheep of Christ. He says
in verse 4, I take issue with you shepherds. You're busy with
your committee work, you're busy with your humanitarian work,
you're busy with entertainment, you're busy with contest and
competition and programs and promotions and all these things,
you're busy patting folks on the head and patting folks on
the back, you're busy with your own programs and so forth, but
you haven't And in particular, he comes down to this, verse
4. The disease you have not strengthened. You have not healed that which
was sick. You've not bound up that which
was broken. You haven't brought again that
which was driven away. You haven't sought that which
was lost. And he says in verse 10, I'm
against you. I'm against you. I'm going to
require my flock at your hands, and will cause you to cease from
feeding them." Now, I want to reevaluate my own ministry, and
I want all of you this morning to examine your own hearts. And
let's declare this gospel once again. Here's the fourfold character
of the sheep to whom we minister. We find the lost, we bring back
that which was driven away, we bind up that which was broken,
and we heal that which is sick. Now let's see what we can do
with that. Here in verse 16, the Lord says to these shepherds,
I'm going to put you out of business. I'm going to put you out of business.
I'm against you, I'm weary of it. He said, but I'm going to
do these things that you haven't done. I'm going to fulfill this
ministry in which you fail. I'm going to find that which
is lost. Look at verse 16. I'm going to
seek that which was lost. I'm going to bring back that
which was driven away. I'm going to heal, bind up that
which was broken, and I'm going to strengthen that which is sick.
That's the ministry. That's the character of God's
sheep. That's what we're to be doing, which he said you haven't
been doing. You've been concerned about material
things and physical things and religious things. You've been
concerned about programs. You've been concerned about fulfilling
obligations and responsibilities. Now, you've been concerned about
a lot of things, but this you haven't done. This is it right
here. You see what he came down to? He says here, I want you
to tell these preachers. that they haven't done what they're
supposed to do. Now many of them have been active and energetic
and zealous and enthusiastic in religion, and they've been
busy doing, doing, doing, always doing, ever learning, never coming
to knowledge of the truth. And God said, you haven't, and
you've been supported properly and ably by my sheep. You've eaten the food that you
got from them, and you've worn the clothes from which you sheared
them and taken it, but you haven't fed them. And in particular,
these are the areas in which they are fed. The lost is sought,
the broken is bound up, those driven away are brought home,
and those sick are healed. Now, let's look at that a moment.
First of all, he says, I'll seek that which was lost. I'll seek
that which was lost. Now, this is a scriptural term.
Our Lord uses it often to refer to those whom he saves. He says
in Luke 19.10, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save
the lost. When he sent his disciples out,
he said, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. What
he said to that woman who came to him and said, Lord, help me
or have mercy on me, he said, I'm not sent but to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. And then he gave the parable
of the threefold, three stories in one parable, the lost sheep,
the lost coin, the lost son, and he said there's joy in heaven
over one lost sinner that's brought to repentance. So this is scriptural
work, lost. I'll seek that which was lost.
Now what I want to know is what does it mean to be lost? The average preacher doesn't
know what it means to be lost. And this is the reason that he's
not seeking the lost, he doesn't know who's lost. He doesn't know
what it means to be lost. He doesn't know what is involved
in being lost. Some here do not know what it
means to be lost. And some of us have a theological
understanding of what it means to be lost, but no experience
in this lost business. There's some of you here who've
been lost. You've been lost and you've been
found. What does it mean to be lost? Well, let me illustrate.
Here's a little boy playing in the backyard. He's about five
years old. And he lives on the edge of a
woods. His mother and father's house
is here in the backyard and the woods are there. And he's always
been told by his mother never to go into the woods, play in
the backyard. But this day he was out playing
in the backyard and he saw a beautiful butterfly. It was a thrill of
the moment. And he watched that butterfly
and it flew toward the woods and he followed it. And the butterfly
went this way and that way and he followed it. And every time
he'd get close to it, it'd go somewhere else. And he kept following
that butterfly and following it, getting deeper, deeper, deeper,
deeper into the woods. Now, Jay, he's lost, but he doesn't
know it. He's too happy. His butterfly's
too important. When he gets through playing
with the butterfly, he'll go home. So after a while, he does
get tired of playing with the butterfly. And the sun's going
down and it's getting darker in those woods. And so he's lost,
but he doesn't know it. No way he can come home. He doesn't
even know where home is. He doesn't have the ability to
go home, but he's not concerned. And so he starts this way. This
way is home, and he walks and he walks and he walks, and he
gets deeper and deeper in the woods. Well, he said, home's
not that way. Home must be this way. So he
turns and goes right back the way he came. But he doesn't find
home. And then he goes this way, and
he goes every which way, and it's getting darker and darker,
and finally he's lost. And he sits down on a stump.
