I'd like you to open your Bible and turn to 2 Corinthians 16, verse 9, as we set the stage for this theme, The Heart That Is God's. Brother, a familiar verse from the Old Testament. It says, For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth, that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. God of course does not literally have eyes in the sense of physical eyes like we have in our bodies, for God is Spirit.
But what is said here is intended to communicate to us that God sees everywhere and that He searches, He probes to find those hearts which are completely His so that He may strongly support them. What does it mean to have a heart that is completely His? I think we notice from the text that such hearts apparently are few, at least few in comparison to the population of the world, because the Lord, it says, is moving throughout the earth seeking those kinds of hearts.
The text also suggests to us that such hearts will know His strong support. An interesting thought. This Hebrew word means to grow firm or to strengthen. And then by way of application it's used with the meaning to encourage or to grasp something or to secure it. It is used for the securing of stakes, for a tent. It is used in a negative sense of the hardening of the heart of Pharaoh in the book of Exodus. It is used in a positive sense regarding David's loyal band of men.
In 1 Corinthians 11, 10 it says that they strongly supported him in his reign. So they were there as loyal supporters, as those who helped him secure and hold on to his kingdom. And so it says here that the Lord strongly supports those whose heart is completely His. I believe that seeking to cultivate such a heart is the goal of all of God's children. The heart that is God's may be described perhaps in a number of ways, but tonight I'm going to choose three adjectives to describe that heart.
These are qualities that I believe are essential in the heart that could be described as the heart that is God's, that belongs to Him. I believe that first of all a heart that is God's is a broken heart. David seems to speak to this when he prays as he does in Psalm 51. And I would invite you to turn there.
In Psalm 51 verse 17, after pouring out his heart to God in confession of his great sin with Bathsheba, he says the sacrifices of God are a broken heart, a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. A broken heart. David had sinned, he had sinned grievously against Bathsheba, against her husband whom he murdered or had murdered. He sinned against the nation of Israel, but above everything else, above everyone else, he sinned against God.
To restore fellowship required more than offering an obligatory sacrifice in a perfunctory manner. Just performing a ritual was not enough to restore him to fellowship. His heart had to be right. And so he says what he does. The sacrifices that God really seeks are those of a broken and contrite heart. A soul without heart is but empty religion.
That is why Isaiah preached the word of God to the people and said, these people draw near to me with their lips, but they are far from me in their hearts. And Jesus quoted those words in referring to Israel of his day. He said, you say good things about me, you go through the motions, but you are far from me in your hearts. And Jesus went on to say, you've made the word of God void because of the traditions of men that you have followed.
The opposite of a broken heart, of course, is a heart that is hardened or proud, which is insensitive or perhaps independent of God. A heart that does not feel the awfulness of sin. And I would submit to you tonight that we are growing up in a world where sin is thought very lightly of, where when one sins all one has to do is quickly confess it in almost a superficial way and run on. Where is the broken heart for sin?
I believe that kind of brokenness before God, that kind of awareness, indeed that kind of contrition before God is needed if one's heart is to be his. This broken heart is described in the Beatitudes which the Lord Jesus gave in the Gospel of Matthew. Remember how he says it? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What is he saying? He is saying those who recognize their spiritual bankruptcy, blessed are they, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
And then immediately he says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. What kind of mourning is this? It is a mourning for sin. It is a godly mourning that leads one to a deep repentance. That is brokenheartedness. When one's heart is to be God, I believe it must begin here. Warren Wiersbe said, we must beware of an easy and comfortable dealing with our sins. It was this surface dealing with sin that cost King Saul his crown. Do you remember how that happened in 1 Samuel 15?
He was commanded by the Lord to attack the Amalekites and totally wipe them out. Every person, every animal was to be killed under the judgment of God. Saul did not do that. He kept some of the sheep. And then came the time when Samuel arrived to check up on the army and to find out what had happened in the attack. When he asked how it went, Saul said it went well. Samuel said, then what is this sound I hear? This bleeding of the sheep. Immediately Saul lied.
