The Healer of Broken Hearts

[0:00] Luke 4 verse 16 And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up.

[0:17] ! And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah.

[0:30] And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

[0:41] He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

[0:55] And he closed the book and he gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

[1:12] And all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? Heal the brokenhearted.

[1:26] Heal the brokenhearted. This was our Lord's very first recorded sermon. His local synagogue there. Amongst other things, our Lord tells us that his mission is to heal the brokenhearted.

[1:38] We want to look today at the Lord's work, and especially as the healer of the brokenhearted. To heal it means to become healthy again, to get well, to recover from illness or injury.

[1:49] And broken means broken down, collapsed, crushed, fragmented. And the word broken heart, the phrase broken heart occurs often in the Bible, in the Word of God.

[2:00] It's where a burden seems to have come on the heart and burdened it and loaded it down and crushed it, whether by sin or sorrow. And the word translated brokenhearted, according to Strong's Concordance, it means to be crushed completely.

[2:16] Crushed, pulverized, shattered. The brokenhearted person is a person who has been completely crushed or shattered. Maybe that's how you're feeling today or have done in times past.

[2:31] The brokenhearted. Jesus heals the brokenhearted. He wants to come to you. Barnes, a commentator, said, It's the consciousness of deep sin, of the heaviest kind of affliction and trouble.

[2:46] Christ's mission was to come and to mend those broken pieces of the brokenhearted. Those pieces like broken pieces of earthenware. Christ wants to put you back together again to make you whole.

[2:59] Let's look at a few of these aspects together. Firstly, let's look at our hearts. Our hearts. Hearts across our world are throbbing with pain. We only need to look around, as I know, folk that have worked in the health industry and the community sector, and just our day by day, rubbing shoulders with people in our streets and neighbourhoods.

[3:20] There's wounded people in Elizabeth. There's hurting people in Smithfield, in Salisbury, in our neighbourhood, in our surrounds. Crushed people in Salisbury, people with hearts that are hurting.

[3:31] Hearts that can be broken for natural reasons. For example, hearts can be broken for broken relationships. We know that's only too common in our world today.

[3:43] Broken homes, fragmented relationships and lives. Heartbreak. Heartbreak. It's human experience, isn't it? The cruelty of divorce, of separation.

[3:57] And the collateral damage to family and children, friends. The unkindness, the abuse of broken relationships. Hearts that are broken. There's the brokenness of bereavement.

[4:10] Of the loss of loved ones. Of maybe laying a beloved parent or child to rest. Are standing at the graveside of the tears of the flowers. The loss of our loved one.

[4:21] People are overwhelmed with grief in our world. This is a world where people are wracked with grief, with pain, with suffering, with sadness. Yet the mourner need not despair. There is one to turn to.

[4:33] There is one to cry out to. The God of heaven. Someone said, knows your sorrows. He knows your sorrows. Cast your burden on Him. He will bear it. Open your heart before Him.

[4:45] He will heal it. Maybe those broken things, those broken times are the hard times of life. Maybe things haven't been always so comfortable.

[4:56] I know in the bus we were talking how as you look back on life, it's had its hard times. It's had its hard roads. It's hard experiences. We may suffer.

[5:06] Maybe it could be from lack of money, of employment. There is one who careth for you. It says, He careth for you. He careth for you.

[5:16] It says of Him, of this one who loves you so intensely, so absolutely, He feeds the sparrows. And there's not one that falls to the ground without Him knowing. He knows the hairs of your head.

[5:28] He will give you what you need, what you have truly a need for. His all-powerful hand can reach to the very oppressed, to the very uttermost to help you.

[5:38] Perhaps those times of brokenness, those experiences of being broken, have been disappointments you've suffered. Disappointments with people who've let you down.

[5:49] Disappointments with circumstances that have defeated you and laid you low and exposed you, make you feel vulnerable and hurting. Those torn emotions of trials.

[6:00] Yet God shows mercy to us in these times. His hand is still extended. He's still reaching out with His hand. That hand which bindeth up the broken in heart and healeth all their wounds.

[6:13] The Lord will treat your every wound. Spurgeon put it like this, an old-time preacher long ago. He said, We need not ask, is there no balm in Gilead?

[6:24] The balm is the healing ointment. Is there no physician here? There is a balm. There is that healing anointment that He can give, this balm.

