Brokenness

 This is a great sermon by Voddie Baucham whose theme is, as he puts it, to "teach us why it is appropriate, important, and necessary to be broken."  I might define the word as "a deep contrition to sin, realizing that we have offended God.  We realize that all our efforts are 'sorely insufficient.'  Brokenness motivates us to true repentance and reformation of our lives."  When we are broken, He causes us to see a negative path we have been on.  He reminds us that God does not want us to come to this place and then leave us the same--but so that He can remake us.  He wants us to conform to the very image of Christ. 

Scripture has another theme as well:  Our brokenness will help Him to "prune" us. See John 15:2:

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

I have discussed elsewhere about the necessity of abiding with Christ, and the fruit that we must develop in order to be saved in the end.  Brokenness makes God's job easier.  He called the Jews "stiff-necked" on occasion, don't forget.  Bad results for them.

But Voddie tells us there is a great tragedy afoot in our culture: People do have more feelings of "vague discomfort," but our goal is:  discomfort is like a flu. It is there simply to slow us down and we just need to deal with it.  We're saying that, suppose, here's a guy who has left his wife, or cheated in business, or has little time for the kids and now they ignore him, or he's lied or stole.  When he goes to his doctor and says he "feels bad," and instead of being told that "brother, you don't feel bad enough," they say, "take this medicine."  These doctors don't know enough about our sin to effectively counsel us.

Unfortunately, it's also in the church. Dr. Baucham says "any depression we feel should be "over" the moment we "rededicate our lives."”  The church avoids the subject of brokenness: They think it's "inappropriate" to feel crushed under the weight of our own sin--they will not chase after the cause of this goal-less drift you're in. They want to talk you into re-orienting your thinking so you can push it aside to ignore it.

Speaking about churches, now he gets into naming names; I should note that I have no problem with this, since Scripture does it, and it is a warning to people by pointing to false teachers.  He tweets Rob Bell's speaking at churches by calling it "the gods are not angry" tour.  As one observer of Bell says, "He walks around the altar for 90 minutes without talking about the wrath of God against sin being poured out on Christ.” He did not denounce the sinful footprint left lately by the rich--Scripture says the rich will "weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you." Nor did he talk about a "terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31).  Instead, catch this: Mr. Bell said, "Anytime someone makes you feel guilty about how you are living, that is part of the "old system." As Voddie accurately puts it, "that teaching is not Christianity."   (A note here:  Most pastors avoid discomfort by not talking about those subjects too, an error on their part; but they don't make scandalous conclusions like Mr. Bell did.)

Pastors like to assure us, by subjects they avoid-- that there is no need for brokenness--even before you come to Christ.  Of course, that cuts repentance off at the knees. Pastors tend to avoid that too.  But what was the First Word Jesus said when He began His ministry?  You guessed it; “repent” (Matthew 3:2). Or, as another version puts it: His first words were "amend your ways."

The second name Dr. Baugham doesn't like is a book:  "The Shack."  Highly praised, especially by Christians.  He picks on one of many quotes; in this one, the speaker is God:  "Genuine relationships are marked by submission...We are indeed submitted to one another (speaking of the relationship of each Person in the Trinity)...submission is not about authority or obedience....it's all about love and respect...in fact, We are submitted to you the same way." (that’s what God says to the main character, Mack). We are not to think of God as an authority?

Voddie obviously disavows God's submission to us (Prosperity Gospel folk would go to town on that line; they envision God as our Servant. All we got to do is ask—if we have faith).  He calls it being pushed by the "emergent turks." (he means “insurgent or dynamic persons, often young, who are eager for radical change.”)  God's sovereignty and holiness, and brokenness, are gone from the new doctrines.

Now he begins another great apologetic.  Look at Psalm 51.  Background to the Psalm:  David took Bathsheba sexually, even though she was married to Uriah.  But David arranged for Uriah to be killed in battle, after failing to get him to go to bed with his wife--so in the event of her pregnancy, Uriah would assume the baby was his.  This was a great sin.  The worst of his God-driven career.  Don't play judge too much; kings have done a lot worse.  And there is the matter of our own sin too, IF we take a hard look at it.

The first note of interest about Psa. 51:  It was one of the most poignant poetry of brokennes that you will find anywhere.  The second note:  It was written One Year after his fall.  I don't have the space to include it all, but let me just give a few verses:

....Blot out my transgressions.  ² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. ³ For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. ⁴ Against You, You only, have I sinned..make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice...Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. ¹³ Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.

First, even after a year, David's sin is still ever before him.  So today, he would be depressed and in need of medication, right?  But no, he solves it by pouring out his sin to God.  But note how we will, after this kind of experience, "teach transgressors Your ways."  By feeling God's grace, and noting how He "upholds me;" we can then feel joy; and that shows everybody that our God forgives!  Note I John 1:9:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That verse isn't meant to be just a one-timer for when we were first saved. Introspection and confession are repair for every sin--if we mean it, of course.