He gives up. He sits down on a stump, and
he begins to cry. And he cries, and he cries, and
he cries. And he calls his mama, and he
calls his daddy, and he calls his brother. He has given up. He's lost. That's what it means
to be lost. To be lost. It's like a man drowning. And he's fighting the water. He's out there in the water by
himself. And he fights and he swims till every muscle in his
body is so fatigued, till his mind is swirling. And finally,
I can't struggle anymore. I can't even move my finger.
And he gives up. And he goes, he lost. Or it's
like a man who's holding on to a ledge. He's fallen and he's
holding to a ledge. And he holds and he holds, hoping
somebody will come, but nobody comes. And he keeps on holding. Finally, he can hold no longer.
And he turns loose. He's lost. Or it's like a man
who's trudging through the snow. The snow is almost waist deep.
He's lost out there in the mountain. He's got marooned away from the
part that was climbing the mountain. He's out there by himself, and
he trudges through the snow, the deep snow, and he's getting
colder, and it's getting darker, and he's getting wearier, and
finally there's no strength, there's no help, there's no hope.
In the flesh there's absolutely not even the will anymore to
go on, so he just drops and sleeps the sleep of death. That's lost.
That's what it means to be lost. It means to be totally without
strength. Turn to Romans 5, verse 6. This
is what I'm saying. To be spiritually lost. And you
remember, I'm saying that some people have never experienced
this. Some have no theological understanding,
no experiential understanding. Some have a theological understanding,
but no experience of it. They've never been lost. Here in Romans 5, verse 6, when
we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. In the flesh dwelleth no good
thing. In the flesh no man can please God. From the sole of
my feet to the top of my head there is no soundness, nothing
but corruption and bruises and putrid sores that have not been
bound up, neither modified withal. It means to be without strength.
There's something else. Turn to Ephesians 2. It means
to be without citizenship in the kingdom of God. Not only
spiritually. Spiritually, I have no more strength
than the man drowning who's given up. No more strength than the
man who's used everything he has and turned blue. Or the man
trudging through the snow who finally just gives up and sleeps
the sleep of death. There's no way I can please God
in my flesh with my will, imagination, thoughts, deeds, hands, feet,
words, or anything else. Absolutely without strength.
And without citizenship. Look at verse 12 of Ephesians
2. At that time, you were without Christ, no priest, no prophet,
no atonement. Now, there's no way into God's
presence without a priest, but you're without the only priest
there is. There's no way into God's presence without a mediator,
but you are without him. There's no way into God's presence
without an atonement, being without Christ, you're without an atonement.
You are aliens, and alien means you're not a citizen, from the
commonwealth of Israel, you're strangers from the covenant,
having no hope, guilty before the bar of God's justice, and
without God in this world. To be lost is to be without strength. To be lost is to be without citizenship
in the kingdom of God. To be lost is to be without spiritual
life. Look back at Ephesians 2. Now
that phrase, hath he quickened, is in italics. That means it
was supplied by the translators. It really goes down here in verse
5 is where it goes. So it reads this way in chapter
2, verse 1, and you who were dead, dead in trespasses and
sin. Romans 5, 12 says, by one man's
sin entered this world and death. We walked in times past according
to the course of this world, according to the principle of
the power of the air. Verse 3, we had our conversation
in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind whereby nature, children of wrath. Let me tell you something
about this being without spiritual life, being dead. We love darkness
rather than light. John 3, 19. We believe a lie. Christ said, I come in my Father's
name and you don't receive me. Let another come in his name
and him you will receive. We believe a lie. We hate God
by nature. Romans 8, 7 says the natural
mind is enmity against God. We're incapable of receiving
the truth. The natural man receive it, not
the things of God. That's spiritually dead. Now
back to our text. God says to these preachers,
you haven't sought those who are lost. You haven't sought those. To
begin with, you haven't told them they're lost. You haven't
described to them what it means to be lost. I know this is a
dark picture, but it's a true picture. I know it offends the
dignity of the flesh, but it's a true picture. And those who
are God's true shepherds are going to preach this message
to those that are lost. By birth, by nature, by practice,
by choice, we're lost. Without strength, without citizenship
in the kingdom of God, without Christ, no priest, no atonement,
no prophet, without God, strangers and aliens, without hope, guilty
before God's justice, and without spiritual life. We have no spiritual
life. He says, at the end of the message,
oh no, thank God, he said, I'll seek that which is lost. I'll
seek that which was lost. I'm going out there and find
those that are lost and I'm going to bring them back. All right,
the second thing here now, he said you didn't seek the lost.
