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[0:00] With the Lord's help and blessing, I will speak again this morning from the Gospel of Luke, the fourth chapter, reading a further expression from the 18th verse.

[0:20] The fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, the 18th verse. I will read the whole verse first. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor.

[0:42] He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captive, the recovering of sight, to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.

[0:59] Now the expression in this text to which I ask your attention this morning is this. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted.

[1:10] It will be remembered, of course, by the friends who were here last Lord's Day, that I spoke in the morning and evening upon the first part of this text.

[1:24] The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor. And I have been encouraged to know from one or two sources that the word, last Lord's Day, was very helpful and profitable, especially in the evening.

[1:47] That some who felt themselves to be poor with regard to spiritual things were encouraged to feel that the Gospel was all for them, and that it is a Gospel that brings all the riches of God's grace and favour and blessing to those who feel poor and needy and unworthy and who have just nothing to give but everything to receive.

[2:19] It is very encouraging to us ministers when we feel that the word we have upon our minds to speak is a message from the Lord.

[2:30] It is our reward for our labour in prayer and meditation and preaching when souls are benefited and blessed.

[2:41] Well now, the Lord grant a blessing to you. May the deal of the Holy Spirit rest upon the word. And upon our hearts as we consider it.

[2:53] For this is a very gracious word. He hath sent me to heal the broken hearty. You see, my friends, that the personal ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ when he was here upon earth, and the continuation of that ministry, still through the ministry of the Gospel, embraces a great variety of conditions of mind and spirit amongst those to whom the word is blessed and suited.

[3:29] It is well that it should be so. It is well that it should be so. Because conditions of mind, spiritually, very, very greatly.

[3:40] And if all the emphasis in the Gospel was put upon just one feature, one condition of need, and so on, others would feel well.

[3:52] That leaves me out. That doesn't come to me. That's not just my case. But you see, the Gospel embraces every possible spiritual case and condition, and need, and exercise of mind that we could possibly feel to be in.

[4:10] And let me emphasize it again. It isn't only that the Gospel, whether preached by Jesus Christ, or in his name, by his servants, or in any other way in which it is set forth, it isn't only that it meets our case, is suitable to our need, but it doesn't leave us where it finds us.

[4:38] It not only meets the need, but it imparts something to us. That's all you have here. It isn't only that the Gospel is a Gospel for the poor, but it's an enriching Gospel to the poor.

[4:58] And it isn't only that it's suitable to the brokenhearted, but it's healing. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. When I was pondering over this last night, I saw something in it that hadn't struck my mind before.

[5:20] And that is, that we have the Blessed Trinity in this text, and in these things of truth.

[5:31] you know, we don't base our belief on the Trinity as such, on just one or two proof texts.

[5:44] In fact, the doctrine of the Trinity is not often expressly stated in the Scriptures. But the truth of it appears all through the Word of God if we have eyes to see it.

[5:57] And, you have it here. First, there is God the Father. He hath sent me. Who sent Jesus Christ to heal the brokenhearted?

[6:11] His Father sent him. The Father who sent the Son is a distinct person from the Son who was sent. And then, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted.

[6:28] There you have Jesus Christ. It is his special work to be a healer to the brokenhearted. But even Jesus Christ, though he is the Son of God, yet he needed that the Holy Spirit should be upon him in order that he should heal the brokenhearted.

[6:52] For the Holy Spirit alone can cause the healing word of the Gospel and the healing blood and love and mercy and grace and compassion of Jesus Christ to be a soothing balm to our poor brokenhearted.

[7:15] leave out the Father and there's no one to send. Leave out the Son and there's no one to send. Leave out the Holy Spirit and the mission of Christ is ineffectual.

[7:32] And what struck my mind with much feeling was this about the ever-blessed Trinity has such a heart for the brokenhearted that the Father will send his only begotten Son to heal them, that the Son of God will go to Calvary to heal them, and that the Holy Spirit will rest abundantly upon Jesus Christ and the Gospel of his grace to make it a healing balm for the brokenhearted.

[8:06] It's wonderful, isn't it, that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit should have such a heart for poor brokenhearted sinners.

[8:20] Now I'll take a very plain and simple method this morning in expounding this word. you have first the condition, the brokenhearted, then you have secondly the healer.

