A Broken Spirit and a Contrite Heart

Introduction: The Only Christmas Present God Wants

0:02 I invite you to turn with me again tonight to the 51st Psalm, Psalm 51.

0:14 As I was considering what might be an appropriate word for this evening, having, I believe, discerned the mind of God for the morning message, that text that we considered on the fact of our Lord being rich and yet becoming poor, that we through his poverty might be rich, I could seem to get no light on any other Christmas text. And I read through all the passages that I knew might be appropriate and could sense the word of the Lord coming to me in none of them. So I said, well, I'm just going to plow right on in Psalm 51. And yet the more I considered the next verses that were in order in our exposition, the more I was convinced that in a very real sense, this was a most appropriate Christmas message.

0:59 Since this celebration is carried on in his name, we call it Christmas, Christmas, perhaps we ought to ask the question, what, if anything, does the Lord require of us at Christmas? I said, what, if anything? I'm not assuming that he does, but if he does, what is it that he requires of us? And I said this morning that we'd be studying a portion of Scripture which we might well call the only Christmas present God wants from any of his creatures.

1:29 And, of course, the verses to which I refer are those that are next in the order of our exposition through this chapter, verses 6-7. 16 and 17 of Psalm 51.

1:42 For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. As we think of him who, though rich, became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich, and we think of ourselves as sinners who stand in need of his grace, we ought to ask the question, what does the Lord require of me?

What Can I Bring? David's Question and the Climax of His Prayer

2:18 What can I bring to him that will be an acceptable offering unto him? Wise men, the magi, those men about whom we know so little except for what the Scripture tells us, they brought gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. Should we do the same? Would this be acceptable to our Lord?

2:38 What gift? What shall we bring to him? And I believe the statement in verses 16 and 17, or the statements, are a very clear answer as David contemplated this question. What should he, as a guilty sinner, a child of God, but one who had grievously sinned against his God, one who had been wounded with the wounds of conviction and was now in the way of returning to the place of cleansing and blessing and spiritual renewal, he asked himself this question, what shall I bring to God?

3:07 Does God? Does God want me to go out and grab the nearest sheep or acceptable bullock and bring this in the Levitical way as an offering unto him? Is this what he wants? Or is there something else that God requires of me?

3:22 As we consider these verses tonight, we want to consider them not only against the backdrop of that question, but we want to consider them in the context of our previous studies, for in a very real sense, these verses are the climax and the conclusion of David's prayer. Verses 18 and 19 are sort of a little appendix. They're stuck on, a little P.S. that have real significance, and we shall be considering them.

3:43 But as far as David's own personal prayer, for his own personal spiritual quickening and refreshing and cleansing, this is the climax, this is the end of David's prayer. And just as verse 1 looked down through the prayer, so that anything he asks will have to be granted in the mercy of God, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving. Kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. Anything that comes to David as a sinning man must come to him under the canopy of grace.

4:19 Verse 1 sets the tone of all that follows. Now, in a very real sense, verses 16 and 17 must be read back into the whole psalm. For whatever the mercy of God brings to guilty sinners, they receive only in a way of spiritual growth. Spokenness.

4:41 And this makes these verses a tremendously vital part of true penitence, of what it means for a Christian to truly confess his sins and receive the pardon and forgiveness and cleansing proffered to him by the mercy of God. Now, verse 16, we might say, is the negative statement. Verse 17, the positive. You find this often in the psalms, and we have found it often in this psalm.

5:10 He had prayed earlier, Cast me not away from thy presence, the negative, the positive. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Now, he says, in the way of the negative, you don't desire this. Then the positive, verse 17, you do desire this.

The Meaning of David's Words: Not Absolute Literalism

5:27 Now, we shall consider, first of all, the meaning of David's words in verses 16 and 17. And then we shall look at the abiding message of these words to our own hearts. Now, what did David mean when he prayed? And declared, Is he making a statement that is to be interpreted with a wooden literalness that in a very real sense, God never desired sacrifice, and in a very real and literal sense, sacrifices never brought delight to God?

6:04 Well, if we were to interpret them that way, we would run right into the face of many other scriptures. For God...

6:10 God did desire sacrifice. It was He who instituted the very sacrificial system by which an Israelite drew nigh to his God day after day. There was the morning and the evening sacrifice, day in, day out, week in, week out. Why?

