Greetings, friends. We’ve come again to search the scriptures. And today, I want to ask a question; and it is this: What Manner of Man are You? Our text is taken from two scriptures – two short scriptures: the first one is, 1 Samuel 13:13-14.

1Samuel 13:13-14

¹³ And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. ¹⁴ But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

And the second one, with reference to the same incidence or story, is from Acts of the Apostles 13, the Apostle Paul preaching in Antioch in Pisidia: He was preaching Christ; but to arrive at his point he traced the history of Israel a little bit and in…

Acts 13:22

²² And when He had removed him [that is, Saul], He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.

What manner of man are you?

PRAYER:

Father, we thank you for another opportunity we have now to look into your Word. And we commit this moment into Your hands, asking for Your presence, asking that Your Spirit will speak to our hearts, causing Your Word to come alive, in Jesus Name….Amen!

May I observe that I am using man in a generic sense. In the Greek New Testament the word would be anthrópos, meaning mankind: man or woman – without differentiation of male or female. There are two other different words used in the Greek New Testament that would specify male or female, man or woman – but now we are using man in that generic sense to mean both men and women, both male and female. God bore David an enviable testimony as we saw in our two texts, the second scripture Acts 13:22. When he had removed Saul he raised up for them David to whom also he gave testimony and said this is the enviable testimony. I have found David the Son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all I will. You may say, but I know David; I know the ugly story about him. That testimony was given before he messed up – before he committed adultery and murder. Yeah! You are right. That testimony was given of him before then. But I want to say to you, friend, that David was still after that a man after God’s own heart. Even after the Bathsheba affair David was still a man after God’s own heart. It’s amazing, isn’t it? In 1 King 15:4-5, what we are about to read now is what God said about him after the Bathsheba problem.

1 King 15:4-5

⁴ Nevertheless for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem [for David’s sake], by setting up his son after him and by establishing Jerusalem; ⁵ because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

David did not turn aside from what God commanded him except in that instance. David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of his life. He was a man after God’s own heart. This tells us one thing. It tells us that your standing with God is measured primarily by the state of your heart, and not necessarily what record men and women may hold against you. David was a man after God’s heart. What does that mean? David was a man whose heart took after God’s heart. David was a man whose heart resembled God’s heart. David was a man who was spiritually sensitive, a man whose life was in alignment with God. Alignment! The dictionary says that alignment is the process of adjusting parts so that they are in proper relative position.

‘Wheel alignment’ – for those who use vehicles. Wheel alignment is necessary for vehicles to drive properly. Somebody said, one noticeable sign that a car has a severe wheel alignment problem is when the car automatically pulls towards the left or right side while being driven. In this situation the driver is constantly wrestling with the steering wheel in an attempt to keep the car properly aligned with the road. For sure then, this is not a car after the driver’s heart. This is not a car after the owner’s heart – because the car is not in alignment. David’s heart was in alignment with God’s heart; and so he was driving the way God wanted him to drive…as it were.

What more does a man after God’s own heart mean? It means more than we have said so far. This is the rest of my message. I want to point out five things God meant when he said that David was a man after His heart:

1. David, though an imperfect man, was a humble man with penitent heart. When he committed the serious sin against God, which we talked about, he confessed his sin and repented of it. When he was confronted by Nathan the Prophet, David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord”. That is confession and he did more than confess. He repented. In Psalm 51, which most bible students or scholars recognize as David’s repentance after the Bathsheba affair

Psalm 51

Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me.
⁴ Against You, You only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in Your sight—
That You may be found just when You speak,
And blameless when You judge.

David was an imperfect man – but he had a humble and penitent heart.

1. David was a man in whose heart God loomed larger than David’s problems. A man after God’s heart. He was the only one in Israel, a youth who could take on the Philistine Goliath, a nine-foot tall manas who ridiculed Israel and her God.

⁴⁵ Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶ This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. ⁴⁷ Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”

A man after God’s heart. A man after God’s heart is a man in whose heart God is large, God is big – bigger than his problems. That was the kind of man that David was. What manner of man are you, friend? What manner of woman are you in the sight of God?

We will continue this message next time.

PRAYER:

Father, we thank You for the time we have spent in the Word. And as the voice of a man ceases let Your voice continue to speak to my friends, that You way draw them to Yourself, some closer than ever before; those who do not know You at all – that the Spirit of God will bring conviction and conversion that they might become Your children, in Jesus Name. Amen