Broken

If you have your Bibles with you, turn with me if you would to Psalm 51. We're going to be looking this morning at verses 16 through 19. Now with me as we go to our Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, today's message is about the value of brokenness.

You inspired David to say that a broken and contrite spirit you will not despise. That seems odd to us. We don't like broken things.

Brokenness often means pain and discomfort. We like to appear to be all together. We don't get pats on the back for being broken. In fact, we get criticized and looked down on.

That rubs our fur the wrong way. This passage tells us that you use brokenness to destroy pride, make us dependent and obedient. So this morning we're asking for insight. Help us to view brokenness as you view it.

Then help us to bow to it and grow from it. Father, I pray for Deborah Calderon today as she has been through the death of her father this week and will be experiencing the funeral this afternoon. Be with her and give her peace. Lord, I thank you for her father's salvation, but I do pray for peace and comfort for Deborah. Father, we continue to pray for Nicole Lowes as she recovers from this heart oblation.

Speed her recovery. I pray for my brother Will Ferris this morning as he is away preaching in another church. I ask Father that you help him and anoint him that he might preach your word in power as he's there. Heavenly Father, most of all, help us this morning to hear the word of God, apply it to our own hearts, and that we might grow through it. Exalt Jesus today, Lord. Keep my lips from error, for it is in the precious and the holy name of Jesus Christ that we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. Lord, what can I do to please you? That's the question on David's heart as he comes to the end of Psalm 51. David has been absolutely overwhelmed by the grace of God. He has realized that he has sinned grievously. He has committed adultery of Bathsheba. He has conspired to have her husband Uriah the Hittite murdered in order to cover over his sin. He has brought division in his nation. He has destroyed families. He has brought reproach on the name of God. And David, for the last several months, has been living through a literal hell on earth. His guilt is so heavy on his heart that he can't even look in the mirror. And that beautiful, sweet presence of the Holy Spirit on his life has not been there.

And it's been about to drive him crazy. Besides that, he knows that just about everybody in Israel is talking about him, and it's all negative. But then God sent a man to confront David. The man's name was Nathan. He was a great prophet. He came into David's palace. He stood before David in all of his court, and he pointed at his sins specifically and very powerfully.

And David broke. He fell on his face, and he was broken, and he felt great heartache, and there was deep and genuine repentance. And God did a work in David's heart. God cleansed him from his sin. He removed the guilt. God renewed a right spirit within him and restored to him the joy of his salvation.

And David was so filled with appreciation and gratitude for what God had done that all he wanted to do was to please God. He said, Lord, how can I put a smile on your lips? Lord, how can I bring delight into your heart? Lord, how can I bring you pleasure? Brothers and sisters, that's not a bad thing.

That's a good thing. And every morning when we get up, one of the first questions we ought to ask is this. Lord, what can I do to please you today? What can I do to bring delight into your heart?

You go to a church that stands very strong on the doctrine of inerrancy and infallibility. The last four weeks we have been studying this great passage of Scripture in Psalm 51. God inspired David to write it, and we need to realize that it has been used for 3,000 years now to help people come into a right relationship with God and to learn how to truly and genuinely repent.

But what about this question? Was this all David prayed? Do we have everything that he prayed as we look at this particular psalm? And I would ask you, is this his whole prayer, or is this just an outline that David gave us to follow?

I believe that what we have here is an outline. I believe that when David actually prayed this prayer, I believe he was much more detailed and much more specific. In this psalm, David prayed that he confessed his transgressions.

But I think when he was actually on his knees before God, he was specifically detailing what his transgressions were. Let me ask you this. Have you ever prayed this way? Lord, forgive me for my many sins.

You know what that is? That's a cop-out. That's a cop-out because you can say that, and you don't even have to think about what you've done to offend God.

It's just kind of brushing things away. Folks, true confession is detailed, and it's very specific. Lord, I said something snide to my neighbor because I really don't care much for him, and I kind of wanted to hurt his feelings. Lord, I lusted. When I knew I should have turned my eyes the other way, I didn't want to because I knew it would bring pleasure to my heart. Lord, I didn't have my devotional time this morning because I wanted to sleep in.

I just got lazy. Now that's specific, and that's what David is doing, praying a prayer here that is very specific and very detailed. With that said, I've got three points this morning that I want to share with you as we look at these verses.

Number one, the wrong motive. Look at verse 16. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. And what do you do when you want to please someone? You think, well, I'll give them a gift. I'll sacrifice something for them.