[8:37] He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, and then thirdly you have the healing. He has sent me not just to speak a word to the brokenhearted, but to heal them, really to heal them.

[8:53] He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. And have it clear in your minds that this is true today.

[9:06] It has always been true. It will always be true as long as there is a brokenhearted soul on the face of the earth. For what the Lord Jesus Christ came to do in his ministry personally, and did do, he continues to do, through the ministry of the gospel to this day.

[9:34] And I believe that some of us are not strangers to this either in our experience of it. Let us look first then at the condition.

[9:47] He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. It is as I said just now. Conditions vary. Some there are who feel more the poverty of their spirit.

[10:03] Perhaps they wish they could feel more broken in their hearts. Perhaps they feel it's part of the poverty of their spirit. They lack contrition and true brokenhearted sorrow.

[10:14] They feel they're poor even with regard to that. they may think if they could feel more of that brokenheartedness well then things would go better with them.

[10:27] But if they did they find that brokenheartedness of spirit was not an easy condition to feel and to be in. some perhaps who may not so much feel either their poverty or their brokenheartedness are painfully conscious that sin has a great power in them and over them and Satan too and binds them.

[10:54] What they need is to be delivered from that captivity. Now brokenness of heart implies a very deep sorrow.

[11:08] It is an expression in the scripture that intends grief distress sorrow and because it is called brokenness of heart it implies that it's not superficial it goes deep it affects the soul there are the springs of grief in the heart which are the springs of all our feelings and all our emotions there's sorrow in the heart and brokenness of heart is not the condition to be desired for its own sake sorrow is no blessing really as such to be broken hearted is no good unless it has a good issue but when you consider this that broken heartedness is such a condition of heart and mind however distressing it is at the time that fits one to be healed with such a healer as Jesus

[12:23] Christ is and to experience such a healing balm as his love and his precious blood is then it's good to be broken hearted it's good to be broken hearted because if there's no broken heartedness there's no sweet and blessed experience of the healing hand and healing heart and healing words of Jesus Christ and besides that it is I feel good to be broken hearted because it tends to a deeper state of heart and mind with regard to our religion my friends I think one feature one very unfavorable feature of the generality of evangelical religion today is that it lacks depth there's a lack of depth the heart is not sufficiently affected it tends too much to be the adoption of an evangelical faith rather than a deep and personal experience of the life of the life of the gospel in the soul superficiality in religion is not good it may be sincere as far as it goes

[14:04] I believe it often is so far as it goes but it's too much on the surface there's not very much real depth of knowledge or experience or faith or love in that we can only really know Jesus Christ brethren as he deals graciously with our heart we can only know a remedy as it heals us we can only know power as it acts in our soul and we can only know the preciousness of Jesus Christ as he really heals conditions in our hearts so that although brokenness of heart for its own sake is not to be desired but for those considerations I've mentioned it is good to be broken hearted in any case brethren it's better to be broken hearted than hard hearted

[15:13] I know of no good whatever that can ever come of hard hearted I know a great deal of good that can come of broken hearted now then not to be too long on this let us consider this condition and what it implies the one thing as I have said it implies sorrow perhaps some will say yes but of course that means spiritual sorrow not necessarily not necessarily at least with regard to those that come within the scope of the saviour's gracious ministry it is not necessarily spiritual sorrow broken heartedness is broken heartedness if there is grief in the heart there is grief in the heart and although perhaps in some ways the sorrow may be from some natural cause and some distress but even that can make us feel to need the Lord to heal our sorrowful spirit natural sorrow can bring us nearer to the

[16:40] Lord and bring the Lord nearer to us but especially that sorrow of heart that comes from a sense of sin that especially is the brokenness of heart the Lord Jesus Christ will heal and to those who have felt the real distress of it the poignant sense of one's sin they are broken hearted indeed and as a rule the most eminent saints have been the most broken hearted sinners and I think of that word of apostle Paul in the seventh chapter of the Romans and I'm sure he didn't mean that to some former date of his experience that he was a present feeling with him when he wrote that epistle to the Romans he said there's something in me that breaks my heart that wounds me grieves me distresses me it's like a law in my members a law he said it is a sin and it breaks my heart that it should be in me that there should be such sin working in my heart it makes me wretched oh wretched man that I am that there should be so he would say oh sin the sin that I feel breaks my heart well now that's brokenness of heart isn't it and it is especially such brokenness of heart that Jesus