6:25 Not because Moses was sitting somewhere under a tree and got the idea that sacrifice might be a nice way to worship God. No, but because the God who spoke to him from heaven said, This is the way you're to approach me. And so the whole sacrificial system, was structured according to the revealed will of God. And we find, as far as the first sacrifice ever recorded in scripture, the sacrifice of Cain and Abel.

6:49 It says God had respect unto Abel and to his sacrifice. So when David says, Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. These statements are not to be interpreted in a wooden absolute literalism.

7:09 For if we... If we interpret them that way, as I say, we throw the rest of scripture into obscurity and somehow we come up with hopeless confusion.

7:19 Well then, what is David praying? Well, he's speaking in this sense. Though the sacrifice had some virtue in that it was a trial of the people of God's obedience, of their obedience to the revealed will of God, and though they were in some measure pleasing to God and useful as types of Christ and his once-for-all sacrifice, there was no intrinsic value in the blood of goats or of bulls. And the book of Hebrews makes this clear, that there was no power in the blood of these animals to produce any cleansing.

7:52 The wording of Hebrews is, they could not make the conscience of the worshipper perfect. They had no power to do this. And so when David is praying, he's praying in terms of relative importance. And he's saying, in essence,

8:07 Thou dost not desire sacrifice. There is no intrinsic value. Virtue in merely coming and offering up an animal and spilling its blood. Lord, if the way I could be brought out of my dilemma was simply to come with a stake-home kind of stiff obedience to the Levitical law and slay an animal and offer its blood, why, Lord, I'd gladly do this.

8:29 But I know this is not what you want. There's nothing intrinsically of value in the sacrifice that will make it acceptable in your sight or make me acceptable in your sight if I offer it. Possibly David had in mind the fact that the Old Testament sacrificial system made no provision for his sins. There was no sacrifice for adultery.

8:51 There was no sacrifice for murder. When you murdered someone, God had said it was to be life for life. When you committed adultery, you were to be taken out and stoned. So in a very real sense, in this situation, in David's situation, he recognizes, what sacrifice can I offer to God according to the law that he gave?

9:09 There is no sacrifice for murder and adultery. There is none. And so David is speaking not in an absolute sense but in a relative sense and possibly speaking in a specific sense related to his own peculiar need as one who had been guilty of the sins of adultery and of murder. So the very essence of his acknowledgement is, if merely coming with a Levitical offering would bring me into right standing with thee, O Lord, I would gladly offer such.

9:38 Or as the prophet Micah declares, in chapter 5 and verse 6, shall I bring to God thousands of offerings? Is this what he wants? David said, if so, I would bring it. But then he brings the positive statement, no, the true sacrifice of God is this.

Defining 'Broken Spirit' and 'Contrite Heart'

9:54 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Now let's look at these words as we seek to glean their meaning and stick with me now. We've got to know what the word means before we can hear the message of those words to our hearts. The sacrifices of God.

10:16 What does he mean, the sacrifices of God? Well, he means those sacrifices such as he requires and he accepts. You remember in the 6th chapter of John, they said, what shall we do that we may work the works of God? And Jesus answered, this is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

10:38 This is the work of God. This is the work that God requires of you and God will accept of you faith in his Son. Now, in the same sense, David uses the phrase, the sacrifices of God. The sacrifices which he requires and which he will accept are what?

10:56 First of all, a broken spirit and then a broken and a contrite heart. Now, it's interesting that the word David used for a broken spirit is a very strong word. It's a word that literally translated means to break to shivers, to dash into pieces. It's the word God used when he spoke to his people in Leviticus 26, 13 and telling them of his deliverance from Egypt on their behalf.

11:23 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.

12:00 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.

12:18 That's a pretty strong word. As David is contemplating how he should approach his God. What shall I render to him? What shall I bring to him?

12:26 Shall I bring an ox? Shall I bring a goat? What shall I bring to him? This is the sacrifice that God requires and accepts.

12:33 A broken, a shittered, a shattered serial me. The deep part. In the real inner man, this is what God wants. The opposite of that which is hard and inflexible and unbending.

12:53 That which is cast in the mold of sinful obduracy. He said the sacrifice of God is a broken spirit. And then he enlarges and says a broken and a contrite heart. And then the word for contrite means not so much that which is broken to shivers, but something that is bruised and pressed out.

13:17 The concept of being perhaps ground to powder uses another very strong word. And so the thought that he embodies is this. 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 that you accept.