[6:34] There is a physician who can heal all these natural wounds, who can give joy to the troubled counsellors. Take the furrow from the brow. Wipe the tear from the eye.

[6:45] Remove the agitation from the bosom. And calm the heart. Now swelling with grief. For He, quoting scripture here, Healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds.

[7:00] Perhaps that brokenness has come from times of hurts, of criticism. Maybe unjustified. Of great pain, distress, emotional pain. There's battered and bruised people all around you.

[7:12] And friends, it's not just about you. The people sitting next to you too. The people all around you. Maybe putting on a happy face. Maybe putting on that look of everything's fine.

[7:26] But really deep down, there's people hurting sitting next to you right now. There's stress. There's mental and emotional wholeness that God wants to give to you. Perhaps that brokenness has been times of being a victim.

[7:40] You know, we've had some things damaged. You know, this building that's being built next door. We've had a window stolen. We've had another window damaged yesterday. People just victims of crime.

[7:54] Maybe you've been a victim of crime. Whether through burglary or an offence. Abuse or neglect. 99% of us can expect to be victimised at least once in our lifetime.

[8:07] The Lord wants to lift the downtrodden. Maybe troubles have come your way too. We know people can be worried. Burdened, weighed down, concerned and troubled.

[8:19] The world is full of troubles. I know, how does it say? Man is born to trouble. As the sparks fly upward. Many suffer with a wounded spirit with heartache. Friends, if you're feeling low, that you're in the right place today.

[8:32] Because the balm of Gilead. Because the healer of the broken hearted just wants to reach you today. And touch you. And bless your life. Broken hearted. It means the heart is broken in pieces.

[8:43] It means a fragmented life. Hearts are bruised, battered. Wounded and hurting. Maybe it goes beyond the physical scars. If you've been, I know some have experienced domestic violence.

[8:54] And I can't think. I can't even begin to imagine what that would be like. I've seen the faces of battered women. I've seen. And much deeper would be that deep hurt within.

[9:07] I'm sure. Lives can be damaged by those things. By the heartaches. And the heartbreak. Friends, hearts are broken for spiritual reasons too. We talked about these things.

[9:19] The natural reasons. Hearts can be broken for all manner of natural reasons. As we've talked about. As the troubles of life. The bereavement. Relationships.

[9:29] Troubles. Hard times. Disappointments. But what about spiritual things? Your heart can be broken for spiritual reasons. For sin. The heart broken.

[9:40] Not by distress or disappointment. But on account of sin. Is the heart which God peculiarly delights to heal. If the heart be broken by the Holy Spirit for sin. Salvation will be its ultimate issue.

[9:52] And the heaven its result. You know. Someone was talking to me recently. How they're deeply troubled. They're deeply troubled. They're bothered by their sin. It's hanging on to them.

[10:05] They can't shake it. It's something that grips them. That captures them. The temptation. That draws them. That binds them. That oppresses them.

[10:16] That takes them from the Saviour. To feel that. To feel that.

[10:27] It's a good thing to feel that you're not right with God if you're not, rather than you think that you are and you're not. That would be the worst thing for you to think, I'm alright Jack, and you're on the road to hell.

[10:39] Wouldn't that be the worst thing? It better be troubled and broken by your sin, realise your great inadequacy, your great need, your great lack, and cry out while you can. And the sinner is in very deep and bitter sorrow because of their sin.

[10:56] That's a good place to be. It's a good place to be to realise, to expose yourself to God and realise how that deep void, that vacuum needs to be filled by only Him.

[11:09] To be disturbed in your mind over your guilt, over the shame, to be vexed in your spirit, to realise your great need to be weeping over sin and abandon your self-righteousness.

[11:21] That's the great danger for any of us, that self-righteousness becomes the veneer, the cloak that hides our true state. And friends, that conviction of sin is a wonderful thing.

[11:34] It's a godly thing. The Holy Spirit is convicting men and women of sin. That is what His work is. He will convict the world. He will judge the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgement.

[11:47] He will bring that to your attention. That conviction of sin, of hell, of judgement to come. A preacher said, When a man has a broken heart, he not only feels sorrow for sin, but he feels himself utterly unable to get rid of it.

[12:03] We must be humbled in the dust and made to look for all in Christ. Amen. We've got to look to the Lord, to look to Him. So we've seen our hearts.

[12:15] We've seen the heart trouble. That is really the lot of all of us. Our hearts. And are those hearts broken? When they're broken, they can be filled.