[18:40] Christ heals I won't anticipate what's on my mind to say about the healing but I think I must say this now because I may not have an opportunity to say it to you all of you tonight my brethren if you're broken hearted about your sin if that distresses you if that has ever brought you on your knees before God if you're ever felt as though your eyes could be a fountain of tears because of your sins there's only one bound for you only one there's nothing can heal your poor sin wounded soul but the blood of Jesus Christ there's nothing else it's no use looking here and looking there and looking to this one or that one there's only one bound for your sin wounded soul and that bound is the blood of Jesus

[19:53] Christ the blood of Christ how sweet it sounds to cleanse and heal a sinner's wound the streams thereof are rich and free and why my soul why not for thee you'll be thankful presently for all the distress you ever felt over your sin when the blood of Jesus Christ brings peace and pardon and cleansing and love into your heart you'll be better all the rest of your spiritual life that you felt this pain and distress over your sins that's one form of brokenness of heart but then there are others but I mentioned that first because

[20:55] I wanted to strike right to the root of the matter to begin with there are others sometimes there's a brokenness of heart because of frustrated hopes disappoints me and matters that cross our own spirits frustration can bring especially where perhaps one heart is set upon another with regard to spiritual matters I was thinking about that Shunammite woman I know that wasn't perhaps in all sense a spiritual matter but I think it was really a son was given to her that brought very much joy into her heart and into her home it what she had come not to any longer expect and the son was given and the son grew in her heart and affections and in her life and her home and it came upon a day that the son was with his father in the reapers and he was smitten and his father said take him home to his mother and he lay on his mother's lap till noon and then died it was a broken hearted woman all her hopes were dashed in the death of that child she might have felt well she did say as much in the sense to the prophet

[22:42] Elijah said she'd never been born at all than being born and then snapped away from Elijah and although she could say to the servant of Elijah when he said to her is it well with thee is it well with thy husband and is it well with the child and she said it is well it is well but that didn't mean that she wasn't a broken hearted woman for all that as you find when she came to the prophet himself she poured out her poor broken hearted grief to him I know my friend it's possible to say of anything that is very distressing it is well and yet to be broken hearted about it for all that but Jesus

[23:46] Christ can heal such broken heartedness some are broken hearted in a way of reproach in some way or other they suffer that which is very distressing to their spirit the Lord Jesus Christ endured very much in that way reproach he said and it was his voice in the Psalms that said it reproach has broken my heart broken my heart even his heart was broken he could not bear reproach in a stoical indifferent sort of way his heart was so tender sensitive that reproach has broken his heart and reproach can break our hearts to think of poor

[24:46] Hannah in this matter how her adversary reproached her because she had no child it was sad enough for Hannah to bear that disappointment which meant so much to the eastern women of that day it was bad enough that she had that disappointment to bear that there should be one who kept taunting her about it teasing her about it reproaching her about it was almost unbearable to her and she went into the temple to pray you know and she couldn't express herself in words her heart was too full of grief she felt she really couldn't bear it any longer and then there was the prophet Eli who would allow his son to transgress violently at the temple but he had a word of reproach for the poor broken hearted woman put away thy wine from him so you see the

[26:00] Lord dealt graciously with her and relieved her spirit even then so that she went down to her house and was no more sad now if I would spend all the time this morning in setting before you the various causes of brokenness of heart I still might not just touch yours but what of that you know the heart knows its own bitterness if no one else knows it your heart knows that it is bitterness it knows just what the cause of it is and just what the poignance of it is and just what the distress about it is your heart knows its own bitterness and Jesus Christ knows it now I must spend the rest of time this morning speaking to you about the healer he has sent me to heal the broken heart heart the

[27:08] Lord Jesus Christ has a special fitness to heal poor broken hearts that was evident at every turn in his life and his ministry many broken hearts came to him and he knew how to deal with each particular case now there are these things that make it that the Lord Jesus Christ is so suitable to heal broken hearts for one thing he has such a clear understanding of every case as I've said cases differ so but the Lord Jesus Christ reads them like an open book I think it is sometimes perhaps often the case with people who are in distress at this time they feel they're not understood perhaps they're not perhaps they speak unadvisedly sometimes in the distress of their spirit

