That was very good singing again. First of all, I would like to give you a word of welcome tonight to the service. We trust that the Lord will bless each one gathered this evening. And then I must apologize on behalf of your minister, Mr. Stewart. I was about to leave and it was just about two or three minutes too late to get out the door when the phone rang and he didn't sound good. He really sounded bad. I thought he was going to book over the phone to me and I was ready to get a bucket. But he recovered, and I got out of him what he wanted me to do. I didn't want to get too close over the phone because he was really sounding bad. And he said he felt such a hypocrite because he had been exhorting you in his most gracious fashion to be in the place of prayer. And then, maybe the first night after doing that, he came up to me and he says, you are a hypocrite. I was only joking, of course. I was only too pleased that I was free. to be able to come tonight to preach to you. And bear with me please as we seek to bring a message from the Lord. But I don't actually have a Bible portion to read. But I'm going to refer your attention to three different verses in the Bible, and I want to try to link them together if I possibly can. So you'll just bear with me as we seek to get through the message tonight. I was preaching on Sunday night, and it was a bad night to be out on the roads. and we were just travelling between O'Huckle and Cullibagga there and we had to get out of the way quite quickly because we came on a fence that had been blown out into the middle of the road or near enough the middle of the road so it reminded me of Brooklyn things. Then on Monday night and on Tuesday night I was preaching down in the week of prayer in Coleraine. Last night was a bad night to come home and we saw broken branches and broken trees and broken flower pots and broken bins and broken signs. So the Lord was teaching me a little lesson and He directed my attention for last night's meeting in Coleraine to the broken things that we come across in the Bible. And that's what I want to talk to you about for a little time this evening. God uses broken things. That's what I want to talk to you about. God uses broken things. One preacher said, if you are being broken, God is working with you. He is doing something very special in your life. We think broken things are a loss, he went on to say, but God turns them to gain. And so I want you to take on that on board and think about what I said in the light of what I'm going to preach to you about some broken things in the Bible. God does use broken things. My first verse is found in Jeremiah chapter 4. Jeremiah chapter four. Jeremiah is one of the major prophets found in the scriptures. So it's Jeremiah chapter four. And if you just turn to this verse, let me read verse three with you. And then if you have a card, one of these little cards in your Bible or piece of paper or whatever, you can put it in at that place. And then when you go home tonight or sometime tomorrow, You can come back and read that and hopefully remember something of what I said about this particular verse. So it's Jeremiah chapter 4 and verse 3. Let us now read this verse from God's word. For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground and sow not among thorns. Now I want you to focus your thoughts upon those words, break up your fallow ground. We're talking here about broken things. And the message here is break up your fallow ground to be fruitful. Now this message was given by God because that's what the verse says for thus saith the Lord so God had a word for a certain people and they gave that word to the prophet Jeremiah and it was his responsibility then to share it with the people God wanted him to share it with because it says for thus saith the Lord God to the men of Judah and Jerusalem so God gave the word He gave it to the prophet Jeremiah, and it was Jeremiah's responsibility then to give that message to the people. So what was the message? He says, break up your fallow ground. Now, the days were dark in the days of Jeremiah. Dark days were settling upon the nation of Israel. And Israel, in typical form, was trusting in her false security. and allowing the enemies, her enemies, to destroy them because the people of Israel were rebellious and they did not want to return again to God. And that really shows us that the hearts of the people were hard. They were living in a state of rebellion against God. Really, the people had no spiritual initiative. There was no reality in their experience. There was no burden upon their hearts for the work of God. And when you read through the book of Jeremiah and other books like Isaiah, you will discover that the people of Israel were wasting their opportunities and their blessings. They allowed these things to remain unworked and undeveloped. Therefore, the Lord compares the nation of Israel to fallow ground. So the question arises, what is fallow ground? Well, this is a farming community, and no doubt everyone here knows what that reference refers to. Fallow ground is that which is permitted to lie idle and to lie uncultivated. Instead of producing fruit and grain, it becomes covered with weeds. and thorns and becomes unproductive in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the people. So this is the picture that we have before us. This is what God is accusing the people of Israel of, of being like the fallow ground, hard-hearted, indifferent. They needed a move of God upon the nation. to bring tenderness of heart, to break up the fallow ground, and to make them fruitful again in the service of God. So the prophet calls to Israel, thus saith the Lord, break up your fallow ground. That's the message tonight for the congregation. That's a word from God. And as I said, there is a thought here of the hardness of heart of the