The Acceptable Sacrifice

The Heart of a Pilgrim
Psalm 51:17
2010-01-27
SRMMX Session Four

The external religious system in England posed one of the greatest dangers John Bunyan faced. That system imprisoned him for 12 years in Bedford, keeping him away from his family and ministry. But even worse, that same system imprisoned men in their sins, keeping them away from freedom found in the gospel. Bunyan spent much of his ministry exposing the worthlessness of external shows and encouraging men to look to the hidden person of the heart (cf. 1 Peter 3:4).

Two tragic characters in The Pilgrim’s Progress were Envy and Superstition (I like to imagine they were cousins with Formalist and Hypocrisy). They were at home in Vanity Fair, and they testified against Christian and Faithful. They were angry that Christian and Faithful made their professions look weak. Non-fiction hostility of this sort was directed against Bunyan, as he was persecuted by, and burdened for, those who made ceremony and sacrifice their primary concern.

Sermon upon sermon and book after book by Bunyan confronted this bare religiosity, and exhorted men to see the heart of a pilgrim. God accepts only one type of pilgrim: the pilgrim with a broken and contrite heart. This emphasis recurred in Bunyan’s preaching and theology, namely, that “grace will not come without profound personal conviction of the utter worthlessness of one’s own endeavors” (Hill, 174). An unbroken heart before God is useless to God.

Bunyan’s most straightforward book on the subject was The Acceptable Sacrifice, or, The Excellency of a Broken Heart. It is a meditation and application of one verse, Psalm 51:17.

King David wrote Psalm 51 after the prophet Nathan confronted him over his sin with Bathsheba, against Uriah, and against God. The psalm is David’s sorrowful confession and plea for forgiveness. It is one of the most memorable psalms, and perhaps the clearest example of a broken heart in the Bible.

A broken heart isn’t a pleasant sensation. When a doctor breaks a bone to set it correctly, the sensation is not delightful. But it is necessary in order for the bone to heal. So breaking the heart to align it with God does delight God. David comforted himself with this truth in verse 17.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

God looks at the heart (cf. 1 Samuel 16:7). External compliance to His own law does not please Him if a man’s heart is not internally conformed. Sacrifices refer to worship, and verse 17 reveals the worship that God does not despise, or in other words, the worship that is acceptable to Him, that He receives, that He esteems, in which He delights. It seems that this type of sacrifice is the sacrifice of sacrifices, the top of His favorites. Nothing pleases Him more than a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.

The word broken is repeated; contrite is not too different, another way to say the same thing. God desires, God delights in, hearts before parts, and in particular, hearts that are humble, hearts that mourn over sin, hearts that bow.

A broken heart is “disabled.” A broken bone disables a man, so when the inner man is broken, he is not able to walk freely in the things that he did before. A contrite spirit is grieved, sorrowful, humble. All the senses are involved, especially as he sees his sin for what it is.1

Hearts that are not broken are not accepted by Him. He despises religious performance, no matter how steady or spectacular, that does not come from a soft heart. This is true by default among those who are unsaved, be they religious or not.

In fact, the religious may be in more danger. It is harder for them to recognize and admit.

The more righteous is in his own eyes before conversion, the more need he has of heart-breaking work, in order to his salvation; because a man is not by nature so easily convinced that his righteousness is to God abominable. … Wherefore, a self-righteous man is but a painted Satan, or a devil in fine clothes; but thinks he so of himself? No! no! he saith to others, Stand back, come not near me, I am holier than thou. (Sacrifice, in Works, 719)

The first reason I felt compelled to cover this book by Bunyan is because it focuses on what is acceptable to God. He’s concerned with heart condition, so the condition of our heart is always relevant. But the second reason is because most of you have been around the church and a Christian school your whole lives. You’ve been going through motions, but your heart has never been broken.

