What I want to do tonight, I don't have a portion to read, but I have three texts that I want to give to you at different times during the service, and I want to try to link these three texts up in some way, maybe in a general way, but I'm going to speak on some broken things that we come across in the Bible. Maybe there's someone here tonight and you feel that you're broken for some reason or another. And I had no intentions of doing this. I went home last night, went into the study, and I sat for a good hour or so. And this just came to my mind. I was up at 6 o'clock this morning, busy all day. But there's a little word here for us all. Some broken things in the Bible. So the first text is found in Jeremiah chapter 4. And some of you immediately know what I'm going to read here. Jeremiah chapter 4. And if you find verse 3. Jeremiah chapter 4 and verse 3. Notice what it says. for thus saith the Lord." Here's a word from God for the prophet, a word to give to the men of Judah and Jerusalem. So it is Jeremiah 4 verse 3, for thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem. Now what did the Lord say through Jeremiah to the men of Judah and Jerusalem? Break up your fellow ground and sow not among thorns. Break up your fellow ground. This was a message that Jeremiah was commissioned to bring to Israel. These were dark times in Israel's history and dark times were settling upon the nation. Israel, trusting in her false security, was really permitting the enemies, her enemies, to destroy them because Israel, the people, were not willing to return to the Lord. They were not willing to seek the Lord. And that was part of the problem, their rebellion against the Lord. The people had longed for ease and comfort. And in addition to that they had permitted their opportunities and their blessings to remain unworked and undeveloped. Therefore the Lord compares the nation to fallow ground. Now, you may be asking the question, what is fallow ground? You're a farmer. You're connected with farming life. You know what fallow ground really is. So he is comparing the nation of Israel to fallow ground. Well, fallow ground is that which has been permitted to lie idle, uncultivated, instead of producing grain and fruit that becomes covered with weeds and thorns and disaster lies ahead. So the prophet calls to Israel, thus saith the Lord. Here was a word from God to get their attention. God has something to say. He always has, you know. He has something to say to us here tonight again in the house of God. And the message to Israel through the prophet was, break up your fallow ground and sow not among the thorns. So we're coming up to a time of mission. It's a time of sowing. And we earnestly pray that it will be a time of reaping, a time of bringing in the sheaves. And maybe there's a message here for us all as a congregation. And the Lord is saying to us tonight in cold rain, break up the fallow ground, break it up. And the spiritual applications of this expression are many and they are always profitable. But the one which comes to mind, first of all, is that there can be no blessing without effort. And there can be no harvest without ploughing. I think that makes sense, does it not? Before a thing can be useful, whatever that thing may be, something needs to be broken. For example, before a house can be built, a tree must be broken down. Before the foundation can be laid, the rocks must be blasted from the quarry bed. Before ripe grain can cover the fields, the soil must be completely broken down. I hope I'm right, farmers. Am I right? I think I am. The cutting blade of the plough must turn over the sod, the sharp teeth of the harrow must pulverize the soil. Before there can be life, there must be death. That's the point. The joy that floods the mother's heart at the sound of the first cry of her newborn baby was preceded by the tears and the anguish of childbirth. The Lord Jesus Christ stated the principle of brokenness in these words found in John 12, 24. except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and day it abateth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." So he's really speaking about his life and his death. If I die, if I go down into the place of death through my death and sacrifice, that will produce fruit, an abundance of fruit. So he's teaching the principle that in order to have the fruit, there needs to be the day. Break up the fallow ground if we want to reap a harvest at this time of gospel preaching. There's personal work to be done in all of our hearts. Our hearts need a good plowing up by the Spirit of God. This is the law of life in the natural realm. And it is the law of life in the spiritual sphere also. There's nothing, there's no making without breaking, as they say. We're living in a broken world. broken homes, broken vows, broken marriages, broken lives, whatever, we could go on. And this is applicable to even children of God, broken today, whatever has caused that brokenness, whatever has caused that distress, whatever has caused the heartbreak, whatever it may be. Yes, brokenness is part of life. No one escapes these times of brokenness. To the child of God, however, every broken thing is the assurance that God is going to bring something better to that life. That's what God is doing when we have these times of brokenness in our hearts and lives. God is preparing us for something better. to bestow upon us blessing, whatever, and as a congregation I trust and pray that it is, and then gathering our precious souls. We need it. We need a divine visitation. We need God to move. We need our hearts to be right. Our hands need to be