In the ancient city of Machu Picchu in Peru, Incan engineers constructed temples of cut stones that so precisely fit together that a knife blade cannot be wedged into the cracks.  Some of these stones were massive, and yet they were cut with such precision that no mortar was needed, and many of them still stand today. 

Scholars surmise that they fit these stones together with such custom accuracy by lowering them into place, one at a time, and where they bumped against a ridge, they would carve away the needed stone until a tight fit was secured. 

Each stone was carefully worked by the craftsmen and the result is that a large portion of a city constructed with crude tools and means largely stands after more than five hundred years.

I’d bet that if you were to tell the skilled workers at Machu Picchu that 500 years later we’d be enjoying their handiwork, they would not be surprised.  They’d probably say, “Of course you will.  We’re building it to last.” 

Similarly, believers are a part of something great. When I look at these pictures, I see faces of Christians.  Each believer is a carefully-crafted and worked masterpiece fit for the building up of the church.  The sculptor is God, and sometimes believers grind together in the uncomfortable process of making the wall stronger and more stable.  And while it is possible that a wall may stand if one its stones is removed, it may crumble.  It is at least dramatically weaker.  But the wall we are building will stand the test of time as its cornerstone is none other than Christ Himself.

No doubt the process of being fit for the construction of the wall is an uncomfortable process for each stone.  That was definitely the case for the living stones that Peter addressed in his first epistle.  They needed a clear mind and an accurate understanding of their purpose in the wall and what awaited them in glory if they were to endure well the grueling shaping process.  That is a major purpose of his letter. 

And what we have here is a seemingly endless, glorious meditation on who we are in Christ, and you can almost sense the excitement coming from Peter.  It’s as if he’s saying, “Do you understand what you are?  Do you understand WHOSE you are?  Do you understand what HE IS?  This is amazing!  Who cares about death?  You’re children of the King!”

So, in this passage Peter returns to his doctrinal teaching after having spent some time in issuing his directions to his readers.  Interpreters debate rather heatedly about whether this passage is command-oriented or doctrine-oriented, as it’s apparently hard to discern from the original manuscripts.  As most English translations render the paragraph, it is informational, and that fits well with the context and, I think, the content. 

You see, Peter is teaching his readers about Christ and about themselves as they are being persecuted.  And this has been his pattern: 

·      He addresses his readers as “elect exiles” (1:1).

They have been chosen by God, and can enjoy all the accompanying benefits of such treatment. 

·      He tells them of their heavenly inheritance (1:4-5).

They have a salvation and an inheritance that cannot be taken away because they are not physical but spiritual and because the One who has given them is greater than all. 

·      He reminds them that their grief under trials is but temporary and necessary (1:6-9).

We learned recently at the Snow Retreat that trials and suffering are temporary by design.  At the worst they last for a lifetime, which is a teeny speck in light of eternity for eternal creatures.  John Bunyan understood this, which is why he was able to joyfully endure separation from his family for his obedience to Christ.  Twelve years of comfort is a small sacrifice for the glory of God.  And Peter’s readers needed to remember this, too. 

·      He tells his readers that their salvation surpasses the angels’ understanding and experience (1:10-12).

Remember that the elect angels live to serve and worship and glorify God, and they have never experienced forgiveness because they have never sinned.  The glories of the gospel are only conceptual to them, while they are experiential and real to us. 

·      He instructs them to set their hope fully on the grace that is to be brought to them at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1:13).

Their hope is in Christ and in Him alone, and a hope that is placed in Him is a good investment for our souls.  They could safely hope in Christ because He would ultimately deliver them from the hands of their enemies, whether in this life or the next. We’re accustomed to hoping in men, and we are often disappointed, but God will never disappoint. 

·      He tells them that they have been ransomed by the blood of a loving Redeemer (1:18-19).

It is a glorious mediation to remember that we are free to live holy lives because we have been ransomed by Christ.

And Peter will keep doing this in the rest of his letter, because when their life is hard, and when they are being deprived of earthly pleasures and joys, it is helpful to remember whose they are and what awaits them in heaven. 

And the same is true for us. 

