You know, I read there in Acts
13.22 when it says that God raised up a king, David, the son of
Jesse, a man after my own heart, a man
that I found, a man after my own heart, who will fulfill all
my will. And of course, the next verse
says that the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom he was the seed, that
Christ was the seed of David, rightful heir to the throne,
But now all things are naked and opened before God. God knows
the thoughts and intents of the heart. He lays us open just like
a man with a butcher lays open a carcass. He just sees everything
about us. And live before His only eyes.
And He does not look like man does on the outward appearance.
God looks past the outward appearance. We look on the outward appearance.
Paul says, Look on the outward appearance when he told the Corinthians,
you know, they said, his bodily presence is contentable, his
speech is weak. Everything about him is just
awful looking. And he said, do you judge by
outward appearances? Do you think you're Christ? He
said, I'm Christ. I'm the one that belongs to Christ.
I'm the one that God's using to preach the gospel to you.
But they looked on the outward appearances. God couldn't possibly
use a little man like him. bodily presence so contemptible.
That's what they said, his bodily presence was contemptible. And
his speech was weak. And that's why our Lord Jesus
Christ says, you know, that those Pharisees, they said, they outwardly
appear religious unto men. But God looked past that. He
says, I know your hearts. You're those that justify yourselves
before men, but everything that's pleasing in the sight of men
is an abomination in the sight of God. God looks past this body. See, salvation is a matter of
the heart. And God found, He said, I found
David, a man after my own heart. You know, the Scripture says,
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. With the
heart man believes unto righteousness. If thou shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, and confess with your mouth, thou
shalt be saved. You see, God looks on the heart.
You remember when he sent Samuel down to Jesse's house, and he
was going to raise up a king, and he wanted somebody to be
king. Well, they made him a big feast. Samuel went down there,
and he had eight sons. And he started at the eldest
and went through every one of those. Every single one of them. And every one of them come by
there, he said, that's not him, that's not him, that's not him,
that's not him. And they said, well, what's the
matter with him? What's the matter with him? Samuel said this, says,
God looketh not upon the outward appearance, but God looks on
the heart. Is there another one? He said,
well, there's a boy out there keeping the sheep. He's not even
important enough to be here for supper this evening. He's not
nothing like these other big old fine strapping boys I've
got. I mean, these are men. He's just a boy. He's a stripling. He's out there taking care of
sheep. He says, you go get him. You put somebody else in charge
of your sheep. You bring him here. And that's, God said, this
is the one right here. This is the one. Oh, they all
looked on me, I looked here. And God said, that's not what
I look at. I look at the heart. God deals with the heart. You
see, it's with the heart that we love or we hate. It's with
the heart that we serve or we don't serve. Now see, what I
mean by that is a person can have your body. They can have
your duty. They can have your service. But
I tell you one thing, if they have you, if they have you, have
you personally, They have you when you love from your heart
and you do what you do out of love for them. Whenever you do what you
do out of love for them, then they got you. They may have your
body, but until they got your love, that's all they got. They
may have your duty, but until they got your love, that's all
they got. They may have your service, but until they have
your heart and your love, that's all they got. It's like marriage. Go get a license. Get a ring. Get a preacher. Get a dress. Put a suit on. Get married. Go off and get a nice house.
Have a youngin' or two. Make a pretty good livin'. But
if there isn't love, if the heart is not in it, it's a lot of things,
but one thing it ain't. It's not a marriage. It could be a marriage legally.
It could be a marriage But it's not a marriage if there's not
any love in it. And that's what God says. It's the heart. He
said, I have found him, saw him, David, the son of Jesse, a man
after my own heart. And when God saw David, He said,
I saw a man after my own heart. Well, what kind of heart did
God see when He found David? What kind of heart does He look
at when He sees us? Well, I tell you, One thing he
seen when he found David and found a man after his own heart,
it was a broken and contrite heart. Yes, it was a broken and
contrite heart. Now here in Psalm 51, his heart
was broken. This is when he had committed
sin with Bathsheba. This is when he had committed
the murder of Uriah, her husband. And here is a man, his heart
was broken. Now listen to what I'm going
to tell you. His heart was broken not because he had been caught
in his sin. His heart was broken not because
he had been caught in his sin, but because he had committed
the sin. Not because he got caught, but
his heart was broken over the fact that he did it. That he
had the nature to do it. That he took the opportunity
to do it. That he yielded to temptation to do it. Ain't that
what he says down there in verse 16, 17? Look what he says down
here, for thou desirest not sacrifice. Oh, if there was a sacrifice
that I could give that put my sin away, if there was a sacrifice
that I could give that would make me right with you, if there
was a sacrifice that I could give that would give me a new
heart, I'd give it. But you don't delight in burnt
offering. But he says these are the sacrifices. And listen, God's got to give
you these sacrifices. You don't have them naturally.