Now, Rev. Baucham is not recommending that we beat ourselves up over a great sin--some of us may secretly hope that if we get mad at ourselves a few times, that might draw God's sorrow for our pathetic-ness, and give us a break. So we create some purgatory for ourselves while alive. But...the truth is, the bad results of our sin may reverberate throughout our whole life!  He calls this "scar tissue:" it can't be washed away.  The Word says that iniquities sometimes have an effect to the third or fourth generation.  Did you know that women whose mothers were abused, are more likely to pick men that are more likely to abuse them?  Psychological scar tissue.  There are likely men in your church who have scar tissue when it comes to adultery and its temptations--they beg God to teach women in church to be modestly dressed. We should never have a flippant attitude toward sin; we need to feel sensitive enough to not to be tempted anywhere near it, because we are aware that sin brings scar tissue. We think "Jesus died for my sins; they're all paid for."  Read Romans 6 where Paul answers that. It shows that me must form a relationship with Christ, and we don't get to declare a holiday every three weeks so we can do as WE like. With that approach, you're heading for a freeze in your Christ-relationship, and joining the people of Laodicea (Revelation 3), who Jesus vomited out of His life.  They obviously were no longer part of Him when that Judgment day comes.

When we ask God to wash us or clean us, that eliminates the sin from God's mind. But it has a harder time getting out of our mind.  David knew about that, when God promised he was forgiven. But his scar tissue? God told him that he still would have family violence in his life, as God promised because of his sin.  Though we get a lot of comfort from God's forgiveness upon our brokenness and repentance over a sin, still we often must pay some consequences.  God doesn't always make "everything go away." Often, we hope God will eliminate punishments when we say we’re sorry. But they are God’s pruning.  So we might secretly get mad at God when He still prunes us, thinking "I have been sorry all this time for what I did, and God still won't give me a break."  But what we see here, with David's example, is God's way. We can really restore our spirit, our joy with Him, in true brokenness. We must think about ways in our life, even with scar tissue, that we can still serve Him.  Heaven is still awaiting us, after all, and God still extends grace to us in many ways every day.  Let us have thoughts of Him--not our lives that "could have been better."

Not only does brokenness help us to hate sin, not only does it help us to be aware of how sin scars us, but it helps us realize that sin also creates memories that remain with us. Two-thirds of people who take depression medication still have their symptoms.  People go to a counselor, complaining that they can't get these horrible thoughts of their sin out of their heads.  Remember that David, a year after his sin, says "my sin is ever before me."  "You don't believe me that we experience this too?"  Rev. Baucham says, "ask a woman who has ever had an abortion." God had good reason to create us so we would not forget things.  If you could forget it all--you could never testify to the goodness of God. You wouldn't be warned against doing them again.  God does this to remind us of the consequences, to corral us, to call us to repentance and brokenness.  Finally, with no memories, we couldn't rejoice in our victories, we couldn't see personal growth that the Spirit has produced in us.  Voddie then gives a touching story of returning back to central Los Angeles to attend and preach at his father's funeral.  He tells us that his father died at 55 from an addiction to cocaine; how Voddie, who knew several friends who were on the way to addiction, traveled the neighborhood and noticed that "the gang's not all there," implying prison or early death.  He went aside and wept, thanking God as he remembered afresh who he was before God saved him.  His memories remind him of God's goodness, His bountiful grace, toward him. Brokenness helps him to be objective: "I'm not who I ought to be, but hallelujah!  I'm not who I was."

Finally, brokenness helps us see that our sin is an affront to a holy God--a God who has paid a price for the purpose of buying us away from rebellion.  David cried, "...against You and You only have I sinned, and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified in Your words, and blameless in Your judgments." His focus on offending God only, doesn't demean Bathsheba and Uriah, but he was aware that his sin was against God and His creation of her and her husband.  "That's what worries me about Rob Bell, and "The Shack."  Pastors don't want to preach on sin because they claim, he says sarcastically, "People already know they're bad."  (Ed: ask any prisoner about "are you guilty?"  They will usually deny or ignore it, talking endlessly about how the system, or their former friend, was against them.) He insists that "We don't think we're "bad."  We watch the nightly news and think, "those people are bad--not us."  But we have sinned against God, and we are deceived, even delusional, about our expectations about an easy Judgment.  Jesus says that many people will be shocked that on Judgement day they will go to hell.  Their expectations of God, their measure of how He judges, are fantasy and don't line up with Scripture.  (See my blog, The Narrow Gate). We read Revelation 7, the great crowd of saved people, and we can imagine several million will be there.  But did you know that it has been estimated that 100 billion people have been on the earth?  Gee, that makes even 10 million only .0001 of the population--one-hundredth of 1%!  Assume nothing, especially as important as this—please read several times through the Gospels with an open mind, what does it say?

Finally, without brokenness, we are incapable of authentic worship.  We come to church to talk to friends with excitement, then go through the motions.  We want to get a church that has high ratings if it satisfies us by doing contemporary music, or by preaching only 30 minutes. Look at portions of Isaiah 1 about how God feels about our hypocrisy in coming to church:

“When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts? ¹³ Bring no more futile sacrifices...I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. ¹⁵ When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. ¹⁶ “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. ⁸ “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow

Thomas A Kempis, in "The Imitation of Christ," said, "Great wonder it is that I, who of my own weight, always sink to the depths, and so suddenly lifted up, and so graciously embraced by You."  We must come to the end of ourselves to know that worship is "what will make God happy?" And in church, we say, "Let me do that, as a member of an army of His." When we come to the end of ourselves, we can never consider boring or old-fashioned songs like this:

And can it be that I should gain, An interest in the Savior's blood. Died He for me who caused Him pain, For me, who Him, to death pursued.  Amazing love, how can it be, that Thou, my God, would die for me!

You don't get there without brokenness.