 |
Light Of His Word The Sermons of Pastor Mike Walls Freedom Baptist Church Used By Permission Psalms 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. |
|
|
Light Of His Word The Sermons of Pastor Mike Walls Freedom Baptist Church Used By Permission Psalms 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. |
|
HOW TO HAVE
A BROKEN HEART Psalm
34:18 Introduction:
In this portion of scripture lays one of the
most important elements in the Christian life. It is the broken
heart. Christ our glorious Saviour died with a broken heart
on the cruel cross of Calvary. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The popular slogan means as long
as something is working—leave it alone! However, when it comes to
the human heart, it’s not fixed until it is broken. What people need in this present world to see is broken hearted Christians.
It needs to seen especially in those who teach and preach the Word
of God. The Lord is pleased with a broken hearted person. Anything
that God is nigh unto is close to His heart. Throughout the
Psalms, we see David filling them much with tears. We have
eight different verses in the Book of Psalms with the word tears
in them. There are many advantages of a broken heart. 1. A broken heart
is acceptable and well pleasing to the Lord. 2. A broken heart
makes up many defects in our service for the Lord and duties. 3. A broken heart
makes the heart a fit receptacle for God to dwell in. 4. A broken heart
brings God to man. 5. A broken heart
lays us open to Christ’s healing. Christ never healed anything
that was not sick or broken. The New Testament equivalent to this passage we have selected, as
our text is Jude 22. “And of some have compassion, making
a difference.” You can pray this back to the Lord.
“Lord, I want to make a difference, give me compassion.” As I preach this message, I want to show you several different avenues
on how to have a broken heart. You can have a broken
heart by: “And the lord
said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and
compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall
doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with
him.” There
are a few truths that need to be seen about these verses.
“David therefore
himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son? And
the common people heard him gladly.” Abraham Lincoln said that God must have really loved the poor because
He made so many of us. It is not usually the ones with
the great intelligence that turns to Christ. It is usually
the common man. 1st
Corinthians 1:26-29 “For ye see
your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the
flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and
things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh
should glory in his presence.” One day Jesus was standing outside of the city of Jerusalem.
You can almost feel the pain and brokenness of the Lord Jesus
when he uttered these words: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto
thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together,
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not!” (Matthew 23:37) Jesus showed His broken heart for this city that was supposed to
the city of God. It was the home of the Temple where the
worship of the Most High was supposed to be done. You
can see and know that He is showing his compassion for the guilty
city, and his strong sense of the evils that were about to come
upon it. He knew that in a short thirty some years that
the Roman General Titus would come down upon the city to make
waste of it. He knew this because He knows the future.
Jeremiah 9:1 “Oh that my
head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I
might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my
people!” Another day Jesus is going to the graveside of his friend Lazarus.
As He approaches the town, Martha comes to Him. She tells
Him if He had been there, her brother would not have died.
He reminds her that He is the resurrection and the life.
She goes back to where her sister is and tells her that Jesus
is here at Bethany. She runs to where Jesus is and repeats
much of the same words as her sister but the Bible tells us
that she falls at His feet weeping. I have no great
words that will replace what the Bible has to say. Let
me read to you those words. “Then when Mary was come
where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying
unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not
died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also
weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was
troubled, And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him,
Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold
how he loved him!” (John 11:32-36) Jesus is not weeping because He is powerless to help. He is
weeping because His dear friend’s heart is broken. Mary
does not realize that Jesus has just stepped into her Bethany.
Mary is at the feet of Jesus weeping over the death of her brother.
All of the sudden she feels something wet on her neck.
She looks up into the eyes of Her Lord and Saviour and sees
that He is weeping with her. She knows that He is touched
with the feeling of her infirmity. He is the Sympathetic
Saviour. Of course, you know the rest of the story.
Jesus walks into the graveyard and calls for His friend Lazarus
to come out of the grave. Lazarus lives again. Let me cite one more example of the broken heart of our Saviour.
He is hanging on the cross of Calvary. He has been on
the cross for approximately six hours. For most crucifixions,
this is relatively a short period of time. He is
under a great deal of stress. His heart has enlarged and
He is suffering a painful death of congested heart failure.
The fluid around His heart is growing and growing causing the
heart to grow weaker and weaker. He cries with that voice
of Victory- It is finished. He bows His head and dies.
Before the evening falls and the Sabbath begins, the soldiers
under orders break the legs of the two thieves on each side
of Him. But the soldiers notice that the man on the middle
cross is not breathing. To make sure He is dead, they
take a spear and pierce His heart. His heart is broken
over the sins of people. He had died to set people free.
He binds up the brokenhearted by having His heart broken for
them. “Therefore watch,
and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not
to warn every one night and day with tears.” In Ephesus, Paul spent the most time of all of the places that he
had been. In this passage he shows the extent of his burden
for them that they might be saved. “Son of man, I
have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore
hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When
I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest
him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked
way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity;
but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the
wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked
way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy
soul.” The
watchman on the wall is the illustration of this. God has made
us watchman over the town of Smithfield. There are several
truths that we know. 1. Wickedness
is on every hand. It does not take one eye and half sense
to figure that out. 2. There
will not be true lasting peace until the Prince of Peace
comes. I
am not the smartest person around but I know I am my worst problem.
