ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE
Holy Ground “Spirit Filled” Church
Pastor: Joe M. Garza
4-6-06
Text: Psalms 51:17
INTRODUCTION:
This Psalm is David’s I am sorry Psalm. It may be fitly so called, because it is a Psalm by which is manifest the unfeigned sorrow which he had for his horrible sin, in defiling of Bathsheba, and slaying Uriah her husband; a relation at large of which you have in the 11th and 12th of 2 Samuel.
This Psalm reveals that this poor man had mercy dealing in his heart as soon as conviction fell upon his spirit. While he cries for mercy, then he confesses his heinous offenses, then he bewails the depravity of his nature
----sometimes he cries out to be washed and sanctified
----then He is afraid that God will cast him away from His presence
----He is afraid that God will take His Holy Spirit utterly from him
*He goes on to say in the text and there he fixes his mind, finding in himself that heart and spirit which God did not dislike
* “The sacrifices of God,” says he, “are a broken spirit” as if he should say, I thank God I have that
----a broken and a contrite heart, says he, “O God, Thou wilt not despise” as if he should say, I thank God I have that
[We come now, in order, to show you what a broken heart and what a contrite spirit is. This must be done, because in the discovery of this lies both the comfort of them that have it, and the conviction of them that have it not………..]
I. WHAT A BROKEN HEART IS NOT
A. WHAT IS A HEART THAT IS NOT BROKEN, THAT IS NOT CONTRITE
Zechariah 7:12 (AMP)
Yes, they made their hearts as an adamant stone or diamond point, lest they should heart the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore there came great wrath from the Lord of Hosts
Deuteronomy 2:30 (AMP)
But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that He might give him into your hand, as at this day
Deuteronomy 9:27 (AMP)
Remember earnestly Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness
----the heart before it is broken, is hard and stubborn, and obstinate (to have one’s own way; stubborn)
----when a person’s heart is like this you are against God and the salvation of the soul
2. It is a heart full of evil imaginations and darkness
Genesis 8:21 (AMP)
When the Lord smelled the pleasing odor (a scent of satisfaction to His heart), the Lord said to Himself, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination (the strong desire) of man’s heart is evil and wicked from his youth; neither will I ever again smite and destroy every living thing, as I have done
Romans 1:21 (AMP)
Because when they knew and recognized Him as God, they did not honor and glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. But instead they became futile and godless in their thinking (with vain imaginings, foolish reasoning, and stupid speculations) and their senseless minds were darkened
3. It is a heart deceitful and subject to be deceived, especially about the things of an eternal concernment
Isaiah 44:20 (AMP)
That kind of man feeds on ashes (and finds his satisfaction in ashes) A deluded mind has led him astray, so that he cannot release and save himself, or ask, Is not this thing I am holding in my right hand a lie
Deuteronomy 11:16 (AMP)
Take heed to yourselves, lest your (minds and) hearts be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them
4. It is a heart that rather gather iniquity and vanity to itself, than any thing that is good for the soul
Psalms 41:6 (AMP)
And when one comes to see me, he speaks falsehood and empty words, while his heart gathers mischievous gossip (against me); when he goes away, he tells it abroad
Psalms 94:11 (AMP)
The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain (empty and futile only a breath)
5. A heart not broken is an unbelieving heart, and one that will turn away from God to sin
Hebrews 3:12 (AMP)
Therefore beware brethren, take care, lest there be in any one of you a wicked, unbelieving heart (which refuses to cleave to, trust in, and rely on Him), leading you to turn away and desert or stand aloof from the living God
Deuteronomy 17:17 (AMP)
And he shall not multiply wives to himself, that his (mind and) heart turn not away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself sliver and gold
6. A heart not broken is a heart not prepared for God, being uncircumcised, nor for the reception of His holy Word
2 Chronicles 12:14 (AMP)
And he did evil because he did not set his heart to seek (inquire of yearn for) the Lord with all his desire
Psalm 78:8 (AMP)
And might not be as their fathers a stubborn and rebellious generation, an generation that set not heir hearts aright nor prepared their hearts to know God, and whose spirits were not steadfast and faithful to God
Acts 7:51 (AMP)
You stubborn and stiff necked people, still heathen and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always actively resisting the Holy Spirit. As your forefathers were so you (are and so you do)
7. A heart not broken is a heart not single, but double: it will pretend to serve God, but will withal lean to the devil and sin
Psalm 12:2 (AMP)
To his neighbor each one speaks words without use or worth or truth; with flattering lips and double heart (deceitfully) they speak
Ezekiel 33:31 (AMP)
And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as My people, and they heart the words you say, but they will not do them; for with their mouths they show much love, but their hearts go after and are set on their (idolatrous greed for) gain
8. A heart not broken is a heart proud and stout; it loves not to be controlled, though the controller be God himself
Psalm 101:5 (AMP)
Whoso privily slanders his neighbor, him will I cut off (from me); he who has a haughty look and an proud and arrogant heart I cannot and I will not tolerate
Proverbs 16:5 (AMP)
Everyone proud and arrogant in heart is disgusting, hateful, and exceedingly offensive to the Lord; be assured they will not go unpunished
9. A heart not broken is a heart that will give place to Satan, but will resist the Holy Ghost
Acts 5:3 (AMP)
But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart that you should lie to and attempt to deceive the Holy Spirit, and should (in violation of your promise) withdraw secretly and appropriate to your own use part of the price from the sale of the land?
