Good morning. If you will turn
with me to Proverbs 21. Proverbs 21. Proverbs 21, and let's look at
verse one. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever
he will. For our Bible study this morning,
I'd like us to consider the king's heart. Studying for this message
has been a great comfort to me, and I pray that this message
will be a comfort to all of us. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord. No exceptions. No exceptions. There are a lot of kings and
rulers and leaders in this world, and every single one of them,
their heart is in God's hand. That ought to comfort us. There
were some elections that took place last week. Some went the
way I'd hoped. Some didn't go the way I'd hoped.
In a year, there's going to be a huge election, and somebody's
going to be disappointed. I hope it's not us. But the fact
of the matter is, these things have already been appointed.
I'm going to get out and vote. I'm thrilled to have the right. I care who runs our country.
I care who's in charge across the world. But I don't know what's
best. I don't. I think I know. Everybody
thinks they know. God knows, and He's already appointed
these things. We must remember who is in charge. God is on His throne. Our God
is in the heavens. I love what Daniel said. He said,
He removeth kings and setteth up kings. God does that. Let's never forget that. You
remember Pharaoh, king of Egypt? That evil king, he knew not Joseph. That's what it says, Exodus 1
verse 8. He knew not Joseph. If our leaders don't know Christ,
We really ought to lower our expectations, seriously. You
can't expect perfection from a man who does not know Christ.
We don't expect it from one another, let alone someone who does not
know Christ. Well, this man, Pharaoh, he afflicted the children
of Israel with their burdens. He set up taskmasters over them
who put them under bitter, hard bondage. The Lord sent Moses
to Pharaoh time and time again, and he said, thus saith the Lord
God, let my people go. And over and over, Pharaoh hardened
his heart, and he would not let them go. He was an evil king. There's no question about that.
He was a wicked king. But we remember what happened
to him, don't we? We remember what happened to him. God drowned
that man. He drowned that evil king and
his army in the Red Sea. And I'll mention this. That did
not happen until God had sent 10 plagues his way over him and
all his people in Egypt. And God killed Pharaoh's son. You see, I just mentioned it's
God who's in charge. It's God who sets up the kings
and sets them down. Pharaoh's oldest son, he was
in line to be the heir to his father's throne. God killed him.
And Pharaoh did not let his people go until that happened. And even
then, even after God killed his firstborn son, it didn't take
very long until that evil king hardened his heart again. And
he took off after the children of Israel, and then God set him
down once and for all. Turn over with me to Romans chapter
nine. Romans chapter nine. Verse 17. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. God raised Pharaoh up, and in
his appointed time, God set him down. Why? That his power might
be made known. You see, Pharaoh had no power.
He had no power whatsoever. All power belongs to God, that
His power might be made known and that His name might be declared
throughout all the earth. You remember another king, Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon. He was another wicked king. He's
the one who took some gold and created an idol, a false god,
a golden image. And a king makes a decree. He
made a decree throughout all the land that you must bow down
and worship that golden image. And when three men, faithful
by the grace of God, three men who worshiped God, when they
refused to obey the king, when they refused to worship that
false god, this evil king, he sentenced them to death. He was
filled with fury and wrath. He cast them into a fiery furnace,
we remember, But you know what happened? Those men came out
of that furnace, and it says that that fire furnace had no
power against them. Why? Because God is the one in
control. God's the one in charge. He did
all he could to kill them. God wouldn't let him. And not
only that, I love this, God did something for that evil king
that he didn't do for Pharaoh. Our text says, as the rivers
of water, he turneth it, he turned his heart. Whithersoever he would,
he turned his heart towards God." Let me show you that over in
Daniel chapter 4. Daniel 4 verse 34. At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned
unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored
Him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion,
and His kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven. And among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, what
doest thou? Verse 36. At the same time, my
reason returned unto me, and for the glory of my kingdom,
mine honor and brightness returned unto me, and my counselors and
my lords sought unto me, and I was established in my kingdom,
and excellent majesty was added unto me. But before we think,
he's back to his high, proud ways, which we're prone to do.
