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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/alan-davidson/david-a-man-after-gods-own-heart/
Now, we appreciate those who have come out again tonight, and we do express our appreciation of being able to make a little visit to Ontario at this time, continue to remember our little word of report on the Lord's work of the persecuted in India and in Russia, and then for the ministry of the Word of God, it has indeed been brief.
Perhaps the ministry has suffered from that point of view. Last night we pondered the friend of God, Abraham, and tonight we think of David, the man after God's own heart. Now, the subject matter is extensive, and we can only read very selectively, and I will be calling upon your knowledge of the life of David.
So, we'll read firstly, please, in the first verse of the New Testament. The first verse of the New Testament, Matthew chapter 1, verse 1. Matthew chapter 1, verse 1, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Acts chapter 13, the book of the Acts in chapter 13. Acts chapter 13, reading at verse 22. Acts 13, verse 22, and when he had removed him, he raised unto them David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.
And then we shall read in the last chapter of the New Testament. The last chapter of the New Testament, Revelation chapter 22. Revelation chapter 22, verse 16, I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.
I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and the morning star. Now, one verse in the Old Testament, 1 Samuel chapter 13. 1 Samuel chapter 13. 1 Samuel chapter 13, verse 14, Samuel's words to Saul.
1 Samuel 13, verse 14,. But now thy kingdom shall not continue. The Lord hath sought him, a man after his own heart. The Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou wast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.
That will be our reading, though we shall refer to many other passages. David, his name means well-beloved, mentioned 1 ,085 times in our Bible, mentioned his name about 80 times in the New Testament, and as we've been reading just now, the first and the last human name that is mentioned in the New Testament.
Matthew chapter 1, the son of David. The last chapter, the root and the offspring of David, the bright and the morning star. David, the man after God's own heart, which God said, shall fulfill all my will.
Last night we learned some lessons from Abraham, the man of faith, and we learned by example. We could learn lessons from the life of Joseph and think of the blessings that came to him. If we ponder the life of Moses, we will learn lessons from the law.
But you know, there's a sense in which we learn from David by attraction. The man after God's own will. In contrast to Saul in the Old Testament, he always sought God's will. The prominent feature in David's life is that he is always looking for God.
He is always looking for God in his life. To put that vast subject matter in some little order, I will just be thinking about seven points in David's life in the meeting tonight. I want to think about a son in the family.
A son in the family. The eighth son of Jesse. And then we've been thinking about a shepherd on the hills. That early stage of his life, he was a shepherd boy on the hillsides of Bethlehem. And then we've been thinking of that familiar scene of a stripling in the valley as he went down just as a stripling boy to face Goliath of Gath in the valley of Elah.
And then of course, it's a vast subject itself. The singer in the Psalms. We could spend a whole night, in fact, we could maybe spend five nights upon the Psalms of David. A singer on the Psalms. And then we'd have to think about a soldier in the field.
For it was David that turned a struggling people of oppressed tribes into a nation. A widespread empire. A mighty nation among the nations of earth. A soldier in the field. A son in the family. A shepherd on the hills.
A stripling in the valley. A singer in the Psalms. A soldier in the field. But like all the rest of us, there were those failures in David's life. We have to think about a sinner in the house. A sinner in the house.
David's tears. David's failure. But then, if we follow him, we'd see a sovereign on the throne. It was God's man. He was God's choice. God put him upon the throne. There was a time when he was displaced by an Absalom.
He's the man of the second coming. He's the man of two comings. The man after God's own heart. He suffered in rejection. But there was a call amongst the nation to bring back the king. It says the king returned.
And you and I sing, our Lord is now rejected and by the world is owned. By the many still neglected, but by the few enthroned. Thank God, the Savior, the one of whom David would speak, he's coming back again.
The root and the offspring of David. The bright and the morning star. And so we'll be thinking about the son in the family. The shepherd upon the hills. The stripling that was down in the valley. The singer in the Psalms.
The soldier and his victories upon the field. Sadly, a sinner in his house, but a sovereign upon the throne. A son in the family. He was the eighth son of Jesse. You remember when in the purposes of God, Saul was set aside.
Samuel was sent onto the household of Jesse. And there were the seven sons of Jesse that were called together. But they didn't think to call the shepherd boy. The boy who was just a shepherd, keeping the sheep.
