I’ve been reading the following book by Pastor Patrick Hines:
Hines, Patrick W. O.. Am I Right With God?: The Gospel, Justification, Saving Faith, Repentance, Assurance, & The New Birth (p. 100). Kindle Edition.
I’ve been thinking about blogging some of it to let readers know about it. Today, I encountered the first bit of humor in this serious book and thought that others would be able to relate and simultaneously benefit by seeing their need for Christ. The quoted section closes with the humorous anecdote.
Chapters 4-6 are titled, A Portrait of True Repentance. Therein, he is explaining repentance in terms of Psalm 51. The quotation below is from chapter 6.
Begin quoted material [I divided some of the material into smaller paragraphs for ease of reading; all bracketed statements, emboldening and underscoring are mine]:
- The Heart of the True Worshipper of God – Psalm 51:16-17
[16] For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. [17] The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart–These, O God, You will not despise.
The Puritan commentator, David Dickson (born 1583) wrote: The main design of the sacrifices under the law was, that a man under the sense of sin and deserved judgment, and inability to satisfy for his faults, should come and empty himself before God, and rely only on the one propitiatory sacrifice, represented in those external sacrifices: the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; that is, the right way of sacrificing is, that a man’s spirit be emptied of its own self-confidence when it cometh to offer unto God the external sacrifices which otherwise God regarded not.
This is why God rebuked Israel through Amos.
Amos 5:21-24 I hate, I despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies. [22] Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. [23] Take away from Me the noise of your songs, For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. The Lord Jesus rebuked this very same attitude of engaging in the external acts of worship without brokenness and contrition. Quoting the prophet, Isaiah, Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees:
Matthew 15:8-9 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. [9] And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
David Dickson continues:
The man who most renounced his own works, worth, or merits, and despiseth all his own doings, as a broken earthen vessel, is most acceptable in his approaches to God’s free grace in the Mediator: a broken and a contrite heart, 0 God, thou wilt not despise; and that not for any worth in the matter of contrition, but because by contrition is expelled all conceit of self-worth, and so the man is most fit for receiving grace and free pardon from God.
Psalm 51:17 says, “a broken spirit, and a heart broken and crushed, God will not despise.” This is a major theme of Scripture. It is what lies behind all true acts of worship toward God on the part of sinful man. It is only the broken-hearted and contrite that God will accept. Hear these other passages:
Psalm 34:18 The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
Isaiah 66:1-2 Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? [2] For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,” Says the Lord. “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.”
Luke 7:36-50 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. [37] And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, [38] and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.
[39] Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”
[40] And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” So he said, “Teacher, say it.” [41] “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. [42] And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”
[43] Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.”
[44] Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. [45] You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. [46] You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. [47] Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” [48] Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
[49] And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” [50] Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
It is only when we come to see that we are the prostitute in this story that we are finally ready to hear and really understand the grace of Jesus Christ. Then and only then will we truly worship God as our gracious Redeeming Lord. You may think, “But I’ve not done anything like this woman did.” Think again. Remember how God warned the people of Israel not to worship other gods? Hear His Word:
Leviticus 20:5 … will cut him off from his people, and all who prostitute themselves with him to commit harlotry with Molech.
Jeremiah 2:19-20 Your own wickedness will correct you, And your backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing That you have forsaken the Lord your God, And the fear of Me is not in you,” Says the Lord God of hosts. [20] “For of old I have broken your yoke and burst your bonds; And you said, ‘I will not transgress,’ When on every high hill and under every green tree You lay down, playing the harlot. [Those were types of places where Baal and Ashtoreth were worshiped.]
Do not read the narrative about the prostitute and think to yourself, “Isn’t it wonderful that God’s grace could even reach a wretch such as that woman!”
That prostitute is us if at any time anything in our lives has stolen any of the affection that we are duty bound to give in its entirety to God alone.
Every act of disobedience to God’s law is prostitution. Every time we overlook the needs of our neighbor, we are joined to a harlot. Every prideful thought, every envious fantasy, every outburst of anger, every lustful look, and every hypocritical act of judgment we entertain, we are engaging in lascivious acts of wanton harlotry against our Maker.
Every reader of these words commits enough sin in their hearts on the way to the grocery store and back to earn them a place in the blackest corner of hell for all eternity. We are vile, wretched, disloyal, traitorous, hell-deserving sons and daughters of Adam. Remember how God warned the children of Israel against idolatry in the wording of the 2nd commandment?
Exodus 20:4-5 You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; [5] you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
In an excellent book called Won’t Let you Go Unless You Bless Me, author Andree Seu wrote:
These are the thoughts of a woman driving home from the Stop ’N Shop on an ordinary day.
She conjures three comebacks she could’ve hurled at Ellen had she not been caught off guard.
She spots the baby shower invitation on the dashboard and hatches excuses to be busy that weekend, then thinks better of it because she has a favor to ask the sender at a later date.
She sizes up a woman standing at the bus stop and judges her.
She stews over a comment her brother made behind her back, and crafts a letter telling him off and sounding righteous in the process.
She reviews the morning’s argument with her husband, and builds her case against him for the evening installment.
She imagines how life would have been if she had married X.
She magnanimously let a car merge into traffic, then is miffed when she doesn’t get her wave. Somebody rides up the road shoulder and budges to the head of a traffic jam, and she hates the driver with a perfect hatred.
She passes the house of the contractor who defrauded her and fantasizes blowing it to smithereens.
She passes Audrey working in her garden and waves but thinks, “If Audrey has chronic fatigue syndrome, I’m a Flying Wallenda.”
She glares at a driver who runs a red light, forgetting she did the same thing a mile ago.
She mentally touches up her upcoming woman’s Bible study lecture on Ephesians and considers how she can improve it and make it better than Alice’s talk of last week.
She is angry at God because here she is a Christian and broke, while her good-for-nothing heathen of a brother is rolling in dough.
She wonders how her parents will divvy up the inheritance and how long she has to wait.
She rehearses reasons why her sister and not she should take care of the folks when they’re old.
She thinks about her childhood and counts the ways her parents have screwed up her life.
An SUV cuts her off and she decides to punish it by tailgating. Her hearts smites her for this, so she thinks about trying to live righteously from now on. Maybe if she is good, she thinks, God will reward her in some amazing way like making her husband divorce her and then leading her to Mr. Right.
She tries to pray but doesn’t get past “Our Father.” She pulls into her driveway.
Total driving time: 17 minutes.
And if you were to ask the lady, as she rustles parcels from the car, what she has been thinking about on the drive from town, she would say, “Oh, nothing in particular.” And she would not be lying.
Imagine believing that we don’t need a Savior.
Hines, Patrick W. O.. Am I Right With God?: The Gospel, Justification, Saving Faith, Repentance, Assurance, & The New Birth (p. 100). Kindle Edition.
Patrick Hines book is available at the following Amazon link for $6, paperback; $4.95 Kindle version: