Brokenness

Well, I've got an important message for us tonight, friends, so come up a little closer so you'll be sure to hear me. In the book of Hosea, we see that God had a controversy with Israel, for we read in chapter 10, in verses 1 through 3, Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself, according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars, according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images, their heart is divided, now they should be found faulty, he should break down their altars, he shall spoil their images, for now they shall say, we have no king, because we feared not the Lord, what then should a king do to us? I will stop their friends. The Jews in the days of Hosea were living double lives, with their lips they served God, but with their lives they served their sins, they partly served God, and partly served their idols, and this gave them a divided heart, they were hardened in their idolatry, hardened in their sins, and God had a controversy with them.

We are very much in the same shape today, friends, I'm afraid to say, we must ask ourselves a question, why, why in the world are we broken over the sins of the land, why isn't the carpet in our sanctuary wet with the tears of broken hearted saints, crying out to God for the sins of the land, and asking God to send us revival? I've been alive a long time, and I've never seen things so bad as they are today, in both society and in the church, we've lost our young people today to the devil, we made the mistake in our churches by giving them pizza night and movie night, instead of having prayer nights with them and teaching them how to pray, we gave them what they wanted instead of giving them what they needed, consequently our young people today are going to hell and droves, many of them grew up in church, but now they are godless, they saw nothing but hypocrisy in the church, and even their parents acted one way at church and another way in the home, and the teenagers saw right through it, it was a do as I say philosophy instead of a do as I do through spiritual leadership and example, the teenagers saw no reality of God in the lives of their parents, and as soon as they became adults they left the church, why aren't we broken over them, why aren't we crying out to God over our young people today who are going to hell, why aren't we broken over the moral laxity of our nation where women can walk around naked in public, where profanity is common in public conversation and prominent in our news, where the F word has become part of normal daily language, where streets are red with the blood of violent crimes and perversion is promoted by our government and applauded in our entertainment, tonight the massage parlors in the city are full, the bars and nightclubs are jam packed, they are not hurting for a crowd like we are, there will be enough booze drunk in this town tonight to drown the entire nation, things were bad in England back in the days of Wesleyan Whitfield, in the days of Wesleyan Whitfield things were so bad in society that drunkenness was a plague on the nation, in London every fifth house was a gin house, members of parliament showed up for work dead drunk, prostitution was rampant in London, things are much worse today than they were back then, we've got a moral downgrade in society that's been out of control and we live in a sex craze society where we're exposed to nudity and sex just reading the news, TV has become X rated and we're desensitized to sin even in the church as we tolerate sin in our lives, the doctrine of holiness is taboo in our pulpits, we live divided lives and serve God partly like the Jews in Hosea's day, we lack brokenness in the church today, we lack brokenness in our personal lives, the title of my message this evening friends is brokenness, when I was writing my new biography on Sam Jones, the famous evangelist of the 19th century, I came across the following story, let me share it with you, I know you'll enjoy it, Sam was at his home in Cordersville Georgia when he received a telegram from Texas inviting him to go to Southwest Texas to preach the cowboys, after praying about it he boarded a train and traveled to Texas, for two weeks he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to the cowboys in Texas, when the meetings ended the cowboys wanted to give Sam Jones a love offering, they felt the laborer was worthy of his hire and they'd been wonderfully blessed by Sam's time among them, but there was a problem, they had no money, not a single dollar in any of their pockets, they didn't know what to do, Sam Jones returned to Cordersville with no love offering or compensation of any kind, a couple of weeks passed when suddenly one day Sam received a telegram, it was from the cowboys in Texas and it read like this, we are sending you a love offering and we are shipping you a car load of broncos, Sam Jones scratched his head as he looked in amazement at that telegram, what am I going to do he said, with a car load of wild horses here in the small town of Cordersville, his friend standing beside him said, why it's very easy, hold an auction sale, sell the horses and you'll get your money, you can get your love offering then and put it in your pocket, well Sam Jones thought it was a good suggestion so when the horses arrived he held a horse auction, he sold the broncos all except one, he kept the finest looking bronco for his son, but the son had never in his life been on the back of an unbroken bronco and Sam Jones wondered what he could do, he called the cowboy who had brought the car load of broncos to Cordersville and said, will you take this bronco and break him so that my son can ride him, yes sir said the cowboy, I'd be glad to, how much will you charge, fifteen dollars said the cowboy, all right said Sam, take him away, the cowboy disappeared with the bronco, two weeks later he came back, is he broken asked Sam, yes sir he's broken, can my son ride him in perfect safety, yes sir your son can ride him in perfect safety, the father thought that before allowing his son to ride the bronco he'd better mount himself and make sure the cowboy had broken it, as he started toward the horse the cowboy came running and waving his hands in alarm, what's the matter asked Sam, what's gone wrong, oh said the cowboy, he's only broken on one side and you're mounting from the wrong side, well that will never do, my son might make a mistake and he might mount from the wrong side, how much will you charge to break him on the other