Tonight I would like to hang our thoughts regarding Peter’s readers and Christ on three separate lessons that Peter has for his readers:

1.    What They Are

2.    What They Do

3.    What He Is

I think a discussion about what we are in Christ deals more directly and objectively with our position.  To say someone is a plumber, or a teacher, or a banker doesn’t tell you much about his personality necessarily, but it does give you objective data about the person.  It is concrete, solid information about his position, his profession, his standing.  And even if a plumber is having a bad day, or is just in a foul mood, he is still a plumber.  That’s what he is. 

Similarly, though we may feel distant from Christ, though we may be wayward, even, or disobedient, the fact remains that in Christ, we are custom cut, chiseled, tailored stones for the edification of a spiritual building: the Church.  The master Artisan has shaped and fashioned us with a purpose. 

And because the instruction related to these three headings comes from all over the passage, we’ll find bits and pieces from this passage for each.  I have tried articulate this in a way that makes sense to me, and I hope it helps you, as well. 

So please follow along with me as I read our passage for tonight before we examine Peter’s lessons for his readers. 

1.    Lesson #1:  WHAT THEY ARE

1 Peter 2:5  you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood,

1.    Living stones (v. 5a)

As we’ve already seen in some walls that were constructed centuries after this letter was written, a building is only as strong as its materials.  You can put together straw in a strategic fashion, but in the end, your house is weak. 

Believers are the stones that construct …

2.    A spiritual house (v. 5b)

This is not a physical, earthly house of bricks and mortar or clay that will inevitably crumble. They are a part of a spiritual house that cannot be compared with the physical.  And it is for a purpose: to be a holy priesthood. 

3.    A holy priesthood (v. 5c)

The priesthood of Christians surpasses the Levitical priesthood in every way: they are spiritual, and the Levites were physical.  Their work covered sins, but because of Christ’s real atonement for sins, we can have real contact with the Father through Christ.

Every believer is a priest, then, as he speaks to the Father because of the work of Christ.

This is likely no new knowledge for these believers, but if you imagine for a moment that newness and novelty that this carried with it, they would have to get pretty pumped up thinking about it.

1 Peter 2:9  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession

Note in this section the striking parallels with Old Testament Israel.  This is much of the same language we might hear in the Old Testament to describe God’s people Israel, but in every case the believers’ position surpasses Israel’s. 

4.    A chosen race (v. 9a)

This surpasses Israel’s election, as it was unto an eternal inheritance, and because they rejected Christ the Messiah. 

5.    A royal priesthood (v. 9a)

Here he takes the priesthood piece a step further: beyond being a holy priesthood, we are also royalty, as coheirs with Christ, children of the King of kings who have access to the Father, we are a royal priesthood. 

6.    A holy nation (v. 9a)

The holy ones are like God.  It is His requirement that we be holy as He is.  We are a nation of believers

7.    A people for His own possession (v. 9a)

We are God’s possession!  Do you get that?  He has chosen us to do what He will with us, and He has chosen to give the Church as a gift for His Son!

8.    God’s people (v. 10)

1 Peter 2:10  Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Again we have a contrast between their station before Christ and when they’re reading the letter.  They were without mercy, but no longer. 

This glorious meditation has to impact how they are to live, then.  If they are stones in the God’s spiritual house, if they are a holy and royal priesthood, being built up as God’s people for a gift for the Son, what do they do? 

This takes us to our second lesson:

2.    Lesson #2: WHAT THEY DO

1.    They come to Him (v. 4a)

1 Peter 2:4  As you come to him,

These people come to Christ!  What else will they do?  The Levitical priests would have given anything to have had the access to the Father that we have through Christ.  If we are a holy priesthood, of course we will come to Him. 

When we talk of someone being saved, we often will say he has come to Christ.  But rather than being a salvific reference, one commentator suggests that “The present participle (coming) does not refer to an individual’s initial commitment to Christ for salvation, but to the voluntary, repeated, or habitual coming of believers to Christ for sustenance and fellowship” (Hiebert 129).   

This is a participle, and it is indicative, meaning that it does not command the people to come to Christ, but rather it describes what they are doing. 