[28:20] Job did really and one cause of it was because he knew that he was being misjudged his friends read into his case what Job knew wasn't true of him and that made it all the more distressing no wonder if Job did say some things that were unadvisable he was under provocation and misunderstanding and misjudgment but no my friends there's never under any misunderstanding there's never any misjudgment where the Lord Jesus Christ is concerned he never makes a mistake he understands a side he marks a secret groan if your feelings just cannot be put into an expression it is no more with you than it was with Hannah when she lips her lips moved but she spoke not with her voice her grief was too great to express it the

[29:27] Lord Jesus Christ reads it a groan is a language to him a sigh is something communicated to him if we speak one to another we must report as far as we can express ourselves and then often we feel we make a very poor hand at expressing our feelings but there's no need of this with regard to Jesus Christ why perhaps if you are under some special sense of burden or distress or you could say perhaps is oh Lord they're nice and of course he does know if you could explain yourself for half an hour you wouldn't say any more than that to him oh but besides that understanding for he was said to be made of quick understanding that is that once he could discern every case he could read every heart but he is very sympathetic and very tender our our redeemer is a very tender hearted man he is very sympathetic sympathy is a response of the heart words may express it somewhat but still sympathy is a response of the heart the heart of Jesus

[31:03] Christ was exceedingly responsive more than we can realise his heart is moved with tenderness his bowels melt with love and I take it that was one reason why he was so attracted to certain people who felt they were in general disregarded and despised the woman felt she could venture into Simon's house although he was a scornful Pharisee because Jesus Christ was there he wouldn't have gone in otherwise but Jesus Christ was there so she went into the Pharisee house and broke the ointment upon his feet washed his feet then with her tears wiped them with the hairs of her head and

[32:03] Simon was offended Jesus Christ was touched and attracted to heal the broken heart one knows what a broken heart really is himself and Jesus Christ knows brokenness of heart from experience we have not in high priest that cannot be touched with the feelings mark you the feelings of our infirmity and our sorrows and our sins it's one thing to be touched by the disciples it's another thing to be touched by the feelings Jesus Christ is touched by the feelings where there's a broken heart there's sympathy in his broken heart it's wonderful how sympathy and how the lack of it affects them and they're much more free you feel to anyone if you're in trouble if they're really sympathetic

[33:17] I remember that when I lost my baby boy which was one of the great sorrows and grief of my life my heart was broken over the loss of my little boy and although it wasn't that I felt bitter about it but I was heartbroken and I said to someone that I felt as though I could get up in the middle of the night and go out in the graveyard and bring his little body back indoors and he said to me oh that was rebellion I never said anymore I never said anymore that shut me up that shut me up now I don't be the Lord Jesus Christ that I said I was rebellion and my heart was so broken over my little boy but you see the other one had never known that grief he'd never known that grief he couldn't sympathize he couldn't sympathize and I couldn't say another word to him after that now you see the

[34:40] Lord Jesus Christ know there to draw poor broken hearts out not able to shut them up never a hard word from his lips to a broken heart the Pharisees the hypocrites the proud contemptuous people he had a word for them of a different character our Saviour knows how to heal the broken hearted he not only understands exactly the feelings but he has a tender sympathy for it I wish I could really preach this into your hearts this morning that although there's so much about our sin that makes us ashamed before God never let it keep you away from Jesus Christ never he came into the world to save sinners and there's a world of meaning in that one word from him into your heart will heal the grief of sin and sorrow there's another reason why

[35:59] Jesus Christ is such a healer for broken hearts and I've already mentioned it it is because the Holy Spirit as a gracious function rests so abundantly upon him I don't think it would be wrong for me to say that even Jesus Christ speaking of him as a man could heal broken hearts without the Holy Ghost God at least I'm sure of this that no ministers no one ministers or otherwise can say anything that will heal a broken heart without the Holy Ghost the Holy Spirit you know has an unction that makes the word to be softening healing helpful comforting is a sweet oil that does not break our bones that softens our spirit brethren this is my last word this morning the Saviour's love compassion sympathy and the

[37:20]  Saviour's precious atoning blood that's what you want to heal your broken heart heart on your wounded spirit and to send you blessings and praising is their name for you sent me to heal the broken heart amen