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Breaking The Heart Of God

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• Well, let's open our Bibles today to the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 6, and we're going to look at verses 9 and 10. Ezekiel chapter 6, verses 9 and 10. The title of the message today is "Breaking the Heart of God." Breaking the heart of God. Ezekiel chapter 6, look in verse 9. God says, "And they that escape of you shall remember Me among the nations, whether they shall be carried captives. Because I am broken with their whorish heart which hath departed from Me, and with their eyes which go a-whoring after their idols."

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• "And they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. And they shall know that I am the Lord, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them." I want to begin by asking this question, and I want you to think about it. Have you ever been heartbroken? Have you ever been so emotionally devastated that you could not function? Have you ever been betrayed to the extent that you considered it a relief to see the one or the ones that hurt you punished?

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• There's a passage in Proverbs 24 and verse 17 that says this, "Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth." Yet there are times, I think, that we are absolutely glad to see that the evil is indeed punished, and punished in a biblical manner. I think at one point the Bible forbids what is known as evil rejoicing, but I think there is also, according to the Bible, that which is known as a righteous rejoicing.

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• So let me show you. If you'll hold Ezekiel chapter 6, but look in your Bibles, if you would please, to Psalm 58. Psalm 58. And notice, if you would please, verses 10 and 11 there. Psalm 58, beginning there with verse 10. Note, if you would, what the Scripture says. Psalm 58 and verse 10. The Word of God says, "The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance."

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• "He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So the man shall say, Verily, there is a reward for the righteous. Verily, he is a God that judgeth in the earth." So obviously in this passage, the righteous is rejoicing when he sees the righteous punishment of God upon the wicked. If you would turn in your Bibles also to the book of Revelation chapter 19, you'll also see this righteous rejoicing clearly stated in this passage. So Revelation chapter 19 beginning there in verse 1, the Scripture says this, "And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying, Hallelujah, salvation and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God. For true and righteous are his judgments. For he hath judged the great whore who did corrupt the earth with her fornication and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, Hallelujah, and her smoke rose up forever and ever." So there is indeed, I believe, a difference between an evil rejoicing and a righteous rejoicing.

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• But I begin by asking, has your heart ever really been broken? And speaking of broken hearts, I suppose that probably there is no greater hurt than those who have given oaths to each other, especially in relationship to marriage. Friends may forsake us and betray us and deny us, and it hurts. But there's nothing like the betrayal of a spouse. But if you'll look in your Bibles again to Psalm 55, you'll notice how David talks about how friends can hurt us as well. So in Psalm 55, beginning there with verse 12, and David made this statement.

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• He said, "For it was not an enemy that reproached me, that I could have borne it. Neither was it he that hated me, that did magnify himself against me, then I would have hid myself from him. But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together and walked into the house of God in company." So he said, if it was an enemy that reproached me, I can understand that. He said, if my enemy had magnified himself against me, I could have dealt with that. But he said, the thing that hurt the most, it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We walked in the house of God in company.

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• So the truth of the matter is there is hurt, especially not only in relationship to friends, but also in relationship to spouses as well. I have known both men and women who had been so hurt and so betrayed in marriage that they simply did not want anything else to do with the opposite sex because of such a devastating betrayal. They had been so hurt that they were unwilling to further trust anyone and to certainly give their heart to anyone in that sense of the word. Now, when we talk about betrayals, we have to understand that our Lord certainly was betrayed as well.

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• Peter, of course, denied Jesus Christ. Judas betrayed our Lord Jesus Christ. His enemies mocked him and ridiculed him. His disciples forsook him and fled when he was arrested. And the truth of the matter is, many of us have denied him multitudinous times. We refuse to acknowledge him, both privately and publicly. We refuse to thank him. We refuse to praise him. Oftentimes, we've given in to grievous idolatry. And moreover, oftentimes, we've done things that actually is a real betrayal because we would place our wills and our wishes and our desires far above Him. So in essence, what we would be doing would be dethroning our Lord and establishing ourself as God.