[C]onversion to God is not so easy and so smooth a thing as some would have men believe it is….Why is the conversion of the soul compared to the grafting of a tree, if that be done without cutting? The Word is the graft, the soul is the tree, and the Word, as the scion, must be let in by a wound; for to stick on the outside, or to be tied on with a string, will do no good here….I say, heart must be set to heart, and back to back, or the sap will not be conveyed from the root to the branch; and I say, this must be done by a wound. (720)

Maybe there is no real fruit because there is no real spiritual life.

Throughout his pastoral life, and especially in The Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan aimed his largest guns at hypocrisy. He knew the need for breaking of religious hypocrisy from personal experience.

I loved to be talked of as one that was truly godly. I was proud of my godliness, and, indeed, I did all I did, either to be seen of, or to be well spoken of by man. (Grace Abounding, #32)

He also knew the benefits of brokenness for sake of his sanctification. In the Preface to The Acceptable Sacrifice, Bunyan’s friend George Cokayn wrote:

God–who had much work for [Bunyan] to do–was still hewing and hammering him by his Word, and sometimes also by more than ordinary temptations and desertions….Indeed, [brokenness] is a most necessary qualification that should always be found in the disciples of Christ, who are most eminent, and as stars of the first magnitude in the firmament of the church. (686)

Sin blocks the arteries of a man’s heart, even when that man is a believer. David was a believer when he committed adultery, tried to cover that sin with murder, and tried to hide both sins from others. He wrote Psalm 51 from the perspective of one of God’s own. So we are always in need of a broken and contrite heart. That is what God accepts.

All of Bunyan’s book goes to this, and jumps from Psalm 51:17.

This is session four, and it is a session of fours. Four truths about broken hearts, with four sub-points each.

The Necessity of a Broken Heart

Because every man is a sinner, and because sin makes a man’s heart intolerable and obnoxious to God, it is essential that he approach God with a broken heart. There are at least four reasons the sinner’s heart must be broken.

First, an unbroken heart is unwise.

Hard hearts are likened to fools, and fools don’t listen. Fools believe that they know, but they are deceived. They express no fear of God or His judgements because they are ignorant. Their ears are shut; they’ve turned a blind eye. A man’s foolishness must be broken before he’ll be able to see the mess he’s in.

what an amazing thing this is, that a rational creature should make no better a bargain; that one that is so wise in all terrene (earthly) things, should be such a fool in the thing that is most weighty? (Acceptable Sacrifice, 714)

In other words, how smart is the man who lives on temporary, seen things? Who drinks from the dry, empty cistern?

Satan will use any means to keep the soul from Christ; he loveth not an awakened frame of spirit; security, blindness, darkness, and error is the very kingdom and habitation of the wicked one. (Grace Abounding, 25)

Satan loves unbroken hearts.

Second, an unbroken heart is unbelieving.

Hard hearts have no faith, and the unbelieving calls God’s character into question by his doubts and cynicism and criticism. He does not trust God, and that makes God appear unreliable, though nothing is further from the truth. A man’s unbelief must be broken before it can be molded into trust. Before being broken, calls to faith bounce off his hard heart.

When men are somewhat put to it, when reason and conscience shall begin a little to hearken to a preacher, or a judgment that shall begin to hung for iniquity, how many tricks, evasions, excuses, demurs, delays, and hiding-holes will they make, invent, and find, to hide and preserve their sweet sins with themselves and their souls, in the delights of them, to their own eternal perdition? (Acceptable Sacrifice, 706)

Third, an unbroken heart is unruly.

Hard hearts are proud. The only thing the proud man knows for sure is that he knows everything he needs to know. He acts like he needs no one else. Wrong again. This causes him to assess himself higher than he ought. His mind is set on the flesh, making him hostile to God (cf. Romans 8:7). He will not submit to God’s will or bow before God’s throne. A man’s arrogant, obstinate, unruly heart must be broken. Hard hearts fight against confrontation and counsel.