He was not willing to have a brokenness about his disobedience. He lied to try to cover it up. But Samuel pressed him further. So Saul's next attempt to skirt brokenheartedness was making an excuse by blaming the others. He said, well, yeah, there are some sheep here, but you see the people kept those. It was they who suggested it. And yet Samuel probed. And then the next step was that Saul used religion to try to defend his sin.
He said, well, yes, we did keep some sheep, but you see we wanted to offer sacrifices to God. That's why we kept the sheep. It's for a religious purpose. And that's when Samuel said obedience is better than sacrifice. And the final step of that sin and Saul's failure to deal with it came when he said to Samuel, well, please preserve me in front of the people. Don't do anything that would ruin my reputation with them.
You see, there is a man who refused to allow his heart to be broken by his disobedience to God. Because of that, God removed the kingdom from him. Oh, yes, it's true. Saul said, I've sinned, I've sinned, but it was too late then. Samuel said to him, because you've rejected the Lord, the Lord has rejected you as the king over his people and will seek a man after his own heart. What kind of a man is that? A man whose heart can be broken with its sin, its sinfulness. Saul was not that kind of man.
I believe that what we need today, folks, is an honest, deep, brokenheartedness for our sinfulness. Instead of trying to cover it up or excuse it or lie about it, rather to open ourselves up to God and pour it all out to him. Brokenness. Now, that does not mean that we should wallow in our guilt or fixate on self-reproach, either. That is the other extreme. That seems to be the extreme that David did follow in the death of Absalom. Do you remember that? We studied it a few weeks ago.
Absalom revolted against his father. To make a long story short, the revolt was short-circuited. And Absalom, over David's request, was killed by Joab. When word came to David, David lamented. I mean, he didn't just lament, he greatly lamented. He wept. He went to his room and he there wailed loud words of lamentation and mourning for his son Absalom. David's grief on that occasion was an unnatural grief. You know why that was?
He grieved out of a guilty heart because he knew he had failed with his son Absalom. And therefore his grief was unnatural. He wallowed in his guilt. And Joab finally had to go to him and say, get yourself straightened up or you're going to lose the kingdom. You see, Saul lost the kingdom because of a superficial dealing with sin. David almost lost it himself because he wallowed in the guilt and the death of his son.
What I am talking about tonight is the kind of brokenness that David mentions in Psalm 51. It involves a thorough dealing with sin, a confession before God in which we say the same thing about what we've done that God says about it. But it's more than just brokenheartedness about what we've done. It's brokenheartedness about what we are, that we are still sinners. That though we are the saints of God called in Christ Jesus, sin still dwells in us.
David's honesty is revealed in his self-exposure in Psalm 51. Notice that he not only speaks about what he's done, but in verse 5 he goes deeper than that. He says, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me. And so he is broken not only about his deeds, but he is broken about what he is. He says, I was a sinner by birth. He goes on in verse 6 to suggest that his innermost being is affected.
He says, thou dost desire truth in the innermost being and in the hidden part thou wilt make me know wisdom. Why does David say that? Because he had not been truthful in his innermost being. He had lied in scheme to cover up his sin. Again in verse 8, he says, make me to hear joy and gladness. Why does he say that? Well, he goes on to say, my bones have been broken. In other words, his emotional capacities had been impacted by his sin. And he's just opening all of this up before God.
In verse 10 he says, create in me a clean heart. You see, he's not just broken about the sin he committed, he's broken because he is a dirty man inside. And he cries out almost in desperation, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. In the book The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers, an unknown author, at least unknown to me, writes this prayer.
I believe that this man, whoever he is now with the Lord, of course, expresses something of the brokenness that you and I need to seek as we follow in the direction of our hearts becoming wholly his. O Lord, no day of my life has passed that has not proved me guilty in Thy sight. Prayers have been uttered from a prayerless heart. Praise has been often praiseless sound. My best services are filthy rags. Blessed Jesus, let me find a covert in Thy appeasing wounds.