people. So they needed their hearts to be tenderized, They need to go to work upon their hearts to once again produce productiveness. and sincerity and truth and righteousness in the nation. And there's one spiritual application which comes to mind, that's the first thing that comes to mind when I sat down to look over this particular verse, that there can be no blessing without effort and no harvest without plowing. Before a thing can be made useful, something needs to be broken. Before a house is built, a tree must be broken down. Before a foundation can be laid for a house, the rocks must be blasted from the quarry bed. Before ripe grain can cover the fields, there must be a complete breaking down of the hard soil. And you know what I'm saying. You live in this community. You've seen it before your own very eyes, and you're getting the picture. You're understanding this. You're getting the idea of what God is saying here. There needs to be the cutting blades of the plough must turn over the soil. The sharp teeth of the harrow must pulverize the soil. Before there can be life, there must be death. And Jesus stated the principle of brokenness in the words he spoke. In John 12 verse 24 he says, Of course he's talking there about his own life. He would die. He would go down into the belly of the grave. he would lie there for a period of time then he would be raised up again by the power of God and as a result of the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ what has been created a harvest of souls the un-gathering of precious souls and that's a great thought for us because that includes us that brings us in to the family of God through grace And so we have the teaching of Christ, we have the picture, and we have this tremendous thought that through His death and burial and resurrection that we are truly justified and find acceptance with God, His work has been productive. And it will be to the end of time. There will continue to be an ingathering of precious souls right to the very end of time. So this is the law of life in the natural realm. It's the law of life in the spiritual sphere also. There's no making without breaking. I wonder, do we feel the need tonight of having our hearts melted again, moved by the Spirit to pray and to reach out to the unconverted to win the loss for Jesus' sake? And we shed tears recently praying for our loved ones, our family and friends, our neighbors, people who are just still on the way to a lost Christless eternity with no thought whatsoever about the well-being of their souls. And we have a great responsibility upon us, but the heart is hard. If we're not living right, if we're not walking right, if we're not living and walking in the Spirit, then we become a hindrance. and an obstacle in the way of those who need to hear the message of the gospel, the message that we need to be proclaiming that Jesus saves, and His blood makes us whiter than snow. When sin gets in, the vision goes out. When sin is harbored, then the passion goes. We lose it. The heart becomes hurt. The life becomes stale. The life becomes barren, just like the fall of ground. Just like the field overrun with thorns and thistles, no fruit unto righteousness, nothing productive for the glory of God. We are living in a broken world this day. Broken lives, broken homes, broken relationships, broken families, broken churches even. The history of human life is the history of breaking. But to the child of God, however, every broken thing is but the assurance that God is making something useful out of your life. So maybe someone here tonight, you're broken. You're bowed down with the cares of this life. There are heavy things upon your heart this evening, family issues, financial issues, difficulties and problems, whatever you want to think about. You're bowed down tonight. You're broken. You're teary eyed. You weep often the way behind the scenes. There's a word from God for you. The Lord is even using these things to make something beautiful in your life, to create something wonderful in your life, to glorify him, that he may get the praise and the credit for what he's going to do in your life. God's broken people need to remember what he has said. All things work together for good to those that love God. Many years ago there was a fleet of fishing vessels set off from Newfoundland, I think it was, and they were due back at a certain time during the course of the week. A serious storm developed and with the result that those vessels could not make it safely back to harbour. And everybody on shore, they were praying, they were weeping, and so on. And they gathered together many times. And during that time, one of the fishermen's cottages went on fire. And the woman of the home, she was heartbroken. She says, my husband is out there. I don't know where he is. I don't know if he's alive or dead. And now this is happening as well. I suppose she was saying, like old Jacob, all these things are against me. And so it proved to be a long night, and praying, and calling upon God. And people were worried and concerned. And children were distressed. The next day, the storm had ceased. And lo and behold, the lookout was able to announce the fleet's on its way home. And once the vessels got into the harbor, the woman who'd lost her house ran down to her husband. Oh, we're ruined, husband. We're ruined. Our house was burned. And he said, oh no, we're not ruined because the Lord used the flames of my house to guide the fleet to the shore to point us in the right direction. So you can see the providence of God. God was overruling. God had a purpose even for that community, for that home, for that family, for that individual, those individuals. It looked as if it was disaster. It looked as if it was the end, total ruin. but God was able to turn the whole thing around because God wants to make something