clean. We need to be on the stretch for God with effort. We need to put effort into this mission. We need to get our hands, dirty as they say, involved in the preparation to build up with times of prayer, with seasons of prayer, with leaflets to give out, with invitations, personal invitations, inviting family and friends and loved ones and neighbors. With all these responsibilities, we can't be left to the one or two. We've got to get involved as a people, as a nation, a spiritual nation, the household of God, the household of faith. It's a labor for us all. We'll be held accountable for this two-week mission. will give an account to God as the stewards of God's house, the eldership, the oversight, the congregation. It will give an account to God of how we handle this mission, what we do in this mission. And so we need to be praying that God will cause our hearts to be broken up by the power of the Spirit, that we might be enriched to the glory of God. So this is the first broken thing, the broken ground. But then we've got to move on if you turn back to Judges chapter 7 and we have a very familiar story in Judges chapter 7. It's a story of Gideon. Gideon was the sixth judge of Israel after the death of Joshua. And Israel was being vexed sorely by the repeated attacks of the enemies, the Midianites. And when the people cried to the Lord for deliverance, he raised up a man called Gideon to deliver them. And if you look there at chapter 7, and I want you to focus on that verse 20, and you'll see what happened when he went to fight against the enemy. This brings to our attention the second broken thing. Notice what it says. And the three companies blew the trumpets and break the pitchers. Now, when the reference is made to pitchers, it's not to pitchers of their sweethearts. It's not something you put up on your wall at home. some kind of container, and then you're able to put a light. I suppose it's equivalent to us putting the candle into something and covering it, some kind of a pitcher. You can put a light in there, a torch, whatever, a flame. So that's what the pitchers are that are mentioned here in the scriptures. And the method, they break the pitchers and held the lamps in their left hands and the trumpets in the right hands and blew with all and they cried the sword of the Lord and of Gideon." So the enemies have come. God has raised up a man in answer to prayer. There he is. God has raised up a man again in answer to prayer. And he's the man that's only standing in the gap to lead the advancement against the enemy. He's the man appointed by God to go into the conflict and to fight with the sword of the Lord. And so we're told how he went about that. His method of deliverance was very unique. So they surrounded the camp of the enemy at night. And this was a dark night we live in. He gave the following instructions in verses 18 through 20. When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and say the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. So Gideon and the hundred men that were with him came onto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch and they had but newly set the watch and they blew the trumpets, I'm sure it scared the lives out of the new centuries on guard at that time, and break the pictures that were in their midst. It must have been a noisy moment or two. And then the darkness disappeared and the light was given. and the enemy was confounded. And the three companies blew the trumpets and break the pictures and held the lamps in their left hand and the trumpets in their right hands to blow with all. And they cried again, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon." Imagine being wakened up in the middle of the night like that. Everything's dark. Suddenly, the night is ablaze with flame. And then the cry, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. And the men in the midnight camp, they were terrorized. They were fearful, afraid. So the record is very familiar. Getting this call for an army to fight. Initially, 32,000 come in response to that appeal. But of all the volunteers, only 300 were fit to fight. Not everyone was fit to fight, you see. And with these 300, Gideon surrounded the camp of the enemy at night, and in their hands they held the trumpets and the pitchers, in which they had these concealed blazing torches, that's what it is in the margin of my Bible, and lights or flames, whatever it is. And at his command, and at his signal, the men were to break the earthen vessels and let the light shine forth in the darkness. Then blowing the trumpets, they gave the enemy the impression that instead of 300 men, they had 300 companies of men which had surrounded them. And the Midianites were terrified. This is the way God works. He terrifies the enemy. This is what God was doing, you see. God was in control. So you may say, why did they not use the 32,000? Why did they just use the 300? Well, God's the God of miracles. And this was a greater miracle for 300 men to do this great work under God than having 32,000. They could have boasted, look at the number of soldiers they had to fight against us. And it was a greater victory because so few were involved. And that's usually the way it is. It's the few who do the work. It's the few who pray. It's the few who labor. It's the few who stand. It's the few who get involved and get engaged in the service of the Lord. So the effect was stupendous. And fear gripped the hearts of the enemy soldiers and they fled in disorder. That was a powerful night. Can you see them? Can you hear them? They're running. This was an unbelievable thing. This is what God did. He caused