A Man After God’s Heart

Introduction

And in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledge my sin to you, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave me the iniquity of my sin. Have you ever done something that you regretted doing? In fact, the more you thought about it, you were certainly ashamed that you had even done it. And you would hope that really, if it could be hidden, you would keep it hidden. You wouldn’t want it to be announced at a service like this that so and so did this or that.

Well, the answer to the question really is that all of us, probably even as the Apostle Paul described in Romans 7, relate to the fact that, as Paul said, describing man in his flesh trying to serve God, he said, There are things that I wish that I would do, I want to do, but I don’t do them. And some of those things I wish I had not done or would not do, that’s what I do. And there are times that all of us, as we walk in the flesh, have sinned against God and done those things for which we ought to be ashamed. We have a response, though, at the time we’ve done them, and we know we feel the guilt of it in our hearts.

What is our attitude about dealing with it? What do we do? In Psalm 32, a psalm that really was written by King David, and I believe this describing the feeling that he had after he committed the grievous sin with Bathsheba and her husband Uriah. Particularly in verses three and four, David said, When I kept silent, my bones grew old. The thought of saying, Look, oh, how I wish I hadn’t done it. And the weight of that bearing upon him made him feel as though he had become old and unable to really move around quickly and alertly. In fact, he said in verse 4, my vitality was turned to the drought of summer. If you have a King James version, it says, the moisture. My mouth became dry like the dryness of the summer.

I wish you had not done this. I believe this describes every person who has a tender conscience. Who really can say, you know, when I’ve committed a grievous wrong, and I know God is unhappy with me, and my bones grew weary and old. And the moisture of my mouth would dry up at the very thought it might be announced and made open. What really, how should I really handle it? The text written by David, what we know about the grievous sin that he committed with Bathsheba, one would think this man would never, should never have been described as a man after God’s own heart. And yet in Acts chapter 13 and verse 22, when the apostle was preaching the history of God’s people, at least in a summation, he described David in that very term as a man after God’s own heart.

1. David Attempted to Cover It Up

How could that be? And actually, when we begin to observe David’s life, we begin to know how he dealt with the burden of a guilty conscience. For Psalm 32 describes that burden that he was feeling. Indeed, the moisture of his mouth dried up and his bones grew weary as an old man. The reason? David knew that what he did was wrong. You know the story, no doubt. It’s one of the more familiar stories in the Bible. When David, though, as king of Israel, on an evening tide from his balcony or the rooftop, could look down and he observed this beautiful woman bathing. And although he inquired and knew that she was the wife of another man, yet he sent for her. Committed adultery with her. And perhaps to his surprise and chagrin when the word came back sometime later that she was with child.

Now David has a problem. What shall he do? And like some people today, how we deal with sins or things that we wished we hadn’t done, David attempted to cover it up. This would be the way to reconcile this problem. And so he he called for her husband, Uriah, to come. And no doubt, you know, Uriah, he would ask, how’s the battle going? And Uriah would probably tell him all about it, and then go home to his wife that night. And then later, when the baby’s born, Uriah’s going to think that’s his baby. And David’s sin would be covered, right? But it didn’t happen that way. Because Uriah was far too faithful, not only to the king, but to Joab the commander, and to the other soldiers who were camped out, and he and he would not go home to his wife that night.

Well, David may be somewhat frustrated by that. Thought, well, there’s another way. We’ll cover it another way. And so then he asked Uriah to stay yet another evening, and at a time where he could pose one drink after the other until finally got Uriah drunken. Thinking, well, Uriah will go home to his wife now in the drunken stupor. And still this sin, David’s sin of adultery will be covered. But no, it didn’t occur that way either. So what did he do? From committing adultery, covering it with a lie, trying to cover that with drunkenness, ultimately with murder, for he sent Uriah back with instruction to Joab to put him in the forefront of the battle, to the hottest part of the battle, to make certain, as you would draw that Uriah would be slain.

One sin covering another, like a snowball. His sins were multiplied, weren’t they? In fact, again in Psalm 38 and in verse 4, David said, For my iniquities have gone over my head like a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me. Now the pain. As I kept silent, my bones grew old. The moisture of my mouth grew like the drought of the summer. I raised the question how could he have ever been a man after God’s own heart? And yet that’s the very description that is given in the script in the Bible. Would we have ever thought of a man that you knew had committed these kind of sins? Would we ever think of him serving as an elder in the Lord’s church? I dare say we, you know, in our human way of thinking, we surely never think this kind of a person could be a man after God’s heart.