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• So the question that I would have to ask is this. Have you ever considered the implications toward God in these things? Obviously our sins and rebellions and disobediences do not please Him. And here's a question. When we talk about sin and rebellion and disobedience, do you somehow think that God just simply sits back passively and lets things just simply go on expressing no interest or any concern over them whatsoever?

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• You see, most Christians turn out to be deists instead of Christians. And when I say that, what I mean is this. Deism taught that God created the world. But what God did, He wound the universe up like a clock. And then God just simply withdrew from it, sat back, holding his arms, and now he's just simply watching the world wind down, so to speak. Well, obviously, according to deism, there's no such thing as divine intervention. There's no such thing as miracles. There's no such thing as supernatural revelation. Because God is passive, he's just simply sitting back, watching the world wind down. That is why I say that most Christians turn out to be deists instead of real biblical Christians, because they really and truly have no thought and no concern toward God and toward His will and His word.

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• Now, let me just point out the fact that sin has consequences. The consequences of our sin are not just simply personal. Now, it is true that the wages of sin is death. I mean, that's clearly taught in the scripture. It's also true that we reap what we sow. It is also true that the Bible says that the way of the transgressor is hard. In other words, we are going to actually not only reap what we sow, but we're going to pay for our sins in the long run. We will discover that the way of the transgressor is hard.

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• Now, there's another principle in Scripture that deals with the concept that I'm trying to expound. And that principle is found in Romans 14 in verse 7. Let me just quote it. The Bible says, "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself." So the principle that's being enunciated is this, that our lives always affect other people. Our sins affect other people. Our holiness affects other people.

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• Sin not only destroys families, individuals, churches, societies, and even nations. All we have to do to learn by example is to look what God did to Israel and to Judah in 722 B.C. and 586 B.C., and then what finally happened to Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Sin always has consequences. When you stop and think that most people express this sentiment, "Well, what I do is my business, and what I do does not affect anyone but myself." Well, that certainly is not true. They may think that is true, but when a drunk gets drunk, he does not consider the effect of that sin, not only upon his family morally, financially, socially, or even upon his neighbors. And the truth of the matter is this, when that drunk who thinks that his drinking is his business and he's not hurting anybody, when he gets in that car and rams another family and kills and maims individuals, it turns out it's far more than just his business.

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• So the point I'm trying to make is his sin has affected someone other than himself. It's true he's going to reap what he has sown. It is true he's going to find out the way of the transgressors hard. It is true the wages of sin is death. But his sin always affects someone else. So we need to remember this. No man lives to himself and no man dies to himself.

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• So what we see is this. We see the implications of this very easily when we look at man. Because our relationships to each other is what you and I would call a horizontal relationship. We can look around and see how sin affects individuals, families, churches, societies, even nations. But most of us never consider that there is a vertical aspect to sin as well. So sin not only has an effect upon man, sin also has an effect upon God. There is that vertical relationship as well. And the truth of the matter is God hates sin. God hates sin intensely. His holiness recoils from sin. Because sin is basically a denial not only of His glory, but of His person, and it seeks to dethrone God.

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• That's why God said in Jeremiah 44 and verse 4, "Oh, do not that abominable thing which I hate." So God says specifically that He hates sin. Now, sin affects God in the sense that it is an attack upon His external glory. It's not only an attack upon His external glory, it is an attack upon the revelation of His Word. It is an attack upon His authority, upon His sovereignty, His right to command.

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• I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Amos. Hosea, Joel, Amos. And I want you to look, please, at chapter 2. Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. And look in Amos chapter 2 and watch verse 13. Look what God says to Israel. Amos 2 verse 13. He says, "Behold, I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves."