You go to the living well.  You go to the source of living water.  You go again and again to the hope of eternal life.  At least that’s what Peter thought.  Turn quickly to John chapter 6 for a quick look inside the mind of the apostle Peter.

READ JOHN 6:65-69

John 6:65-69  And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father."  ⁶⁶ After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.  ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?"  ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,  ⁶⁹ and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."   

Peter knew that the One to go to repeatedly would have the words of eternal life and be the Holy One of God.  But what else are they to do as followers of Christ? 

2.    They may proclaim Christ’s excellencies (v. 9b)

1 Peter 2:9  that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

The immediate context makes it clear that we are made with a view to this kind of behavior.  This is natural for the believer, as this is what we were intended to do as God’s own possession!

It is our duty and should be our delight to sing the praises of the one who has rescued us from ourselves and transferred us from darkness to light.  Do you do this?  If not, you’re missing the very point of your identification in Christ. 

I confess that sometimes I feel more exuberant in worship than other times.  When we gather corporately, we corporately (as living stones!) proclaim His excellencies! 

3.    Lesson #2: WHAT HE IS

1.    A living stone (v. 4b)

1 Peter 2:4  a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,

As we’ve already discussed, the stone in the wall is a person, but rather than Christ being like us, we are like Him.  And this is an interesting picture, because a person may be described as “stone dead,” but living stones compose this spiritual house.

2.    A cornerstone (vv. 6b, 7b)

1 Peter 2:6-7  For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."  ⁷ So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,"

A cornerstone was the start of the construction.  It was at the bottom of two walls and held them together, ensuring the building would be square, straight and true from there.  The cornerstone bore the full weight of the wall, and without a cornerstone, no wall will stand. 

The cornerstone, then, is Christ. 

3.    A savior (v. 6b)

1 Peter 2:6  whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."

This is said quickly, but it is a significant and glorious truth of Christ, the Cornerstone.  He is our Savior and can rescue the weak and weary and the afflicted.  This had to be a comforting and sweet reminder for Peter’s readers. 

4.    A stumbling block (v. 8)

1 Peter 2:8  "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

Where Peter’s audience needs constant reminders of their position and their inheritance in Christ because of their suffering, we need these things in order to suffer.  They were suffering already because of their identification with Christ.  Practically, identification with Christ for us will cost us almost nothing in this world.  But living for Him as we should live will make the world around us very uncomfortable because Christ is a stumbling block. 

We should not be surprised if the world hates our message, because it hates Christ.  If the world loves us, we can conclude that we do not have the love of Christ. 

CONCLUSION

1.    How does a proper understanding of who we are in Christ make this life more bearable?

2.    What does it mean to “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light?”  Is this worth singing about?

3.    What truths do you remind yourself of when you are discouraged?

Andy Bowers
Katie Hanson
Barbara Moore
Shannon Newell
Ben Hackbarth
Ryan Hall
Bayley Galbreath
Jacob Herrington
Alicia Martin
Becca Butler
Stephanie Zimmer
Andi McAuliffe
Brandon Thompson
Nathaniel Lugg
Misty Hehe
Bethany Nielsen

Brandon Thompson
Autumn Huning
Caleb Larsen
Nick Lewis
Nathaniel Lugg
Jordan Rock
???
Jacob Herrington
Sarah Wennersten
Garrett Weinberg
Olivia Martin
Tim O’Kelly
Andi McAuliffe
Misty Hehe
Laila Bour
Enrique Kramer
Josh Bour
Ben Hackbarth
Kaitlyn Schuler
Katie Herrington
Maylinda Clark
Josiah Nielsen
Trevor Hansen
Chase Greene
Jonathan Sarr

Notes to come.

Some of my favorite parts in The Pilgrim’s Progress are where Christ is in view. He’s not necessarily visible, but in He’s there in unseen, behind the scene ways. He is always watching over and caring for His pilgrims.

Christ is always “behind the wall,” fueling the fire of our faith. Though “it is hard for the tempted to see how this work of grace is maintained in the soul,” His work is so certain that “the souls of his people prove gracious still.” In other words, He is the efficient cause of our endurance, no matter how much the devil (through difficulties and discouragement) douses us.