2. David Admitted, I Was Wrong

He certainly shouldn’t even be an elder of the Lord’s church in a local way. Well, think about David at that point. You know, David could have responded like maybe we do sometimes to various things. You know, he tried to make excuses for himself, and maybe he could have tried to justify himself. He could have said, Well, you know, Nathan, who are you? Mind your own business. You see what Nathan had done. Nathan came to him in chapter 12 with a with a little parable. The parable went like this. And David, thinking simply as a judge and really a good man as he was in wisdom, and not knowing that this was going to be about him. Nathan said, There was in this village or this city, two particular men, one very poor, and all he had was a little eulamb that he he cherished and nurtured like it was his own daughter.

Then there was a wealthy man. The scripture says he had exceeding many flocks and herds. And as a traveler came through, the wealthy man, rather than taking a lamb from his own flock, went and took the ew lamb from the poor man. Killed it, dressed it, fed it to the traveler. David’s anger was kindled against him. The scripture says David replied, This man shall surely die justly. It’s as though he’s murdered his own daughter, or this man’s daughter. In fact, he shall restore it fourfold. I’ve often wondered how David must have felt, and maybe what was the look on his face when Nathan could say, You are the man. You’re the one I’m talking about in this parable. You’ve had so many blessings from the Lord, and yet you’ve you’ve taken Uriah’s wife as your own.

What a grievous sin. And I say, David could have reacted far differently than he did. He could have said to Nathan, Who are you? You little upstart. Don’t you you’re talking to the king of Israel. Mind your own business, Nathan. He could have said, why don’t you blame Bathsheba? You know, she was he was complicit in this matter. He could have even said, Well, look, there are others that do things like this. Who why are you coming after me? Do we not sometimes deal with our wrongs in some of those ways? We don’t want the elders or another person from the congregation trying to say, Look, you you need to repent. You need to change. Sometimes there are people who act with anger if you try to point out that you’ve done wrong before God, and there’s need for repentance.

And we try to justify ourselves by by saying, Well, it wasn’t just my fault. You know, somebody else was involved in this, or why others do worse than I do. There are a lot of ways in our human way of trying to cover the sin we’ve committed. But what David did in 2 Samuel 12 verses 7 through 13 admitted, I was wrong. In those three words are captivated, I believe, the very essence of what made David that great man after God’s own heart. David was willing to say someone have said the most difficult words in the English language to enunciate the words, I was wrong. I have sinned. I have done that which I should not do before God and before all of Israel to acknowledge.

Indeed, the scripture speaks of David as a man whom the Lord loved. But David had sinned and sinned grievously. In Psalm 51, in fact, David also expressed the attitude of his heart. When in this psalm, he also speaks about how that his sins are ever before him. But he says in verses 16 and 17, as though to say before God, you do not desire sacrifice, else would I give it. You do not delight in burnt offering. Now to say if you all you read with just verse 16, you think David’s kind of mixed up about the law of God. Because indeed, the the law of Moses did require animal sacrifices, and the Lord would delight in burnt offering. But what David is doing is showing the contrast.

These outward things, while while they may be our part of obeying the law, if it does not come from the heart, they are of no value whatever. And so it isn’t just burnt offerings. It isn’t just sacrifices you want. But in verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise. What God really wants is someone who will give from the heart, the broken spirit, the contrite heart. Then with the burnt offerings and the sacrifices, they have meaning before God. They’re not just simply acts of hypocrisy, but rather out of sincerity. And that’s why in Acts 13, verse 22, the Bible indeed says God would say of David, He will do all my will.

And indeed, what we read from David was described as a man after was a servant of the Lord who tried to do God’s will always. He wasn’t perfect. But at least he was a man with sincerity, a man who devoted himself to the service of Almighty God. And it is of David. That indeed the scriptures speak of Jesus Christ sitting on David’s throne. It was David who had been promised that his kingdom, that is the throne, would be established forever. And we know that through the lineage of David, the scriptures declare that the Messiah, the Son of God, would come of that lineage. And the very first verse of the New Testament, Matthew chapter one, Jesus was of the lineage of Abraham, of the lineage of David.

3. It Affects Our Relationship With One Another

Why is he so named? Because he was willing to humbly acknowledge his wrong. Grievous sins. Yes, adultery, lying, drunkenness, even murder. Yet he was forgiven by God. Forgiven because he was willing to say I was wrong. Could it be that maybe sometimes if we’re just honest with ourselves, we fail. We fail to do that very thing. I would say that it not only affects our relationship with God, it affects our relationship with one another. In fact, that it would say it causes many problems. You know, even in a marriage, sometimes what starts maybe as a maybe a rather simple argument, can indeed grow and grow, and neither one willing and ready to say, Yes, I’m sorry. I was wrong. And before long, you know, it is so bad that there’s a husband and wife just at the owl with one another.

