The spirit of a man can endure his sickness, but who can survive a broken spirit?A man’s spirit will sustain him in sickness, but a crushed spirit, who can bear?The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; But a broken spirit who can bear?
5 sermons cite this verse
[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon upon this text, is #1604, Volume 27—HEART DISEASE CURABLE] THESE are some of the words of the Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, the Messiah, which He read in the synagogue at Nazareth and then said, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." One of the worst calamities that can happen to anyone is to have his spirit broken. "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit, who can bear?" All the water in the sea will not hurt the vessel one thousandth part as much as that which comes into it. When trouble gets into the heart, every other trouble seems to be magnified and it is hard to bear up against even the ordinary trials of daily life. Save us, O God, if possible, from the terrible affliction of being entirely broken down in life's battle! Yet, very closely allied to this great calamity is one of the greatest spiritual blessings, namely, a spiritually broken heart, broken on account of sin and, sometimes, the brokenness of spirit which arises from physical sorrow, mental anxiety, or temporal trouble leads up to the contrition of heart which is most acceptable to God. Oftentimes He sanctifies a lower form of affliction and makes it conducive to the higher form of brokenness of spirit. I am not going to give you any descriptions of spiritual brokenness of heart—I want rather to address myself to broken hearts of any sort and of every sort. There is no particular description of broken hearts given in the text, but simply Christ's declaration, "He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted." There is no descriptive epithet limiting the declaration to the spiritually brokenhearted—and what is not in the text I will not put into it. I am the more glad not to make these distinctions and discriminations because they would only lead the troubled ones to look within to see whether their hearts were spiritually broken and that is just where I do notwant them to look! I want them to look away from themselves to Jesus Christ the Healer of broken hearts. Descriptions of spiritual experience and character are sometimes useful, but I fear that quite as often, they turn the poor sinner's eyes upon himself, whereas his hope lies in his eyes being turned towards Him who was lifted up upon the Cross! To look at self is likely to humble us, but when that humbling has already taken place, then is the time for the Lord's command, "Look unto Him and be you saved, all the ends of the earth." …
child and then she cried, "O God! I am already broken. My heart is like a plowed field—cross-plowed—till my soul is ready to despair! Will You utterly break me? Will You spare me no consolations, no props for my old age? Must I be altogether driven away before the whirlwind and find no rest?" Perhaps it is even more harassing in cases of mental distress for, after all, the sharpest pangs we feel are not those of the body, nor those of the estate, but those of the mind. When the iron enters into the soul, the rust thereof is poison. "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?" You may be surrounded with all the comforts of life and yet be in wretchedness more gloomy than death if the spirits are depressed. You may have no outward cause whatever for sorrow and yet if the mind is dejected, the brightest sunshine will not relieve your gloom. At such a time, you may be vexed with cares, haunted with dread and scared with thoughts which distract you. You fear that your sins are not pardoned, that your past transgressions are all brought to remembrance and that punishment is being meted out to you in full measure. The threats rise up out of God's Book and seem to lift sharp swords in their hands with which to smite you. Time is dreadful to you because you know it is hurrying you to eternity—and the thought of eternity stings as does an adder because you measure the future reckoning by the present distress. At such a time, when you are faint with longing, ready to despair and driven to the verge of madness, I can imagine your crying out, "O Lord God of Mercy, I am as a leaf that is driven to and fro—will You quite break me and utterly destroy me? Have compassion, and show Your favor to Your poor broken creature!" …
Oil was intended to also make each guest agreeable to his neighbors. When his head was anointed with the sweet perfume, those round about him were gratified. Happy Christians are pleasing to those about them—and thus they become a means of attracting souls to Jesus. We ought to be so happy that others ask, "From where have these men their joys?" If so, you can clearly see why we should exchange our mourning for the oil of joy. It would be evil to frighten men from the glad tidings by drawing long faces and using doleful tones. Besides, Brothers and Sisters, you all know how weak you are in the service of God if your heart runs down into despondency. But when holy joy comes back, you feel that you could face a lion, or the old roaring lion, himself! Joy makes us brave. "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?" Give me the joyful Christian for his Master' s service, for he will break through a troop and leap over a wall! …