[12:26] When they're broken, they can be touched. He can heal. He can work. And so let's see, secondly, our healer. Our healer today. Where can we find healing for broken hearts?

[12:38] Where can this crying world find that antidote for its greatest disease? Who can make our shattered spirits whole again? Many different things can break our hearts, as we've talked about.

[12:51] But only one thing can restore your heart. It's the very touch of the living God. We can turn to Him and to His care. There was an expert in training pastors in pastoral care.

[13:02] He was asked what to do with wounded people, with the chronically wounded and needy who are calling out for help. He simply stated, just keep bringing them to Jesus. Just keep bringing them to Jesus.

[13:15] He urged the pastors, saying, you're just a little channel of Christ's love and grace. You, your wisdom and counselling techniques, even your love, are not the source of healing.

[13:26] Christ is the source. So never forget, your primary calling is to bring needy people into the presence of Jesus.

[13:37] He is the one that people need. Not my talk or counsel or wisdom, but Christ. Christ. Christ. He is the one you need desperately.

[13:48] And I know for friends and loved ones that I've talked to, how I want them to find Christ. How I want them to find Him. To know Him. To know His life-changing touch.

[14:01] And when our Lord read that text in that synagogue that day, He was reading something that had been written 800 years earlier. He was bringing Himself to them.

[14:12] And we should bring Him, not our church or our pet projects, our problems, but Jesus to people. We need to take Jesus to people. Our Lord Jesus. Only He can heal the brokenhearted.

[14:25] He's the only one that can bring hope to shattered lives, to put the broken pieces back together again. Friends, I want us all to grasp it today. Just this simple truth that Christ is all and in all.

[14:38] He is the one. I urge you, one and all, to bring your heart unto Him. To take your needs to the Lord Jesus. And He is touched by your need, by the feelings of your infirmities.

[14:49] Let us pray and intercede for those who are hurting and brokenhearted, that they would call on Him. Our Lord Jesus is the great physician, the great heart doctor. Who can take the heart that is bruised, that is wounded, that is filled with sin, and wash it clean, as pure and as precious and as perfect as possible.

[15:11] You know, you see, in the hospitals, the health world, they're always talking about wash your hands, you know. They're fanatical about washing hands in between patients. Because the contamination can be transferred.

[15:24] Friends, today, there's a contamination called sin. And only Christ has got the antidote, the solution that can wash away that sin, His very precious blood.

[15:35] And there is healing for the wounded. Christ heals us by His own stripes. He binds up our wounds. He can heal our scars. And He can soothe and relieve and take the pain away.

[15:48] And He will bless for the broken in heart. He brings at least two things. Two things here. It says comfort. Comfort for the brokenhearted. He comforts the downcast, it says in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 6.

[16:01] Hurting people can find His healing touch today. He shares our pain. He repairs our brokenness. He relieves our hurt. And there is peace for the troubled soul.

[16:12] The Lord Jesus is the one who can heal the broken hearts and homes and lives. As He sends His heavenly comforter, the Holy Spirit. A heart crushed by sorrow or suffering prepares a man to learn the most important lessons that God has to teach.

[16:30] Sometimes those times of brokenness are the times when we can hear Him. Those times when we're sensitive to His voice. When we're yearning for Him.

[16:41] Perhaps more so than in the times when everything's rosy. And there's a Bible that's got these notes in it about God's presence. It says in the study Bible, it says, God's presence is often experienced in difficult times.

[16:58] We often wish we could escape troubles, the pain of grief, loss, sorrow, failure. Or even the small daily frustrations that constantly wear us down.

[17:09] God promises to be close to those whose hearts are breaking. To be our source of power, courage, wisdom. And to help us through our problems. Sometimes He chooses to deliver us from those problems.

[17:22] When trouble strikes, don't get frustrated with God. Instead, admit that you need God's help and thank Him for being on your side. The Almighty.

[17:33] He is Almighty. Don't forget that. He's omnipotent. Omnipotent. He is all-powerful. You know, if you're feeling weak, you've got someone who's much stronger and more able than you to help you through.

[17:47] The Almighty God, He can bring comfort and care. And when we feel vulnerable, He is the one who can bring compassion and peace to our hearts. When we're feeling weak and loaded down.