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• Isn't that an interesting statement? God said to Israel, "I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves." What is the old expression that we have, "Never mind the horse, load the wagon"? We always hear of the straw that broke the camel's back. And I'm sure that most of you at one point or another have overloaded a wagon or overloaded a trailer. And of course, if Pat was around, he would want me to tell about those tires I had to buy him from an overloaded trailer with concrete block on it. So, I mean, we understand how you press down on a wagon that's overloaded. Well, this is exactly the illustration that God is using right here when he said that Israel has just pressed him down as a wagon is full of sheaves.

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• Let me give you two quotes. John Calvin said on this verse, Amos 2 and verse 13, he says, "This place admits of two interpretations. The first is that God was pressed under the Israelites as a wagon groans under too much weight, and so God expostulates that he was weighed down by the Israelites. 'You constrain me,' he says, 'to labor under your sins,' Isaiah 1:14. The sense then that God was pressed down under them may be viewed as not unsuitable and yet the more received interpretation is this, 'Behold I will bind you fast as a wagon is bound.'" And then he goes on to say this, "I am however more inclined to the first meaning that God here reprehends the Israelites because they had pressed down, he was pressed down by them." And then John Gill says it like this, "Behold, I am pressed under you with the weight of their sins, with which they had made him to serve and had wearied him."

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• "His patience was quite worn out. He could bear them no longer. As a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves, as a cart in harvest time, in which the sheaves of corn are carried home, when one sheave is laid upon another, till they can lay no more, and the cart is loaded and overloaded with them, and ready to break, to be pressed in the earth with them."

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• "Thus Jehovah represents Himself as loaded and burdened with the sins of these people, and therefore would visit for them and inflict deserved punishment." Isn't that interesting? Because now God is saying, "Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves." In other words, both John Gill and John Calvin are saying that our sins, according to this passage, have an effect upon God. And here God is complaining about the sins of the Israelites. And may I point out the fact that God oftentimes in Scripture complains about the sins of His professing people. As those sins have burdened him, his long-suffering is oftentimes taxed by them, but his power is not taxed, and we're going to find, and every sinner's going to find, that inevitably, we're going to receive the righteous judgment of God. Now, let me point out what I'm going to tell you is an absolutely wonderful and glorious truth in light of all of this.

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• There's a passage in Lamentations 3 in verse 33 that says this, talking about God, "For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." Now listen to that, "For he doth not afflict willingly or grieve the children of men." So many people have a wrong attitude of God and a wrong concept of God. There are people, when they understand God's holiness, sometimes tend to think that God somehow is some old meanie sitting up in heaven just waiting for us to mess up just so he can whip us. But that's not true. It's not true, period. God does not afflict willingly or grieve the children of men. Do you understand that no loving parent has ever delighted in chastening his child? Why do we chasten our children? It's not because we hate them, but it's because we love them.

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• We want them to be honest and upright and truthful and correct. We want them to be obedient. And I can assure you that probably every parent, every loving parent anyhow, has at one time or another wept over the fact that he had to chasten his children. I never will forget my father. When he would come to whip me when I was a boy, he would say, "Now son, this is going to hurt me worse than it does you." And I thought, "Oh, boy, that's a lie." I knew better because I'd been whipped by him until I got grown and had children of my own.

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• And it just breaks your heart. And there have been times that I've wept over the fact that I had to discipline my children. Now, if you and I would weep over the fact that we have to discipline our children, what about a loving Heavenly Father? A holy, righteous, sovereign God, whom the Bible says, "He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." You see, the truth is, God not only desires our obedience, God commands our obedience. And you don't discipline an obedient child. You praise an obedient child. So, what we need to comprehend is this, is that there are implications of our sins, not just horizontally, not just toward each other, but there are implications of our sins vertically, that is heavenward, in the fact that they insult our Heavenly Father.

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• Did you realize that each and every sin in one sense of the word is a denial of God? It is a denial of God as our chief good. It is a denial of God in His sufficiency. It is a denial of God in His love and His grace.