A wild or mad man gives no heed to good counsel…let him alone, and he will greatly busy himself all his life to accomplish that which, when it is completed, amounts to nothing. The work, the toil, the travel of such a one comes to nothing, save to declare that he was out of his wits that did it. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 707)

What’s really scary to consider is, “If there is so much in the pride of his countenance, what is there, think you, in the pride of his heart?” (Acceptable Sacrifice, 704)

Fourth, an unbroken heart is unappreciative.

Hard hearts are unthankful. Even as a fool, a doubter, and a rebel, he continues to enjoy God’s gifts to him, gifts such as breath, senses, family, temporal successes, sun and rain. He has nothing apart from God, and even though he can see God’s invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, he does not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him (cf. Romans 1:20-21). A man’s presumptuous heart must be broken.

[Christ] is indeed the great deliverer; but what is a deliverer to them that never saw themselves in bondage, as was said before?…He has sorely suffered, and been bruised for the transgression of man, that they might not receive the smart, and hell, which by their sins they have procured to themselves. But what is that to them that never saw ought but beauty, and that never tasted anything but sweetness in sin? It is he that holdeth by his intercession the hands of God, and that causes him to forbear to cut off the drunkard, the liar, and unclean person, even when they are in the very act and work of their abomination; but their hard heart, their stupefied heart, has no sense of such kindness as this, and therefore they take no notice of it….Wherefore such ungrateful, unthankful, inconsiderate wretches as these must needs be a continual eye-sore, as I may say, and great provocation to God; and yet thus men will do before their hearts are broken…. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 710-711)

These are all ways to say that an unbroken heart is spiritually dead, insensitive and hard as a diamond (cf. Ezekiel 36:26; Zechariah 7:12). The man with an unbroken heart deserves judgment, but does not even know it.

Man’s heart is fenced, it is grown gross; there is a skin that, like a coat of mail, has wrapped it up, and inclosed it on every side. This skin, this coat of mail, unless it be cut off and taken away, the heart remains untouched, whole; and so as unconcerned, whatever judgments or afflictions light upon the body. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 703)

The Acceptability of a Broken Heart

God does not accept an unbroken heart. But a broken and contrite heart He does not despise (Psalm 51:17). The LORD of heaven and earth looks to the broken-hearted.

Thus says the LORD:
“Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you would build for me,
and what is the place of my rest?
All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things came to be,
declares the LORD.
But this is the one to whom I will look:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word.
Isaiah 66:1-2

A man’s broken heart is an acceptable sacrifice to Him and we can see that in four arguments.

First, God Himself creates broken hearts.

Every broken heart is His own handiwork. A hard heart doesn’t know it’s own hardness; it must have outside help. Unless God transplants the heart of stone with a heart of flesh (cf. Ezekiel 36:26), man will never be acceptable to God. God grants repentance and He does not despise His own work.

We must still know that this broken tender heart is not a plant that grows in our own soil, but is the peculiar gift of God himself. He that made the heart must break the heart. (George Cokayn, Preface to Acceptable Sacrifice, 687)

God does this by His word.

Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? (Jeremiah 23:29)

The LORD sent Nathan David to preach. (2 Samuel 12:1-13)

Here is nought but open war, acts of hostility, and shameful rebellion, on the sinner’s side; and what delight can God take in that? Wherefore, if God will bend and buckle the spirit of such an one, he must shoot an arrow at him, a bearded arrow, such as may not be plucked out of the wound: an arrow that will stick fast, and cause that the sinner falls down as dead at God’s foot. Then will the sinner deliver up his arms, and surrender up himself as one conquered, into the had of, and beg for the Lord’s pardon, and not till then; I mean not sincerely. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 710)

Second, God Himself cares for broken hearts.

Again and again God reveals His tenderness toward tender hearts. His Son, in particular is given charge to keep the wounded and care for them. It is a key part of His mission. He will not crush or bruise broken hearts; He esteems them.

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, Isaiah 61:1; see also verses 2-3, and also Luke 4:18 (by Jesus Himself)

See Psalm 147:1-6, and how the LORD’s healing of the brokenhearted is immediately followed by His determining the number and names of the stars.