David, you know it's interesting, indeed very interesting to notice how men are introduced in the Bible. It usually sets a key to their service. You remember Gideon, he's threshing corn. He's threshing in the threshing floor.
You remember we're first introduced to Peter. He's working with the nets and he's fishing. The first thing that's said about Saul of Tarsus, after he got saved, behold he prayeth. And he was a praying man for the rest of the days of his service.
David, an unknown shepherd boy with a humble flock. The man that wasn't invited to the meeting. The others were invited, but David never even got an invitation. You know in our service for God, you don't need to worry too much about the opinions of man.
Don't need to worry too much about the opinions of man. Some men will complain that they're ignored. Never worry about it. Just get on and serve God. If you're overlooked and not important in the estimation of man, what does it matter?
What does it matter about man? He wasn't even invited to the meeting. Just get on in your service. Never mind man's opinion, but make sure God's with you. Make sure God is with you. We begin to read about David in 1 Samuel chapter 16.
And when they're called together, and the sons of Jesse passed before Samuel, and then one by one the Lord says, that's not him. He'll not be king. That's not my choice. Is there any left? David, the shepherd boy on the hillsides.
In verse 11 of that chapter, it's important to notice what Samuel said. Samuel said, we will not sit down till he come. That's a peculiar word. We will not sit in a circle until he come. They were not to be sitting down and coming to the assessment and coming to this council, this council of God as to the future king.
They would not sit in a circle, says Samuel, until he come. My dear brother, my dear sister, your mind is already in the New Testament where two or three are gathered together. In my name, there am I in the midst of them.
The key is the precious person, the purest name of our Lord Jesus Christ. As we sit in a circle around him, we have found the Lord's anointed gathered in my name. We pondered last night the life of Abraham.
As Abraham walked up the slopes of Moriah, Abraham said, God will provide himself a lamb. In 1st Samuel, God says, provide me a king. Provide me a king. When David was brought in to the presence of Samuel, to Jesse, and the elite of the family circle, God said, arise, anoint him, for this is he.
Ah, yes, the man that was brought into the circle, arise, anoint him, for this is he. Aaron was anointed priest. Elisha was anointed prophet. If you read the details of the life of David, you'll find that he was anointed three times.
You find that the Lord Jesus Christ himself was anointed. He was anointed of the Spirit at his birth. He was anointed at his baptism, and he is anointed in his ascension, for he has been anointed with the oil of gladness above his pharaohs.
Anointed three times, the son in the family. Well, to think about the shepherd on the hills, the beloved of the Father, on the hillsides of Jerusalem, or of Bethlehem. We learn from the book of the Psalms that it was at that early stage in David's life, likely as he kept the sheep on the hillsides of Bethlehem, in the dark of the night, he would look down out over the valley, and he would think of God's people, and he would think about God, and he had a desire that God might have a habitation, that God might dwell, that God might have a house amongst his people.
It was there that stripling boy, the shepherd boy, it says, he keepeth the sheep, that's protection. It says he was with the sheep, that's his presence. It says he fed the sheep, that's provision. The key to David's life already.
The man that God raised up to be king, to protect and develop his people, and to defeat their enemy. He learned God as a boy, a shepherd on the hillside. He loved the lamb, and he slew the lion. He loved the lamb, so he slew the lion.
What I noticed is that David had seven victories. David had seven victories before he defeated Goliath. If he had failed along the way in one of those trials and difficulties, he would never, he would never have defeated Goliath and received the praise of God on the people.
His first victory was in a day of obscurity. In chapter 16 of 1st Samuel, David was anointed. In chapter 17, he is in the royal court. In verse 15 of that chapter, it says David returned to Bethlehem.
Days of obscurity. A man of ambition would have said, no, I'm the man, and I've been anointed, and we're going to throw Saul out, and here I am on the palace, and I'm not for leaving. No, he didn't do that.
He went back to Bethlehem. He returned to the sheep. I always esteem highly the man that serves God in things local. Local. The local assembly. You see, if you have a notion, and I trust this young man here, and have a desire, and young sisters to serve God, what we do?