Then I saw in my dream, that the Interpreter took Christian by the hand, and let him into a place where was a fire, burning against a wall, and one standing by it, always casting much water upon it to quench it, yet did the fire burn higher and hotter.

Then said Christian, What means this?

The Interpreter answered, This fire is the work of grace that is wrought in the heart; he that casts water upon it, to extinguish and put it out, is the Devil: that in that thou seest the fire notwithstanding burn higher and hotter, thou shalt also see the reason of that: so he had him about to the backside of the wall, where he saw a man with a vessel of oil in his hand, of the which he did also continually cast (but secretly) into the fire.

Then said Christian, what means this?

The Interpreter answered, This is Christ, who continually with the oil of his grace, maintains the work already begun in the heart; by the means of which, notwithstanding what the Devil can do, the souls of his people prove gracious still. And in that thou sawest, that the man stood behind the wall to maintain the fire; this is to teach thee, that it is hard for the tempted to see how this work of grace is maintained in the soul. (The Pilgrim’s Progress, 35)
In particular, Christ fuels our heart fires as He gives us a sense of His love.

Knowledge of Christ’s love was indispensable to Bunyan. His heart was stricken with guilt and he often despaired of being accepted by Christ. This seemed to be, according to Grace Abounding, one of the devil’s most used attacks, to rub his face in his unworthiness to receive any good thing from Christ. Bunyan had great need of knowing and living on the unseen love of Christ.

Every pilgrim on the hard path needs to comprehend Christ’s love. Those with truly broken hearts also need this encouragement, because they can spiral down beyond their true condition in Christ. They are loved.

Bunyan wrote a book to feed Christians with this knowledge titled, The Saint’s Knowledge of Christ’s Love, or, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ. It has also been published recently under the title, All Loves Excelling. The entire book is a forrest fire of goodness sparked by Ephesians 3:18-19.

These two verses are the final part of a paragraph of prayer which Paul began in verse 14. Having received God’s Spirit, having been rooted and grounded in love, the apostle prays that the Ephesian believers

may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

This isn’t a crutch or wheelchair for weary and wounded hearts, it’s two new legs. It’s part of the “inner man’s” makeover (cf. session one, 2 Corinthians 4:16), “strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (Ephesians 3:16).

The final part of Paul’s request is entirely about Christ’s love, but something about Christ’s love is not easy or obvious to know. We need an increase in bandwidth to download the full file of Christ’s love rather than the truncated version often transmitted today. Paul began by asking God to provide strength, that God would enable them to understand the unfathomable. Only God can give this insight and enable us to understand. Paul describes it like two arms of a vice grip clamping onto one object.

Christ’s Love is Incalculable (18)

The first phrase seeks strength that Christian pilgrims may apprehend the extent of Christ’s love.

to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

The four terms refer to dimensions, to measurable, discoverable ideas that are here boundless. Each term suggests the outer limits.

BREADTH, and LENGTH, and DEPTH, and HEIGHT, are words that in themselves are both ambiguous, and to wonderment; ambiguous, because unexplained, and to wonderment, because they carry in them an unexpressible [sic] something; and that something which far out-goes all those things that can be found in this world. (Saint’s Knowledge, 3)

Before we go any farther, an important question to answer is, comprehend “the breadth and length and height and depth” of what? The object (or objects) that is so broad and long and high and deep is not mentioned in verse 18.

Various interpretations have been suggested. Maybe “the breadth and length and height and depth” refer to God’s power. Maybe they refer to God’s wisdom. Maybe they are in reference to the mystery of salvation. A long line of interpreters have suggested these, and other more fanciful options (e.g., the for arms of Christ’s cross, the heavenly Jerusalem, the cosmos). Bunyan himself seems, to me, to border on being carried away in his comments on these four words.

So what does “breadth and length and height and depth” refer to? The first clue is that, in Greek, one article (precedes and) governs all four. The article welds the four elements together in Paul’s mind. He wasn’t thinking about four things, but the immensity, the vastness, the incalculability of one thing. But what is that something?