them to be fearful. He caused them to fly away as fast as they could. The victory then was complete. Now we're interested in the part of the broken pictures, the part that they played in the victory. The pictures we're told were earthen vessels and hidden in them were flames, flaming torches of light. In my margin it's torches, in some places it's lamps, other places it's light. So you get the idea, you get the picture. And Christians are the earthen vessels to whom the Lord has entrusted his spirit. God has entrusted his spirit to his people, his children, earthen vessels. These earthen vessels are indwelled by the omnipotent spirit of God by whom we can do all things. That's the power that enables us to be successful, to be successful in our labors for Christ. With him all things are possible. Without him we can do nothing, but then we do know that we can do all things through Christ which strengthens us. How does he do that? By his indwelling spirit. So we're earthen vessels, we're free. We're weak, we're powerless in ourselves, but with the power of God within us, we can do mighty things through the power of the Spirit of God. So the light has been placed in earthen vessels, and the earthen vessel is a symbol of these bodies of ours. And we can think again about these earthen vessels. At the wedding in Cana of Galilee, the vessels that were brought were empty vessels. And these were the vessels that the water was poured into and turned into wine. The Lord produced wine, symbol of joy, symbol of salvation. It was on an earthen vessel that the widow's small supply of oil was poured. Remember what happened? She got all the different pots and the oil was poured in, supply kept coming. until all the vessels were filled, and at best were just earthen vessels, entrusted with the power of the Spirit of God to do a work for God, to represent Him in a dark day in the face of the enemy, the surmounting numbers of enemies and opponents of the gospel. He has given to us the power that can scatter our enemies and give unto the church the victory again and again. That's the message we have here in this broken vessel, the picture. What a picture we have of the Christian as a result of regeneration. And every child of God is indwelt with the Holy Spirit. A person, not a net. person. And when we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive the whole person. We can't get any more of the Spirit. We get the whole person. The third person of the Trinity takes up residence on the behalf of Christ and his church. He indwells us. He infills us. and think about all the possibilities of omnipotence that there is in this picture before us. Within every believer dwells the Holy Spirit. Yet an average believer goes, many an average believer just goes through life without letting the power out, without letting the power flow out. That light seldom shines forth, unfortunately. Oftentimes there is darkness. So it was on Gideon's day, it was dark, you see. The lamps were there, but there was no light, no victory until the pictures were broken. You see that? All is dark until the picture was broken. And then the light shone forth and then the enemy fled in consternation. And just like those pictures, we need to be broken if we're going to be used by the Lord and blessed by the Lord. We may wonder why we feel so broken at times, but later find out that God only uses broken things for his glory and for his praise. We are broken so that we might experience God's best. Have you been broken? Has your will been broken? Has your stubbornness been broken? It's applicable to us all. We've got stubborn, rebellious hearts. That's the way we're made. The old nature, we never get rid of the old nature. So this is something that continues with us all through life and what we need, we need the Holy Spirit to take more and more control of these lives of ours. And when he does, we'll manifest the fruit of the Spirit and people will see the beauty of Christ and the glory of God and the majesty of the Savior and they'll know that we've been to the cross. They will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that man, that woman has been broken by the power of God, the light shining forth. There's no darkness now. There's light and liberty. The flame's there. The fire's there. It was said of John the Baptist in John 535, he's a burning and shining light. Burning and shining. Well, burning, you think of the oil and the vessel. And because the oil was being burnt and used, then there was a shining. So we can see John as a man controlled by the Spirit of God. And as a man controlled by the Spirit of God, he's shining for God. Because the oil has been burning, you see. He's relying upon the Spirit of God to take control. So you have the little vessel, just like a cup kind of shape. And you have the oil. placed in it there, and then you have the wick. That's the kind of light they had in ancient homes. And so we can see that the light burns brightly when it's been fed, the wick's been fed with the oil. And that's why John was a burning and shining light. He was shining because of the oil that kept burning. Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning. That's the little chorus we sing sometimes. Give me oil in my lamp, I pray. So we thought about two broken things. Break up the fallow ground, okay. And then we have these pictures. These pictures that need to be broken. And then they give the light, the light begins to shine. The third thing, the third broken thing, is found there in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 24. 