Pack our bags and head for China? No, no, no, no. I take it as the Lord's coming approaches, that there's going to be an increase, an increasing need for service local. The local assembly. David was content with that which fell to his hand.
He had no ambition to be up on the palace. If he was around in our day, I don't think he would have much ambition to be on the platform, but he would have a desire to labor amongst God's people. You know, I judge, there's all usually all plenty of preachers, and we never run done with preachers, but there's an awful scarcity of men with shepherd hearts.
David began with the local. David had that victory in days of obscurity. Victory over the pride of his own heart. Then secondly, David had a victory over the lion. The lion. He says he slew the lion. You see, the man that was keeping the sheep, the one that fed the father's sheep.
Interesting, there's a number of men in the Old Testament, Moses, Jacob, David, and in an early day, they fed sheep that were not their own. Remember, says Acts 20, feed the flock. Purchased with his own blood.
Not ours. He's purchased them with blood. The assembly. The assembly of the Lord's dear people. Oh yes, but there's need for those to feed the flock that are not their own. David's keeping the sheep. There's a lion comes, it takes the sheep.
No, it doesn't. It takes a lamb. There's an abundance of lambs. It's only one lamb. Sure, he could just let the lamb go there. It's not some old dozy lion that's lying about. It seems to be a lion in the fullness of its ferocity.
It takes the lamb and the lamb's in its mouth. Now, it means business. Why did David slay the lion? David slew the lion because he loved the lamb. He loved the lamb. You often think of my dear Savior when he was leaving this scene upon the cross.
There was two matters which were dear to his heart. He says, John, behold thy mother. He loved his mother. He says, Peter, I'm going back to heaven to feed my sheep. Are you here, dear shepherd? Shepherd of the sheep.
In days of ferocity. Mind you, the lion would remind us. The lion's mouth would remind us of the devil. The hostility. The Bible says resist the devil. But thirdly, he had a victory over the bear. Now, the lamb was in the lion's mouth and the lamb was in the claws of the bear.
That speaks of the world. The world will hug. The world will tear. The world will destroy. Uniquely so in our day. I asked the worldliness amongst God's people as a fearful enemy. But then again, there was not only the lion and the bear, but there was the paw of the dog.
Am I a dog, says Goliath. I will give thy flesh to the dogs. The lion speaks of the devil. The bear speaks of the world. The dog speaks of the flesh and all its filthiness. Mind you, a young brother or a young sister, if they're gonna make a mark for God, there's a threefold enemy.
The devil, the world, and the flesh. After having overcome that David's rally for Goliath, no he's not. He's another problem. Just exactly the same problem that Abraham had last night. He's brethren. Remember last night?
Between Lot and Abraham and their herdsmen, there was strife. We be brethren. I asked David when turned to the valley. He went down to at the bidding of the father to look after the welfare of his brethren.
And jealous brethren who knew he had been anointed to be king. With who hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? We know the haughtiness of thine heart. David, you're full of pride. Get away home to those few sheep you have.
He come down to see the battle. What battle? They were standing like a shivering choir of cards. Standing there afraid of, well, Goliath had paid for 40 days and not one of them had engaged in battle.
Talking about a battle? Jealous brethren. Oh yes, what do we do about that? Mind you, it's still true. Envy and jealousy. Amongst us is the people of God. It's cruel as the grief. All we can do, what did David do?
He didn't argue with them. He didn't strive with them. He didn't seek to reason with them. He just got on with God's work. Just got on with the work. Can you see those hindrances? I asked those hindrances of the lion and the bear and the paw of the dog and jealous brethren.
He's ready for Goliath. No, no he's not. What about Saul? Saul appears. He's not known to help him. Well, the precautions of unbelief. Saul says, well, I don't know about David, he's only a stripling.
But there's nobody else to go and we'll just let him go. But we'll not let him go without any armor. So we put armor on him. We put Saul's armor on him and we'll give him a helmet and we'll give him a helmet of brass and a coat of mail.
It says, David, put them off. Put them off. You know those precautions of unbelief and those old rags that trip us all up so often. The language of the New Testament is to put off those works of the flesh.
