Skip to main content
The Acceptable Sacrifice

God’s Word Wielded By His Arm Breaks Hard Hearts

The instrument with which the heart is broken, and with which the spirit is made contrite, is the Word. ‘Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord; and like a hammer, that breaketh the rock in pieces?’ (Jer 23:29). The rock, in this text, is the heart, which in another place is compared to an adamant, which adamant is harder than flint (Zech 7:11, 12; Eze 3:9). This rock, this adamant, this stony heart, is broken and made contrite by the Word. But it only is so, when the Word is as a fire, and as a hammer to break and melt it. And then, and then only, it is as a fire, and a hammer to the heart to break it, when it is managed by the arm of God. No man can break the heart with the Word; no angel can break the heart with the Word; that is, if God forbears to second it by mighty power from heaven.  ~ The Acceptable Sacrifice by John Bunyan