Gloom also falls upon the Christian in time of desertion. I do not know whether Judas had sons and daughters, but I have seen several persons who bear a family likeness to that son of perdition. "He that eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me," is a sentence often repeated. "It was not an enemy that reproached me—then I could have borne it— but it was you, a man my equal, my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company." This, also, is an oft-told tale. Yet fret not too much because of ingratitude, fickleness and treachery. Is it not written, "Cursed is he that trusts in man"? All men are liars! Can you not be content to take the inevitable? Your Master had His Judas. Shall not you have yours? "Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled." It may be so with you all the more because you desire to be faithful to your Lord. The worst cloud of all, I think, is deep depression of spirit accompanied with the loss of the Light of God's Countenance. Sickness, poverty, slander—none of these things are comparable to depression! "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?" Do you know what exceeding heaviness means? I pray that you may have but very little of it, but if you do have it, remember Him who said, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Those words were once a great comfort to a child of God dying in despair. Though an eminently gracious man, he was in the dark. He could not find his God and he knew that he was soon to pass into eternity. I do not think our heavenly Father often puts His children to bed in the dark, but if He does, they will wake up in the Light of God in the morning! This man of God said to the minister who visited him, "O Sir, although I have trusted Christ for years and have served His cause, I have lost Him. What will become of a man who dies feeling that God has deserted him?" The wise pastor answered him, "What became of the Man who, just before His death, cried, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?' Is He not on the highest Throne of Glory even now?" The sick man's mind was lightened in a moment! He began to say, as the Lord Jesus did after the dark sentence, "Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit," and he died in peace. Yes, God loves His people quite as much when He leaves them in the dark, as when He sets them at His right hand in the Light! Measure not God's love by His Providences, nor even by His manifestations of them. Measure it by the gift of the Only-Begotten, for Jesus is the only measure of the immeasurable love of God our Father! Yes, a child of God may be in depression for many a year. Timothy Rogers was the victim of despondency for many years and yet he came out into the …
Or it may be that you have a vague impression that salvation consists in the pardon of your sins. This is true, but it does not compass all the truth. When you say, "I would have my sins forgiven," do you know what sin is? Have you ever had any clear view of what it really means? We often use certain terms and common words, I fear, without a corresponding thought in our minds. Know, then, that you have broken God's Law, both by omitting to do what you should have done, and by doing that which you should not have done. Those Ten Commands which you will find in the 20th Chapter of Exodus are like so many mirrors in which you can see what you have done, and what you have not done—what crimes they are which cry out against you before the Judgment Throne of God, which will certainly drag you down to Hell unless you are delivered from the dread penalty. Consider, too, the heavy weight, as well as the grievous guilt, of sin. Have you felt the load and burden of sin? "A stone is heavy and the sand weighty," says Solomon. But, ah, what specific gravity will compare with sin! Well might David groan beneath the load, "My iniquities are gone over my head. As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me." All the burdens that may devolve upon you through the toils of life, the calamities of the world, or the visitations of Providence, cannot equal the load of sin—for this is a burden that oppresses the conscience, crushes the heart and paralyzes every faculty of the soul. "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit, who can bear?" A conscience stricken with a sense of sin will readily interpret that wounded spirit which is not bearable for a man. Were that terrible incubus to rest long upon him, his spirit would fail utterly before the Lord! If mercy did not come speedily to their rescue, men might soon lose their wits and become frantic, despondency leading to despair—and despair to insanity. Oh, how venomous the poison of sin, when the arrows stick fast and fester! Have you known what sin is? If not, I am afraid your prayer will be unmeaning as that of James and John, to whom it was said, "You know not what you ask." Have you ever had an idea, when asking for the forgiveness of sin, what sin really deserves? What kind of recompense it justly demands? Let it always be remembered by us that every sin we have committed exposes us to the wrath of God—a wrath that is represented by terrible pictures in God's Word—as a flame that is never quenched, a fire that never ceases to burn. In order to deliver us from this penalty, it was absolutely necessary that Someone else should bear this punishment on our behalf. I do not think that we intelligently ask for the pardon of sin unless we have some view of the Crucified Savior, the slaughtered Lamb who stood in our place and put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Ah, seeking soul, if you know the weight of sin, and if you know that Christ carried it, then you can say, "Lord, I would have my sins forgiven," in answer to the question, "What do you want Me to do for you?" …