13:44 Someone has described it this way. A broken and a contrite heart is a heart deeply grieved and afflicted for sin, humbled under the sense of God's displeasure and earnestly seeking and willing to accept reconciliation with God on any terms. That's a broken and a contrite heart. A heart deeply grieved and afflicted for sin, humbled under the sense of God's displeasure, earnestly seeking reconciliation with Him.

God Will Not Despise: A Positive Delight

14:20 Now David says, that kind of sacrifice thou wilt not despise. And in this place as in others, the word despise does not mean here what it generally means to us. We have with the word despise the idea of positive hatred. I despise that thing.

14:37 I dislike it greatly. But the biblical sense of despise is not that. But most often it means to regard lightly. To regard, with indifference.

14:46 It says that Esau despised his birthright. He didn't turn and say, oh, that birthright, I hate it. He just said, birthright's birthright. I'm hungry.

14:56 Give me a mess of pottage. You see, he regarded it as a very light and worthless thing. He didn't turn and curse his birthright. He just thought filling his belly was more important than retaining his birthright.

15:09 God, when He indicted David through the prophet Nathan, said, thou hast despised me, in doing what you did. Well, when David committed his sin, he didn't stand upon that rooftop and clench his fist and cry out in a venomous declaration of hatred to God and His law. No, at that point, he simply regarded God, His claims and His law as unworthy of his consideration. And the only thing that matters was the gratification of his appetite.

15:37 Now David has this tremendous consolation and comfort that if he presents to God this sacrifice of broken and a constant, contrite heart, God will not look upon it and regard it as a thing of little value. What he's saying in a negative way is, Lord, thou will treasure and accept and receive such a sacrifice. Often the positive is stated in terms of a negative. Thou will not despise it, clearly implying, Lord, thou will be pleased with this sacrifice, even that of a broken and a contrite heart.

Inseparable Relationship: Grace and Contrition

16:14 You'll regard it with favor and with positive delight. So much then for the essence of the meaning of David's prayer at this point. Now let us come to the heart of the message of these words to us. For we've said again and again that it's not enough for us to know the exercise of David's mind and spirit when he was in the way of repentance and in the way of confession.

16:38 God has left this psalm and others like it that we might be enabled to draw nigh to God in that same pathway of brokenness and contrition. And so if we would use this passage to our prophet, we must hear and appropriate to ourselves the message of this section of the word of God. Now what is the message of these words to us? Well, the first and primary message is this, that there is an inseparable relationship between divine grace and mercy providing forgiveness and the human contrition and the human contrition and the human contrition and the human contrition that receives forgiveness.

17:21 I don't know when I've seen this thing so clearly as I have in consideration of this passage. The inseparable relationship between the mercy of God that provides forgiveness and the contrite sinner that is the recipient of that forgiveness. In verse 1, David's prayer is, Have mercy upon me, O God. You see, his only hope as he draws nigh to God is that God's mercy is not going to be He doesn't come and say, Now, God, look at my brokenness, my tears, my contrition.

17:55 Will they not somehow turn aside your anger? No, no, no. He does not look to anything in himself as the ground of his approach to God. The only ground of his approach to God is what lies in God.

18:10 Mercy. Mercy. Have mercy upon me. The only source of cleansing to which he looks is cleansing in the appointed way.

18:19 He said in verse 7, Purge me with hyssop. The appointed way of cleansing is for the hyssop to be dipped in the blood and sprinkled upon the needy one. And so he says, O God, I acknowledge the only way I'll be cleansed is in the appointed way by the blood of sacrifice. But listen, the same David who acknowledges that the mercy of God and forgiveness in the way that God has provided is the only ground of his approach recognizing that the mercy of God is that he cannot appropriate that which grace provides offers in any other way but that of a broken and a contrite heart.

19:02 And he sees that those two things are inseparable. David could sing as any of us could sing. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal for sin could not atone?

19:17 Thou must save and thou alone. But he knew that that saving work of God was never realized by an unbroken spirit. Brokenness and contrition were no substitute for grace and mercy. They were no addition to the provisions of grace and mercy but always joined to them.

19:39 That's why God had to send Nathan. Because David being a child of God was still the object of God's delight as his child. Now he had come under his fatherly frown because of his sin and he was a candidate for discipline. But he loved him with an everlasting love as he does all of his children.