He said, I'm going to. And then secondly, he says, I'm
going to bring again that which was driven away. Now the sheep
is lost. What took the sheep from the
shepherd? The sheep's out there in the
wilderness. How'd he get out there? What made him lead the
folk? What made him go away from the
flock? We're out there in the wilderness of sin and shame.
We're lost. That's what it says here. We're
lost. Without strength, without God, without hope, without spiritual
life. Out there, unable to return.
Billy says, Dad! I'm lost! Help me! I'm lost. Well, how'd he get
out there? The butterfly, remember? The
butterfly came by. That butterfly's not worth his
home and his mother and his daddy and his brother and his sister,
but he for the moment thought it was. And back down in the
Garden of Eden, the butterfly came by. And Adam and Eve laid
hold on it. The butterfly came by. Beautiful,
yellow and brown and black and gold butterfly. And away we went. Turn to Genesis 3. I'll bring
again that which was driven away. How were we driven away? First,
we were driven away by our sin, by Adam's fall. Your sin has
separated you from God. You've left the fold, you've
left the flock, you've left the care of God. Verse 23 of Genesis
3, Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden. Sent
him forth. Verse 24, He drove out the man. from his presence, and placed
at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming
sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the Tree of
Life." That's what happened. That's what happened. What happened
in the Garden? Man left God. He lost the way,
the truth, and the life. He was cast out of the presence
of God. cast away from the presence of God, under the judgment and
wrath of God. I'll tell you what has further complicated our situation. Not only that, because of our
sin and our rebellion, because of our fall, we're separated
from God. But what's complicated, further separated us from God,
are our vain religious efforts and our attempts at self-righteousness
have even got us further away. If Adam had fallen, if Winnie
had fallen, he complicated the matter more by instead of standing
there naked saying, Lord, look what a mess I'm in. I sure wish
you'd help me. No, he got busy and built some
aprons for him and himself and his wife, tried to cover it.
He complicated the matter even more. He got further away from
God. You see what I'm saying? He was separated from God by
his fall, by his rebellion, by his sin. But he even got further
away from God when he plunged into this pit of self-righteousness
in an attempt to cover himself. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
1. This is what I'm saying. Isaiah
chapter 1. If a man who is a sinner will
come to God as a sinner, he'll be received. But when a man comes
to God as a sinner trying to justify himself, trying to whitewash
himself, Trying to cover his own sin and nakedness, he infuriates
God even more. He says in Isaiah 1.11, listen,
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, saith
the Lord? I am full of your burnt offerings
of rams and fats of fed beefs. I delight not in the blood of
bullocks, or lambs, or he-goats, When you come to appear before
me, who has required this self-righteousness at your hand? Who has required
this effort to holiness at your hand? Who has required you to
produce a righteousness, to tread my courts? Don't you bring your
vain oblations, your incense, your new moons, your Sabbath,
your assemblies, away with them. I cannot bear them. It is iniquity
to generate it into iniquity. your new moons and your appointed
feasts, my soul hates. There are trouble unto me, I'm
weary to bear them, and when you spread forth your hands,
I'll hide my eyes from you. When you make many prayers, I'll
not hear, your hands are full of blood." Here's what I'm saying.