I believe the one thing is Christ’s love. The ESV and NAS make it seem that verse 18 and verse 19 are two coordinating thoughts. They are connected, but in a way that the second phrase in verse 19 expands and explains the first phrase in verse 18. Context clarifies Paul’s concern. While the NIV may not be the most accurate translation, it does emphasize the appropriate sense.

may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

There are clear parallels between verses 18 and 19. In verse 18 Paul prays that they would comprehend, in verse 19 that they would know. It was rational, but also personal knowledge. In verse 18 it is “the breadth and length and height and depth,” and in verse 19 it “surpasses knowledge.” So the two verses are scratching at the same itch.

As for the terms themselves, breadth refers to area. Christ’s love covers the widest span. Length refers to distance, how far things are apart. Christ’s love reaches the farthest intervals.

Do not though go about to measure arms with God,…do not thou conclude, that because thou canst not reach God by thy short stump, therefore he cannot reach thee with his long arm. (The Saints’ Knowledge of Christ’s Love, 6)

Depth refers to the bottom. Christ’s love descends to the lowest levels. It is unfathomable. Height refers to the top. Christ’s love soars above the tallest.

The vastness of Christ’s love is emphasized first, and Paul wants them to comprehend it. This is impossible. Comprehend means grasp, get a hold of the whole matter. But the cosmic dimensions make it impossible to get our head around it. We can’t get to the bottom of it. We can’t see the whole picture of His love. His love is too large to frame, and even if it were, there isn’t a wall large enough to hold the frame. The magnitude of Christ’s love cannot be measured. Imagine the most oversized, mega-gargantuan container you can; now double-it; now multiply by the next number higher than you can conceive. You’ve just taken a mathematical baby step toward comprehending Christ’s incalculable love.

This is an encouragement, because there are times and circumstances that seem too large to get around or too deep to understand or too high to overcome. These difficulties are opportunities for us to see the unseen love of Christ.

God is high above all things and can do whatever it pleaseth him. But since he can do so, why doth he suffer this, and that thing to appear, to act, and do so horribly repugnant to his word? I answer, he admits of many things, to the end he may shew his wrath, and make his power known; and that all the world may see how he checks and overrules the most vile and unruly things, and can make them subservient to his holy will. And how would the breadth and the length, and the depth, and the height of the love and mercy of God in Christ to us-ward, be made to appear, so as in all things it doth, were there not admitted that there should be breadths, and lengths, and depths, and heights to oppose. Wherefore these oppositions are therefore suffered, that the greatness of the wisdom, the power, the mercy, and grace of God to us in Christ might appear and be made manifest. (Knowledge, 9)

We don’t always see it, but Christ’s love is “busily engaged for this and the other child of God, yet they themselves see nothing of them” (Knowledge, 10-11). Would that we were better expositors of providence. “Some shall suck honey out of that, at the which others tremble for fear it should poison them” (Knowledge, 11)

Come behold the works of the Lord towards me, may every Christian say. He hath set a Savior against sin; a heaven against hell; light against darkness; good against evil, and the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the grace that is in himself, for my good, against all the power, and strength, and force, and subtlety of every enemy. (Knowledge, 9)

Would it not be amazing, should you see a man encompassed with chariots and horses, and weapons for his defense, and yet afraid of being sparrow blasted, or over-run by a grasshopper! (Knowledge, 13)

Christ’s love covers it all, and then some.

Christ’s Love is Inscrutable (19)

As I said, this is the second leg, not a second person. It’s the second arm of the pliers holding onto love. And the prayer is not that we would love Christ more, but rather that we would know His unknowable love for us.

and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,

The paradox is profound. To try to get a handle on what is simply beyond us, let’s ask four scrutinizing questions.

First, what is Christ’s love?

We’re supposed to fill up the pages of our mental book with His love. So what is His love? Bunyan lets us copy from his work.

Christ’s love is steady and endless. Unlike our love waves that ebb and flow, unlike our love machines that rust and quit, Christ’s love stays strong and lasts forevers. “God is love; Christ is God; therefore Christ is love, love naturally. Love…is essential to his being. He may as well cease to be, as cease to love” (Knowledge, 16). The chain of His love never falls off the gears no matter how hard we pedal.