Though my sins rise to heaven, Thy merits soar above them. Though unrighteousness weighs me down to hell, Thy righteousness exalts me to Thy throne. All things in me call for rejection. All things in Thee plead my acceptance. I appeal from the throne of perfect justice to Thy throne of boundless grace.
Grant me to hear Thy voice assuring me that by Thy stripes I am healed, that Thou was bruised for my iniquities, that Thou hast been made sin for me, that I might be righteous in Thee, that my grievous sins, my manifold sins, are all forgiven, buried in the ocean of Thy concealing blood. I am guilty but pardoned, lost but saved, wandering but found, sinning but cleansed. Give me perpetual brokenheartedness. Keep me always clinging to Thy cross.
We would rather talk about self-actualization and self-realization. We would rather talk about self-esteem and how to build our egos. We would rather deal with those things that make us feel great as human beings. But I believe the real need of our hour in evangelical Christianity is for brokenheartedness over our sins and our sin, what we do and what we are. If we are going to have a heart that is wholly His, I believe it begins there with brokenness. But it doesn't stop there.
I believe a heart that is wholly God's is also a burdened heart. In other words, it is a heart that knows God well enough to know what burdens Him. It is a heart that is able to feel the hurts and the needs of others around us. I understand that Pastor Cramer preached on this last week and that there was a great response in many lives. I rejoice in that and thus I'm not going to dwell on it tonight.
But I believe that our hearts need to know God well enough to be burdened by that which burdens Him. As God looks down upon your office where you work, what are those burdens to Him? You say, well, it's the people who cuss and the people who smoke and the language they use. Undoubtedly those things do grieve God. But look beyond that. What about that secretary who sits out there in the outer office and who is dying inside because of a husband who is unfaithful to her?
Do you think God's burdened for her? Are you? Or what about that person who is terribly guilty, overloaded because of involvements that have been wicked and sinful, a lifestyle that is beginning to eat away at the very core of his existence? You say, well, he deserves every bit of it. That may be true. But do you care for his hurts? I believe God does. Aren't we more prone to agree with God regarding judging people than we are to feel with God His compassion?
I believe a heart that is God's heart is a heart that gets burdened. Not just with the obvious things or the superficial things, but with those needs that are crying out deep within the people who are all around us. People in your small church, in that Sunday school class, in your growth group. A burdened heart is God's heart. This is the heart that Paul expresses in 2 Corinthians 11 when he goes through the whole list of things that he had suffered in serving Christ.
And then he says, above all of this, there is the care of the churches upon me daily. What is Paul saying there? He is saying, I am burdened with the problems of the churches. Paul is there revealing a heart that beats like God's heart. For God's heart is burdened for His people. Paul in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 says, I am like a nursing mother, gentle with you and yet terribly burdened for you in your spiritual infancy. Do you feel that way over anybody?
So much more easy, isn't it, to be busy? It's easier to be self-interested because all of us have our own problems. Would it help if we remember that God is the one who bears our burdens, our burdens, Psalm 68, 19? Perhaps the reason that it says that God bears our burdens is so that we then can fulfill what is commanded of us in Galatians 6.2, bear one another's burdens.
Let's become less absorbed with the problems that all of us have individually and begin to look out at those around us and reach out a heart of compassion to embrace those who are struggling nearby. I heard someone say one time, you can tell what a person is like if you will simply observe what it is that makes them laugh, what makes them angry, and what makes them weep. That will tell you their character. What makes you weep? A heart that is God's heart is a burdened heart.
Too easily do we flee from burdens. We say, I don't have time for this. I'm carrying a load already. But a heart that is like God's heart is not too busy and not too burdened yet, but that it can't reach out to someone else. God seeks a heart that is completely His so that He may strongly support that person. That person is one who has a broken heart for his own sins. He has a burdened heart for others. But thirdly, he is one who has a believing heart. A heart that is full of faith in his Lord.