Now that's the natural mind that thinks that way. All right, you that are husbands, ever gotten a doghouse with your wife? Ever do something you know that just kind of offended them? Well, once you've done that, then what do you do? You might want to send them flowers. You might send them or give them a box of candy. You want to give them a gift or something, and you do that to let them know, I care about you. I'm sorry that I've offended you. I want you to know that I love you.

And here, take my gift so that you'll know that I really care about you. Well, here in verse 16, David is telling us that that kind of thinking and that kind of manipulation does not work with God. So David cries out to the God who knows his heart inside and out, and what does he say? He says, Lord, you don't delight in sacrifice else I would give it. And Lord, you aren't pleased with a burnt offering. Now, how did David know all this?

How did he know it? Who was David's predecessor? David's predecessor was King Saul. And you might remember when David was a young teenage boy, he was out keeping, watching over his dad's sheep out in his dad's pasture. And Samuel, the prophet, was called by God to go to the home of Jesse, and there God would choose one of Jesse's sons to be the new king of Israel. So Samuel went, and he stood before Jesse, and he said, bring your sons here. And the first son came, his name was Eliab.

He was tall, he was strong, he was tough, he was this big guy, he looked like he had it all together. And Samuel thought, surely this is the one. This has got to be the next king of Israel. And God said, no, Samuel.

Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. And so the next brother came, his name was Abinadab. And God said to Samuel, no, this is not the one. And so five more brothers came, seven in all, and they came before Samuel, and God said no, and God rejected them all. Samuel said to Jesse, are there any more?

He said, well, yeah, there's the baby, but he's out there keeping the sheep. Samuel said, go get him. They sent a servant out, and the servant came back with David. David stood before Jesse, and God said to Samuel, Samuel, this is the one, this is the man, this will be the next king of Israel.

Samuel took a flask of oil and he poured it over his head to anoint him to be the new king. Now we're not told all the details here, but surely David said to Samuel, how can I be the next king of Israel when Saul is still on the throne? Samuel probably said something like this, you leave that to God. You leave that to the sovereignty of our great God. You will take the throne in God's timing, not before and not later.

And I imagine the conversation probably went something like this. Samuel said, David, listen, God has rejected Saul, and he has chosen you, a man after God's own heart, to be the next king of Israel. And I think David probably said, why, Samuel, did God reject Saul?

Samuel sits down with him and begins to explain the story. He said, David, God had commanded Saul to destroy the Amalekite nation. The Amalekite nations was a nation that was filled with ruthless, immoral, rebellious, godless people. And they had a desire in their heart to destroy Israel to wipe them off the face of the earth. It started way back in the time of Moses, and they would ambush the people of God. They would ambush the people of Israel, and they would kill the elderly people, and they would kill the children, and they would ravage the women, and they would spread disease. And this was a continual battle that had gone on for 300 years.

So finally God said, this is what needs to be done, Saul. You go out and you destroy the people of the Amalekites. Destroy them all. Men, women, boys, girls, all of them destroyed. You destroy all the livestock, the cows, the sheep, all of that.

And you destroy all their belongings so there won't be left any vestige of things that would remind us of the Amalekites. God said, I don't want anybody to be infected by their sin, by their filth, or by their disease. Folks, this is called a jihad, a holy war. This was not a battle to gain land.

It was not a battle to show military superiority. This was a spiritual war to wipe out a people who had a desire in their heart to destroy Israel, the people of God. Why would Satan do that? Because Satan understood the promise that God had given to Abraham. And that promise was this, that through Abraham's seed the entire world would be blessed. That God was going to raise up the Messiah, the Savior, from one of Abraham's descendants. And this Savior would come, he would die on the cross, and he would pay the sin debt for the people.

And that's what was going to happen. Satan had always tried to use the Amalekites to try to destroy Israel. If Satan could destroy the Jewish race, then he could have kept Jesus from being born, and the entire world would have died in their sins. I'm sure Samuel explained that to young David, and then said, God did not offer Saul an option here. God did not tell him to handle it as he saw fit. God said, Saul, destroy the entire nation. This is what you were to do. That was God's command.

And we look at that, and that sounds kind of harsh to us, doesn't it? Listen, God is sovereign, and God is omniscient, and God is perfectly holy. God is perfectly love. God is perfectly wise.

He never has to guess, and he never has to speculate. God knows the future. And from the artwork that has been collected from the archives of the Amalekite people, we have found out that they were a very perverted, morally decadent people.