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• Now let me give you an illustration that I hope will bring this truth home to you. When a husband or a wife commits adultery, it is not simply unfaithfulness. It is that. But it is much more than that. It is a denial and a rejection of their spouse and a declaration of the fact that that spouse is insufficient to satisfy their needs. And what they're saying is, "I need something else or I need someone else." And so, really and truly, it's not just unfaithfulness, it is a statement of facts, that you're not what I need. You're insufficient. You're incapable of satisfying me.

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• Now just like that is true physically, it is also true spiritually. When we sin against God, we're saying to God, "You're insufficient to satisfy me. You are no longer my chief good. I need something more than you. I need something above you. I need something beyond you."

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• Now, let me show you. Therefore, because of this, sin in the Bible is likened unto adultery. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Jeremiah chapter 3. You can see this all through the Bible. We'll look in Jeremiah chapter 3. And notice, if you would please, verse 6. Jeremiah 3 verse 6. "The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? She is going up upon every high mountain under every green tree and there is played the harlot." Now skip down, if you would, to verse 8. "And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery, I put her away and given her a bill of divorcement, yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also." So, in this passage, God is likening idolatry to spiritual adultery.

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• Idolaters' hearts do actually depart from God as an adulterous wife departs from her husband. So what God is saying in Jeremiah chapter 3 is that their whorish heart, their heart of whoredom, their idolaters heart, which was full of that sin, addicted to that sin, delighted in that sin, and wedded to that sin was a denial of God and His sufficiency and His grace and His mercy. We have to understand that our sins have a vertical effect and not just a horizontal effect.

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• Now, I want you to think about this implication. When a spouse that is unfaithful in one sense of the word, he causes or she causes the other spouse to serve with that sin. You say, "What are you talking about?" Well, suppose here is a husband and here is a wife. And the husband begins an adulterous affair with someone else, and the wife does not even know about it, at least for a while.

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• Yet, he keeps coming back home and pretending like everything is hunky-dory, everything is okay. And actually, what he's doing is forcing her to serve with his sin because he's totally keeping her ignorant about that sin. Ah, well let me show you something. I want you to look in your Bibles to Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 43. Isaiah 43. And look if you would please at verse 24. Isaiah 43. Look in verse 24. I'm just trying to show you that there is a vertical effect of our sins. In Isaiah 43 and verse 24. Look what God says. He says to His people, "Thou hast brought Me no sweet cane with money, neither hast Thou filled Me with the fat of Thy sacrifices, but Thou hast made Me to serve with Thy sins. Thou hast wearied Me with Thine iniquities." Thou hast made Me to serve with Thy sins. How in the world could Israel make God serve with their sins? Well, you have to remember that there was a covenantal relationship between God and Israel. And since that covenant existed, whatever Israel did affected the God of that covenant.

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• It's just like husbands and wives are in a covenantal relationship. And what one does affects the other. You cannot have it otherwise. Because in a covenant, two or more are bound together. And God said to Israel, "You have made me to serve with your sins."

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• Now, here's a good question. Is that possible in the New Testament? Is that possible in today's time? And the answer is yes. So let me show you. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. And notice if you would, and let's begin reading there with verse 13. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 13. Watch this argument. Watch what the Apostle Paul says. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 13. "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body." So God made our bodies for Him and not for fornication. And God has both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by His own power. Now watch carefully. "Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ?" So we are joined to Christ in a covenantal relation. "Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot?"

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• "God forbid." By the way, whenever you see these two words, "God forbid," it literally means "perish the thought." Don't even let it enter into your mind once. Don't even consider it. Don't even think about it. So he asked, "Shall I then take the members of Christ, which members we are, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid." Now watch. "What? Know you not that he which is joined to a harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body. But he that committed fornication sinneth against his own body. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, and you're not your own? For you're bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are his."