Turn with me to the Gospel of Luke for just a moment and look at some words of the Lord Jesus. How these words could describe me so often. Luke 24, Jesus is inquiring of the two men walking on the pathway away from Jerusalem toward Emmaus. Inquiring of them of the recent events in Jerusalem. They explain to him, in verse 24 they conclude, some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said, but him they did not see.
He said to them, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. That phrase, slow of heart to believe, do you ever feel that that describes you? If we are honest, I think all of us have to confess that we are so slow of heart to really trust God. And yet it says in Hebrews 11 that without faith it is impossible to please God. What does it mean to believe? Well, you say it means to commit yourself, to entrust, and it does.
And of course, when we come to God for salvation, it involves that initial step of faith when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It means we entrust ourselves, the keeping of our souls, the cleansing of our souls to Him. We commit ourselves to Him. But the kind of believing heart I'm talking about is not the one that takes only that initial step, it is the following steps. It is the heart that goes on then in the walk of faith.
The Scriptures say the just shall live by faith, not just get saved by faith, but shall live day in and day out by faith. What kind of faith is that? It would seem that faith needs a working definition. And I suppose that there could be a number of definitions that you could suggest tonight, but one that I would suggest as a working definition of faith is this. It is simply doing what God says despite what my feelings say.
If you go to Hebrews 11, the great hall of faith, and run down the list of those Old Testament saints who walked with God by faith, you find that time after time, faith to them was simply doing what God says to do despite what their feelings said to them. Often we see faith as some kind of an emotion that has to be charged up or built up in us. But faith is not very far from obedience. It's doing what God says despite what our feelings say to us.
A heart that is God's heart is a heart that responds to Him in faith. It's a heart that says, Lord, I will do that. I don't see how it can happen. I don't see the outcome of it. It seems mysterious to me, but at Your word, I will step out a believing heart. I'd like to go back to 2 Chronicles 16 again and look at the verse that we began with in its context. 2 Chronicles 16. The verse was spoken to King Asa, one of the good and godly kings of Judah.
It was spoken by one of the prophets of the Lord named Hanani. If you study the reign of Asa, you will find that he was indeed a godly man. In the beginning of his reign, he began to tear down those places built to idols throughout the land of Judah. He even set aside his own mother, who is called here the Queen Mother, because of her affinity with idolatry. He took her out of her office as the Queen Mother.
He was not afraid to even reach into his own family to cleanse the land from ungodliness. He was a man who knew what it was in early battles to trust God, and God gave him amazing victories. But as he got older, his faith dwindled. By the time we come to chapter 16, he is a man who has reigned a number of years.
It says, in the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign, Baasha, king of Israel, came up against Judah and fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming into Asa, king of Judah. So the land of Judah was put under siege by the northern kingdom of the Jews called Israel.
Baasha brought out silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the king's house and sent them to Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, saying, "'Let there be a treaty between you and me, as between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you silver and gold. Go, break your treaty with Baasha, king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.' Ben-Hadad did that. He made the treaty with Asa. He said, great, you've paid me enough.
I'll go break my treaty with the other king so that he will leave you alone.' And Asa then, it says in verse six, brought all Judah and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had been building, and with them he fortified Geba and Mizpah.
It says, at that time, Hanani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said to him, "'Because you have relied on the king of Aram and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim an immense army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand.'" He's referring to a previous battle.
He says, "'For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth. They may strongly support those whose heart is completely his. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on, you will surely have wars.' Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in prison, for he was enraged at him for this, and Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time." He says, the rest of the acts are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet. His disease was severe, yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord but the physicians. So Asa slept with his fathers. What do we see here? We see a man who began well in his walk with God. But as the years went by and as he began to be more experienced in his reign and as his power grew, he became more and more self-sufficient and independent of God.