“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench” (Isaiah 42:3; quoted in Matthew 12:20).

But that God, the high God, the God against whom we have sinned, should…give his Son a command, a charge, a commission to take care of, to bind up and heal the broken in heart; this is that which can never be sufficiently admired or wondered at by men or angels. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 692)

Third, God Himself communes with broken hearts.

He not only accepts, He also dwells in broken hearts. He comes near for intimate fellowship. His Spirit creates and then resides in hearts of flesh, as do God’s graces and gifts. He makes broken hearts into receptacles, into cabinets that hold His most excellent gifts.

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Isaiah 57:15

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:18

Of all the men in the world, none have acquaintance with God, none understand what communion with him, and what his teachings mean, but such as are of a broken and contrite heart. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 690-691)

Fourth, God Himself concurs with broken hearts.

Broken hearts are those that see their sin as God does. Broken hearts agree with God that they need His grace. Broken hearts value the person and work of the Son as the Father does. God does not despise a broken heart because it is a heart that longs for righteousness as He does.

a broken heart prizes Christ, and has a high esteem for him. The whole have no need of a physician, but the sick; this sick man is the broken-hearted in the text; for God makes men sick by smiting of them, by breaking of their hearts….Can any think that God should be pleased, when men despise his Son, saying, He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him? And yet so say they of him whose hearts God has not mollified; yea, the elect themselves confess, that before their hearts were broken, they set light by him also. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 710)

The Advantages of a Broken Heart

In addition to pleasing God, which is the most important consideration, a broken heart benefits us in (at least) four ways.

First, a broken heart is fearful.

A sensitive heart cares about God’s commands and is careful to keep them. As someone with an open wound goes to special lengths to avoid exposure to more pain, so a broken heart watches against offending God and incurring the hammer of His discipline. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7), “the fear of the LORD is hatred of evil” (Proverbs 8:13), “the fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may turn way from the snares of death” (Proverbs 14:26).

All sorts of god things come to those who fear God.

By breaking of the heart he openeth it, and makes it a receptacle for the graces of his Spirit; that is the cabinet, when unlocked, where God lays up the jewels of the gospel; there he puts his fear. (Jer 32:39-41; Eze 36:26-27). The heart, I say, God chooses for his cabinet: there he hides his treasure; there is the seat of justice, mercy and every grace of God. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 709)

He doesn’t give the jewels and treasure of His graces to those who won’t rightly revere them.

Second, a broken heart is repentant.

Because we are still not delivered from the presence of sin, even in our saved condition, we do sin. But a broken heart is quick to sense conviction, to confess, and to repent. David took over a year before he repented because his heart was not broken.

In Psalm 51 David cries out: “blot out my transgressions” (v.1), “cleanse me from my sin” (v.2), “I know my transgressions, my sin is ever before me” (v.3), and “Against You and You only have I sinned” (v.4).

Third, a broken heart is prayerful.

A tender heart knows its own weakness and that it is prone to wander off the pilgrim’s path. It knows it needs help, and so it regularly asks God for help, moment by day. A broken heart desires communion with God, and seeks it in prayer.

All of Psalm 51 is a song of prayer. “Cast me not away from Your presence, take not Your Holy Spirit from me” (v.11).

Fourth, a broken heart is compassionate.

A tender heart is sympathetic with others who are wounded. It feels the hurt it sees in others, and it seeks to care for others and comfort them even at it has been comforted. We put on a soft heart like Christ and serve.

“Then I will teach transgressors Your way, and sinners will return to You” (v.13).

In other words, a broken heart is alive and sensitive, sensitive to God–His justice and His grace, and sensitive to others–their needs. Unlike a hard heart, a broken heart is busy thinking how to honor Him and help people.