19:58 But God's mercy would not be conferred upon David in a way of forgiveness until he was broken. That's why God had to send Nathan. And what was Nathan? Nathan was God's instrument to bring David to the place where he could be a recipient of mercy.

20:17 For Nathan was the instrument to break this heart that had become hard and calloused until once again the tears of repentance flowed and David could offer to God the sacrifice of a broken, a crushed, a shivered, a smashed, a smattered that had been broken and had been brought to that place of contrition.

Scriptural Confirmation of Brokenness

20:43 God does not confer his grace and mercy upon unbroken hearts. You better write it down as an absolute spiritual law. He doesn't do it. This is why David can generalize in other places and other passages of the word of God so that he can that you realize I'm not just extracting a principle that isn't there.

21:01 Notice the categorical statements to this effect in Psalm 34.

21:07 Then we shall look at several passages in Isaiah.

21:10 And what we're trying to see is this principle that is one of the key messages of this portion that the mercy of God in providing forgiveness is inseparable from the broken heart that receives it. Psalm 34 in verse 18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. To whom is he nigh? The broken hearted.

21:40 Whom does he save? The contrite ones. And only them. Only them.

21:46 Turn over please to the book of Isaiah chapter 57 and verse 15.

21:58 For thus saith the High and the Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity whose name is Holy. I dwell in the high one in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. I dwell with him that is of a contrite and a humble spirit and only with him and only with him. And then in that wonderful messianic passage Isaiah 61 verse 1 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek.

22:41 He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted. And then those words of our Lord in giving that composite picture of the character of a true Christian he gives as the first two character traits of every true child of God in the Beatitudes Matthew 5, 3 and 4 Blessed are the what? Poor in spirit.

23:08 Blessed are they who mourn.

23:13 And so we cannot escape it whether Old or New Testament that the God who is the God of all grace and mercy and whose mercy and way of cleansing and forgiveness is the only basis upon which sinners can approach unto God and can add nothing thereto. And that truth we must cling to with tremendous tenacity and never relinquish it. Our salvation is bound up in it. Beloved we must cling with equal tenacity to the truth taught with equal clarity in the scripture that no one ever comes to that ground of forgiveness and mercy without being brought by the grace and spirit of God to a place of spiritual brokenness.

23:52 The Lord save it such as be of a contrite spirit. The sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite heart.

The Altar of Christ for a Broken Heart

24:04 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.

24:22 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.

25:05 When once placed upon the altar it is sanctified. Set apart as holy so they own the altar upon which this sacrifice of a broken and a contrite spirit will ever be acceptable to God is our altar the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. It is our Lord Himself who is that altar and only the heart that is trusting in His merit and in His blood and looking only to Him for acceptance with God can ever offer a broken spirit and a contrite heart as an acceptable sacrifice unto God. But beloved, we must offer that sacrifice.

25:47 If you are here tonight and not savingly joined to Christ, mark it down.

25:54 If you do not know something of some true grief over your sinfulness, you are in a terrible, terrible state.

26:03 The best thing you can do is begin to cry to God that He would somehow open your eyes to see your sin a little bit as He sees it.

26:13 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?

26:53 Not according to David. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart. Oh God, thou would not despise.

27:02 But you say, I can't work this up. I can't break my heart. That's right. You can't and I can't.

27:08 But beloved, we can take the time to wait upon the God who can. We can take the time to reflect upon something of the awfulness of our sin. Take time to reflect upon what it did to our Lord when it caused His groans, His agony, His blood, His tears. We can take time to meditate and think upon the terrible nature of sin.

27:32 But we're too busy for that. Pardon me. Too busy for that. So we slip in with our cute little quickie prayers and slip out.

27:41 Is it no wonder that we know so little experimentally of the mighty working of God in us when we are such strangers to this broken and contrite spirit? Well, I don't want to labor the point but I am convinced that that is the essential message of these verses. But there are several other things I want to touch on briefly. The second abiding message of these verses is this, that joy in God's forgiveness and brokenness over our sinfulness are inseparably united.

Inseparable Relationship: Joy and Brokenness

28:14 Not only is God's mercy providing forgiveness and the brokenness of the sinful man receiving forgiveness inseparably joined, but joy in His forgiveness and, and sorrow and grief in our sin. It's a paradox, but true. They are blessedly united. For notice the context now.

28:33 David has just finished praying as we studied two Lord's Day nights ago.

