Well, I've got an important message for us
tonight, friends, so come up a little closer
so you'll be sure to hear me.
In the book of Hosea, we see that
God had a controversy with Israel, for we
read in chapter 10, in verses 1 through
3, Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth
forth fruit unto himself, according to the multitude
of his fruit he hath increased the altars,
according to the goodness of his land they
have made goodly images, their heart is divided,
now they should be found faulty, he should
break down their altars, he shall spoil their
images, for now they shall say, we have
no king, because we feared not the Lord,
what then should a king do to us?
I will stop their friends.
The Jews in the days of Hosea were
living double lives, with their lips they served
God, but with their lives they served their
sins, they partly served God, and partly served
their idols, and this gave them a divided
heart, they were hardened in their idolatry, hardened
in their sins, and God had a controversy
with them.
We are very much in the same shape
today, friends, I'm afraid to say, we must
ask ourselves a question, why, why in the
world are we broken over the sins of
the land, why isn't the carpet in our
sanctuary wet with the tears of broken hearted
saints, crying out to God for the sins
of the land, and asking God to send
us revival?
I've been alive a long time, and I've
never seen things so bad as they are
today, in both society and in the church,
we've lost our young people today to the
devil, we made the mistake in our churches
by giving them pizza night and movie night,
instead of having prayer nights with them and
teaching them how to pray, we gave them
what they wanted instead of giving them what
they needed, consequently our young people today are
going to hell and droves, many of them
grew up in church, but now they are
godless, they saw nothing but hypocrisy in the
church, and even their parents acted one way
at church and another way in the home,
and the teenagers saw right through it, it
was a do as I say philosophy instead
of a do as I do through spiritual
leadership and example, the teenagers saw no reality
of God in the lives of their parents,
and as soon as they became adults they
left the church, why aren't we broken over
them, why aren't we crying out to God
over our young people today who are going
to hell, why aren't we broken over the
moral laxity of our nation where women can
walk around naked in public, where profanity is
common in public conversation and prominent in our
news, where the F word has become part
of normal daily language, where streets are red
with the blood of violent crimes and perversion
is promoted by our government and applauded in
our entertainment, tonight the massage parlors in the
city are full, the bars and nightclubs are
jam packed, they are not hurting for a
crowd like we are, there will be enough
booze drunk in this town tonight to drown
the entire nation, things were bad in England
back in the days of Wesleyan Whitfield, in
the days of Wesleyan Whitfield things were so
bad in society that drunkenness was a plague
on the nation, in London every fifth house
was a gin house, members of parliament showed
up for work dead drunk, prostitution was rampant
in London, things are much worse today than
they were back then, we've got a moral
downgrade in society that's been out of control
and we live in a sex craze society
where we're exposed to nudity and sex just
reading the news, TV has become X rated
and we're desensitized to sin even in the
church as we tolerate sin in our lives,
the doctrine of holiness is taboo in our
pulpits, we live divided lives and serve God
partly like the Jews in Hosea's day, we
lack brokenness in the church today, we lack
brokenness in our personal lives, the title of
my message this evening friends is brokenness, when
I was writing my new biography on Sam
Jones, the famous evangelist of the 19th century,
I came across the following story, let me
share it with you, I know you'll enjoy
it, Sam was at his home in Cordersville
Georgia when he received a telegram from Texas
inviting him to go to Southwest Texas to
preach the cowboys, after praying about it he
boarded a train and traveled to Texas, for
two weeks he preached the gospel of Jesus
Christ to the cowboys in Texas, when the
meetings ended the cowboys wanted to give Sam
Jones a love offering, they felt the laborer
was worthy of his hire and they'd been
wonderfully blessed by Sam's time among them, but
there was a problem, they had no money,
not a single dollar in any of their
pockets, they didn't know what to do, Sam
Jones returned to Cordersville with no love offering
or compensation of any kind, a couple of
weeks passed when suddenly one day Sam received
a telegram, it was from the cowboys in
Texas and it read like this, we are
sending you a love offering and we are
shipping you a car load of broncos, Sam
Jones scratched his head as he looked in
amazement at that telegram, what am I going
to do he said, with a car load
of wild horses here in the small town
of Cordersville, his friend standing beside him said,
why it's very easy, hold an auction sale,
sell the horses and you'll get your money,
you can get your love offering then and
put it in your pocket, well Sam Jones
thought it was a good suggestion so when
the horses arrived he held a horse auction,
he sold the broncos all except one, he
kept the finest looking bronco for his son,
but the son had never in his life
been on the back of an unbroken bronco
and Sam Jones wondered what he could do,
he called the cowboy who had brought the
car load of broncos to Cordersville and said,
will you take this bronco and break him
so that my son can ride him, yes
sir said the cowboy, I'd be glad to,
how much will you charge, fifteen dollars said
the cowboy, all right said Sam, take him
away, the cowboy disappeared with the bronco, two
weeks later he came back, is he broken
asked Sam, yes sir he's broken, can my
son ride him in perfect safety, yes sir
your son can ride him in perfect safety,
the father thought that before allowing his son
to ride the bronco he'd better mount himself
and make sure the cowboy had broken it,
as he started toward the horse the cowboy
came running and waving his hands in alarm,
what's the matter asked Sam, what's gone wrong,
oh said the cowboy, he's only broken on
one side and you're mounting from the wrong
side, well that will never do, my son
might make a mistake and he might mount
from the wrong side, how much will you
charge to break him on the other side,
fifteen dollars replied the cowboy, another two weeks