[17:59] And His healing is available. He heals our relationship with God. So He brings comfort. And secondly, for our hearts, He brings conviction. Like I touched on, just to recap again, comfort and conviction.

[18:10] Think about the conviction again. For many, through God's Word, the Holy Spirit brings a conviction. It tells us what we don't want to hear. Yeah. You know, it's like, was it Mark Twain said, it's not the things I don't understand, but the things that I do understand I have trouble with.

[18:27] Yeah. It's when we say, boy, that's talking to me. That's something I've got to deal with. That's something that I've got to sort out with God. That's conviction, isn't it? The Holy Spirit conviction.

[18:38] When we're humbled. When we realize how our omnipotent, all-powerful God and our unworthy, humbled self, we see our great need to be saved for a start.

[18:49] And repent, to throw ourselves at His feet. And there's a pardon there. There's a forgiveness we can find for the repentant sinner. Conviction.

[18:59] Hear His loving words. He's speaking to you. You don't need someone to give you a word from the Lord. This is the word from the Lord. This is God speaking first person, in person to you.

[19:10] This is God's Word. This is your Word from God today. And hold it in your hands. Take it in your heart. Put it into your life. Friends, we need the conviction that this is the Word of God. And obey it.

[19:21] Take it. Apply it. Put it into your life. And He extends to us this only true medicine that can heal the broken heart. Healing and joy is only found in Him. Think about it.

[19:33] What keeps me from having a broken heart? Could it be pride? Sometimes we think, I don't need to repent. Sometimes we think, oh, I'm a Christian.

[19:46] I've not got any area of fault. Or I'm better than everybody else. But take a deeper look. Take a deeper, deeper look into your heart.

[19:57] Your soul. Think about your standing in comparison with Him. Not in comparison with others. The broken in heart. It's going to help you deal with pride. With hatred. If you hate a brother or sister.

[20:09] If there's hatred in your heart. That is sin. If there's bitterness in your heart. That is sin. If there's unforgiveness in your heart. Deal with it. Confess it. Repent of it. Abandon it.

[20:20] Leave it behind at the cross. Adam Clark, an old time commentator, said, The broken heart and the contrite spirit are two essential characteristics of true repentance.

[20:32] Broken heart, contrite spirit. We know the psalmist cried out. Broken heart, contrite spirit. Then God can work and do a miracle. And men cannot truly heal the wounded in heart, the broken in heart, nor bind up our wounds.

[20:46] You might seek all kinds of counsel. You might seek doctors and psychologists and psychiatrists and social workers. You name it. You might go to all the relationship counselors and the stress clinics.

[20:59] Try every kind of philosophy and technique that's been known to man to get rid of your problems of brokenness, of stress, of concern. He is the one really and truly that you need.

[21:12] He is the one, the great healer of broken hearts that you need to come to who can bind up your wounds. Who can put the past to bed, to rest, to be forgotten and forgiven.

[21:22] To deal with those hurts, those wounds, those bitter experiences of life that maybe are still affecting you even today. I know for any of us, there's things that might have happened in our younger days that we still got those memories, those hurts, those times of sadness, those difficult times.

[21:43] He can even heal those memories, those feelings, those thinkings from time past and help you to move on, to move forward. And it's not the human words, it's not the mortal wisdom that we need.

[21:56] It's the still, small voice of God. It's the healing of the Word of God. You know, there's comfort, there's healing in the Scriptures. And, you know, as we've read earlier, the Psalms, the Proverbs, the wisdom there.

[22:08] It's just overflowing, isn't it? We just can't capture it. I was really blessed by that passage that Ian read. So much in that small text, that small chapter, Proverbs 2. The wisdom, the understanding, how we need that.

[22:21] It's the still, small voice of God that we need. And that alone can grant us that peace that passeth all understanding. Take the Scriptures as our encouragement for your soul.

[22:32] It's food for your soul. God's mercies are tender mercies. There's tender mercies. Not only is our God merciful and gracious and full of mercy, it talks about His tender mercies.

[22:44] He's got a tenderness of heart. A tenderness. He comes gently alongside of us with sympathy. We know, as it says, that the Holy Spirit is the paraclete.

[22:54] He's the one who comes alongside to help. He's the one who comes alongside shoulder to shoulder to walk with you, to talk with you, to spend time with you, to be intimate and close to you and with you through the experiences of life and guides you and bless you.