Man not only failed and is degenerate and depraved and corrupted and
away from God, and in a lost state, but he's complicated it
further by covering himself, Bob, with fig leaf aprons. By building around himself these
things that he thinks God enjoys and God appreciates, by building
his big buildings and steeples and crosses and pictures and
new moons and holidays and Easters and Christmases and all this
junk and trash that he thinks he's worshiping God by these
things, and he's further away from God. It's complicated even
more. Not only is he out there in the
wilderness, but he dug him a pit and covered himself over with
junk. And he's further away from it. And I'll tell you, even something
is added to that. Turn to Matthew 23. We're further
driven away, we're further driven away by law preachers, works
preachers. Matthew 23, verse 15, listen
to what our Lord, warned his scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for you come to see in land to make one proselyte, and when
he's made, you come to see in land to make a convert. Baptist
or Methodist or Presbyterian or Catholic, and you just come
from sea and land, anywhere. You send missionaries, you send
these folks out to preach, evangelistic teams, citywide, countywide meetings
to get people to raise their hand, to walk out, to join your
church, to be baptized, to commit themselves to a program, to join
up, you know. And when you've made him, he's
two fold more the child of hell than you. He's still even worse
off. You see what I'm saying? He's
even worse off. Lost. Driven away. This is what
the preachers need to say something about. I hear them in their studies. I hear them on the street. I
hear them in their meetings. Brethren, we've got too many
false professions. There's too many folks in the
churches that aren't on fire for God. There's too many that
don't love the Scripture. What are we going to do to get
our people to come? How are we going to get them to give? How
are we going to get them to read their Bibles? How are we going
to get them to love each other? You preachers, give them that
false profession. You're the ones that put them
in that refuge of life. You're the one who gave them
that cover that's too short and that bed that's too narrow. You're
the one that saved their conscience. You're the one that cried, peace,
peace, when there is no peace. You're the one that comforted
people in their rebellion. You're the one that put them
in that place of being driven away. Oh, I know they were driven
away by the fall, separated from God. And then they complicated
the matter by their own self-righteousness, but you've even complicated it
further by giving them a false hiding place. All right, turn
back to the text. Thank God, he says, I'm going
to bring back that which was driven away. I'm going to do
it. I'm going to do it. will either destroy a man's refuge
of lies here or at the judgment. Now nearly everybody, you know
this is so, nearly everybody's got some kind of hope for eternity.
Nearly everybody has some kind of refuge. It may be a refuge. I was born in a Christian home.
My mother and father were members of the church, and I made my
profession, and I joined the church, and I've been faithful
to the church, and I've lived a reasonably pretty good life,
and I've been tossed to doctors, and I've grown up, and I'm all
right. I'm not afraid to die. I'm in
agreement with hell. I got an agreement with death.
When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won't come
nigh me. When God says bind them hand and foot and cast them in
the hill, I won't be in that number. When the saints go marching
in, I'll be in that number. And when the rose call up yonder,
I'll be there. And tell mother I'll be there. I'm all fixed
up. It may be because I'm a preacher or a deacon or because I've supported
somebody. It may be because I'm a Catholic.
It may be, I've got different, but nearly everybody's got a
refuge. And God will either. Destroy that refuge under a powerful,
convincing, convicting, converting work of His Spirit. and knock
our foundations out from under us and strip us of these self-righteous
fig leaf aprons and hang us out yonder in the wilderness lost
and let us see that Christ is our only refuge and our only
hope, our only foundation, our only redemption, that all things
are in here. He'll do that here under the preaching of the gospel.
He'll bring again that which is driven away out of the refuge
of lies. out of their fig leaf aprons
of self-righteousness, out of their state of rebellion and
enmity against them and bring them to be in love with Christ,
separated to Christ, devoted to Christ, dedicated to Christ,
he'll do it now or he'll do it at the judgment. When they stand
before him and say, wait a minute now, before you pass sentence,
I preached in your name and I did many wonderful works and I cast
out devils. And that's when he'll destroy
it. He'll say, I never knew you. I never knew you. But through
somebody's preaching, he's going to bring these folks back that
were driven away. Thank God he hadn't left his
church. No, he hadn't. He hadn't left his church. This is his business, his work. I'm just a servant. I'm just
an instrument. But I want to be a good one. I'm just a steward.
But he said there's some folks lost. And he tells me what it
means to be lost. And he says, I'm going to bring
them back. And some faithful God-called, earnest, sincere
shepherd is going to go out here and preach to those lost people.