28:40 Deliver me, verse 14, from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. Talk about singing. O Lord, open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. Here's the dominant note of joy.

28:56 He had previously prayed, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Verse 12, verse 8, Make me to hear joy and gladness. And yet, he never contemplates what I would call that irresponsible giddiness that makes a man forget what he was and what he is. It's a terrible thing to want to be so happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, that we would like to throw off every remembrance of what we were and what we are in the way of our sinfulness.

29:28 David didn't have that.

29:30 The man who wrote Rejoice with trembling is the man who cries out in the midst of a plea for restored joy the sacrifices of God who are broken and a contrite spirit. And the true saint of God understands this. Some of you know what I'm talking about tonight. Maybe you thought you were queer, that you could never get so irresponsibly happy that you could forget and experience pain at what you were before you were savingly drawn to Christ and what you've been ever since.

30:03 Your failures, your shortcomings, your periods of dullness and coldness and barrenness. Though David would rejoice that there was forgiveness and mercy to cleanse all the sin that had accumulated in that year of spiritual dryness and barrenness, he never wanted to rejoice in such a way that he forgot and ceased to know true brokenness.

30:30 You see, that's something that will shape and frame your prayer life, shape and frame the way you worship the Lord. And only the true saints of God know this.

30:42 If on the one hand your experience is all joy and no brokenness, that's an indication that the flesh has gotten in and you've become giddy. If on the other hand it's all grief and no joy, that's the flesh as well. You see, the flesh can either be giddy or morbid. The flesh can be both.

30:59 But only the Holy Ghost can give us true joy if needed.

31:05 With brokenness and contrition. The fruit of the Spirit is joy and His joy is never utterly divorced from contrition and brokenness. For the fruit of the Spirit is not only joy but what? Meekness.

31:18 This comes into that realm, you see.

31:22 So where are you tonight? Have you got an irresponsible giddy kind of joy?

31:28 Well, you need to get on your knees and ask God to show you fresh what you are and what you've been and ask Him to break your heart.

31:37 And if tonight you're just down so low you can't reach up even to touch bottom and it's all grief and all heaviness, you need to recognize afresh what you are by the grace of God so that you can rejoice in Him and in His salvation in spite of your failure that you might have that joy that is the portion of the people of God.

The Necessity of Biblically Instructed Worship

32:03 And there's one last thing that I'd like to touch on as far as the abiding message of this passage.

32:10 It's what I would call the necessity of being biblically instructed in our worship of God. David said, Lord, thou desirest not sacrifice else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering or I'd give that but Lord, I'd bring the thing you want. Now, how did he know that?

32:28 There were lots of Israelites who didn't know what he knew. They thought as long as they were coming up the temple and throwing in their money into the box and as long as they were bringing up their turtle doves or their sheep or whatever was going to be offered, they thought all was well. You read the first chapter of Isaiah and read that at one stage in the ministry of the prophet Isaiah, the whole nation by and large had been given over to this offering sacrifice keeping all kinds of holy days until God cries out to the prophet, who has required this of your hands? He said, I'm sick and tired of all these sacrifices, all these offerings, all the feast, all the ceremony.

33:06 I'm tired. I'm sick of death of the whole business. That's just a paraphrase of the first chapter of Isaiah. Now, how did David know?

33:13 How did David know that God wanted something more than just the offering of an animal? Well, you see, David's approach to God in worship, even in confession, was governed by the principles of divine revelation. He was thoroughly enough acquainted with the scriptures to know in answer to the question, what shall I give God? He said, certainly.

33:34 He wants something more than just one of the sheep out of my backyard. He wants a broken heart. Now, you see how practical this is? What does God want of you when you gather here week by week?

33:45 He wants you just to come, take your place, and when the preacher says, let us pray, you bow, and when he says amen, we look up, and when he says stand, we stand, and sing the hymn, sit and hear a sermon, shake the preacher's hand, and go, is that what the Lord requires of us? Is that what he requires of us? If it is, let's give it to him. But you better be sure that's what he wants.

34:03 My Bible says that isn't what he wants. In fact, it's the opposite of what he wants. He says, this people draw nigh to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. What does he want?

34:13 He wants the worship of our hearts. Well, that means you can't give him what he wants if you come to this place unprepared. You can't give him the worship of our heart filled with all the garbage and debris of the world in which we move without getting quiet before God on a Lord's Day morning or a Saturday night asking him to prepare your heart, prepare your mind, getting to bed early enough that you can be mentally alert to sit and hear the Word of God and concentrate upon the truth of God that you can throw your spirit into his worship and his praise. This is what he requires.