beautiful of those who trust in him for salvation and believe in him. He wants to make you into a trophy of blessing to the glory of God. That's the way God works. He cares. He understands us. He knows our needs and he's always willing to come to our aid and help us in the most unexpected ways and the most unexpected times. And sometimes he allows the little cottage to go on fire to guide us along the way to trusting him more and more. These broken things appear to be tragedies to us. To God, they're opportunities to be used for his glory. So in the first place, there is the broken ground. Break up your fallow ground to be fruitful. That's what God desires for you, to be fruitful. Deal with the barrenness. The Lord touched Sarah. The Lord touched Hannah. The Lord touched Elizabeth. These were women who were barren, but he made them fruitful. That's what God does for his people. We've got to move on. The second thing is brought to attention in Judges chapter 7. So you look back there to Judges chapter 7. Judges chapter 7. We're talking here about broken things. God uses broken things. Chapter 7 of the book of Judges, and just let me read verses 19 and 20 with you, and I want you to pick up on something in these two verses. So it's Judges chapter 7. And we're reading there at verse 19. Have you found a place there? We'll give you a wee minute just to get it. Judges chapter 7 verse 19. You've got it now. Okay. So get in. And the hundred men that were with him came out 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 listen to it now and break the pictures that were in their hands reading on at verse 20 just to find that little phrase again and the three companies so there's a hundred in each company three companies the three companies blew the trumpets that must have been a narration as we would say in cully baggy there in the middle of the night in the dark night break the pictures and held the lamps in their left hands and the trumpets in the right hands to blow with all and they cried the sword of the lord and of gideon now the little phrase there break their pictures we're talking about broken things Now, you'll notice the way that word is spelt, that's P-I-T-C-H-E-R, that's not P-I-C-T-U-R-E. They weren't having pictures of their sweethearts as they went out to battle, that's the wrong idea. P-I-T-C-H-E-R, that was a clay jar which normally had fluid, held fluid. But there's no fluid. The fluid was gone. And inside these pitchers, these jar vessels, then they had these torches. That's the way it is in the margin of my Bible. Or these fires, or these flames, whatever, light, whatever you want to call it, they're in the middle then inside this jar, this pitcher. So what's the message here from this? The message is, break the pitchers to be faithful. Now, just bear with me. Break the pictures to be faithful. Now, Judges 7 tells the story of Gideon. By the way, Gideon was the sixth of the judges after the death of Joshua. And at this particular time, Israel was being backed sorely by the repeated attacks of her enemies, the Midianites, okay? When the people cried unto the Lord, that's the cycle we have in the book of Judges. The people, they're walking with God, they depart from God, they sin, the Lord sends an enemy, Then the people cry unto the Lord again, and he raises up a judge. That's the cycle we have in the book of Judges, over and over again. It happens so many times. The people sin, God chastens them, they cry unto God, the Lord raises up a judge. And these judges point us to Christ, by the way, because it refers to a deliverer. Christ is our great Savior. He's our great deliverer. So that's what the book of Judges really is all about. And so the Lord raised up this man Gideon to deliver them from their enemies. Now some 32,000 gathered initially, volunteers, 32,000 volunteers gathered to help Gideon in the battle. But out of all of these volunteers, only 300 were fit to fight. Now that's a surprising thing. I wonder why. Well, I suppose if you take 32,000 people going out to fight, and if they do have success, they're going to take all the credit to themselves. It was the strength of our army. But when you get 300 against, I don't know how many, many knights would have been there on that occasion. When you take a few, and you have such a success as they experienced, who gets the glory? Well, God gets the glory. Because what could 300 people do? Oh, 32,000, they might have great success, and they'd be clapping themselves on the back. Well done, well done. But when you're 300 going out against the enemy, and God gives them a great victory, God gets the glory. So not everyone is fit to fight the Lord's battle, but God had 300 individuals. The few, by the way. It always seems to be the few who prove to be the backbone of a church, the backbone of a work, the praying few, the remnant, those who the church depends upon so much, humanly speaking, the few. Oh, may you be among the few to serve the Lord and worship Him in this congregation. Now, the method of deliverance. was very unique. So after Gideon divided up his 300 army into three different companies of 100 each, so you have three companies around the enemy. This is done at night. Stealth. They're going to take the enemy by surprise. And so there's silence. And so they all move around the camp, get into their proper places, and Gideon says, now, when I give the command, he's the captain, a type of Christ, when I give the command, the signal, then do this and do that and do the other thing. Everyone get ready. We're going to see the Lord at work here. Oh, there may have been some saying, well, how's this going to work? Well, they did not reckon in God. And so they were put into place, and Gideon says, you get the trumpets in your right hand side, in your right hand, and you get the pitchers on the other side, the left, and then