[23:12] Tender mercies. The pains for sins are God's work in my soul. It says here, I think this is Spurgeon, I'm quoting again.

[23:24] It says, He would not have showed thee thy sin if he did not intend to pardon. Thou art now a sinner and Jesus came to save sinners. So it's a good starting point, isn't it?

[23:37] Number one, I'm a sinner. It's the first step to getting saved. Realise you're a sinner. You need a saviour. Jesus came to save sinners.

[23:49] Therefore, he came to save thee. Yea, he is saving thee now. These strivings of soul are the works of mercy. So when you get those tuggings within, those achings about your sin, the conviction, the sense of you being far from him, he's touching you.

[24:13] He's doing that. It's his Holy Spirit tugging at your heartstrings. These strivings of soul are the work of his mercy. There is love in every blow and grace in every stripe.

[24:25] Believe, O troubled one, that he is able to save thee. He is able to save thee. He is able to save thee. Answer the uttermost.

[24:37] And thou shalt not believe in vain. It goes on. See you yonder, crucified man on Calvary. And mark thee that those drops of blood are falling for thee.

[24:50] Those nailed hands are pierced for thee. You know what I mean? None but Jesus.

[25:06] None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good. It's a simple reliance on him which saves. The Negro said, Master, I fall flat on de promise.

[25:19] You know, he just wanted to fall on the promise of God. Just a simple trusting in the promise. That's all that we can do. He goes on. So if you fall flat on the promise of Jesus, you shall not find him fail you.

[25:30] He will bind up your heart and make an end to the days of your mourning. We shall meet in heaven one day to sing hallelujah to the condescending Lord till then. May the God of all grace be our helper.

[25:43] Amen. A little quote here. Just a short poem. The mighty God will not despise the contrite heart for sacrifice.

[25:54] The deep-fetched sigh, the secret groan, rises accepted to the throne. He meets with tokens of his grace, the trembling lip, the blushing face.

[26:06] His bowels yearn when sinners pray and mercy bears their sin away. When filled with grief or overwhelmed with shame, he pitying heals their broken frame.

[26:19] He hears their sad complaints and spies his image in their weeping eyes. Friends, come to him today. Come to the healer of broken hearts. I'm going to just wrap it up with just a plea, an invitation to receive it today.

[26:34] If you've never received Christ as your saviour for your sin, I urge you, please trust him. I urge you, trust him now. Ask him to save you.

[26:46] Repent and trust him now. And for believers, one and all today, there's a healer of broken hearts. For whatever your experiences of life, sad and good and in between, experiences of hurt, of shame, of sad times.

[27:02] Friends, receive God's healing touch today. It says that he has come to heal the broken in heart. Receive God's healing touch. Receive God's pardon for sin.

[27:14] As a suggestion here, make a list of your hurts. Begin with the greatest first. The only answer is the cross of Jesus Christ.

[27:26] Jesus died to take away the sins of the world. The cross is where God dumps all the garbage that exists in your relationship to him. And the cross is also where you need to dump all the garbage that exists in your relationship to others.

[27:41] The cross is the place of forgiveness, the place to dump all your guilt and all your resentment. And friends, it's a fact that Calvary was on the rubbish dump of Jerusalem. It was certainly in proximity to it.

[27:54] And where they burnt all the rubbish down the Valley of Hinnom, which is a picture of hell. Friends, take the rubbish of your past and give it to him. Ask him to be that stain remover, that sin remover, that burden bearer, that one who can heal the broken in heart.

[28:13] And ask God to cleanse your heart of all those things on that list. Give it to him today. Those things of anger, of wrong attitudes, of bitterness, of lust, of unforgiveness, of whatever hang-ups you've got, of hate, of revenge.

[28:27] As we heard earlier when someone said, Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as wool. And they shall be cleansed.

[28:41] He shall cleanse that heart. Reason with him today. Come and reason with him. He wants to hear you cry. Ask God to heal your heart. And Ezekiel 36 talks about how God actually gives us a brand new heart.

[28:55] It talks about how he'll give you a tender heart. Maybe he can make you more tender too to the hurts of others about you. You know, it says that he's the God of all comfort. And he comforts us in our tribulation that we can comfort others.

[29:08] Maybe your hard experiences of life through those hard times, those hard roads you've travelled, are preparing and equipping you to minister to those around you.

[29:19] And to be his hand extended to them. As the healer of broken hearts wants to use you to reach others too.