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• Now, I think everyone in this room understands a simple principle. And that principle is that we are in a covenantal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, if you read 1 Corinthians chapter 12, if you read Ephesians chapter 3 and 4, you will find out that Jesus Christ is our head and we are His body. We are joined together. Now, look back in 1 Corinthians 6 and notice if you would, verse 15. He says, "Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ?" In other words, he is our head. We are his members. We are his body. "Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid." And then he talks about being joined to a harlot is one body, which is the marriage relationship. And then he says, "But he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit."

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• So the truth of the matter is this. Listen carefully. Whenever you and I sin, we're joining Jesus Christ with that sin, whether it's adultery or whether it's anything else, because He is the head, we're the body, and we're one spirit in Him. So in essence, we're making Him serve with our sins. We're doing exactly what Israel did in the Old Testament.

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• Now, in Ezekiel chapter 6 and verse 9, the text that we took, God said, "I am broken with their whorish heart." That's why I title this message, "Breaking the Heart of God." God said, "I am broken with their whorish heart." The word "broken" is the Hebrew word "shabar," which means to break, to break in pieces, to tear, to crush, to break down, to hurt, to shatter, and a crush.

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• Usually it is grief, and great grief that leads to brokenness. I think that probably each one of us at one time or another has made the statement to someone who has heard us, "My heart is crushed." My heart is crushed. God said, "I'm broken. I'm crushed with your whorish heart. I'm crushed with your sins. I'm crushed with your denial. I'm crushed with your declaration of my insufficiency. I'm broken."

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• Now let me ask you a question. Since it's usually grief that leads to a broken heart, and by the way, you can lose a mate. You can lose a husband, you can lose a wife, you can lose a child. And the grief oftentimes is very great and it leads to a broken heart. So my question in light of this, is it possible for God to be grieved and broken in heart over our sins? Remember, it's grief that oftentimes leads to brokenness. So let me answer that question by showing you a number of passages.

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• I want you to turn first of all in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 6. You're going to find in this passage the very first time this word is used in the Bible. Genesis 6, look at verse 6. Interesting, Genesis 6 and verse 6. "And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." It grieved him at his heart.

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• And we're talking about sin. And we're talking about the wickedness of man. It grieved him at his heart.

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• Now, if you would turn right on over to the book of Judges, chapter 10. Judges, chapter 10. And look, if you would please, at verse 16. Joshua, Judges, Judges 10, and verse 16. This is in relation now to Israel again. Judges 10, look in verse 16. Israel had sinned. Let's read verse 15. "And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned. Do Thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto Thee, deliver us only, we pray Thee this day. And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD. And his, that is God's soul, was grieved for the misery of Israel." So it's obviously possible for God to be grieved. If you would turn right over to Psalm 95. Psalm 95. And look if you would please there at verse 10. Psalm 95 verse 10. Psalm 95 verse 10. God says, "Forty years long was I grieved with this generation and said it is the people that do err in their heart."

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• "And they have not known my ways." God says, "Forty years long was I grieved." Yes, it's possible for God to be grieved. If you would turn in your Bibles to the book of Mark chapter 3, Mark chapter 3, you'll find that our Lord Jesus Christ was grieved. Jesus Christ is God incarnate. He's God in the flesh. And in Mark chapter 3 and verse 5, the Bible says this, "And when he, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored whole as the other." But the Bible said he was grieved. Yes, it's possible for God to be grieved. Turn right on over to Ephesians chapter 4 and look if you would please at verse 30. Ephesians 4 and verse 30. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Watch at Ephesians 4 and verse 30.

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• "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed in the day of your redemption." Wow. "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God." So God the Father can be grieved, God the Son can be grieved, God the Holy Spirit can be grieved.

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• Now, if you would turn right on over to the book of Hebrews, and look in chapter 3, Hebrews chapter 3, you're going to see again a restatement of that which we saw in Psalm 95. But look if you would in Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 10. Look what God says, "Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart, and they have not known my ways." Skip down to verse 17. "But with whom was he grieved forty years?"

