Brokenness

For DG this week, we watched a sermon by Voddie Baucham that was preached at the True Church Conference 2009 in Muscle Shoals, AL.

Brokenness is never associated with something good. Broken lives, broken marriages, broken homes, etc. However, for Christians, brokenness might reveal something worth more than a painful lesson.

"God doesn't break us down to leave us there, but he breaks us down to remain in us."

Psalm 51
For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.

4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.

5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts ;
you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.

10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.

14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God,
the God who saves me,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.

16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.

18 In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
build up the walls of Jerusalem.

19 Then there will be righteous sacrifices,
whole burnt offerings to delight you;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Brokenness is an appropriate response to sin, because it scars us and leaves us with memories. Only when we remember our sins, can we testify the goodness of God. Only when we remember our sins, are we warned not to transgress again.

We must remember, the God we serve is a righteous God.

Revelations 9:11
11I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. 12His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter."[a] He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:
KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

The righteous God does not tolerate sin. The righteous wrath of God is only appeased through brokenness ,the means to repentance, and from the crushing of the weight of our sins.

As much as we desire to be forgiven, even the simple act of repentance is only possible through God. We need God to wash us, to cleanse us, to create a pure heart in us, to renew in us a steadfast spirit, to restore the joy of salvation in us.

" 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise. "