The Maintenance of a Broken Heart

If a broken heart is so necessary, so accepted by God, so advantageous to us, so excellent, then how can we keep our hearts tender? Bunyan offers this (summarized and reorganized) list of dos and don’ts, four of each.

Dont’

1. Despise conviction and discipline.

It may not be pleasant at the time, but discipline is sparing you from much worse. God convicts and corrects those He loves (Hebrews 12:7-11; Revelation 3:19), so running away or rationalizing away sorrow over sin will desensitize us to sin.

2. Keep vain company or conversation.

Apathy toward God spreads like cancer. A person with a tender heart will have a measure of seriousness about him, and if he pursues silliness and lightness, he will soon forget and his heart will grow dull toward the important. “The companion of fools will suffer harm” (Proverbs 13:20; cf. Proverbs 18:7; 1 Corinthians 15:33).

3. Take a step toward unbelief or sin.

Don’t give doubt a foot in the door, and don’t give temptation a second glance. These wage war against your soul (cf. 1 Peter 2:11), so as a broken hearted pilgrim, fight.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:12-13)

4. Use someone else as an excuse.

Sometimes Satan makes use of a good man’s bad ways, to spoil and harden the heart of them that come after. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 713) cf. Gal 2:11-13 and Peter leading Barnabas astray.

We should consider bad examples, not to condone our own sin, but to learn what path to steer clear of.

Do

1. Labor to know God.

Deepen your intimacy with Him by learning about Him. Bunyan recommended in particular, learn more about God’s omnis–the things that will awe you. (e.g., Proverbs 15:3–”The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.”) Learn more about His holiness and justice–the things that will humble you. (e.g., Hebrews 12:29–”our God is a consuming fire.”)

2. Seek to see sin for what it is.

Don’t allow temptation to deceive you from true pleasure and satisfaction by enticing you to drink from dry, empty cisterns. Think about sin’s effect on fallen angels, Adam, the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cross. “Be persuaded that it is the only enemy of God” (Acceptable Sacrifice, 714).

3. Think often about death and judgment.

The fact of death is certain, though the time of death is not. It is inevitable, this world is not the end. So think about the destination. The Puritans were said to live with one foot in the grave. That wasn’t because they were lugubrious or funereal, but because they wanted to be ready. “Just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27)

When God shows a man the sin the sin he has committed, the hell he has deserved, the heaven he has lost; and yet that Christ, and grace, and pardon my be had; this will make him serious, this will make him melt, this will break his heart, this will show him that there is more than air, than a noise, than an empty sound in religion; and this is the man, whose heart, whose life, whose conversations and all, will be engaged in the matters of the eternal salvation of his precious and immortal soul. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 715)

4. Consider Christ’s tenderness.

He has spilled His own blood so that God could be both just and yet forgive our hard, proud, rebellious hearts. He sympathizes with us in our weakness, and He does not treat us as we deserve to be treated. (cf. Colossians 3:12-13) yeah

Conclusion

Maybe there is no real fruit because there is no real spiritual life. Your name may be Formalist or Hypocrisy, or maybe Sloth, Presumption.

I can hardly think enough about broken-heartedness. It puts me in a right frame before God, to consider His kindness and the mercy of His salvation. It also prepares me for meeting criticism and small minded, immature people. A broken heart keeps me tender, and enables pity rather than annoyance. A broken-hearted condition isn’t usual, but so much the worth fighting for in light of its benefit for worship and working with men. Keeping my mind on the broken heart channel keeps me watching unseen things.

Sinner, hast thou obtained a broken heart? has God bestowed a contrite spirit upon thee? He has given thee what himself is pleased with; he has given thee a cabinet to hold his grace in; he has given thee a heart that can heartily desire his salvation, an heart after his own heart, that is, such as suits his mind. True, it is painful now, sorrowful now, penitent now, grieved now; not it sighs, now it mourns and crieth unto God. Well, very well; all this is because he hath a mind to make thee laugh; he has made thee sorry on earth that thou mightest rejoice in heaven. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 715)