God's got to give you these sacrifices. The sacrifices of God are broken
spirit. That spirit's got to be broken.
As long as he stood and justified himself in his sin, as long as
he stood and justified himself in his acts that he did, and
tried to clear himself and justify himself, he had not had a broken
spirit. But his spirit was broken. What? Over the sin that he committed.
It was a broken and contrite heart. And he says, God, you
won't despise that. I'm broken over my sin. My heart
is busted over my sin. I've got a contrite heart. And,
oh, beloved, and I tell you, another reason he had a broken,
contrite heart here was because of his nature. Look what he says
there in verse 3. I acknowledge my transgressions.
Oh, I'd like to find somebody. People will acknowledge doing
a lot of things, making a lot of mistakes. Making some wrong
decisions. Taking the wrong route. Saying
the wrong thing. They will acknowledge a lot of
things they've done, but David said, I acknowledge my transgressions. My sin is before me. Oh God, I see it. I see everything
that I've done. Look what he said down in verse
5. This is the reason he was doing
this. This is the reason he was so broken hearted. He realized,
I was shaping in iniquity. When I began to form in my mother's
womb, I was shaping in iniquity. Iniquity was in my heart. Iniquity
was in my members. Iniquity was in my body. And
in sin did my mother conceive me. My father is a sinner. My mother is a sinner. So what
else could she do besides a sinner? And he says, you desire truth
in the inward parts. That's where you desire truth.
Not just with the mouth. Not just with a confession. But
he said, that here is where you desire truth. Planted in the
heart. And he saw his sin in the light
of God's holiness, he says in verse four. This is why his heart
was broken, contrite. This is the kind of people after
God's own heart. Not a proud Pharisee, not a self-righteous
Pharisee, not somebody trying to justify the deeds they do.
No, no, he said, it's against you. He said, I sinned against
Bathsheba. I sinned against Uriah. I sinned
against Israel. And all these things, I gave
the enemies of God great occasion to blaspheme, he says. But he
says, when it's all said and done, it's against you. You only
that I have sinned. And listen to how he describes
it. And done this evil, where at? In your sight. So that when you might be justified
when you speak, when you call me guilty, and you judge me,
I'll have to acknowledge that you're right in what you say
and do with me. That's what he says. Huh? Oh my. And that's where we all have
to. We've all been there. And we'll be there again. But I'll
tell you something else God saw in David's heart. Look with me
over in Psalm 108. Psalm 108. Not only did he see
a broken and contrite heart, broken over his sin, not because
he's caught in it, but because he had done it. Awfulness of
his nature. And oh, sin is a thing of the
heart. That's what he knew. Create in
me a clean heart, a right heart, a new spirit. He said, oh, here
is Psalm 108. God saw in David a believing
heart. He said, O God, my heart is fixed. What's it fixed? Fixed on You.
You think he would have confessed his sin before God if his heart
hadn't been fixed on God? I tell you, when your heart's
been fixed on God, he's going to come clean with God. He said,
O God, my heart is fixed. I'll sing and give praise even
with my glory. Oh, he believed God. He saw and gave it a believing
heart. I want you to see Psalm 32. I should have went here first.
Psalm 32. Oh, he believed God. He believed
God, just like Abraham did. And because he believed God,
it was imputed to him for righteousness. Here he was, he confessed his
sin, he acknowledged transgressions, he confessed that he was shaped
in iniquity, conceived in sin, broken-hearted, broken-spirited.
But here he says in Psalm 32, he believed God for righteousness. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Whoa, my! Over there he's confessing
sin. Now he's blessing God that it's
forgiven. Lord, if Thou shouldest march iniquities, who should
be able to stand? But there is forgiveness with You. And watch
this. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputed not Iniquity. He said over there, I have shaven
in iniquity. Now he says here, blessed is
the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. And look what else
he goes on to say. In whose spirit is no guile. I don't try to hypocrite with
God. And over in Romans 4 he says, Blessed is the man to whom
the Lord imputeth righteousness without worse. And oh, the Christ
said, verse 3, But I kept silence, My bones waxed cold through my
roaring all day long, whenever I did not praise you, and bless
you, and call on you. For day and night thy hand was
heavy upon me, and my moisture was turned into the drought of
summer. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and my iniquity have
I not hid. And I said, I will confess my transgressions unto
the Lord, and thou forgavest me the iniquity of my sin. No wonder he says, Blessed is
the man. Blessed is the man. Blessed is
the man. And I'll tell you what else he
did. He trusted God's providence for his life. You know he talked
about being hunted as a partridge. He was hunted down. He lived
in caves. His son Absalom tried to take
the throne away from him. And yet he trusted God all the
days of his life. God's providence. You guide me.