Let us lay aside those encumbrances. And so now David, David the boy, the son and the family, the shepherd on the hills is going down as a stripling to the valley of Elah for victory over the giant. We all know this familiar ground, the lovely picture of the Lord Jesus, beloved of the Father, sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
He was sent out from Bethlehem, out from David's city, now Bethlehem in the land of Judah. He was despised of his brethren, for he came unto his own and his own received him not. He went out and the enemy appeared for 40 days.
I will give thy flesh to the beasts. The Savior was tempted of 40 days amongst the wild beasts. He went down into the valley and he defeated this foe. He took one stone out of five. The Lord Jesus Christ, he defeated the valley, has defeated the enemy in the day of temptation.
He used one stone, he used one book out of the five books of Moses. For those words that he quoted, thou shalt not live by bread alone, and so on, are from the book of Deuteronomy. And each of those quotations from Deuteronomy 6 and Deuteronomy 8, one stone out of the five from the books of Moses.
David went down alone, oh yes, to his own self, bear our sins in his own body upon the tree. The valley of Elah is the valley of the tree, the valley of the oak tree. Bear our sins in his own body upon the tree.
He slew the giant with his own weapon. My blessed Savior defeated him that had the power of death. That is the devil. For through death, oh yes, the very weapon that had been given by Adam to the devil was the very weapon that the Savior used to defeat him that had the power of death and deliver them who through all their lifetime were subject to bondage.
David, David says Jonathan loved David. Jonathan loved the man that went in his stead. My dear brother, dear sister, you and I in tune with the purposes of God and of the heavenly David. We love him because he first loved us.
I notice three things that mark David in 1 Samuel chapter 18. In 1 Samuel chapter 18, David was oppressed. It says that David prospered and it says to the people that of the people David was precious.
He was praised, he prospered, and he was precious. You remember when he came back from the valley? David has slain his thousands. David his ten thousands. Thou art worth ten thousand of us. I know we sing it and we really mean it, don't we?
Thousand, thousand praises be blessed Savior unto thee. The one that has the one that has defeated the foe and was obedient unto death even cross death. This is Philippians 2. God has highly exalted him, given him a name above every name.
David prospered. It says after the victory in the valley that David behaved himself wisely. That David prospered, that David prospered exceedingly, that David prospered more. Always think of one God who highly exalted him, given him a name that is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess things celestial, things terrestrial, and things infernal that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
He was precious. In verse 30 of that chapter it says his name was much sat by. Mr. Gubri says his name was esteemed and Darby says his name was precious. You and I have found the heavenly David. Unto you therefore who believe he is precious.
How sweet the name of Jesus is to the believers here. David slew the giant in the valley and returned to Jerusalem with the evidence of his victory. Goliath's head. Now this is not in the Bible, but I'm told by Jewish tradition that it was buried in the place of a skull.
That is by tradition. Anyhow, the head of Goliath was the evidence of David's victory. And so as we ponder the victory that he wrought in the valley, men you saw his armor was big and the giant himself six cubits in his span was bigger.
But how did David get the victory? David says the battle is the Lord's, bigger still. It is bigger still that mighty giant. And they all stood about trembling. David went down. The battle is the Lord's.
He just threw a pebble at him and the battle was over. Just a stone. The whole thing was over. My dear brother, my dear sister, amongst us there are enormous problems. Do we try to fight the Lord's battles on our own?
I've discovered there's things by times and they crop up and they seem absolutely insurmountable. And if you just make it a conflict with that matter and leave the battle of the Lord, the whole thing just seems to disappear.
Goliath just disappeared off the scene. He just popped a little pebble on him and he's gone. But I noticed this. What about it now? What does David do? Well, he's brought the victory and he's got the praise of the people and he's a popular man.
And he goes down to Saul and says, Saul, you go home. You forget it. I'm going to be king now. Not at all. David, ah yes, he had that victory over the flesh when he was popular. They're singing his praises and he's a popular man.
Ah yes, and they're flattering David and they're telling him all those stories about his ten thousands and all the rest. Chapter 18, it says David behaved himself wisely. It says David behaved himself very wisely.
If you read to that end of that chapter, it says David behaved himself more wisely. You see, there's that about the man after God's own heart. Whether it's keeping sheep or commanding soldiers, whether it's in the pasture or up in the palace, the man behaves himself wisely before God and before the people.