Christ’s love is impartial and righteous. Unlike our love glasses that look for loveliness, Christ’s love for others depends on Himself, not the others. That’s headline news, because our loveliness is buried on the last page in the smallest typeface–if printed at all, and certainly not worthy of His love. We wait to love until the person pleases us, and we withhold love when they hurt us. His love is unconditional, independent of the person. Also unlike our love that is often spent in the wrong direction, on things our flesh wants, on things that are contrary to God’s will, Christ’s love is always righteous. He’ll never be caught sneaking unlawful loves.

Christ’s love is personal and sacrificial. We put on our love coats to make us look good. His love serves and saves.

That a person so great, so high, so glorious, as this Jesus Christ was, should have love for us, that passes knowledge. It is common for equals to love, and for superiors to be beloved; but for the King of princes, for the Son of God, for Jesus Christ to love man thus: this is amazing. (Knowledge, 16)

It is amazing to consider that in God’s love, and in His plan to save, He did not throw His love at us from a distance. He Himself took on flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). He Himself suffered and bled as our substitute, His enemies (Romans 5:6-11; 1 John 3:16). He Himself got involved and gave His own life.

Had this Christ of God, our friend, given all he had to save us, had not his love been wonderful? But when he shall give for us himself, this is more wonderful. (Knowledge, 19)

These are just a few ways to think of Christ’s love.

Second, why is Christ’s love inscrutable?

Paul states that the love of Christ surpasses knowledge. It is beyond our ability to comprehend. No saint can know it fully. All the saints together cannot know it fully. The saints in heaven don’t know it fully. The angels don’t know it fully. We could grow wings and plant a flag on the moon as soon as we could bolt down every corner of His love.

Were all the saints on earth, and all the saints in heaven to contribute all that they know of this love of Christ, and to put it into one sum of knowledge, they would greatly come short of knowing the utmost of this love, for that there is an indefinite deal of this love, yet unknown by them. (Knowledge, 23)

What is it about Christ’s love that goes beyond our knowing capacity? Among other reasons, here are a few.

Christ’s love is eternal. It is eternal, because as God, He is eternal. Therefore, His love had no beginning. It always was, and that means we’ve missed 6000 years of earth time, let alone the eternity before the beginning of time, of knowing His love. We also, of course, cannot track His love all the way out in the future. We can say the words, we can try to imagine the “no end” concept, but our time-bound, finite brains cannot see or hold that much.

It is as possible for a spirit to drink up the sea, as for the most enlarged saint that is or ever shall be in glory, so to see God as to know him altogether, to the utmost, or throughout. (Knowledge, 24)

Christ’s love covers our sin. The cross is the ultimate display of love, the atonement the greatest work of love. But we do not completely grasp the significance of His sacrifice because we do not know the extent of our odious offense to His holiness.

Besides, there are many sins committed by us, dropping from us, and that pollute us, that we are not at all aware of; how then should we know that love of Christ by which we are delivered from them? (Knowledge, 25)

We can’t fully know His love because we don’t fully see our sin for what it is. The lyrics are no modest exaggeration: “I’ll never know how much it cost, to see my sin upon that cross.”

Christ’s love protects us from the evil one. Satan, through his demons and through the world system that he controls, seeks our harm. He is a roaring, prowling lion seeking prey. But we don’t see him. Neither do we see the spiritual principalities and rulers that we wrestle. Therefore, we have no idea how many times and ways that Christ has guarded us and preserved us out of His love for us.

No “not-God” being, no finite Christian can fully comprehend the love.

Third, how then is Christ’s love knowable?

Paul is praying that we know Christ’s love, after all. That means God Himself, through the Spirit, can illuminate the truth to our minds.

Here is also a good place to poke the postmoderns in the eye, and remember that it is possible to know something correctly, even if we don’t know completely. 2 + 2 = 4 is always correct, though that doesn’t mean I know everything about math. In other words, we can know truly if not fully. A baby is truly human, though not fully developed. We depend on it every day. I know enough to know that my car doesn’t run unless there’s gas in the tank. I have an idea how some things work more than others.