these pitchers were concealing the blaze, or the fire, or the flame that was inside. So all was dark, and they're getting put into place. It's not a sound down in the camp. Oh, they think, oh, we're doing great here. We're going to have success over God's people and all that kind of thing. We're just going to do what we've done at other times. But they did not reckon in God. And so they're all waiting, ready to strike. And then the command is given by the captain at the right time. Now you can imagine the noise in the middle of the night. This all happened at the same time. 300 pictures are broken. What a noise that would make in the middle of the night. And then all of the lights began to shine in the middle of the night. So the darkness was turned into light. And then the trumpets blew at the same time. And then the cry, the sword of the Lord, and of Gideon, and these men were in their bed. You know, maybe you're sound asleep at night, and some of these stormy nights, you hear something blowing outside. Somebody's bin has been blown over, and oh, you're stirred, what's going on out there? Look out the curtains, what's happening out there? Somebody trying to break in. Well, here are 300 soldiers, and they're ready to pounce. And all they have in their hands are trumpets and pitchers and confidence and faith in Jehovah. And so you can imagine that night of what happened. These Mennonites are fast asleep and they wonder what on earth is going on. It was the element of surprise and that silent night, sometimes around the Christmas season we sing silent night, holy night. This silent night became a scary night for the enemies of God's people. Hallelujah! The Lord intervened, you see. They were cocky, they were confident, they knew in their hearts that they would certainly have the victory, but they didn't reckon in God. And then God suddenly broke in and he confused the enemy. And when you read this story, you think of the fear of the enemy and then the flight of the enemy. And the victory was complete. Do you see that? The victory was complete. So you have this beautiful picture. The vessels, they're broken and then the light begins to shine. Now we're interested in the part of the broken vessels in the victory. They were earthen vessels by the way. And hidden in them were the flaming torches. And Christians are like earthen vessels to whom the Lord has given His Spirit. And the Spirit of God dwells within each child of God. The fire is within these pictures, these temples, these tabernacles of ours. And without Him, we can do nothing. But with the Holy Spirit within, we can do all things through Christ. which strengtheneth us. Praise be the name of the Lord. And so we have a wonderful picture here. And then you think about fire in the Bible, that's one of the emblems of the spirit of God. But this light, this fire has been placed in earthen vessels. What a wonderful picture we have here of the Christian as a result of regeneration. We are wrought upon by the Spirit of God in the new birth. We are stirred and awakened by the Spirit within. And then the Spirit gives us the grace to turn, to seek the Lord, to repent, and to believe, and to come to Christ freely. It's the Spirit of God does the work. This is the work in regeneration. And the Spirit of God comes to indwell every child of God. And when the Spirit of God dwells within us, think about the possibilities of omnipotence within. Yet the average believer goes through life without letting the power flow out. It seldom shines forth. That's the sad and tragic thing in these times in which we live. Oftentimes there's only darkness. It was so in Gideon's day. The lamps were there, but there was no light. There was no victory until the pictures were broken. And then the light shone forth and then they had victory. You've got to let the light shine. And Jesus says, let your light so shine before men that they may glorify your father, which is in heaven. Let them see the light. And so, you see, the picture had to be broken to let the light shine. Whatever's holding back the light from shining, it needs to be dealt with. It needs to be broken. We need to be released from that. And we need that enabling of the Spirit. There are two possibilities in the Christian life. One is to be in the light, amen. The other is to walk in the light, to have the light within and to let the light shine out. One possibility is life. The other possibility is life abundant. In John chapter four, it speaks of the water of life springing up within us. Then in John chapter seven, we read of the rivers of living water flowing forth out of us. So are we just in the light, or is the light flowing through us to the glory of God? Do people know that we are redeemed? Can they see the evidence of grace in your life and my life? The serious days in which we live. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. We've got a serious responsibility as the children of God who know the truth, who are born of God. to let the light shine for the glory of the Savior's name. John chapter 535, John the Baptist is described as being, listen to it, a shining and burning light. Did I get it right? I don't think so. John 535 says that John was a burning and shining light. The order is important. The order is very important. He was shining because he was burning the oil. The oil of the Spirit was anointing him and renewing him and strengthening him. And as he was endued with the light of the Spirit of God, the power of God flowed through him. And as a result, then he shone for God. You've got to burn the oil of the Holy Ghost, in a sense, in order to manifest the power of the Spirit of God in your life. So there's no mistake. When you read the order, it's a burning. He's burning up the oil. And because he's burning the oil, light shining you have the little dish there in the old ancient