He was saying, God laid me low, he taught me some things, and
he restored me in my kingdom. Look at verse 37. Now, I, Nebuchadnezzar,
praise and extol, lift up, and honor the King of heaven. all
whose works are truth, and his ways judgment, and those that
walk in pride, he is able to abase. God taught this proud,
arrogant king who the real king is. And this man went from worshiping
himself and his little G God that he set up to worshiping
the most high, the true and living God, the King of heaven, the
Lord Jesus Christ. You see, I say all this to get
to this point. There's just one King. There's
just one King. Many kings in this earth, but
there's just one King. And his name is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's God's anointed King. God's
anointing. He said, I've set my king in
my holy hill zone. He is the blessed and only potentate.
He has all power. You remember what our Lord told
Pilate, thou couldst have no power at all against me, except
it were given you from heaven. The blessed and only potentate,
the king of kings and Lord of lords. And unlike earthly kings
who rule for a time, they just rule for a brief time and then
they die. He lives forever and ever. And
I love that he taught Nebuchadnezzar that. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation
to generation to generation. I love what the angel told Mary.
He said, he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And
of his kingdom, there shall be no end. Does that comfort you? Oh, that's such a comfort to
me. Now, turn back to Proverbs 21. I want us to read our text again, this
time putting ourselves in the place of these earthly kings,
all right? Proverbs 21, verse 1. My heart is in the hand of the
Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it. Whithersoever he will." Now,
it comforts me greatly to know that the King's heart is in the
hand of the Lord. But does it comfort us to know
that our hearts are in the hand of the Lord? I hear people say things like,
only God knows my heart. Only God can judge me. And the
people who say it that way, they say it to justify themselves,
like someone's out to get them. Oh, only God knows my heart.
Is that a good thing? Turn to Jeremiah 17. Jeremiah
17. Jeremiah 17, and look at verse
nine. The heart, is deceitful above all things. Our hearts are deceitful above
all. That means there's nothing more
deceitful than this heart. Nothing. And you've heard this
phrase, you get to the heart of the matter, the heart of the
problem. Well, that's where our problem is. Our heart is who
we really are. And who God says we really are
is not good. Not good. I don't know of one
verse that tells us more clearly who we are. Deceitful above all
things. And the scary thing with this
is religion does a great job of this. They trick men and women
into thinking they're good. And what's even scarier than
that is we naturally trick ourselves into thinking we're good. That's
how deceitful we are. Look at verse nine again. The
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. I looked at that word desperately
and I just immediately thought, no hope. And that's certainly
true. But I looked up what it means. It means incurable. Incurable. That's strong language. Desperately wicked. Wicked beyond
repair. So wicked. I can't do anything
about it, religion can't do anything about it, we can't do anything
about it. So wicked we need a new heart,
a brand spanking new heart. You remember before God sent
the flood in the days of Noah, this is what he said. He said,
God saw that the wickedness of man, and just remember this is
true today. God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That's worse
than we could ever imagine. We don't have a clue. The end
of verse nine here says, who can know it? We're so evil, we're
so depraved, we're so lost, who can know it? I'm glad it's not
given unto us to know it. I really am. I don't want to
know just how bad I am. But here's what ought to put
the fear of God in us. God knows it. He knows it. Oh, He knows it. Look at verse
10. I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the rings. What that means
is God thoroughly examines the heart. There's no hiding our evil heart
from a from an all-knowing, omniscient God. You remember when Adam tried
to hide from God? That's what we all naturally
do. There's no hiding from God. God sees everything, absolutely
everything. Religion does its best to cover
it up, makes the outside look good. Christ said concerning
those Pharisees, He said, You're just worried about the outside
of the cup, but the inside is full of corruption and dead men's
bones. That's what we are. And that's
what matters. You know, you can look as good
as you want to on the outside. We ought to, you know, clean
up our appearance. But let's never forget where
the problem is. It's right here. Right here. And look at verse
10 here again. I, the Lord, search the heart.