We can appreciate the nature of God’s love even if not entirely. Loving through 40 years is different than 4 days. Seeing more of our sinfulness helps us appreciate more of His love. “People naturally think that the knowledge of their sins is the way to destroy them; when in very deed, it is the first step to salvation” (Knowledge, 28). Being sinned against helps us appreciate more how He was offended.

We grow in our understanding by degrees. That’s part of the pilgrim life, and our knowledge will increase eternally. We don’t know everything about the Bible yet. But we can work on it. We don’t see God’s holiness and abhor evil as He does, but we are being sanctified (and it’s a process). Our condition at conversion is not (hopefully) our continual condition. We saw in Psalm 51:17 that broken hearts want more and more of God’s graces, and we are being changed as we see Him. He is conforming us into the image of Christ, and the more we’re like Christ the more we’ll be able to appreciate His love.

Even in heaven we’ll never exhaust His love. His love excels all loves. The fact that we can’t fully understand is no problem with His love. What we don’t discern is no discouragement, just the opposite! I’m not less impressed with the ocean because I can’t see past the horizon. So while we can appreciate and grow in appreciation, we can always marvel and take courage in all the unseen love.

We don’t know Christ’s love exhaustively, and we’ll never exhaust Christ’s love. It may be inscrutable into infinity, but it is knowable in its certainty.

Fourth, what is the effect of knowing Christ’s unsearchable love?

Knowing that there is a breadth and length and height and depth that we don’t even know about enables peace when we feel unlovely. He has more love than your unloveliness can imagine. “We think Christ loves us no more than we think he can…but this love of Christ that we think is such, is indeed none of the love of Christ” (Knowledge, 32).

He is not close to using up all His love. Hopeful’s final excitement: “I thought that had I now 1000 gallons of blood in my body, I could spill it all for the sake of the Lord Jesus” (The Pilgrim’s Progress, 146). That should get our blood pumping, and it should get our grace sloshing.

Knowing love beyond comprehension also enables risk beyond comprehension. “By this knowledge, room is made for a Christian, and liberty is ministered unto him, to turn himself every way in all spiritual things” (Knowledge, 34). No opportunity to give, to serve, to sacrifice, to slosh grace, to die, is beyond the edges of the safety net of His love. By faith in this great love we have every reason for boldness because His love goes before us and beyond us. “By knowing of this a child of God has reserve for himself, at a day, when all that he otherwise knows, may be taken from him through the power of temptation” (Knowledge, 33).

Those are good effects, but verse 19 finishes the prayer with the intended purpose of knowledge.

that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Being filled means, at the least, that we are strengthened and that we are satisfied. There is no higher step that being filled with all the fulness of God. There is no more profound blessing. There is no way that He is more glorified.

It is not greater self-esteem or self-awareness or self-determination that makes a person more human or more mature. It is not being secure in our environment or our relationships that provides inner peace. The way to maturity, the way to peace, the path to being complete in Christ, is knowing Christ’s love for us. Through a growing grasp of Him and His love we are filled with His fulness.

Knowing more of Christ’s love now also effects greater anticipation for Christ’s love then.

The more a man knows, or understands of the greatness of [God's love] towards him…the better he will be able in his heart to conceive of the excellent glory and greatness of the [unseen] things that are laid up in the heavens….They that know nothing of this greatness, know nothing of them; they that think amiss of this greatness, thing amiss of them; they that know little of this greatness, know but little of them. (Knowledge, 14)

Conclusion

I love Bunyan’s question:

Couldst thou (sinner) if thou hadst been allowed, thyself express what thou wouldst have expressed, the greatness of the love thou wantest, with words that could have suited thee better? (Knowledge, 37)

In other words, if someone asked you to describe the kind of love you hoped for, could you have imagined it this good?

Such men are, at this day, wanting in the churches. These are the men that sweeten churches, and that bring glory to God and to religion. (Knowledge, 35)

Are you a stranger to Christ’s love?

How are you working to know His love more? I was convicted reading Bunyan’s book. I’m often studying and thinking and praying, paying more attention to the pliers than what the pliers are holding.

What is distracting you, causing you to doubt Christ’s love? We must live on the promise that “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

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)