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• "Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?" It is our sins, it is our wickedness, it is our disobedience and our rebellion that grieves and breaks the heart of God. Remember, if you would please, that the scripture says that God does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men. It is necessary to do so at times, but he's not some old meanie sitting in heaven just waiting to strike with a rod.

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• Now, I want you to turn back in your Bibles to the book of Hosea. Daniel, Hosea, and I want you to look in chapter 11, and let me explain a verse. Look in Hosea, Daniel, Hosea, and look please in chapter 11. Hosea 11, and look if you would please at verse 8. In fact, let's read verse 7 so you can see it in the context here. He says, "And my people were bent to backsliding from me."

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• "Though they called him to the Most High, none at all would exalt him." So the people now are turning from God. And look what he asks in verse 8. "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? And how shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? And how shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within me." He's grieved, he's broken. "My repentings are kindled together." Now, an interesting thing. He names the tribe of Ephraim, which was the leader in the northern kingdom, the leading tribe. And then he says, "How shall I deliver thee Israel," which would refer to mainly the northern kingdom, but it could include all of them.

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• And then he has this statement. He has this question. "How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim?" I could ask you, what is Admah? What is Zeboim? You know what the answer is? These two, Admah and Zeboim, were cities of the plain that God destroyed when he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. You remember the Bible says he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain? And so God is asking, He said, "How am I going to do this? I don't want to whip you, I don't want to chasten you, I don't want to give you up, but it looks like I'm going to have to." In other words, their sins affected God.

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• We have to understand that there are implications for our sins, not just horizontally, but vertically as well. Do you understand it is God's desire that we obey? It is God's desire that we be obedient. In fact, it's not just His desire. He's commanded us to be obedient. He's commanded us to have a heart toward Him and to Him. It is for our good and God's glory that we have a heart for Him.

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• Now, I want you to turn to two passages. I want you to turn, first of all, to Deuteronomy chapter 5. Deuteronomy chapter 5. And then we're going to go to Psalm 81. Deuteronomy 5. And look, if you would, at verse 29. Deuteronomy 5, verse 29. Look what God said concerning Israel. "Oh, that there were such an heart in them that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever." What? God says, "Oh, that there were such a heart in them that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever." God said, "I want you to obey. I want you to be in a position for me to bless you and keep you and help you. That is my desire." His desire is not to beat us to death. His desire is that we be obedient and honor Him. Now, turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Psalm 81.

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• Psalm 81. And let's begin reading there with verse 8. Psalm 81 and verse 8. I want you to watch this passage. Psalm 81 verse 8. This is an astounding passage. God says in Psalm 81, verse 8, "Hear, O My people, and I will testify unto thee. O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto Me, just listen," said God, "just listen and obey. There shall no strange God be in thee, neither shalt thou worship any strange God." Now, watch verse 10. "I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it."

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• You know, you can see this. Every year, every year, under our carport, we have little house wrens come and make nests and all the equipment. We even had one make a nest in our grill. So we never even used the grill until all the birds hatched. But usually when those birds make the nest there, and they make them kind of low, you can look in and see them. And when you walk up, even if the mother bird is not there, you walk up and look in that nest, and here's three or four of those little wrens, and you make just the least little bit of noise, they're all opening their mouths, sticking their head up, waiting for you to put something in.

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• And this is what God is saying. Look in verse 10 again. He said, "I am the Lord thy God which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide and I'll fill it." That's all you've got to do. I'm willing to fill it. I'm willing to feed you. But here's the sad thing. Look in verse 11. "But my people would not hearken to my voice."

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• "And Israel would none of me." That is, we wouldn't have anything to do with God. "So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts. And they walked in their own counsels." Now look what God says. "Oh, that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways." God said, "I would, that they had done that. I would, that they had obeyed me." If they obeyed Him, what would have happened? Well, look in verse 14, "I should soon have subdued their enemies and turn my hand against their adversaries."