Several years ago, when we lived in Alabama, I was asked to preach uh in a gospel meeting. It was where they had meeting different speakers every night, and I had never been in this congregation before, but receiving an invitation drove down and and I spoke that night a lesson that was something along the line, and I can’t even tell you now exactly the sermon, but it’s along the line of the need for an attitude of repentance when we’ve done wrong. A bi uh an ability to say, I was wrong, I’ve sinned before God, first of all. But even with one another. And I’m sure I made a point something along the line how how that even uh inability to do that affected our marriage relationship in many respects.

There was only about thirty-five or forty people, maybe at most fifty. And I didn’t know any of them till I got there that night. But it was after the service had concluded that one of the leading men came up to me and said, Uh, Brother Harkrater, do you remember seeing that woman over there on this side and and this man over on the other side. Yeah, yeah. He said, They’re husband and wife. And so they’ve been in an argument and they haven’t even spoken to one another the last two weeks. I’ve he said they came in two cars and they went home in two cars. Now Arlene and I come in two cars usually, but it’s not because we’ve had an argument. But can you imagine?

They won’t even speak to one another. Sometimes maybe that’s how people have dealt with their differences. They don’t speak to each other. That doesn’t solve anything. I’ve often wondered if the Lord perhaps laid that sermon on my heart. I’ve often wondered what happened to that couple later on. But the truth is that inability to simply humbly say, Look, I I’m wrong. Forgive me. Ma maybe maybe we want to just justify ourselves and we wrangle about it and argue over it until it becomes really where we quit speaking to one another and maybe even ultimately end in divorce. But while it will affect a marriage, it also may affect congregations. It is a sad fact. I hear more than one place where they’re having some kind of problems within the congregation.

You say, Well, what was the problem? Well, personality problems. I don’t like to hear that. But that’s a common statement. What they’re really meaning by that is that the brethren got over some issue. It wasn’t a matter of whether this is God’s will versus that’s God’s will. There’s some things that can be rather simple, really, except for human desire to be in charge. And there’s some who want my way or the highway, and congregations can be upset, and even to the point that brethren quit speaking to one another. And maybe say some things to one another that shouldn’t be said. Where maybe we think we’re in the right, we do what’s wrong. That we we really can say, you know, I am just in what I’m saying and what I’m trying to do, but because we handle it in the wrong way, and there have been brethren who have been divided.

In Proverbs 9 and verse 8, the wise man wrote, Reprove a scoffer, he will hate you. Reprove a wise man, he will love you. Now what that says is, how do you receive reproof? It’s not always easy. In fact, it isn’t easy at all to go to someone and say, Look, brother or sister. This is not right. It needs to be changed. And the reason why is because with some people, they hate you for it. You’re not supposed to say anything at all about what I may do. The fact is, in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 1, the Bible says, brethren, if a man be overtaken in the fault, you who are spiritual, restore such a one. In a spirit of meekness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

Sometimes we just can’t say we get angry if somebody comes to try to say, look, here’s what ought to be done. Here’s what the truth is. Not only in 9 and verse 8, but Proverbs 17 and verse 10. The scripture says, rebuke is more effective for a wise man than a hundred blows on a fool. You know, a fool doesn’t want to hear it. A fool will have nothing at all to do with it. The scripture says, though, that there is the right way of handling our difficulties. In fact, you remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 of the Sermon on the Mount? When Jesus there spoke about if you bring your offering to the altar and you remember. In effect, you’ve done something wrong to the other, you’ve offended the other.

What should you do? Jesus said, leave right then, and you go make reconciliation and then come back. You have responsibility if you have done wrong to another. You need to go straighten it out. You need to make it right. Well, somebody says, I’m waiting on him to come. He did me wrong. You know, she said something she shouldn’t have said. Or he did something he shouldn’t have done, and I’m waiting on him. Here I am. But that isn’t all Jesus said. In Matthew 18, if you’re the one who was offended. In Matthew chapter 18, verses 15 through 18, if if your brother offends, you’d do what? You go to him. And you try to straighten it out. And if he’ll not hear you, then take one or two with you, so in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established.

If you’ll not hear them, then tell it to the church. If you’ll not hear them. In other words, there is something ultimately to be done, he’d be treated as a heathen and a publican. In other words, there is such a thing as guilt of sin in such a way that one before God lose his soul over. And if he’ll not repent, he’ll be lost eternally, and therefore the church may even withdraw its fellowship because of that. What does this already say when you put these two verses together? If you do the offending, you go, straighten it out. If you’ve been offended, you go and straighten it out. You know, they all be meeting halfway on the road. Who can say, I’m here waiting on him? None of us.