You search me. You turn me. You try me. You
guide me. I'll hide under the shadow of
thy wing. And I'll tell you something else he did as a believer, as
having a believing heart. He believed in God's immutable
faithfulness, that God would remain faithful no matter what
he did. No matter what he did. Look what
he said in Psalm 2710. God's immutable faithfulness.
And this is, oh, thank God that He changes not. His immutable
faithfulness. When we abide not faithful, He
will abide faithful. And that's what He said here
in Psalm 2710. He said, When my father and my
mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Oh, my. Oh, my. With my mother and father forsake
me. You know who will take me? Boy,
to think that your mother and father just says, you know, got
no more use for you. And this happens all the time.
Happens all the time. It happened in my life. Ten years
old. They said, get all your stuff
together. I put everything I owned in a paper garbage bag. Walked about a half a mile to
the end of a lane, somebody picked me up, and that's the last time
I ever lived there. Ten years old. My little brother's
nine. When your father and mother...
I go for years and I see my dad. When your mother and father forsake
you, then the Lord take you up. Lord took me up. He's been my mother. He's been
my father. You know how many daddies I got now? I got more
fathers than I can count. Got more mothers than I can count.
I see one, two, three mothers in here this evening. I see one, two, three fathers
in here. I got it from the east coast
to the west coast, from the Canadian border to all the way to Florida
and Texas. That's what David said. And you
know what else he said? He said, the Lord is my shepherd.
And you know what? I'll never want to. He believed in God. He had a
believing heart. And then I'll tell you what else
he had. He had a submissive heart. He had a hard submission to the
will of God and the providence of God and the rule of God. Look
with me over here in 2 Samuel 12. 2 Samuel 12. And you'll see how he submitted
to God here at the loss of his child. The loss of his child. And that's just something that
I find one of the hardest things to imagine. Losing a child, I
just cannot grasp what it goes through in a person's heart and
soul when that happens. But here David lost a baby, and
his heart of submission, submissive heart to the will of God, the
rule of God, beautifully exemplified the death of his son. It says
in verse 18 here, 2 Samuel 12, And it came to pass on the seventh
day that the child died, and the service of David feared to
tell him, that the child was dead. For they said, Behold,
while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would
not hearken unto our voices. Now how will he then vex himself
or hurt himself if we tell him that the child is dead? They
got afraid that David's going to hurt himself. If he mourns
so over the child being alive, what's he going to do when he's
dead? But when David saw that his servant whispered, David
perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said unto
his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead. Now
watch what David did. Then David arose from the earth,
washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and
came into the house of the Lord, and worshiped. And then he came to his own house,
And when he required, they set bread before him, and he did
eat. You can see that. He got up, washed himself, changed
his clothes. He done all of his mourning until the baby was gone. It was
time to go worship. Kiss the hands of God's providence.
Kiss the hands of God's providence. See, submission to God's will
and property is not a prayerless, effortless, lazy, indifferent
fatalism. He didn't say, well, whatever
God does, go and do it. He just went on about his business.
No, no. He stayed there and prayed and
fasted and heard and cried. And then when that child died,
he said, it's gone. I can't bring it back. My heart's
already broken. I'm going to go and worship my
God. I'm going to go where I can find some solace. I'm going to
go where I can find some comfort. I'm going to go where I can find
some strength. And so, you see, that's why Paul, he says, you
know, I want to be found in Christ. I want to win Him. I want to
know Him. I want to have the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ. And you can't have that being lazy and effortless and
submit yourself to the will of God and be found in Him. And
also David had a broken contrite heart, a believing heart, a submissive
heart. What else kind of heart did he
have? When God looked upon David's heart, he saw a loving and devoted
heart. A loving and devoted heart. Look
with me in Psalm 116. He had a loving and devoted heart. David was a man. He was a man's
man. But he also had a heart devoted
in love. Love to God. Love to God's will. Love to God's Word. Everything
about God he loved. It said here in Psalm 116, in
verse 1, I love the Lord. I love the Lord. I heard Scott
Richardson bring one of the finest flesh I ever heard in my life
on this in Napscott, West Virginia one time. I love the Lord. Because he hath heard my voice,
and my supplications." And watch this, "...because he inclined
his ear unto me." Oh my! You know, some of you folks hard
of hearing, you'll turn around a little bit there once in a
while and do like this. Turn that way, this way, and even
hold your hand up. God's not hard of hearing, but
He does incline His ear. He said, here, I'll turn my ear
toward you. Therefore I'm going to call on
him as long as I live. Oh, he was like Simon Peter when
the Lord asked him three times, Simon, son of Jonas, do you love
me? Oh Lord, I do. Simon, son of Jonas, do you love
me? Oh Lord, I do. Simon, son of Jonas, do you love
me? You know You're the one that knows, and that's what David
said here, Lord, I love you, and you know I love you, and
I'm going to call on you as long as I live. And what did he love?