1 Corinthians, and we often turn to this portion of the communion service. So, we break up the fallow ground to be fruitful. We let the light shine to be faithful. And then we come here to verse 24, 1 Corinthians 11. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said, take it. This is my body. So the final thing is a broken body. And when we think of this, we trust in the broken body to be forgiven. So I'm trying to link these things up together. This is my body which is broken for you without his broken body. We can never be made whole. It's as simple as that. In God's wise counsel, everything must be broken because before it can be made fruitful in the service of God. Remember what Jesus said, and I mentioned this a few minutes ago, John 12, 24, except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Until Jesus was broken, he could not be our savior. That is God's way of doing things. Now some ingredients, of the holy anointing oil that we read of in Exodus chapter 30 had to be crushed before they were used because they were crushed and as only as they were crushed that the fragrance could flow forth. And so we have this thought, you see, you've got to crush these certain things. And that's why we read there in Exodus 30, 36, thou shalt beat some of it very small and put it on before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation. So it had to be crushed before the fragrance would arise to God. Until the incense was crushed it could not give forth that fragrance. And so Christ had to be crushed, his body had to be broken to send that fragrance of acceptance up to God, acceptance for his people for whom he died on Calvary's cross. And so we think of this breaking at Calvary, his broken body, his sacrifice, his atoning death, what he accomplished for us through that death, the forgiveness of sins. He's put our sins away, they're under the blood. So until Christ was broken he could not be our Savior. It reminds me of the story, and there's no way that this is a type of the atonement, but it's a little simple story I discovered today. It's a story about a little boy who was consistently late for school, late from coming home from school. And his parents told him off, you need to be home at a certain time every day, within one ear and out the other ear. And one day the mother said, now you need to be home today. There's something important to do at a certain time. You need to be home. He might as well, I don't know, never listen to it anyway. So he arrived home and it was much later than before. His mother met him at the door. She said nothing. She said not a single thing. And then at dinnertime the boy came in and sat down for his dinner. He looked at his plate and there was just a slice of bread on the plate and a cup of water beside it. Nothing else. He looked over at his father's plate and that was loaded up with potatoes and vegetables and everything else that you could want for your evening meal. It was so scrumptious, it looked so delightful. And the father remained silent and never said a thing. And so the boy was crushed. The father waited for until the full impact of what he did sank into the little boy's mind and heart. And then he quietly took the boy's plate and placed it in front of himself. And he took his own plate of meat and potatoes and put it in front of the boy and smiled at his son. And that young fella never forgot, this is what he said years later, When that boy grew up to be a man, he said, all my life I've known what God is like by what my father did that night. Now, I'm not saying this is a type of anything in the Bible, but this is what I'm saying. This is what I'm saying. In the story, we see how the father gave his son something he did not deserve. You see that? God the father sent his well-beloved son to make an atonement for his people to give them something they did not deserve. This is grace and in order to accomplish that work his body had to be broken and his blood had to be shed so that the undeserving sinner could be forgiven and reconciled to God by grace alone through faith in Christ alone. And that's the reason why Christ, his body was broken and his blood was shed. So these are some broken things that we read of in the scriptures. God uses broken things. God can take broken people and use them. He can take broken hearts and fill them with joy. He can take broken relationships and mend them and bring them together. He can do anything because he's God, but it delights him to take broken things and use those broken things for the glory of God. So we have the broken ground or the soil that had to be done to be fruitful, to reap a harvest. Let the light shine to be faithful to God at this time of mission. Let your light shine. May the picture be smashed. May the light shine. May people see the glory of Christ, the fullness of the Spirit of Christ in you. And then we all have cause to rejoice tonight in the broken body of Christ because it is meant for us, the forgiveness of our sins. We are redeemed because his body was broken. God still uses broken things today. He can use you and he could use me. Let's bow for prayer and seek the Lord's blessing tonight. Now, keep these things before you that we've mentioned already. And if we could just spread the whole thing around the congregation tonight, that different people will be praying for different things, so we'll cover all that's on that list tonight. Let's all be still now and pray, and as many as possible, pray and enter in. And as I often say, keep your prayers short and to the point. And if need be, pray a second time. Let's get down before the Lord. Let's pray. Seek the Lord now. Father, we bow again in thy presence.