What we do with is simply to say, in a spirit of humility, in a spirit like the scripture in Psalm 51 will say, with a broken spirit and the contrite heart, God wants that kind of humble attitude and disposition. Not a proudful.

4. Paul Acknowledged Wrong: Honestly Mistaken

Actually, Jesus said, Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. He did not say, blessed are the proud who never admit that they were wrong. There’s an attitude in dealing with our strive, uh troubles and strives that we get into. Whereas David in the Old Testament serves as an example of a man after God’s own heart. When I come to the New Testament, I think of another great man in God’s sight. Maybe he didn’t do the kind of things like David and committing adultery and lying and so forth. But do you remember Paul. How Paul acknowledged wrong. He had persecuted Christians even to murder. When we’re first introduced to Paul, he’s named Saul in Acts 8 and verse 1. As you conclude chapter 7, they’ve just stoned Stephen to death.

And in Acts 8 and verse 1, Saul is described as consenting unto his death. In Acts 8 and verse 3, the scripture says he made havoc of the church. Entering houses and hauling men and women to prison. In fact, in Acts 9, verses 1 and 2, he was willing to go to the effort of getting papers, authority to go as far up as to Mascus and to brind Christians and bring them back. He would even have them put to death. He was willing that Christians should be murdered. Pretty tough sins, right? Here was a man who no doubt was very zealous, seeking to do what he believed was the right thing to do before God. And it was out of zeal for God that he was honestly mistaken.

It is out of that kind of zeal for God, though, that we understand he was wrong, wasn’t he? In fact, later as writing of Timothy, he described himself as the chief of sinners. But when you you recognize what happened to Saul was that he came face to face with truth. Now his honesty is tested. You know, in Acts 23 and verse 1, and jumping to the later in his life, after he’d already gone on three preaching journeys, and he’s been arrested as he comes back to Jerusalem, and there he stands before the council, the highest order of the Jews in Acts 23 and verse 1. And he would say, I’ve lived in in all good conscience before God unto this day. You see, what he had done was what he thought was right.

In persecuting Christians, even giving consent to the stoning of Stephen, I thought I was right. In Acts chapter 24 and in verse 16, before Herod, king of the Jews, he would say, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men. He had done it out of clear conscience. Then later in chapter 26, verses 9 and 10, I think significantly the statement says, Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This also I did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. In all of this, I did it with clear conscience.

Unfortunately, there’s some people today who preach a doctrine that it really doesn’t matter what you do as long as you’re honest about it. Well, we ought to be honest, and our conscience ought to be clear. Romans 14 and 23, in fact, teaches us whatever’s not of faith is sin. If in any way we violate our conscience, that is sin. And so I would say to all, always follow your conscience, but recognize that your conscience is simply a guide. Your watch is a guide. But have you ever had your watch to maybe stop, the battery runs dead or whatever kind of watch you have, or you failed to wind it up, and you may have looked at it, and it i it maybe it wasn’t right. Your conscience is no more than a guide for you.

Follow it, but there’s a test for it. Always make sure that your conscience is guided by the Word of God. And therefore, the fact is that you may be honestly mistaken. That’s what Saul was. Well, when Saul had the vision on the road to Damascus and for the first time saw the Lord as truly the Son of God, he asked, What would you have me to do, Lord? Sincerity was tested by his learning truth. Now, after that, he had a choice to make. He either would continue honest or he would continue mistaken, but he wouldn’t be honestly mistaken. Before he had the vision of the Lord, he was honestly mistaken. And it may be that even religiously, we may be honest because we’ve been taught a certain doctrine.

Maybe our parents believed it, and good people believed it. But when it was really tested by the Word of God, we may have found out it’s wrong. Now there’s a choice. There’s a test. Just as David had the test when Nathan came and said, You’re the man, he could have covered it up and gone on his way. Or he could have admitted I was wrong. Saul of Tarsus had much that same problem. In fact, the Bible speaks of how conscience can be seared. What does that mean? The word seared carries the idea like a callous. You ever you’ve seen men maybe who worked hard and they’re just the field and their hand just gets so calloused over that it hardened, they’re so hard feelings that you can’t feel very well through them.

In 1 Timothy chapter 4, the Bible says the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. Listen, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. You can allow your conscience to become so hardened and so calloused that you don’t ever let anything else come in. In Titus chapter 1 and in verse 15, to the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. We can so harden our conscience that we just I’m not going to listen to anything else. I’ve got my mind made up. And I’ve got honest people I’m talking to, and other people that they sincerely believe it, they must be right.