And it says he was wise when he went out and in his coming in before them. When Saul of Tarsus could see it, he went down to the church. They were reluctant to receive him, but the Lord instructed him through Ananias.
They received him. It says Saul of Tarsus, he was with them coming in and going out. He was, and that word's a strong word, he was glued with them, coming in and going out. Behaved himself wisely. My dear young brother, my dear young sister, behaving yourself wisely?
Or is something of a concern to the shepherds and overseers? Are we behaving ourselves wisely as we come into the assembly, as we go out, go out in testimony? That's what counts, you know. Not that which is stressful to the people of God.
Oh yes, as we begin to ponder the life of the man after God's own heart, whether we think of him as son in the family or a shepherd in the hill or a stripling in the valley. Behaved himself, going in, going out.
But then a singer, a singer in the Psalms. This is an enormous subject. Did you notice all those Psalms that are written by David, that most of them were written in adversity? And it's probably true that most of David's Psalms were written before he was 30 years of age.
And most of them were written in that early period of his life when he was persecuted by Saul. You see, we're thinking about the man after God's own heart. Apart from the Apostle Paul, which maybe we'll in another place speak of tomorrow night, apart from the Apostle in the New Testament and David in the Old Testament, there are very few, maybe Job as well, there are very few that we're able to get closer to in their feelings.
You see in the Bible, early chapters give us facts and the prophets tell us foretellings. And there's those figures of Christ and all those things that we emphasize. But there's that about the, we love to read the Psalms, because there's the feelings of the writer, the emotions of the writer, the thoughts.
We're thinking about the inner man, the man after God's own heart. You see, you remember that period, you remember that period when he was called again to the palace. It says, Saul eyed David. 1 Samuel 18 verse 11, Saul cast a javelin at David.
Firstly, he allowed him to marry his daughter. He promoted him, he demoted him. He offered him his daughter, he took his daughter away. He sought to anger him, he hunted it upon the mountains, that evil jealousy.
I say that envy and evil jealousy. If there's one problem amongst us as God's people that stirs up that awful plague of division, it's jealousy. Saul was absolutely blinded by jealousy, blinded by, blinded to facts.
You know, the stories go about amongst us as the people of God, stories and their exaggerations that have nothing to do with facts. Saul was marked by base motives in all those plots that they had. It means amongst us as God's people, there's those efforts betimes to wonder men, to twist things just to suit ourselves.
Saul was marked by senseless plots and those senseless attacks that he made upon David. There was just no sense. Jealousy and envy, means there's things done amongst us as God's people and there's just no sense in them.
Just no sense whatever. Saul thought to work against David through his family and through his own daughter whom he allowed to become David's wife. He tried in every way he could to get rid of him. It means you tell you amongst us as God's people, there are those scavings and those things that are those plots and those secret thoughts and that which is just a canker to our own soul.
Saul got better in spirit. I was thinking about David today, I made a note of Psalm 18 verse 17. It says he delivered him from a strong enemy. He says from he that was too strong for me. It seems that David had that cry of need.
A cry by time of desperation and despair. Conscious of his own weakness, what did he do? Oh yes, he took those experiences of adversity to lead him closer to God. Led him to know God in his new experiences.
I made a note of some of the things he said about God. This is the man after God's own heart. He says he's my rock, he's my fortress, he's my deliverer, he's my shield, he's my horn, he's my high tower, he's my refuge.
He says I called, I cried, I thrusted. He says he heard me, he took me, he drew me, he delivered me. Psalm 18, he brought me into a large place. Oh yes, are we learning in the path of life and a service for God the closer we get to God and divine purpose?
The enemy cares not who he uses to undermine, to attack, to drag us low. Oh yes, what can we do? We can turn to the infinite resources that we have in God. My dear brother, my dear sister, be sure that you're serving God.
Be sure that you have God's mind in the path that you tread. Be sure in your every action, call upon God and cast your all upon him. So David, 1 Samuel 19, he came to Samuel. 20, he came to Jonathan. In 21, he came to Abimelech the priest.
In chapter 22, he came to Adullam. He wandered in the wilderness of Ziph, the wilderness of Engedi, the wilderness of Pan. He went down among Gath and amongst the Philistines. You remember that time when the Amalekites, they burned Ziglag with fire.