We need to be broken over our lack of love for the Lord.
We ought to be broken over our laziness in the work. We
ought to be broken over lightness of service for the Lord.
A
good daily remainder to help us to be broken over our selves is
this: “Only one life, t’will soon be past, Only what is done for
Christ will last.” II. SHOWING
A BROKEN HEART “And
of some have compassion, making a difference” There are six reasons why compassion makes the difference.
Another way to say compassion is a broken heart. A. God is interested
in tears. I
used the example of the interest of God in tears with the passage
of the rising of Lazarus from the grave. Here is another. 2nd
Kings 20:1-6 “In those days
was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of
Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set
thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. Then he
turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying,
I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before
thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which
is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. And it came to pass,
afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word
of the LORD came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell Hezekiah
the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David
thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold,
I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house
of the LORD. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I
will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of
Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for
my servant David's sake.” The songwriter wrote it this: Tears are a language that God understands.
Over and over again in the Bible you see the tears of men and
women and see how the Lord intervened. B. It shows
we believe in hell. Many times we talk of hell like is nothing more than a place like
our town when in reality, it is the abode of every lost person
who has died thus far and will the abode of every lost person
that will die in the future. May God break our hearts over
the lost condition of folks and where they are headed! Hell
is the place of weeping and wailing. It is the place of
the eternal flame. It is the place of eternal thirst.
It is the place of eternal darkness. It is the place of
eternal torment. It is the place that each of our lost loved
ones and friends will go if we don’t reach them with the gospel. C. It shows
that we are looking for Jesus’ coming. Just
any day now, our Lord is coming. It may be today.
As I read those words in the second to the last verse of the Bible
(“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly.
Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”). I wonder if Brother
John did not say those words with tears in His eyes over the possibility
that today could be the day Jesus comes for His own. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment” Folks
can escape this judgment by trusting Christ as Saviour.
He shows up in this town. He goes to the small motel that the
preacher is going to place him. He gets into the room.
It has a bed and a kitchen table and two chairs on linoleum floor.
The preacher comes and they pray together. As
the preacher is praying for his town, he starts weeping.
Each night Brother Malone preaches and nothing happens.
Each day they pray together and the preacher weeps over his town. One Saturday night this young man walks up to him and asked Brother
Malone to pray for his lost dad. He said that if his dad
got saved, it would most likely that many others would be saved.
Brother Malone prays for this young man’s dad. The next morning, the pastor has Brother Malone to teach Sunday school.
As he is teaching, he sees this man sit down behind of this young
man. The man pats the young man on the shoulder in affection.
At the invitation, the young man turns to the man and pleads with
him to be saved. The man shakes his head. Then the
young man weeps as he continues to plead for his dad to be saved.
The man continues to reject the pleading and tears of the young
man. The young man walks out of his pew and falls at the
feet of his dad and pleads once again for his dad to get saved.
The man picks the young man up and steps out and walks down the
aisle to be saved. Behind him came thirty-seven other men
and women getting saved. What was the difference?
A young man’s tears were the difference. Will our tears
move lost men and women for Jesus Christ? Only eternity
will tell. “But when he saw
the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because
they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” To be like Jesus is the greatest aim of any person. This includes
trying to have His compassion for folks. You cannot care
too much. The shame of the matter is that we care too little. There
are probably three basic results that show the sweetness of a
broken heart. A. Souls
are saved. I remember the day Tim was saved. It was
the brokenness of God’s people that helped lead him to Christ.
There are lots more of lost folks that need to be saved. B. Saints
are stirred to serve. Nothing stirs the heart of the saints
of God to serve Christ than seeing sinners saved. C. Saviour
is satisfied with us. In our text we saw that the Lord is
nigh of them of a broken heart. This shows His satisfaction
with our service. Sav Conclusion: I want
to have a broken heart. It is my prayer that I will stay on
fire for Christ so I can show others the way of Christ. The
field is white unto to harvest. If we don’t go, then men can
point their fingers at us and say that we did not care for their
souls. May we also be mindful of this always! In 1980, I wrote several poems in which my wife help made better.
I wrote this short poem to go along with this message. It
is my prayer that God will use it in my heart again as well as yours. Show me a soul today That wants to know your way And I must go and
tell So they won’t go to Hell. A broken heart to
me give So others may live. May I learn this
lesson So I can have your many blessings.
I. SEEING
THE SCOPE OF A BROKEN HEART
III. SAVORING
THE SWEETNESS OF A BROKEN HEART
|
The Wounded Heart Ministries, Inc., is a non-profit organization and is exempt from federal income tax under section 501 (a) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donors to the Wounded Heart Ministries, Inc., may deduct contributions and gifts, with no consideration received. All donations and gifts to the Wounded Heart Ministries, Inc., will be disbursed in accordance with the purpose statement of this ministry and all donors will receive proper credit for gifts received. All donations and gifts are greatly appreciated and may be sent to: The Wounded Heart Ministries,
Inc., |
 |
 |