He loved God. He loved God as He is. He loved
God as He revealed Himself to him, as He was known to him.
And he loved Him for all that He did for him. And He blessed
him for that. And he was devoted to the Word
of God. He said in Psalm 119, I have
hid thy word in my heart that I might not sin against you. He said, forever, O Lord, thy
word is settled in heaven. He loved God's word. Oh God,
it can never change. I can change, but your word will
never change. And he says, your word is a light under my path
and a lamp under my feet. Oh, he was devoted to God. He
loved God in all that he is. He loved His Word, devoted to
His Word. He was devoted to the will of
God. In the worship of God, He said, I was glad when they said
unto me, let us go unto the house of the Lord. And oh beloved,
when God's work was in shambles in His mind, He wept over it.
When God's work was up, He rejoiced in it. Whatever it was going
through in the kingdom of God, when it seemed like it was waning,
He waned with it. When it seemed like it was up,
He was up with it. And that's why he was so united to the cause
of God in Christ that whatever was going on, that's the way
it affected him. And oh beloved, it tells us that it was in his
heart to build a house for God. Remember it says, you know, I'm
going to build a house. He called all the church and
said, I'm going to build a house for God. God came to him and said, David,
I know it's in your heart. I know it's in your heart to
build a house for me. I know it is. But he said, you're
not going to build it. No, you're not going to build
it. Your son's going to build it.
And his son has built the house of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Whose house are we? You're talking about a fellow
devoted. He wanted to build God a house, a place to worship. And then, beloved, he was so
loving and devoted that when they took the ark back into Jerusalem,
He'd come in there dancing in the Spirit and dancing and singing
and shaking timbrels and rejoicing that the ark was being brought
back to Jerusalem where it ought to be, and in the temple of God.
And his love and devotion was God was manifested always also
towards even his enemies. Oh, especially manifested towards
God's people. You know in Mephibosheth, He
was David's enemy through Saul. The only living relative was
Saul. That's why when they go in, they kill everything. They
kill every male child, every woman child. They didn't leave
especially no males alive, because if they left the male alive,
he's going to grow up and he's going to come and get vengeance on
them. Tribal. Well, they left Mephibosheth
alive. And he was a prince, really. Even after God disbursed them,
the law was concerned with them. Of course, he's lame on both
of his feet. You all know the story. And David said this. He
said, Is there any yet of the house of Saul that I might show
kindness to? I don't want no vengeance. I
don't want to kill anybody. He said, is there any? He said,
there's a little old boy over yonder. He's crippled. Can't
walk. Has to be carried everywhere he goes. He said, fetch him. Bring him over here. Put some clothes on him. Set
him over at my table. And you see that he's fed three
times a day sitting right there at that table. I want him set
at the king's. I want him having provisions from the king's table. Oh, he had a loving, devoted
heart. No wonder it says Christ was the son of David. Everything.
And not only that, but he had a committed heart. A committed
heart. He was committed to God and to
His cause, to His people, to His worship, to His glory. That's why it says, when they
said unto me, David, where is now thy God? Where's your God,
David?" When everybody was after him, he had enemies after him.
Oh my, they said, David, where's your God? He said, our God's
in the heavens, and He does whatever pleases Him. And not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name be glory, for Thy mercies
and Thy truth's sake. And oh, he's committed to the
glory of God. Worship Him in the beauty of holiness, he said.
And he was committed to his heart. His heart that he had all of
his life was expressed when he was just a youth. Remember this?