And they were a people that very well may have been people that would have transmitted, sexually transmitted diseases, maybe something like AIDS, that could have absolutely wiped out a nation if they had wiped out Israel, and they could have kept the Savior from being born. So what appears to us a very harsh command from God is not a harsh command at all, but it's an action of love to protect the world, to be assured that the Jewish race would not be extinguished, and to be sure that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, would be born. Folks, we don't know all of God's reasoning, and guess what? We don't have to know all of God's reasoning. God is God. We can trust him.

He always does everything right. Samuel said Saul deliberately disobeyed the command of God. He allowed King Agag to live. He allowed many of the soldiers to live.

He allowed most of the people to still live, and he did not destroy almost any of the livestock. Then Samuel told David that he went to Saul. He said, Saul, have you kept my commandments? And Saul said, oh yeah, I've kept the commandments. We went out. We've defeated the Amalekites.

That's over and done with. And then Samuel said, wait a minute, what's that I hear? Do I hear the bleeding of sheep? Do I hear the lowing of cattle? Saul, have you not obeyed the commands of the Lord and destroyed the livestock as God commanded you to do? And Saul said, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. I know what I'm doing.

I know exactly what I'm doing. I kept these livestock alive in order that I might use them to sacrifice unto the Lord. Listen to what Samuel's response was to him. 1 Samuel 15, 22 through 23. Has the Lord his great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as a sin of divination or witchcraft, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry, because you have rejected the word of the Lord. He has also rejected you from becoming king. In Proverbs chapter 15 verse 8, Solomon, who was David's son, said this, the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination before the Lord.

What does that mean? It means that God knows the motives of unbelievers who make a sacrifice to the Lord. Their motive is wrong. They are trying to buy off God. They say in their heart, Lord, I won't totally obey you, but I'll give you a little something to appease you and get you off my back.

That's the way they think. In other words, Lord, I'll give you some stuff, but I'm not giving you my heart. That's exactly what King Saul is doing. He has deliberately disobeyed God and then said, hey, it's no big deal. I'm giving you something here.

I'm buying you off. So just let it go and everything will be fine. What's Samuel say to Saul? He said Saul rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. What does witchcraft do? It blinds people spiritually. It is a substitute for true faith. It is trusting demons rather than trusting God. The English definition that is used for the Hebrew word for witchcraft is divination. So what does that mean is the prediction of the future by using demonic activity. And Samuel told Saul this truth, rebellion, your rebellion is just like witchcraft.

How bad is it? In other words, he said your refusal to be obedient to God is deceitful. It is wicked and it is like Satan. David is not like Saul. David is regenerate. He is a saved man. He knows the Lord. Is he perfect?

Absolutely not. Has he committed sin? Absolutely has.

Just like we all have. But he loves the Lord and he has a desire to please God. David has learned this truth. God will not be manipulated.

God will not be bought off with a sacrifice. God wants more than David's stuff. God wants David's heart.

That takes us to point two and that is the right motive. Look at verse 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God you will not despise. What does God want from his children? He wants a broken spirit. He wants a broken and contrite heart. It was A.W. Tozer who used to say that we human beings throw broken things away.

But God doesn't use anything until it is broken. In my former church, my associate pastor Larry Bradley wanted to introduce me to one of his friends from seminary. He was a pastor and so we got together and the guy came over to me and shook my hand and said, Hey Doug, he said my name is Broken Oliver. And I looked at him like really?

Broken Oliver? And I asked him about it and he said yes. He said I changed my name. He said my name used to be Brian but when I came to know Christ as my Lord and Savior, I changed my name and legally did it and now my name is Broken Oliver.

I looked at him like he was crazy. And I said why did you do that? He said because every time I introduce myself to somebody, they ask me about it. And that gives me the opportunity to tell them that before I came to know Christ, I was arrogant, I was proud, I was haughty and my life was falling apart and I was headed for an eternal hell. But then God broke me and when God broke me, he drew me to himself. And when he drew me to himself, I came to know him and now I'm going to heaven when I die and I've got joy every single day. My delight is in God. He said I changed my name to Broken because I wanted to use my new name as a tool to reach people for Jesus.

I like that. What happens when a child of God is broken? His pride is crushed. His dependence on self is just blown to pieces. He is contrite.

What does that mean? It means that he is sad and he is sorrowful and repentant over sin or over failure in his life. The sorrow drives him to God. What's the word meek mean?