So by the time just three years before his death, when the challenge came, instead of believing in the Lord, he turned to human instruments for his victory. And even when God apparently struck him with this disease in his feet because of his unbelief, he would not repent, be brokenhearted about it. He would not believe in the Lord. He turned to the physicians and he died. How sad. This certainly is a negative example of what we're talking about, a believing heart.
Yet Hannah and I have spoken to him the truth. God is seeking the person who will believe him. A more positive example is found in chapter twenty in the person of Jehoshaphat. Some of his enemies came against him, it says in verse one. And some came and reported Jehoshaphat, verse two. A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, out of Aram and behold, they are in Hazesan Tamar, that is in Getty.
And Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the Lord and proclaimed Judah fast throughout all Judah. So they gathered to seek the Lord. They even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the Lord. And then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new court and said, O Lord, the God of our fathers, art thou not God in the heavens? And art thou not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations?
Power and might are in thy hand so that no one can stand against thee. Is thou not our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham thy friend forever? They lived in it and have built thee a sanctuary there for thy name.
And then he says in verse ten, behold, the sons of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir whom thou didst not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, behold, how they have – they are rewarding us by coming to drive us out from thy possession. Then he says in verse twelve, O our God, wilt thou not judge them for we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us? Nor do we know what to do but our eyes are on thee. Do you see the difference?
Here is the kind of heart that God was seeking in Asa. In this good and godly King Jehoshaphat there is a believing heart. He says to the Lord, our eyes are upon you. We are overwhelmed by our adversaries.
And then it says that a prophet was raised up in the midst of the people to speak to him and he said in verse fifteen, listen all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat, thus says the Lord to you, do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude for the battle is not yours but God's. Tomorrow go down against them. He tells them where to go. He says in verse seventeen, you need not fight in this battle.
Station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow go out to face them for the Lord is with you. They worship the Lord because of that promise and the next day God gave them supernaturally the victory, supernaturally. That is the kind of heart that God seeks, the heart that will believe him. Doubt sees the obstacles. Faith sees the way. Doubt sees the darkest night. Faith sees the day.
Doubt dreads to take a step. Faith soars on high. Doubt questions who believes. Faith answers, I. Do you believe God tonight? What is the adversary that's coming into your life? What is the challenge that seems to be overwhelming the little ship where you are? Will you say to the Lord, I believe you? Will you turn from your schemes? Faith is living without scheming. Will you turn from those human instruments and say to the Lord, Lord I trust in you. I don't understand what's taking place.
I am mystified by all of this, but I believe you. We've only scratched the surface on the heart that is holy God's. I want you to know that though it's thousands of years later, a little less than 3,000 years later since these words were spoken in 2 Chronicles 16, God is still throughout the whole earth looking for the one whose heart is holy his. The one that is broken, the one that is burdened, the one that is believing.
The reason that he seeks that heart is that he might be strong in his support of that person. Let's develop the kind of heart that we've studied tonight. The secret of blessing with God is not in our plans, it's not in our resources, it's not to be found in personality, it's not in popularity or gifts or abilities. The secret of blessing with God is not in numbers or clout or might or money or ingenuity or hard work. The secret of blessing with God is developing a heart that is holy his.
Our heavenly Father, I pray tonight that these feeble words spoken even with a heart under conviction would nonetheless cause all of us who are yours to seek to develop the heart that is holy, completely, perfectly yours. To break our hearts with our sins. Delivers from the kind of cheap, easy grace that we hear taught in so many places.
The superficial kind of repentance and confession, which is not godly and does not produce a change, delivers from those and brings us constantly to the cross and to brokenness. And Lord, I pray that you will burden us with those things that really matter. Give us hearts that are able to feel, deliver us from and forgive us of hearts that are insensitive, hearts that are too busy, hearts that are too self-centered. Burden us with those things that burden your heart.
And then Lord, teach us what it is to believe you. And in those circumstances where each of us is facing a battle tonight, I pray that we will be able to respond in deep-seated faith in the promises of God. Lead us in that direction. Make us a holy people. In Jesus' name, amen.