passed and again the cowboy came back leading
the bronco, is he broken asked Sam, yes
sir he's broken, both sides, yes sir both
sides, your son can ride him in perfect
safety from either side, well that's the end
of the story friends and I like that
story because it's so true, the average Christian
is like that bronco, he's only broken on
one side, oh he'll do this but he
won't do that, he'll go here but he
won't go there, God cannot depend upon him,
he has no consistency in his life, he's
like the Jews in Hosea's day, partly serving
God and partly serving their idols, we have
no brokenness in our lives because we have
divided hearts toward God, where once we were
in a red hot love relationship with Jesus
but now we're stone cold or even worse,
lukewarm, what thing or area in our life
has moved us away from the heart of
God, it doesn't necessarily have to be a
bad thing friends, what's gotten in the way
of our walk with the Lord, what is
the cause of our divided heart, Leonard Ravenhill
used to tell a story about a friend
of his who was always on fire for
God and every time Ravenhill got around this
man he was more thirsty for Christ than
things of eternal worth, do you know people
like that, people that make you thirsty for
God, well this man was like that, every
time he got around him he just wanted
to talk about Jesus and winning souls, then
one day this man began collecting stamps and
as his collection grew so did his enthusiasm
for stamp collecting, Leonard Ravenhill said this man
called me up one day and said come
on over and I will show you my
new stamp collection of British Colonials that cost
me $50,000, can you imagine that friends,
$50,000 for some stamps, well Ravenhill said
that pretty soon this man no longer wanted
to talk about Jesus and the things of
God, he just wanted to talk about stamps,
a harmless little thing like a stamp drew
that man away from God, what is it
with you friend, is there something or someone
in your life who's gotten between you and
God to where you have a divided heart,
you can't walk with God with one foot
with him and one foot playing footsie with
the world, you're either all out for him
or you're not, if it's Baal then serve
him, if it's God then serve him, you
can't have it both ways friend, you can't
have partial obedience and expect God to use
you, we must be broken over the things
that break the heart of God, why is
our personal evangelism so non-existent, why don't
we share our faith every day, why are
we knocking on doors and ringing doorbells, handing
out tracts and telling people about Jesus, folks
that are just going to a hellbound, in
a hellbound world, we want revival but we
don't want the cost of revival in our
personal lives, what cost counts and what counts
costs, I remember years ago getting a phone
call when my first book on revival was
published, Stephen Offord wrote the foreword and it
was entitled Realities of Revival and a local
pastor had read that book and he telephoned
me to invite me to lunch and talk
about revival, well I can't turn down a
free lunch so I met this man at
a local Chinese restaurant, he was an elderly
pastor who told me he'd been a pastor
for over 40 years and now he wanted
to see revival come to his church, he
asked me if I'd be willing to help
him get his church ready for revival, I
looked him in the eye and said if
you're serious and if you really want revival
to come to your church then you need
to repent of your sins for revival begins
with you, well he didn't seem to like
that answer and abruptly ended lunch calling for
the check, I thought that's the last I'll
hear from him but a week later he
called again asking if he could buy my
lunch and meet with him and two of
his pastor buddies, they wanted to talk about
revival, well I couldn't turn down a free
lunch so I went to the Chinese restaurant
to meet with these men, they asked me
if I'd be willing to meet in regular
prayer with them on a weekly basis to
pray for revival, of course I would, we
picked a place and a time and began
to meet and soon there were about 10
other pastors there gathering for prayer on a
weekly basis for revival and I'll never forget
it friends, after a couple of months of
doing this, this elderly pastor, the one who
initially had bought my lunch, it was his
turn to pray, we sat on folding chairs
in a circle and went around the room
praying, each man taking his turn and this
elderly pastor when it was his turn, he
bolted straight up from his chair like a
lightning rod and he stood there stiff as
a board, then with a groan he crumpled
to the floor and lay there motionless, I
thought he was dead but he got up
on all fours, raised his head and cried
out with a loud voice, great God forgive
me for my dirty rotten sins, I want
to see revival at my church, let it
start with me Lord, let it start with
me and this man was sobbing like his
heart was breaking because his heart was broken
because he had gotten to the place of
brokenness and that man was getting serious with
God, well what did God tell the wayward
Jews in Hosea's day, look at his word
in Hosea 10 and verse 12, sow to
yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up
your fallow ground, for it is time to
seek the Lord, till he come and reign
righteousness upon you, let it start yes and
friends, we must break up the fallow ground
of our hearts, fallow ground is unbroken ground
that is hard, our hearts are hardened in
sin, our lives are found faulty before God,
personal revival is a prelude to church revival,
God gets serious with those who get serious
with him, God says return to me and
I will return to you, that's a promise
friend, let me ask you friend, let me
ask you brother pastor, are you ready to
get serious with God, are you ready to
stop all this nonsense in your church with
all your gizmos trying to work up some
enthusiasm, are you ready to rely on prayer
and the power of God to his Holy
Spirit, it all starts with brokenness, take this
time now to examine your heart, it's time
friends to seek the Lord, like the husband
man seeks, like he prays, like he waits
for rain, when he has tilled the ground
and sowed his seed, to water it and
make it fruitful, that he may have a
good reaping time, a plentiful harvest time, let
us be fruitful for the Lord, and this
starts with our brokenness before him, don't let
time slip away from you friend, our young
people today need Jesus, our society needs Jesus,
this nation needs to turn back to the
God of the Bible, but it's got to
start with us, take time now friend to
get right with God, let us pray.