Acts 7:51
10. A heart not broken is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; so wicked, that none can know it
Jeremiah 17:9 (AMP)
The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it (perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind)
*The heart before it is broken is sufficiently seen by the whole course of the world
II. THE WORD AND THE BROKEN HEART
A. The instrument with which the heart is broken and with which the spirit is made contrite is the WORD
Jeremiah 23:29 (AMP)
Is not My word like fire (that consumes all that cannot endure the test)? Says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks in pieces the rock (of most stubborn resistance)
*The rock in this text, is the heart, which in another place is compared to an adamant
a. Adamant is harder than flint
Zechariah 7:11-12
Ezekiel 3:9
*This rock, this adamant (a stone believed to be impenetrably hard), this stony heart, is broken and made contrite by the WORD
----WATCH ME! No man can break the heart with the WORD
----no angel can break the heart with the Word
----WATCH ME CUZ I’M GOING TO FREAK YOU OUT! The WORD is the instrument with which the heart is broken, yet it is not broken with the WORD, till that WORD is managed by the might and power of God
*No when the hand of the Lord is with the WORD, then it is mighty; it is mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds
*It is sharp then as a sword, in the soul and spirit
----it sticks like an arrow in the hearts of sinners, causing the people to fall at His foot for mercy
[The WORD works powerfully to this purpose, when it finds the sinner and his sin, and also when it shall convince him that is has found him out….]
III. WHAT IS A BROKEN HEART
1. What is meant by this word BROKEN
2. What is meant by this word CONTRITE
A. FOR THE WORD BROKEN
*A broken heart is disabled, as to former actions
----if a man’s bones are broken he is disabled
----he can’t run
----leap
----wrestle or anything else
*A broken heart in the text, he calls it broken bones
Psalm 51:8 (AMP)
Make me to hear joy and gladness and be satisfied; let the bones which You have broken rejoice
a. Why is the breaking of the heart compared to the breaking of the bones
*When the bones are broken, the outward man is disabled as to what it tends to do
----when the spirit is broken, the inward man is disabled as to what vanity and folly it before delighted in
Psalms 38:8 (AMP)
I am faint and sorely bruised (deadly cold and quite worn out); I groan by reason of the disquiet and moaning of my heart
----we must have our heart broken
----we must have our heart lame, disabled, and taken off, by sense of God’s wrath due to sin
B. WHAT IS MEANT BY THE WORD CONTRITE
*A contrite spirit is a penitent (sorry for having done wrong) one
----one sorely grieved, deeply sorrowful for the sins a person has committed against God and to the damage of soul
*As a man who gets, by his folly, a broken leg or arm, is very sorry that the was so foolish as to be engaged in such foolish ways of idleness and vanity
----he whose heart is broken with a sense of God’s wrath due to his sin, has deep sorrow in his soul
----he whose heart is broken is greatly repentant
IV. SIGNS OF A BROKEN HEART
*A broken heart is sensible as intended in the text, is a sensible man; he is brought to the exercise of all the senses of his soul
----all others are dead, senseless, and without true feeling or what the broken-hearted man is sensible of
A. HE SEES HIMSELF TO BE WHAT OTHERS ARE IGNORANT OF
*A broken hearted person sees themselves to be not only a sinful person, but a person by nature in the gall (something bitter or distasteful) and bond of sin
a. In the gall of sin
Acts 8:23 (AMP)
For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in a bond forged by iniquity (to fetter souls)
Psalms 51:5 (AMP)
Behold, I was brought forth in a state of iniquity; my mother was sinful who conceived me (and I too am sinful)
----for every person in the state of nature is in the gall of sin
----you were shapen in it
----you were conceived in it
----it has also possession of and by that possession has infected the whole of your soul and body
*This is what a person sees, this is what a person understands
*Not every person sees this because the blessing of a broken heart is not bestowed on every one
----a person who never had a broken heart has no understanding of it then a person who has is heart broken can see
B. HE FEELS WHAT OTHERS HAVE NO SENSE OF
----a broken hearted feels the arrows of the Almighty, and that they stick fast in him
----a broken hearted feels how sore and sick by smiting of God’s hammer upon his heart to break it
----your poor soul is made
----a broken hearted person feels a burden intolerable lying upon his spirit
Psalms 38:4 (AMP)
For my iniquities have gone over my head (like waves of a flood) as a heavy burden they weigh too much for me
----you will begin to feel pain
----you will begin to feel wounded