I tell you, there was an extract that was wrung from the heart of the singer in the Psalms, a dependence upon God. He was hunted by the very man that he had saved. Oh yes, he was despised by those he protected.
He was bereft of the nearest and dearest. He saw his lover and friend turn away from him. Or worst of all, he was conscious of his own failure. But you know what it says? It says David strengthened himself in the Lord.
That's what I'm saying. That's what God said. God said, a man after my own heart, no matter what the problem or adversity was, which shall fulfill my will. Oh, the closer to God, the bigger the tasks of the son and the family, the shepherd on the hills, the stripling in the valley, the singer in the Psalms, the soldier in the field.
2 Samuel, after Saul's death, in 2 Samuel 2 verse 1, David says, shall I go up? Now he was anointed in 1 Samuel 16. It was revealed to him divine purpose. And the way down after all those pages and into 2 Samuel, David says, shall I go up?
Saul's gone, still reluctant to go. You know, God's man is the reluctant to go. Moses didn't want to go. There was a time when he jumpstarted the thing and it didn't work. And God landed him for 40 years in the wilderness.
And when God did call him, Moses says, now send somebody else. I can't talk right. I'm not the man. Moses didn't want to go. David was in no hurry to go. Remember the language of the seer in the book of the Acts, tarry at Jerusalem until you've been endued with power from an eye.
The early chapters of the book of Acts are marked by one thing, waiting upon God. My young brother, my young sister, waiting upon God is not, waiting time is not wasted time. Lingering in the courts of God, God will open the door.
There is God's call, but there's God's calendar. Yes, God might give the call. He gave a call to Joseph away in an early age, but he didn't explain to him about the pit and the palace and part of his house and so on.
Down in the prison, it didn't look very like it. Oh yes, and here is David. Shall I go up? There's an order in 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 5, he's made king. In 2 Samuel 6, he says, bring up the ark. Saul never thought about the ark.
Oh yes, that's God's presence. Waiting upon God in a desire for God's presence. And then 2 Samuel 7, there's the exercise about God's house. Now David wasn't allowed to build God's house, but he would help those that did.
He didn't take a hoof and say, I'll do nothing. You know, some men, if they're not on the oversight, they'll do nothing. And some people, well, if I'm not to the front and I'm not, if I'm not the leader of the band, I'll not be in the band at all.
That's not David. You see, God gave David a work to do. David, as I've said already, turned a struggling people, just a people of oppressed tribes. And he made a nation out of them. He made an empire out of them.
Oh yes, the soldier in the field and the warrior for God was mighty and made a mighty nation out of them. Don't be running around and saying that David was disqualified because there was blood on his hands.
David was God's warrior. And David dealt with the enemies of Israel. He dealt with the Philistines, those persistent attackers of the people of God. He dealt with Moab, for he had no mercy on the incestuous son of Genesis 19.
He dealt with Syria and their chariots and their cavalry and cruelly in all their might. David dealt with those. Those three in particular that link in again with those enemies, the devil, the flesh, and the world.
Mind you, there's no peace in the house of God if the devil, the flesh, and the world have their way. Now it was God's time when Solomon came to the throne to build the house, but David established it.
Oh yes, David links in very closely with Christ in rejection. Solomon links in with the blessed man of the kingdom. But quickly, you know, the time's almost up and I'd rather stop there, but I have to be faithful to the character I'm talking about.
Yes, a son in the family, a shepherd on the hills, a stripling in the valley, sweet to the psalmist of Israel and the singer, the soldier triumphs in the field. David's failure, sinner in the house. You know, it humbles us to think that Noah, Isaac, Samuel, David, they all failed.
They all failed near the end of their life and they all failed in their own house. 2 Samuel chapter 11 says, when kings go forth to battle, David tarried. He should have been out in the battle. He's relaxing, he's taking it easy.
You know what's wrong with us in our days, materialism, as the people of God were relaxing. Maybe God is working in those lands that we were talking about. For they know nothing about materialism and they're certainly not relaxing.
David's relaxing. What's that? That's the parade of life. Not going to fight anymore. It says, rose from his bed, that's the lust of the flesh. It says, he saw a woman. That's the lust of the eye. You see, it was against Eastern propriety to look over another man's battlement.