He's going to bring them back. And as they've both been driven
away, and the man that understands what this means to be driven
away. It means in the Garden of Eden, we're separated from
God. in our own efforts at vain religion, vain show. I saw people
who wear crosses around their necks, nothing in the world but
vain show. I don't care what you say. People that wear pins
and bumper stickers and have pictures of so-called Christ
on their walls and crosses everywhere in these churches that are nothing
but ornamental, gaudy, religious shrines. It's an attempt at pacifying
God. That's what it is. And it's just
covering up our richness, it's covering up our pollution, it's
just covering up our corruption and all this processionals and
folding of the hands and bowing of the head and sleepy look on
the eye and trying to act pious. There's nothing in the world
but covering up the rottenness that's underneath. There's nothing
in the world but plowing cemeteries and planting posies over dead
people. And God says they're driven away.
And I'm going to bring them back. I'm going to shock somebody,
I'm going to strip somebody, I'm going to knock the foundations
out from under somebody, and I'm going out there and bring
back that which was driven away. I'm going to bring him back to
me. Bring him back to me. And then the next thing he says,
I'm going to bind up that which was broken. Now you preachers
hadn't done this, he said. You've done nothing but pour
balm and salve over festering sores. Instead of taking the
knife of God's Word and the sword and cutting out the fester and
cutting out the gangrene and going down to the roots, you
just put the balm over the top and it looks pretty good, but
it's rotten down here. And I'm going to bind up the
broken. Now, turn to two verses, Psalm 34. While you're turning, let me
ask you a question, Psalm 34. I'm going to bind up the broken. Is anything that's broken good
for anything? Think of me. Broken. You can't drink out of a broken
glass. You can't see in a broken mirror. You can't walk on a broken
cane, can you? You can't use a broken arm. Go
on and on and on. I know one thing. that is at
its best state when it's broken, Charlie, heart, a broken heart. I read that in Psalm 34, 18.
The Lord is now unto them that are of a broken heart, and save
as such as be of a contrite spirit. One other verse, Psalm 51, verse
17. The sacrifices of God are broken
spirit. A broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. Let me give you five reasons
why the heart is at its best state when it's broken. Now actually,
folks, today's religion is a proud thing. Do you know that religion
is a, people are proud of their piety? I'm proud I'm not like
other men. They're proud of their churches,
they're proud of the number of people they have, they're proud
of their offerings, they're proud of their experiences, they're
proud of their preachers, they're proud of their choirs, they're
proud of their isthmus, they're proud, proud, they're proud of
their stained glass windows, they're proud of everything.
Pride, God said, I hate it worse than anything. There's six things
I hate, he said, and number one is a proud look. Not only pride of race and face
and place, but pride of grace is the most abominable of all
things. We know nothing of broken hearts,
we know nothing of contrite spirits, we know very little of a humility
of place, position, and person. And nobody's preaching on it.
First of all, a broken heart is well-pleasing to God. well-pleasing. He says it's not despised. Psalm 51, 17, the sacrifices
of God, a broken heart, a broken and a contrite spirit, O God,
thou wilt not despise. We're still lashing out. We're
still hating. We're still unforgiving. We're
still pouting. We're still proud. God hasn't
broken us yet. When he does, he'll bring us
home. A broken heart will make up for
all defects in our duties, if that heart's broken. It says
here the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. God is well
pleased with these sacrifices, a broken spirit. A broken heart,
number one, is acceptable, well pleasing to God. Secondly, it
make up for any defects you have in your duty. That's right, a
broken heart. I talked to my class this morning
about these men who preach on Saturday night. Some of them
knew at preaching, and I said, you fellas, if you study well
and prepare well, And get up and preach, you do a fine job,
you're a blessing, but just have this in mind, I've done the best
I can. I've done the best I can. And
if you approach it that way, instead of in pride and arrogance,
if you approach it with a saying, I've served God, I've given the
best I can, I've given myself to it, my heart is broken before
Him, I want to be used for His glory, God will bless that one. broken spirit. We must not face
this thing with arrogance and pride and self-confidence. No
matter if we can't do much, if we can't give much, if we can't
contribute much, if we can do it with a broken spirit and a
broken heart, it makes up for any defect. Then the third thing,
it's a fit place for God to dwell. Look at Isaiah 57. Isaiah 57. Turn with me to this verse of
Scripture. I want you to look at it. The broken heart is a
fit place for God to dwell. Isaiah 57, verse 15. Thus saith the high and lofty
One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy. I dwell in
the high and holy place with Him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble.