uh jewish home it's just like a dish you have the oil in there and then you have a wick and it's lit you see and the light is shiny because it's drawing from the oil you see the oil speaks of the holy spirit and when we are in jude with the power of god and living and walking in the spirit Then we'll begin to shine. It's just like Moses coming down from the mount. They had him put a cover on his face because the glory of God shone forth, indicating that he'd been in the presence of God. And when you're in the presence of God, everybody will know about it. to know something of the glory of Christ. I've got to move on. Time's long gone. The wife says she'll have that on my headstone in a day. My time's long gone. A brother said to me when I came in, the meeting finishes here at 9. He's only joking. I says, I'm going to preach 15 minutes longer just to deal with you tonight. But I must get it finished here. So we looked at two things here. the broken ground, and then the broken pictures. And finally, I'm just going to be brief. We want to think momentarily about the broken body. Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, 24. You hear this read at the communion service most Sundays when you have communion. At some point there in verse 24 of 1 Corinthians 11, and we read these words. And when he had given thanks, that is Christ, he break it, there it is, and said, take it, this is my body, which is broken for you. And the point, the message is to remember the broken body to be forgiven. When I'm talking about the broken body, I'm talking about the atoning work and sacrifice of Christ. You understand that in a way. We're talking here about the finished work of Christ. So without his broken body, we could never be made whole. In God's wise counsel, everything must be broken before it can be used fruitfully. Remember again what it said, John chapter 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. as simple as that. This is God's way of doing things. Some ingredients of the holy anointing oil had to be crushed before they were used, because until they were crushed, the fragrance could not flow forth, you see. And you read that in Exodus chapter 30, verse 36. So the incense had to be crushed, and as it was crushed then, then the fragrance arose. to the Heavenly Father in the tabernacle. So until it was crushed, it could not give forth that fragrance. Until Christ was broken, he could not be our Savior. Except the grain of wheat be broken and the ground to flour, he could not be the bread of life for us. So break up the fallow ground. Break the picture because of his broken body. Get the heart dealt with by the power of God. Pray that God will make it tender and flexible in the hands of God. Break the picture and let the light shine forth in an ungodly dark age for the glory of God. Why? Because of his broken body. Because he died, because he made the sacrifice to redeem us, that we might be witnesses for him. I close with a story. I'm not saying this as a type of atonement. I'm just using a simple illustration. A small boy, always returned late from school. In my case, I missed the school sometimes. I got out early and pretended I was only getting home. Maybe later. The teacher kept me in. I had been out of school maybe two or three hours before that. My mother didn't know that. Or she would have creased me, as they say in Cullybaggie. So I had to keep it secret. And so he stayed, he was late coming home every day. And then one day the parents said, you need to be home at a certain time, come home early. Well, it didn't fizzle upon him at all. He just ran one ear out the other. And he was later that day. And so when he returned home, the mum was there to meet him. She said nothing. Very gracious mother, she said nothing. And then it came to dinnertime, and this plate was set out. And on the plate, he could see a slice of dry bread. And then there was a glass of water. And he was crushed. And then he scullied over at his father's plate all those potatoes and those vegetables and a piece of meat. Oh, it looked really good. And so the young fellow, he was really crushed. You know the way it is. They realize that they need a slap around the ear. We can't say that in these times, but just dead. But he's just wondering what's going on here. And then all of a sudden, the father very quietly removes the plate from before the son over to his own place and took his full plate and set it before his son and smiled and said nothing. That young fella grew up, and this is what he said, all my life, I've known what God is like by what my father did that night. Now, as I said, it's not a picture of atonement or anything about the work of redemption, but the point is this, in the story we have a father, how the father gave his son something he did not deserve. And God the father sent his well-beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to make an atonement for his people, to give them something they did not deserve. And that's what happened at the cross. In order to accomplish this, his body had to be broken and his blood had to be shed so that undeserving sinners like you and I could be forgiven and reconciled by God, by God's grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. God still uses broken things today. So the three simple things. The message, first message is break up your fallow ground to be fruitful. Second message, break the pictures to be faithful, let your light shine. And the message, the third message, remember the broken body to be forgiven. Amen. And because we are forgiven, let's be fruitful and let's be faithful because of Calvary. May God bless this word for Jesus' sake. Amen. Thank you for your patience. May the Lord be pleased to bless. We'll ask your brother now to make the announcements. I'm sorry for the lateness, brother, but you'll forgive me this time.