I used to have trouble with that word. Every time I hear the word meek, I think weak. When I heard the word meek, I think of a mousy little guy who had just kind of always introverted, didn't want you looking at him, wouldn't look you in the face, that kind of guy. That's what I used to think until I read Numbers chapter 12 verse 3 that says Moses was the meekest man in all the earth. I thought, wow, was Moses weak?

Not hardly. Moses is the man who stood before the Pharaoh of Egypt, the most politically powerful man on the face of the earth. And he stood before him and said, Thus saith the Lord God.

And he said it over and over again and he would not back off. This is Moses as the same guy who was at the Red Sea, the army of Egypt coming after him. And he stood before the Red Sea and he held out the rod of God over the Red Sea and he held it out. And he said, Behold the hand of God. And the Red Sea opened up and formed two huge walls of water the children of Israel went through on dry land. Moses is the man who stood before the wicked Korah and Dathan as they were trying to take the priesthood upon themselves. And God opened up the earth underneath their feet.

They went alive into hell. Was Moses weak? Absolutely not. Was he meek?

Absolutely he was. What does meek mean? It means this. It means broken as in the breaking of a wild stallion. You ever think of a wild stallion that is now rideable that somebody can get on and ride? You think that wild stallion is weak?

Oh no, he's not weak. That is power under control. Folks, what does God desire for us? He doesn't desire for our spirit to be crushed and destroyed. He desires that we might have a spirit that is disciplined and obedient. So difference in a proud Simon Peter who said to Jesus, Jesus, I would never deny you. I don't know about these other guys, Lord, but I'd go to prison for you.

I would die for you, but I would never deny you. That was an unbroken Peter. That was an unbroken disciple. That's who he was at that point in time. But then he did deny Jesus. He was broken, broken in pieces. And Jesus forgave him. After that, he was a broken man.

And boy, what a change. As a broken man, he wrote these words in 1 Peter 4 when he said this. Beloved, think it not strange when these fiery trials come upon you as if some strange thing has happened to you. But rejoice that you are counted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake.

Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. Several weeks after he wrote those great words, Roman soldiers came. They dragged him out of his prison cell.

They took him to a hill on the outside of Rome. And they said to Peter, we're getting ready to crucify you. You have any words you'd like to say?

Anything you'd like to say before your death? And Peter says, yes, when you crucify me, crucify me upside down because I'm not worthy to be crucified like Jesus. Brothers and sisters, that is godly brokenness. And that's what God wants out of his children. And that's what David has come to realize. God doesn't want David's stuff.

God wants David's heart. I want to share an illustration with you. I've shared this with you before, years ago.

But it really hits at home at what I want to get across here. There was a little eight-year-old boy who had a mom and dad who were alcoholics. They lived in Chicago. One night they got in the car to go to the grocery store. Mom and dad were in the front seat, little boy in the back seat. And the father had been heavily drinking. They were on a country road and the father's car swerved off the road and hit a telephone pole. The telephone pole was knocked down on the car. And it hit the front of the car and immediately killed his mama and his dad.

Little boy wasn't even scratched. And the little boy saw that his mom and dad were dead. And he said to himself, I don't want to spend the rest of my childhood in an orphanage. So he climbed out the window and he ran away.

He went for the next several months. He lived under a bridge just to keep the rain off his head. He'd go to a restaurant to garbage cans and get the food out of the garbage cans. He wanted to find work as an eight-year-old, but it's kind of hard to find work as an eight-year-old. Finally he saw a newspaper man that was very desperate. And the newspaper man gave him a paper route so he could deliver papers to make a little money.

He was delivering papers in a very prestigious neighborhood. And one day he looked up at this particular front yard and there were all these boys his age playing ball. He looked over at the house, the mansion right next door.

He said, I wonder what it would be like to live in a place like that. And he said to himself, hey, what have I got to lose? And he went to the house.

He knocked on the door. This beautiful young lady comes to the door and she said, son, what can I do for you? And he said, ma'am, I just want to know, would you like a little boy? And she said, well, do you have one in mind? And he said, yes, ma'am, me. And she said, well, son, I don't know about that.

I'm not sure that your parents would like that. And then he began to explain that his parents had both been killed in this wreck, that he had been living under a bridge, he'd been eating out of garbage cans. The lady began to cry. She said, wait just a minute. She went back in another room and she brought back her husband, a very wealthy business executive. And she said to her husband, would you like to have a son? And she said, what? And she said, would you like to have a son? And then they told him the story.