----you will begin to feel pains as others cannot understand, because they are not broken
*”MY heart,” says David, “is sore pained within me.” Psalms 55:4
----broken bones accasion pain, strong pain, yes pain that will make a man or women groan….with the groanings of a deadly wounded man Ezekiel 30:24
a. Soul-pain is the sorest pain, in comparison to which the pain of the body is a very tolerable thing
Proverbs 18:14 (AMP)
The strong spirit of a man sustains him in bodily pain or trouble, but a weak and broken spirit who can raise up or bear
*Now here is soul pain, here is heart pain, here we are discoursing of a wounded, of a broken spirit
----this pain is to be felt to the sinking of the whole person
----no one can support this but God
*Here is death in this pain-death for ever, without God’s special mercy
----this is the pain that will bring the soul to and this is what the broken-hearted person feels
Psalms 116:3 (AMP)
The cords and sorrows of death were around me, and the terrors of Sheol (the place of the dead) had laid hold of me; I suffered anguish and grief trouble and sorrow
*I guarantee you that you will find trouble and sorrow indeed
----the pains of hell, and sorrows of death, are pains and sorrows the most intolerable
[This the man is acquainted with that has his heart broken………]
C. HE SEES AND FEELS, SO HE HEARS THAT WHICH AUGMENTS (to make or become greater) HIS WOE AND SORROW
*WATCH ME! If a man has his bone broken, he does not only see and feel, but oftentimes also hears what increases his grief
*As the would is incurable, and the bone is not rightly set there is also a danger of gangrene, you might miss because you were not looking for it
[These are the voices, the sayings that haunt the house of one that has their bones broken………….]
a. A broken-hearted person knows what I mean by this
----they can hear what makes their lips quiver
----they can hear the noise of which they seem to feel the rottenness enter into their bones
----they began to tremble in themselves and wish that they may hear joy and gladness , that the bones, the heart, and spirit, which God has broken, may rejoice
*A person begins to hear God say, the devil say, his conscience say, and all good people whisper among themselves, saying, “There is no help for him in God.”
----Job heard this
----David heard this
[WATCH ME! This is a common sound in the ears of the broken-hearted..]
D. THE BROKEN-HEARTED SMELL WHAT OTHERS CANNOT SCENT
Psalms 38:5 (KJV)
My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness
a. Sin never smelled so to any person alive as it smells to the broken hearted
*Wounds will stink, but no stink that of sin to the broken-hearted man
----your own sin stinks
----so do the sins of all the world to the broken-hearted
----sin is like decaying flesh
----it is of a stinking nature
----it has the worse of smells and some men love it
----nothing more offends God then the scent of sin and to the broken-hearted
b. Who smells the stink of sin
*Nobody in the world
Hosea 4:8 (AMP)
The feed on the sin of My people and set their heart o their iniquity
----carnally they do not smell the nauseous scent of sin
----the broken-hearted man does find that sin is nauseous and therefore cries out that it STINKS!!!!!!
----a broken-hearted person is sensible to the wages of sin
E. THE BROKEN HEARTED IS ALSO A TASTING MAN
*Wounds if sore and full of pains, of great pains, do sometimes alter the taste of a person
*They make a person think that their meat, that their drink have a bitter taste in them
a. How many times do the poor people of God, the only ones that know what a broken heart does mean?
Lamentations 3:15-16;19 (AMP)
He has filled me with bitterness; he has made me drink to excess and until drunken with wormwood (bitterness) [16] he has also broken my teeth with gravel (stones) he has covered me with ashes. [19] O Lord remember earnestly my affliction and my misery, my wandering and my outcast state, the wormwood and the gall
*This gravel, gall, and wormwood, is the true temporal taste of sin
----God will let you loathe it for ever and will feed you with it until their hearts ache and break
b. Wickedness is pleasant of taste to the world
*Lust, or anything that is vile and refuse, the carnal world thinks it tastes well
CONCLUSION:
John Bunyan said, “Why is a broken heart put in the room of all sacrifices which we can offer to God, and a contrite spirit put into the room of all offerings, as they are; I say, why is it counted better than all, if they were all put together, if any one part, or if all external parts of worship, were they put together, could be able to render the man a sound and a rightly made new creature without it? A broken heart, a contrite spirit, God will not despise but both you and all your service He will certainly slight and reject, if you come broken, come contrite, come aware of and sorry for your sins, or your coming will be counted on coming to God in the right way; and consequently you will get not benefit from it”.