Old Barnard used to say, My friends, you better come down off your
high horse. Better come on down. Because God is nigh unto them
of a broken heart. The place where God dwells is
in a broken heart, a broken spirit. Whatever the position, whatever
the place, come on down. Come on down. And then fourthly, in Psalm 34,
he said, it brings God near to us, that broken spirit, that
broken heart. Psalm 34, 18, the Lord is nigh,
he's near them that are of a broken heart. I'll tell you what makes us lash
out in temper, is we haven't been broken. I'll tell you what
makes us envious, we haven't been broken. I tell you what
makes jealousy live in our hearts. We're proud. We want the position
and the place we haven't been broken. All of these things are
the result of a proud and unbroken spirit. A man that's been broken before
God, he's amazed that God does anything for him. He's amazed
that God should even look his way. David said, who am I and
what is my house? that you should show mercy to
me." And then he said in our text about the broken heart,
he says, I'll bind it up. That's the fifth thing. God will
bind up the broken heart. I'll bind up that which was broken. What does a broken heart imply?
I got to thinking about this. First of all, it implies sorrow,
deep sorrow. We often use this term, my heart
is broken. We mean by that that someone
has died that we love very dearly or we've lost someone or someone
has deserted us whom we love, my heart's broken. They imply
sorrow, but this sorrow here is not after an earthly sort.
They're people whose hearts have been broken over loss, material,
physical, or financial, or emotional, whose hearts have never been
broken before God. This broken heart before God
is a godly sorrow, which acknowledges that my sins are against God.
I'm not asking you to to grovel in the dust before the proud
sinners of this world. That's not the type of broken
heart I'm talking about. I'm not talking about that you're
to go around apologizing for being a Christian, or apologizing
for what you believe, or trying to get along with folks that
are impossible to get along with. There's a difference in meekness
and weakness. What I'm speaking of is that broken heart, that
sorrow over sin before God. being broken before his presence,
being humbled before his presence, being smitten by his spirit.
That's what we're talking about. It means an acknowledgment of
inability. No righteousness of my own. No
power of position. God says, I'm going to bind up
the broken. Are we preaching that way? This
is what he accuses the shepherds of not doing, and he says, I'm
going to do it. I'm going to do a work in this day. I'm going
to seek the lost, I'm going to bring back those driven away,
I'm going to bind up the broken. You fellas that go out to preach,
let me tell you something, they might talk to you about getting
your credentials, they might talk to you about pleasing the
people, getting along with sister so and so, getting along with
brother so and so, I advise you to do this, go out there with
this message, and you hunt the lost. If Old Blood Souls is not
lost, then you let somebody else pacify him and get along with
him. If Sister So-and-so is not driven away, then you let somebody
else handle her hurt feelings and so forth. If the Board of Deacons is not
broken-hearted men and contrite spirit men, then get another
Board of Deacons and let somebody else pacify them. But you seek
the lost. See what I'm saying? What we've
done is we've left our first love, we've left our ministry,
we've left our calling in an effort to keep things going,
in an effort to compete with other churches, in an effort
to fill the pew. It's the preacher's business
to fill the pulpit, it's the people's business to fill the
pew. And if I get more interested in filling the pew than the pulpit,
then this place is going to be an empty hollow place. I must
stand here and wherever you stand, seek the lost. Bring back those
driven away, bind up the broken, and watch this next one here.
Heal the sick. Heal the sick. What is our sickness?
Well, God says your whole head's sick. Your whole head is sick,
your whole heart is pain. He says there's none sound, no
not one, none good, none sound. Listen to Him. He says your throat
is an open grave. He diagnoses our case. He describes
our faculties, your throat. It smells. Don't roll that stone
away! You'll fill the whole neighborhood
with a stink every time we open our mouths. Before God Almighty,
it smells like an open... Your tongues are instruments
of deceit. Deceit. The venom of snakes is
under your lips. Your mouths are full of bitterness. Your feet walk in ruin. Our business
is to heal them. There's a bomb in Gilead. His
name's Christ.