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• "The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him, but their time should have endured forever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied him." Did you see what God is saying? God is saying, "Look, I want your obedience. I want to bless you. I want to help you." Stop and think, if you would please, of all the enemies that we have today in this world. I'm talking about the enemies, not just the Christians, which we have sufficient, but the enemies to humanity, the enemies to Americans, the enemies to people all over the world. Look at the folks who want to reduce the population of the world down to 100 million. What does that mean? They want to kill everybody else. And here's what God said. "If you had obeyed me, I would have subdued all of your enemies." If we want our enemies defeated, if we want our enemies subdued, there must be obedience to God and His Word.

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• There's not going to be any victory apart from God, and there's not going to be any victory apart from obedience. God said, "Open thy mouth wide and I'll fill it." If we obeyed, God said, "This and this and this I will do for you." You always want to bless and help an obedient child. You never want to help a rebellious child. You know, I had a very unusual experience this past Sunday.

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• I do not normally give money to strangers because you don't ever trust strangers. But I was putting gas in my automobile so I could come down here and teach. And my back was turned and about from here to Steve, a tall black man stood and I heard him say, "Permission to approach you sir." And I turned around and there stood this tall, strong black man and I said, "Pardon?" "Permission to approach you, sir."

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• He said, "I did not want to step up behind you and startle you." I said, "OK, you have my attention. Tell me what you need." He said, "Well, to be absolutely honest, I just got out of prison." He said, "I'm hungry, I don't have anything." I said, "Well, sir, let me tell you. I said, I will buy you something to eat. But I said, would you tell me which prison you were in?" And he did. And I bought him something to eat.

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• Normally, if he'd walked up to me and said, "Can I have some money?" I'd have said, "No. No. You can't have any money. I'm not going to buy you anything." But here he came, "Permission to approach you, sir." My wife asked me, she said, "Did you learn that in prison?" I said, "Well, they teach that in prison and they teach that in the military as well. You don't just walk up to some commanding officer. You have to have permission to get the commanding officer." And I suppose you'd have to have permission to get to a guard or a warden as well. But I'm just simply saying, you know, here was someone who acted like he wanted to do that which is right now. And I was more than willing to buy him something to eat. The question is, are we as Christians willing to do that which is right now? Are we willing to obey? Are we willing to say, "Permission to approach you, sir?"

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• "Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner. Lord, give me a heart to fear thee. Give me a heart to obey thee. I'm willing Lord to open my mouth and Lord I want you to fill it." That's what Psalm 81 is all about. What we have to discover is that our sins defraud us. They deny us. They destroy us. And it's only when we turn to Him that we realize the depth and the depravity of our sins.

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• And without Him, there is no joy. Without Him, there are no blessings. Without Him, there's only judgment. We do reap that which we sow, and we do suffer from the consequences of our sins. We cannot break the heart of God and escape the consequences.

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• I want to tell you something. I've often said to Alice, "I love you. I don't want to hurt you. I want to help you. And I surely do not want any arguments between us. I have to live with you and you have to live with me." You see what I'm saying? That's the way it is with each other. That's the way it is with God. We can't live without Him. And I certainly don't want Him angry with me. I don't want Alice angry with me. I don't want Mark angry with me. I don't want anybody angry with me. But I can't control their anger. But the point I'm trying to make is, I'm going to do what's right by the grace of God. And if people get angry with me, that's their problem, not mine. But here it is with God. We want to make sure that we understand it's our sins that are separating us. It's our sins that are hiding his face, and it's our sins that's destroying us. It's our sins that's causing us to be subdued by our enemies instead of him subduing our enemies.

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• We do suffer the consequences of our sins. Now, I want you to turn, if you would, to the book of Hosea chapter 9. I want you to see this. Look in Hosea chapter 9. Daniel, Hosea, Hosea chapter 9, beginning there in verse 1. Hosea 9, verse 1. God says, "Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy as other people. Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy as other people, for thou hast gone a-whoring from thy God, and thou hast left a reward upon every cornfloor. The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her."