I try the rains, even to give every man according to his ways
and according to the fruit. of His doings, God is going to
give us exactly what we deserve. I ask you, is it comforting to
know God knows your heart? God is going to give us exactly what
we deserve. He will give everyone according
to His ways, according to the fruit of our doings. What a warning. What a warning. Look back in
our text, Proverbs 21. This time, look at verse 2. Proverbs
21.2 says, This is very dangerous. Every way of a man is right in
his own eyes. Proverbs 14.12 says, But the end thereof are the ways
of death." See, every way of a man is right in his own eyes,
but God searches the heart. God ponders the heart. He weighs
the heart. Turn over with me to Isaiah chapter
55. Isaiah chapter 55. You just think for a second about
the way of man, which is right in our own eyes. You just consider
that for a moment. Isaiah 55 verse 6 says, What is our way? That's it. We are the wicked. We are the
unrighteous man. We must turn from our wicked
ways. We must repent or else we'll perish in our sins. Well, how are we going to do
that? How are we going to do that? Is it by giving our heart to
God? I believe I heard David Edmondson
say this. I love it. God doesn't want that filthy
thing. God has no interest in our sinful,
depraved, wicked heart. He doesn't want it. He doesn't
want it. How are we going to turn from our wicked ways? How
are we going to seek the Lord? I love what Jeremiah said. He said, turn thou me and I shall
be turned. For thou art the Lord my God.
That's the only way we're gonna seek Him. That's the only way
any of us are gonna turn from our wicked ways to serve the
living God as the rivers of water. As easy as God can turn a river
of water with us however He will, He can turn our hearts from ourselves
and our wicked ways to Him and to His way. And I am so, so glad
He does. So glad He does. Well, what is
His way? What is God's way? Well, here
in Isaiah 55, let's read verse seven. What is God's way? Mercy.
Not giving us what we deserve. and pardon, free forgiveness
of sin. Do you need mercy? I just showed
you what our hearts look like, let alone the things we've done,
but our heart's even worse. Do you need mercy? Do you need
God to forgive, to pardon your sin? Yes, we do. whether we know it or not, whether
this world knows it or not, we need that more than anything.
You know, there's so many things, we live our life, we get older,
that we think there's so many things we need. That's all I
need. That is all I need. You see, I mentioned that the
Lord Jesus Christ is our King. We've broken our King's commandments.
When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, if it comes down to obeying a
king or obeying Christ our king, we obey Christ our king by the
grace of God. But you break the king's commandment,
you're worthy of death. We're worthy of death. From a
holy God, we're worthy of death. Not only have we broken all his
commandments, we've dishonored our king. People don't care about that
these days, do they? But how much more serious is that when
we dishonor Christ our King? Just look at the cross. That
was us there. We spat in His face, we plucked
out His beard, we mocked Him. We said, if He be the King of
Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, then we'll believe
Him. He saved others Himself He cannot save. Praise God. We dishonored our King in every
way possible. More than that, we crucified
our king. We crucified our king. We said,
I will not have this man to reign over me, not knowing he reigns
over us, whether we like it or not. We said, away with this
man, away with this man. Crucify him. Let me ask you again. Do you need mercy? Oh, I do. Oh, I do. He will have mercy. When our Lord said, I will have
mercy, have you ever heard sweeter words? I will have mercy. He will abundantly pardon. He
said, their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. What
good news. and how that ought to make us
rejoice. We just saw our way. Well, this is God's way. Which
way would you prefer? There's a way which seems right
to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. I love
this. One of the songs we sing, it says, mercy there was great,
and grace was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me, even me. There my burdened soul found
liberty. Where? At Calvary. in Christ. Here in Isaiah 55,
look at verse 8. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, praise the Lord. Neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. We deserve to die in our sins,
all of us. That's what we deserve. But God,
But God, it's only hope for any of us. But God, who is rich in
mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, useless sinners,
even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with
Christ. That's where salvation is, with
Christ. By grace ye are saved. God's way is the way of salvation. God's way is the way of hope,
the way of peace. God's way is the Lord Jesus Christ. He said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. If we are to be saved, God must
turn our hearts to Christ, because we're not going to do it. We
can't. We don't have the ability. Our hearts are in his hand. As
David prayed, may God be pleased to create in us a clean heart,
renew a right spirit within us. May God give us a heart that
believes him, that trusts Him, that looks to Christ and rests
in Him alone for salvation complete. God's able to do that. He did
that for old Nebuchadnezzar. He's done that for many. I pray
that He would do that for each of us. Praise God the King's
heart is in the hand of the Lord. Amen.