Sermon # 214          Series: Isaiah

 

Title:  BROKEN HEARTS HEALED

Text:  Isaiah 61:1

Subject: Christ’s Healing of the Brokenhearted

Date: Sunday Evening – June 11, 1995

 

Introduction:

 

Nothing is more painful than a broken heart.  A stouthearted can sustain trouble.  But a broken heart finds trouble where none exist.  When trouble gets into a person’s heart, all troubles are magnified, blessings are unseen, and it is well nigh impossible to bear the daily experience of life.  Getting out of bed is misery.  Living is torment.  Nobody understands a broken heart but one whose heart has been broken.  I can think of nothing sadder than one whose heart is broken.

 

Yet, in a spiritual sense, I can think of nothing more promising, nothing more hopeful, nothing more blessed than a broken heart.  You may think that sounds strange.  But a heart broken before God is a heart touched by the finger of his grace for whom the sweet balm of salvation is prepared.  God specifically promises grace and healing to the brokenhearted.

 

 

And in Isaiah 61:1, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God declares – “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted!”  What a marvellous word of grace from our Savior.  “He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.”

 

Proposition:  The Lord Jesus Christ heals broken hearts.

 

Divisions:  The title of my message tonight is Broken Hearts Healed.  I have nothing to do tonight but to point you, with the utmost simplicity, to Christ.  May God the Holy Spirit, whose work it is to take the things of Christ and show them to us, minister comfort to every heart here by showing us how the broken hearts are healed by Christ.  I want to talk to you about five things.

 

  1. A Sad Condition.
  2. A Sweet Cordial.
  3. A Safe Conclusion.
  4. A Specified Commission.
  5. A Sure Cure.

 

I.  First, as I have already suggested, our text describes A Sad Condition – “The Brokenhearted!”

 

I will not attempt to define what it is to be truly brokenhearted.  Many sermons have been preached about it.  Many books have been written about it.  But I fear that they are all more hurtful than helpful for one simple reason.  The Word of God nowhere defines broken heartedness.  Our text does not limit brokenness of heart to one specific experience, neither shall I.  The Scriptures seem to assume that if you experience it, you will know it.  And they leave it there.  I am thankful that the Word of God never makes specific distinctions and conditions to be descriptive of a broken heart.

 

A.  If such description were given, you would be left looking at your heart instead of looking to Christ; and that would not be good – Look away to Christ!

 

 

B.  If the word of God defined broken heartedness in specific characters, I could not confidently tell you that if you come to Christ he will heal your broken heart – I would have to qualify my message to people with a specific kind of broken heart.  But that is not the case.

 

C.  The brokenhearted are people downcast, dejected, and despairing because of their perception of things.

 

  1. The Brokenhearted think that No one cares for them.  (The Prodigal – Luke 15).
  2. The Brokenhearted have concluded that there is no hope for them.

 

I was once far away from the Savior,

And as vile as a sinner could be;

And the thought filled my heart with sadness,

“There’s no hope for a sinner like me!”

3.       Brokenhearted souls perceive that God is against them in everyway – (Jeremiah – Lam. 3:1-26).

 

 

II.  Secondly, we may very properly and reasonably draw A Safe Conclusion from our text.

 

Brokenhearted souls, listen up – If the Lord had meant to destroy you, why would he have sent his Son specifically to heal the brokenhearted?  If God meant to slay you, would he gently woo you to Christ by his Word and assure you that he has deep, eternal designs of his love toward the brokenhearted?  I think not!

 

Manoah’s Wife had it right – Judges 13:23.  Well do I recall the dark, lonely hour of brokenness.  When…

…A voice whispered sweetly to me,

Saying “Christ the Redeemer has power,

He can save poor sinners like thee.”

 

I listened, and lo, ‘twas the Savior

That was speaking so kindly to me

And the thought filled my heart with gladness,

“There’s hope for a sinner like me!”

 

Since God the Father sent his Son to heal the brokenhearted, if your heart is broken, I see no reason at all for you not to conclude – “God sent his Son to heal me!  Christ came to heal me!”

 

III.  Thirdly, look now at the One who has been sent to heal the brokenhearted, and find in him, A Sweet Cordial of grace and hope – “He hath sent Me.”

 

What a suitable Healer the Lord Jesus Christ is!  I cannot spend much time on this point.  But you will not need for me to do so.  A few suggestive comments will open the way for much joyful meditation.

 

A.  He who is The Man of Sorrows is acquainted with sorrow and grief of every kind – (Isa. 53:3).

 

Whatever it is that breaks your heart, the Son of God has experienced it.

 

 

B.  The Lord God has chosen One to Heal Broken Hearts whose Own Heart Had Been Broken.

 

 

C.  This One who is sent to heal broken hearts has already healed multitudes of others.

 

Let me tell you about the experience of one man I know whose broken heart the Son of God has healed – (My Experience of Grace).

 

D.  Here is another sweet cordial for your soul – The Lord Jesus never becomes irritated, or grows weary of, or gets discouraged with your feeble, broken heart.

 

I’m such a hard-hearted man that I sometimes get a little irritated by and weary with the repeated complaints and sorrowful tales of troubled souls – Christ?  Never!

 

 

If you cannot go to anyone else, you may always go to Christ.  He is always willing to hear your sad story.  He is always willing to help, and always able!

 

IV.  Fourthly, as I read this text, and hear it falling from the lips of the Son of God, I see that he was sent into this world with A Specified Commission – “He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.”

 

A.  Christ was not sent to tell you how your heart got broken and scold you for it – He was sent to bind up the brokenhearted.

 

There are many who are ready enough to tell you that you should not have fallen into the pit of muck and mire that engulfs you, and will gladly tell you what slips you made.  But I’ve been in that pit.  And I am so thankful for One who came and lifted me out!

 

B.  The Lord Jesus was sent to bring medicines to you by which you may heal your own broken heart – “He healeth the broken in heart.”  (Ps. 147:3).

 

C.  When the Son of God binds up the broken heart, he does so so thoroughly and so effectually that the deeper the wound was, the more utterly broken the heart, the greater the joy and gratitude when the heart is healed.

 

     Illus:  Sonny D.

 

V.  Lastly, our text does not speak of a possible cure, but of A Sure Cure – “He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.”

 

If that is what the Son of God was sent to do, you can be sure of this – He will bind up the brokenhearted.  “He shall not fail!”  (Isa. 42:4).  Let me show you some of the methods he employs to heal the broken hearted.

 

A.  I read in the Book of God of a fallen, brokenhearted saint whose heart was healed by The Ointment of Divine Forgiveness.

 

 

B.  Nothing binds up the broken hearts of believers out of fellowship with Christ like fresh discoveries of his love – (Song. 1:2-4).

 

 

    Illus:  “Tell my disciples and Peter.”  (Mark 16:7).

 

C.  Hearts broken with a sense of sin, guilt, and condemnation are healed by the Word of Grace applied by God the Holy Spirit.

 

·         Redemption Accomplished!

 

D.  Believing hearts, broken by great troubles and sorrows, are bound up and made strong by The Balm of Providence.

 

 

E.  Hearts broken by bereavement are healed and strengthened by The Liniment of Love to Christ.

 

He is jealous of our love.  He will have all our hearts.  And sometimes, the way he gets our love for him to grow is by taking away one we have loved too much.

 

    Illus:  The Two Boys Taken.

 

Application:  Hebrews 4:16

 

How often our broken hearts find healing in the observance of this blessed ordinance – The Remembrance of our Savior!