It just so happened that they had been trying to adopt children for a year and they had had no success at all. The man took the little boy, put him up on his lap, and he said, son, are you telling me the truth? Is this absolutely the truth? And the boy said, yes, sir, everything I've told you is the truth. He said, I'll tell you what we're going to do. He said, we're going to adopt you into our family. You are going to be our son. We're going to give you our name. He said, you're going to sleep in your bedroom in our house. You're going to eat our food. We're going to put you through school. You're going to go to church with us. You are going to be our son. The little boy was so excited, he could hardly stand it. He said, now here, here's a towel and soap.

Go up and clean yourself up, take a bath, and then come on back down. He came back down. They took him off to a restaurant and they had a great meal. They came to get some clothes.

They went from one store to the next. They bought him play clothes. They bought him school clothes. They bought him church clothes. And they went to a sporting goods store.

And they bought him a baseball glove and a baseball. And they came back, and the man and his son threw the baseball back and forth and back and forth until it was dark. Finally, it got time for bed, and they showed him his new bedroom.

They said, this is where you sleep. The little boy went to sleep, and later husband and wife went to sleep in their bedroom. About 12 o'clock at midnight, the husband heard some footsteps in their bedroom and very quickly reached over and he turned the light on. And when he turned the light on, he saw the little boy over by the bureau. And the little boy had his hand up where the man kept his billfold. And the man looked at him and said, son, what are you doing?

Are you trying to take money out of my billfold? And the little boy started crying. He said, oh, no, I would never do that.

He said, nobody has ever loved me like this. He said, I just brought all the money that I have, and I put it up there because I just want to pay you back. And the man walked over there in 38 pennies that were right beside his billfold.

And the man took those 38 pennies, he handed them back to the little boy, and he said, son, he said, please always remember this, I don't want what you have, I just want you. That little boy, a couple of months later, came to know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. He grew up, he went on to college, and while he was in college, God called him to preach. And he became a pastor, a very successful pastor, but one that would preach the gospel with no hesitation in Chicago. When he would get into his pulpit, he would tell people about his relationship with God, and he'd say, this is what my adopted father taught me. He said, my adopted father taught me that God doesn't just want what I have, God wants me.

God wants me. That's what David is saying right here, folks. That's what David is saying is the right motive for us. The sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite spirit. Alright, point three is the glorious result, look at verse 18 through 19.

Do good to Zion in your good pleasure, build up the walls of Jerusalem, then will you delight in right sacrifices and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings, then bulls will be offered on your altar. Alright, David is coming to the end of his prayer of repentance. The first 17 verses he's been talking about his sin, his relationship with God, his fellowship with God. Then he talks about his confession of his sin, his repentance, the renewal, and then the restoration.

Then what does he immediately do? He moves from praying about him and himself to praying about others. He prays for Zion, that is Israel. He prays for their growth and their prosperity. He prays that they will come to know the Lord better. He quits praying for himself, he starts praying for others. And I think he probably prayed this way, he said, Lord, please let these people know that I am nothing but a sinner saved by grace.

Let them know that although I am the king of Israel, that I am nothing without you. Folks, the call on us is the same. As we confess and repent, as we surrender more deeply to Jesus, we need to not only love Jesus, we need to love the bride of Christ. You say, Doug, who is the bride of Christ?

Right here, that's the bride of Christ. And brothers and sisters, we need not only to love each other better, we need to pray for each other better. Let me quote James Montgomery Boyce and I'll close with this. He said, let us remember that everything we do affects other people. Whether for good or evil, it is not true that we can sin as long as it does not hurt anyone because sin always hurts someone. But it is also true that those who confess their sin find forgiveness and renewal, teach others the ways of God and become a blessing. As we prepare for the Lord's Supper, I want you to remember the confession of David as David said this, O Lord, a broken and contrite heart you will not despise. Amen?

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, David started Psalm 51 this way. This prayer of repentance with the confession of breaking the greatest commandment. Why did he commit adultery? Why did he murder to cover his sin? He did it because he was not loving the Lord with all of his heart, mind, soul and strength. And he prays this great prayer.

We see him moving toward this goal. The deeper his love is for God, the better he does at fighting sin. By the time he comes to the end of his prayer, he's brought face to face with the second greatest commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. He realizes that God has a calling on his life to minister to and bless God's people.

He is learning to put his own wants and desires to the side and put others before himself. Lord Jesus, you love the church so much you died for her. May we develop that same kind of love for your bride as we get ready to celebrate the Lord's Supper. May these principles drive us to a deeper and sweeter walk with you. May we remember your call on our lives. If any man be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. For it's in Jesus' holy and precious name that we pray. Amen.