David should have been out in the thick of the battle with his men. What's he doing? He's looking at something he shouldn't have been looking at. What about the home? Are you looking at something you shouldn't be looking at?
Mind you, it's very easy to turn the knob and see it. He's looking at something he shouldn't be looking at. And it's his very own home that he reaps the percussions of it. Did you notice the sequence of David's failure?
David took Bathsheba. His own son, Ammon, took his half-sister, Tamar, incest in the family. David slew Uriah. Absalom slew the half-brother of Ammon. There's murder in his own house. David committed the sin in secret.
Absalom took the concubines of the king and he went in on to them in public on the very top of the house. David used Job to slay Uriah the Hittite. When Job slew David's own son Absalom, David could do nothing about it.
You know, we've seen many men in our day valiant in the fight for God and making progress. But you know, they do a U-turn when tested in their own family. Now, as a family man, I'm deeply thankful for salvation and preservation, but we handle it carefully.
I often think of Psalm 51. This is the stature of the man David. David sat down and he wrote Psalm 51. And Psalm 51's about his own sin. And Psalm 51 has been sung by his own people. And in Psalm 51, with an honest heart, did I say David always sought God?
Even in the days of his deepest failure, David turns to God and he says, against thee, thee only have I sinned. It seemed to break David's heart. David turned to his God. And David says, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.
Now, David knew God as the God of recovery. My time's up. I could afford well to dwell at length on that part. Maybe you're here tonight. I'm not saying it's some gross thing. I'm not saying that it's something that demands excommunication or anything like that.
But you look at me and I look at you. We're all guilty of failure. Do we need to pray tonight? Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. God's a God of recovery. The sovereign on the throne. The man after God's own heart was the man of two comings.
He was driven from the throne by an Absalom and he went out in rejection. There comes a day. There comes a day when there's a call and it went from one end of the nation to the other. Is there no word about bringing back the king?
Is there no word of bringing again the king? 2 Samuel chapter 19 says the king returned. We'll end on this note. Yes, my dear brother, my dear sister, the king is coming back. He has been rejected, our blessed savior.
Oh yes, as he was led out, we were speaking about it the other day, as he was led out to be put upon the cross with a crown of thorns, kneel, pierced hands and pierced feet. As he was led out, Pilate said, behold your king.
My Bible says that God will show he was the one and only potentate king of kings and lord of lords. For him, after the cross has come the crown. After the three has come the throne. After rejection has come the glory.
You and I live in the day of his rejection. We're associated with a rejected Christ. We gather to his name on the reproach. There's a reproach even about the preaching of the gospel. But tonight, my brother, my sister out here, we were as never as near the lord's second coming as we are just now.
We believe in the imminent return of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. And he's coming back as the vindicated Christ. And he will sit upon the throne of David. And he will sit and rule supreme. And he who will take the scroll in the day of judgment and put in the sickle in the day of harvest and use the sword in the day of battle is the one that will take the scepter of universal dominion.
And he shall reign whose rate it is. Says Matthew chapter 1, the generation of the son of God, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Says Revelation chapter 22, coming back again, he who is the root and the offspring of David, the bright and the morning star.
Now we will sing it in a minute. Our lord is now rejected and by the world is owned by the many still neglected and by the few enthroned. But we do rejoice at the crowning day. It can't be long. The crowning day is coming by and by.
Shall we pray? Our father, we thank thee for our meditations and bless thee tonight for the heavenly David. He who was the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star. And as the sky gets darker and as the shadows lengthen and as the day is drawn, we thank thee for that prospect of the morning star that will arise, that which will arise in the darkness of the night to call us waiting people home to await the dawn of another day when the son of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings.
When there shall one come back again. We've been reading and pondering those words from the scripture that the king returned. We would ask tonight, is there no word of bringing back the king? We thank thee our father for he who has been to the battle in our stead.
Like Jonathan of old, we love the man that went instead of us. We thank thee that tonight we love him because he first loved us and we do bless thee at his future is our future. And we pray that he might be enabled to live close to thee and to thy son and in obedience to thy word and to thy will.
And that he might in some little measure reflect the heart of God in the assembly, in testimony and days of service. We thank thee for these meditations and we pray in some little measure that they might still be upon earth, men and women after God's own heart.
Bless thy word we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.