side, fifteen dollars replied the cowboy, another two weeks passed and again the cowboy came back leading the bronco, is he broken asked Sam, yes sir he's broken, both sides, yes sir both sides, your son can ride him in perfect safety from either side, well that's the end of the story friends and I like that story because it's so true, the average Christian is like that bronco, he's only broken on one side, oh he'll do this but he won't do that, he'll go here but he won't go there, God cannot depend upon him, he has no consistency in his life, he's like the Jews in Hosea's day, partly serving God and partly serving their idols, we have no brokenness in our lives because we have divided hearts toward God, where once we were in a red hot love relationship with Jesus but now we're stone cold or even worse, lukewarm, what thing or area in our life has moved us away from the heart of God, it doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing friends, what's gotten in the way of our walk with the Lord, what is the cause of our divided heart, Leonard Ravenhill used to tell a story about a friend of his who was always on fire for God and every time Ravenhill got around this man he was more thirsty for Christ than things of eternal worth, do you know people like that, people that make you thirsty for God, well this man was like that, every time he got around him he just wanted to talk about Jesus and winning souls, then one day this man began collecting stamps and as his collection grew so did his enthusiasm for stamp collecting, Leonard Ravenhill said this man called me up one day and said come on over and I will show you my new stamp collection of British Colonials that cost me $50,000, can you imagine that friends, $50,000 for some stamps, well Ravenhill said that pretty soon this man no longer wanted to talk about Jesus and the things of God, he just wanted to talk about stamps, a harmless little thing like a stamp drew that man away from God, what is it with you friend, is there something or someone in your life who's gotten between you and God to where you have a divided heart, you can't walk with God with one foot with him and one foot playing footsie with the world, you're either all out for him or you're not, if it's Baal then serve him, if it's God then serve him, you can't have it both ways friend, you can't have partial obedience and expect God to use you, we must be broken over the things that break the heart of God, why is our personal evangelism so non-existent, why don't we share our faith every day, why are we knocking on doors and ringing doorbells, handing out tracts and telling people about Jesus, folks that are just going to a hellbound, in a hellbound world, we want revival but we don't want the cost of revival in our personal lives, what cost counts and what counts costs, I remember years ago getting a phone call when my first book on revival was published, Stephen Offord wrote the foreword and it was entitled Realities of Revival and a local pastor had read that book and he telephoned me to invite me to lunch and talk about revival, well I can't turn down a free lunch so I met this man at a local Chinese restaurant, he was an elderly pastor who told me he'd been a pastor for over 40 years and now he wanted to see revival come to his church, he asked me if I'd be willing to help him get his church ready for revival, I looked him in the eye and said if you're serious and if you really want revival to come to your church then you need to repent of your sins for revival begins with you, well he didn't seem to like that answer and abruptly ended lunch calling for the check, I thought that's the last I'll hear from him but a week later he called again asking if he could buy my lunch and meet with him and two of his pastor buddies, they wanted to talk about revival, well I couldn't turn down a free lunch so I went to the Chinese restaurant to meet with these men, they asked me if I'd be willing to meet in regular prayer with them on a weekly basis to pray for revival, of course I would, we picked a place and a time and began to meet and soon there were about 10 other pastors there gathering for prayer on a weekly basis for revival and I'll never forget it friends, after a couple of months of doing this, this elderly pastor, the one who initially had bought my lunch, it was his turn to pray, we sat on folding chairs in a circle and went around the room praying, each man taking his turn and this elderly pastor when it was his turn, he bolted straight up from his chair like a lightning rod and he stood there stiff as a board, then with a groan he crumpled to the floor and lay there motionless, I thought he was dead but he got up on all fours, raised his head and cried out with a loud voice, great God forgive me for my dirty rotten sins, I want to see revival at my church, let it start with me Lord, let it start with me and this man was sobbing like his heart was breaking because his heart was broken because he had gotten to the place of brokenness and that man was getting serious with God, well what did God tell the wayward Jews in Hosea's day, look at his word in Hosea 10 and verse 12, sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and reign righteousness upon you, let it start yes and friends, we must break up the fallow ground of our hearts, fallow ground is unbroken ground that is hard, our hearts are hardened in sin, our lives are found faulty before God, personal revival is a prelude to church revival, God gets serious with those who get serious with him, God says return to me and I will return to you, that's a promise friend, let me ask you friend, let me ask you brother pastor, are you ready to get serious with God, are you ready to stop all this nonsense in your church with all your gizmos trying to work up some enthusiasm, are you ready to rely on prayer and the power of God to his Holy Spirit, it all starts with brokenness, take this time now to examine your heart, it's time friends to seek the Lord, like the husband man seeks, like he prays, like he waits for rain, when he has tilled the ground and sowed his seed, to water it and make it fruitful, that he may have a good reaping time, a plentiful harvest time, let us be fruitful for the Lord, and this starts with our brokenness before him, don't let time slip away from you friend, our young people today need Jesus, our society needs Jesus, this nation needs to turn back to the God of the Bible, but it's got to start with us, take time now friend to get right with God, let us pray.