34:49 But I venture to say there are some of you who come week after week thinking God actually requires what you give him. Plunking your body down, going through the motions, amen, shake the preacher's hand and go home. Oh, beloved, start searching the Scriptures. Will you see what God wants?

35:03 This isn't what he wants. And David could say, Lord, you don't want this, but you want that because his approach to God was governed by the revelation of the will of God in the Bible. And he said, And so I plead with you as I seek to exhort myself again and again to ask myself, why am I doing what I'm doing? Why am I approaching God this way?

35:25 Why am I saying this in my prayers? Why am I doing this in the worship of God? Is it because this is what he has required? Or is it just something I do because it's part of the total pattern of my life inherited from the elders?

35:40 What is it? What is it with you? What is it with me?

How to Know and Cultivate a Broken Spirit

35:45 What do you say, Pastor? How can I know what a broken and a contrite spirit is? You've defined it, but how will it express itself? Well, I close with a suggestion.

35:55 Just take the 51st Psalm as an example of what brokenness and contrition are. What's it mean to be broken and contrite? It means you can pray from the heart, Psalm 51.

36:06 When you can come pleading no basis of your approach to God but his mercy, that's part of a broken spirit, a spirit broken of all human pride, of all human pride, trust, of all self-gloring, you're coming like a beggar pleading for mercy and mercy alone. That's the mark of a broken heart. So when you can pray the first verse honestly from the heart, there's some hope that maybe there's some measure of brokenness. When you can frankly acknowledge your sin as he does in verses 3 and 4, I acknowledge my transgression.

36:36 Against thee and thee only have I sinned. No rationalizing, no excusing, no transferring the blame to Bathsheba or to anybody else or to the devil. When you can with childlike frankness own your sin as your sin, that's a mark of brokenness and contrition. Then when you can like David say, well, this just wasn't a little accident contrary to the bent of my life.

37:01 Lord, I'm really a good man. This was just a little accident. When you can like David say, Lord, what I did here was simply consistent with what I am. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.

37:14 Lord, I'm a sinner trace me right back to the moment of conception. I'm a sinner from that point to here. When you can honestly pray that from the heart and know that's true not simply because you read a theology book on total depravity but because you've come to that shocking revelation of how inbred sin is. That's brokenness.

37:34 You see? And then you go right down through the psalm when you can pray from the heart make me to hear joy and gladness. Hide thy face from my sins. Create in me a clean heart when you can be content with nothing less than the sense of inward purging by the application of the blood of Christ.

37:54 Then you know something of brokenness. What's it mean to offer to God a broken and a contrite spirit? It means that you can pray through the 51st psalm from the heart and with the understanding. Now if you shed literal tears or not is not the issue.

38:11 The issue is can you honestly pray that psalm? So what do you do now when you've sinned? And you don't you're not broken. That's the terrible isn't that an awful state to be as a Christian?

38:21 You sin you know you ought to be broken and you're not. What do you do? Well you just get down on your knees and open up psalm 51 and you start praying through it and at any point you get hung up and find you're just praying words say Lord I can't really pray that. Lord I'm not really convinced that I'm a sinner to every last fiber of my being.

38:38 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 of the psalm with the realization that offering that sacrifice of a broken and a contrite heart upon the altar of the Lord Jesus Christ with your faith in him and in his merits alone looking to God for his mercy and his restoration then you're going to know the restoring of joy you're going to know something of the liberated tongue to speak aloud of his righteousness the emboldened witness that will cause sinners to be converted unto him. May God grant that we shall have understanding and above this ever increasing experience of what it means to offer to God that sacrifice which alone is acceptable in his sight. And for you tonight who've never been broken over your sins you can hear of Christ crucified with utter indifference

40:05 my closing word of exhortation to you is will you not cry to God that he'll give you a little measure of a sight and sense of your sin that will bring you in brokenness to the feet of his son you say but where do I get that sight and sense of my sin in a vacuum no the best place to get it is to sit down at the foot of Calvary and behold the son of God bleeding dying pouring out his life for our sins until the sight and sense of your sin in the light of the agonies of Calvary breaks your heart and causes you to cry out for mercy as did the publican let us pray