5. Conscience Purged by the Blood of Christ

Not necessarily. Just because they may be good people doesn’t mean that they are right. Test it by the word of God. The fact is, choice has to be made. Either we allow our conscience to become seared or it can be purged of the burden of sin. Indeed, our conscience, being our guide, should enable us to stop and say, wait a minute, if I’ve done wrong, indeed, there’s a burden. But that burden can be lifted. I think of the scripture in Hebrews chapter 9. Where there the Hebrew writer is describing how that under the first covenant of the law of Moses, God set forth a pattern to help as a shadow, as a as a representation of what later would come. How that God established the building of the tabernacle and separated the holy place from the most holy place.

And in these first few verses of Hebrews 9, he spoke how that the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies once every year, with the blood of bulls and goats to make sacrifice for the sins of the people. But in Hebrews 9 and verse 11, he makes a comparison when he says, But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come, with a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands that isn’t not of this creation, nor with the blood of bulls and goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Do you notice the thought here? That even the blood of Christ, far greater than that of bulls and of goats under the law of Moses. But his blood was shed in order that our consciences may be cleansed or purged. You know the reality is.

Based upon that broken spirit and the contrite heart, based upon the kind of attitude that would say, Lord, I’ve sinned. I need forgiveness. Would you please forgive me? The blood of Jesus Christ will purge us from that sin. And that’s the rejoicing that we should have in Christ. In fact, in Hebrews chapter 10, continue along the same line, in verses 19 through 22, listen when he says, Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way, which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is his flesh. Having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart. There’s a sincere heart. In full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience in our bodies, washed with pure water.

How can our hearts be sprinkled? He’s not talking about this literal mechanical or muscle that’s in our bodies.

But knowing that Jesus Christ shed his blood, there’s a figure of saying, Look, even our consciences are cleansed by the blood of Christ. As Moses and under the law, as they as the high priest would sprinkle the blood in the Holy of Holies to find forgiveness for the people, so in a figure way, Jesus Christ has shed his blood, and there’s a lit there’s a figure of his blood being sprinkled upon our conscience that it may be pure and that it may purge from sin. But I find it interesting that in verse 23, verse 22, he speaks about the time when that heart is sprinkled from an evil conscience, it’s when our bodies are washed with pure water. Of all the objections in the religious world today to baptism, isn’t it fascinating that here the writer joins together?

When our bodies are washed with water as in baptism, that it’s the same time in which our hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience with the blood of Christ. What that really simply is saying is that even in baptism, we reach the blood of Jesus Christ. And that’s what we learn passages like Romans chapter 6, verses 3 and 4. Don’t you know? The scripture says, when we be baptized into Christ, we’re baptized into his death. We’re buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. I ask you again, have you ever done anything that you later regretted doing? You really wished you hadn’t done?

Conclusion

Maybe it wasn’t adultery like David committed. Maybe it was.

Hide it. Maybe it’s internet pornography. I hear more and more of Christians who’ve gotten into that. I mean, it’s thrown right into our living room. And some have gone over into it to the point that we’re guilty of sin. Maybe we’ve mistreated somebody else out of greed. And we we didn’t really deal fairly in some kind of a business deal. Maybe out of envy or jealousy, you said something or done some harm to someone you were jealous of. Whatever it be, whatever the sin we may have committed, what a joy to know that in Christ Jesus there can be forgiveness. In that’s Psalm 32, the scripture there, when David said, My moisture, my mouth became dry as the drought of summer, my bones grew old. Listen to what he says in verse 5.

I acknowledge my sin to you, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. That was true with David, and that is true today. If we were but confess, that is, obey repentance, and then simply coming before God in obedience, God has promised to forgive. As even Ananias said to Saul of Tarsus, later the Apostle Paul, when Ananias came to in Acts 22 and verse 16, he said, Why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins. If you’re in the audience this morning as one who really has committed some grievous sin, you know before God, you’re guilty. Don’t hold back, don’t hide it, don’t cover it. Simply acknowledge your faith in the Lord, your desire to repent, and your certainly seeking to be cleansed by the precious blood of Christ, washed with pure water, even as your heart is sprinkled from an evil conscience.

In 1 John chapter 1, there the apostle writes, when he says in verses 7 through 10, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Are you willing to confess? To simply say, Lord, I’m ready to obey. Here am I. Help me to the Lord to do your will. If you’re subject to invitation, Lord, we extend that to you at this hour. And as we sing this final song, we encourage you to step forward.

Give me your hand. Give Christ your heart. Obey the gospel. Let’s stand as we sing this final song.