When he went out to take his brothers some food? And all of
Israel was counted down over one man, Goliath. He stood a
little over nine foot tall. A great old big man. Huge man. And all I ever know
about him, he'd come out every day, he'd say, who's that man
that don't come out? He'd say, I'll kill whoever,
you know. David heard him out there bragging. He said, who's
going to go down there and fight that fella? Why ain't you all
about to whip Tim? And boy, his brothers got mad
and said, you proud little... Oh, they said some awful things
to him. He said, I'll go fight him. Fight him? He was just a boy. He just went
over there to take some food. But his heart was so zealous
for the cause of God and the glory of God. They said, give
me some armor. They gave him Saul's armor. It's
too big. He said, I don't need that. They
gave him his sword. That's too big. I can't handle
that. And he walked out there in that field. Over here is the
army of the Philistines. Over here is the armies of Israel.
Tens of thousands of people. And here's this great big giant
standing right down there between them two armies. And here comes
a little old boy, probably no more than 5'6", 5'7", 5'8", probably
125 or 130 pounds. And he had a little old sling. Had him five stones. He had the
sovereignty of God. He had God. And he got down there
and he says, you know you haven't defied the armies of Israel,
you've defied the living God. And he walked down there and
said, told those fellows, is there not a cause? The glory
of God, is there not a cause? Is the will of God not a cause?
Is the might of God not a cause? Is the truth of God not a cause?
Is the honesty and faithfulness and power of God not a cause? Did you all sit here scared to
death? He walked down there with a rock, a stone, and slew a giant. Because you know what? He had
a heart that knew God, worshipped God, believed God, and needed
God, and was glorifying God. He wanted that more than he did
anything. And you know, let me show you
this in closing. 2 Samuel 23, even in his dying
words, this is the heart attitude that he had. In his dying words,
look at him. There was nothing half-hearted
about David. Whatever he did, he went home
hard at it. When he sinned, he sinned greatly. When he worshipped,
he worshipped greatly. When he warred, he warred greatly. Oh, nothing half-hearted about
David. And oh, here in 2 Samuel 23, even in his dying words,
he had all these attitudes of heart. Now, look what it says
there in verse 1. Now, these being the last words
of David, David the son of Jesse, and the man who was raised up
on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist
of Israel." And look what he says down here
in verse 5. Verse 2, "...the Spirit of the
Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of
Israel said, The Rock of Israel spake to me." He that ruleth
over men must be judged, ruling in the fear of God. And when
he does this, he'll be as the light of the morning, and when
the sun arises, even a morning without clouds. Oh, to go to
a just judge that rules in the fear of God? Where's the judge
that does that? They're fixed to make a new Supreme
Court justice. You reckon she's going to rule
justly? And you reckon she's going to rule in the fear of
God? You reckon would you have to face her, that she would be
as the light of the morning, and the sun that rises even as
the morning without clouds, as the tender grass springing out
of the earth by the clear shining after a rain? Now watch this.
Talking about this heart. Although my house be not so with
God. There's that patient submission, that loving, devoted heart. Yet
he hath made with me, there's that believing heart, an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, there's that heart That he knows
that God is faithful, the immutability of God. He trusts Him in His
providence. And he's sure. And look what
he says. Here's that heart that believes,
this is all my salvation and all my desire. Although He may
continue to grow. He may never save none of my
children after I'm gone. But He's still God. And I'm going
to go with Him. God, you know it, David didn't
have this heart by nature. God gave him a new heart. He
says, I'll take out the stony heart and put in a heart of flesh.
By God in his grace gave him a new heart. God in his grace
made him who he was. God in his grace made him a new
creature in Christ. God in his grace made him the
king of Israel. Made him the man that he was.
It's like Saul of Tarsus. He says, after God converted
him, he became Paul the Apostle. And he says, by the grace of
God, I am what I am. And that's what David says. The
reason I'm in this condition, where is that? God made with
me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, ensured. That's
why the life that I have. Amen? Oh Father, Father, Father, oh
blessed Lord Jesus, how I know every one of us here tonight
would love to have a heart, a heart that, all of us have a heart
like David had, a heart that would be after your heart. We'd
all like to be men and women that's after your heart. that you'd look and find a broken,
contrite heart, a believing heart, a submissive heart, a committed
heart, a loving heart, that you'd find this heart in us. And Lord,
that you and your grace would keep a heart like that in us.
Keep us, O Lord, a heart to love you, be committed to your cause
and your gospel and your people. And every place we find somebody
that we can reach out a hand to, as David did to Mephibosheth,
Lydia did to Paul as the Philippian jailer did to the apostles when
he took them in. Watch the stripes. God help us
always to be good and gracious to the household of faith. We
bless you for this time you gave us this evening. Bring glory
to yourself through this congregation of believers. We ask in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen. Amen. There is a name I...