A Broken Spirit and a Contrite Heart

In this part of the sermon: The sermon delves into the strong Hebrew words used for 'broken' (to break to shivers, dash into pieces) and 'contrite' (bruised, pressed out, ground to powder). This defines the…

The word 'broken' is illustrated by God breaking the bars of a yoke from a neck and by ships dashed into disjointed pieces on reefs, conveying the strength and totality of the breaking.

He said, I have broken the bars of thy yoke. Here's the picture of someone yoked with a heavy yoke and on that yoke a heavy burden and God says, I broke that yoke from off your neck. That's the word used here. It's the word used in 1 Kings 22, 2.48, where it speaks of ships that were broken at a certain place. You've all seen pictures of ships that have run aground on reefs and then have been dashed into nothing but a disjointed collection of boards and wood. That's the word he uses here. A broken spirit.

11:23 - 11:59 Read in full sermon

Driving home: O Lord, you do not desire the blood of an animal, but what you desire is that inner crushing over the sight and sense of my sin, its defilement and its God-dishonoring essence. This is the sacrifice that you require and …

Further examples of the word 'broken' are given as God breaking the teeth of the wicked and snapping a bow into splinters, emphasizing the complete destruction implied.

It's the word used in Psalm 3, 7. Thou hast broken the teeth of the wicked. In Psalm 37, 15, where it says that God shall break the bows of his enemies. And you picture someone taking a bow and snapping it until it's nothing but a collection of splinters of wood.

12:00 - 12:18 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are not savingly joined to Christ and do not know true grief over your sinfulness, you are in a terrible state.

Matthew Henry's observation that an Old Testament sacrifice was bound, bled, and burnt is used to illustrate the sinner's journey: bound by conviction, bled with contrition, and burnt with zeal against sin.

Matthew Henry has a very quaint observation on this very passage and embodying this principle. He said when a man brought a sacrifice in the Old Testament that sacrifice was first bound and then it was bled and then it was burnt.

24:04 - 24:19 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are not savingly joined to Christ and do not know true grief over your sinfulness, you are in a terrible state.

The principle that the altar sanctifies the gift is used to explain that the sacrifice of a broken heart is only acceptable when offered upon the 'altar' of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, trusting in His merits.

It was bound then it was bled then it was burnt. And so he says the sinner who is offering this acceptable sacrifice is first bound by conviction bled with contrition and then burnt with zeal against his sin and for the glory of God. Now, an interesting analogy here is that that sacrifice of a broken heart must have an altar upon which to be offered and it's going to be acceptable to God. And as in the Old Testament it was according to our Lord's statement in the Gospel in the Sermon on the Mount or later, yes, in the Sermon on the Mount it is the altar that sanctifies the gift.

24:22 - 25:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not come into God's presence with a smarting conscience and hurriedly mouth a few words, slapping the salve of self-absolution upon your conscience without a broken spirit.

Martin describes superficial, hurried prayers as 'cute little quickie prayers' or 'utterances of someone in the confessional to a priest,' followed by 'slapped a little of the salve of self-absolution,' to highlight the inadequacy of confession without a broken spirit.

If you are a child of God and have been in the cursed habit that I so often fall into of just coming into the presence of God with my conscience smarting about this thing or that thing and quickly and hurriedly mouthing a few words almost as bad as the utterances of someone in the confessional to a priest and going out absolving myself and saying, well, you've confessed, you're forgiven now. Slapped a little of the salve of self-absolution upon my conscience. My spirit hasn't been broken. Has God accepted that sacrifice of mouthing a few words?

26:13 - 26:53 Read in full sermon

The point: When you sin and are not broken, get on your knees, open Psalm 51, and pray through it honestly, pausing where you find yourself merely praying words, asking God to give you a fresh revelation of your sin.

The foot of Calvary, beholding the Son of God bleeding and dying, is presented as the best place for an unbeliever to gain a sight and sense of their sin that will break their heart and lead them to cry for mercy.

Now Lord give me a fresh revelation of the depths of my sinnerhood that I might appreciate thy grace and you stick there and stay there until you can pray verse 5 from the heart then go right down through and if you get hung up with verse 12 restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and you stay there until you can pray from the heart you just go through and I venture to say if you'll do this not because this is a little magical secret but because this is the means which God has ordained to bring us to that place of brokenness you'll know something of the blessedness of coming to the conclusion...

38:38 - 40:05 Read in full sermon