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• Now watch, "They shall not dwell in the Lord's land, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria. They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing unto him. Their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners. All that eat thereof shall be polluted for their bread, for their soul shall come, shall not come into the house of the Lord." And then he asked, "What will you do in the solemn day and in the day of the Feast of the Lord?"

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• In other words, he said, "Look, you don't rejoice as other people. Why? Because you've gone a-whoring from your God. You're going to face famine. You're going to face starvation. You're going to face problems. You're going to face enslavement. You're going to face hard work. You're going to face hard labor. Why? Because you've departed from me." It's just that simple. And our sins break the heart of God and brings His chastening hand upon us.

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• Now let me make some applications and I want you to think of these with me. The first one is this, our sinfulness as well as our selfishness is clearly seen in the fact that we often concentrate upon our hurt, our grief, our disappointment, and our brokenness and we very, I'll say it differently, we hardly ever think of the effect that our sins have upon God. We're more concerned with our grief. We're more concerned with our hurt. We're more concerned with our brokenness than we are with God's. We have become totally man-centered instead of God-centered. Likewise, it's not just that we're concerned about our hurt and our grief and our disappointment. We're concerned about our joy, our happiness, and what pleases us. We're not concerned about what pleases God, what makes Him happy, what gives Him joy. No, no, no. We're concerned with ourselves. In that sense, we're still idolaters because we're putting ourselves above God.

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• We have to also, number two, understand that sin destroys. It does not delight, at least not in the long run. Yes, it is true, there is a temporary pleasure in sin. But when you consider the temporary is soon gone and the long-lasting effects of that sin still remain, it is absolute stupidity to trade a lifetime for a few minutes of unlawful pleasure. Think, if you would please, of the ruined lives, the wrecked homes, and of course, the wayward children and the devastated families that sin has produced. To sin against God is a bad, bad bargain.

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• It's like trading a ton of gold for a single piece of fiat paper money. You have to be insane to do something like that. And basically, we have to be insane to sin against God. He is the source of our life. He holdeth our soul and life. Our times are in His hands. Why would I want to aggravate? Why would I want to intimidate? Why would I want to deny and denigrate the God who holds my soul and my life in His hand? This is why I label this message "Breaking the Heart of God." God said, "I'm broken under your whorish heart. I'm pressed down like a wagon that's been overloaded."

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• "You've made me to serve your sins." The third application is this, the next time you're tempted to violate the law of God, before you act, before you sin, think and reflect upon the implication of your sin upon the Lord Jesus Christ and upon our Heavenly Father. And what we need to learn is this, when God said, "Oh, that there was such a heart in them to fear me and to keep my commandments always that it might be well with them and their children forever," then we need to stop and say, "Lord, give me such a heart as that. Work in my life so that I will not break your heart." Here's a thought. How often have you asked the Lord Jesus Christ?

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• To restrain you from sinning against him. That should be a daily prayer. John wrote in 1 John 2 and verse 1, "My little children, these things I write on you that you sin not." So we should be asking our Lord on a daily basis, "Lord, help me not to sin against thee today. Help me not to do anything that's grievous unto thee and would break your heart and hurt you. Help me to remember and think upon the implications of my actions and the implications of my attitude." Do not break the heart of God.

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• Do not insult His external glory. Do not deny Him and His sufficiency. Do not try to dethrone Him by your sin and enthrone your sin to yourself. God said, "I'm broken under your whorish heart." Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to thee this day. We thank you, Father, for your word, for your truth. And Lord, help us to understand the implications of our sins.

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• Not just manward, not just horizontally, but vertically as well. Give us grace, Lord, that we may serve Thee acceptably. Let the reverence in God be feared. We pray that You would help us not to sin against Thee, not to violate Thy Word. And help us, Father, to open our mouths wide and ask Thee to fill them. Give us grace, Lord, and mercy to be obedient unto Thee. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, we ask and pray. Amen.

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• so so

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T18:18:58Z