Dive into the profound exploration of what made David a man after God’s own heart in this episode of Victorious Faith with Cherri Campbell. As we conclude part one of the series, we uncover how David’s sense of faith and repentance elevated his standing before God. Despite his significant transgressions, David epitomized the transformative power of cleaning one’s heart through faith and divine forgiveness. Join us as we dissect the elements of David’s character that made him stand out in Biblical history.
Good morning. Welcome to Victorious Faith. I’m Cherri Campbell. This morning I’m going to continue and conclude sharing with you part one in a series of messages that I preached in our Victorious Faith services called, What Made David a Man After God’s Own Heart? So join me now in our live service for the conclusion of part one in this series, What Made David a Man After God’s Own Heart? Not by my feelings, but by my faith, I believe. I am forgiven, I am cleansed, and I am made righteous by your blood. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen. And I learned then that my righteousness is by faith, not by works. My cleansing is by faith, not by feelings. I still felt guilty. And so ignore the feeling. Believe the power of the blood. And the Lord gave me this phrase. The blood of Jesus is a super stain remover. It can wipe away the ugliest sin, the ugliest crime, murder, adultery, rape, molestation. It can cleanse all of it. It is more powerful than any sin because it has cleansed the sin of the entire human race. It certainly is strong enough to cleanse you of yours. And so David had a revelation of cleansing before the dispensation of grace came, before Jesus came and died on the cross for sin. He had a revelation of cleansing. That’s why at the part where we talked at the beginning about a clean and pure heart, and he said, you find nothing, I’m innocent. Because he knew how to repent. And once you’ve repented, you are innocent again as a brand new baby. You are as innocent as a brand new baby as soon as you repent. Praise the Lord. So he had a revelation of the cleansing that comes with forgiveness. Again, Psalm 51, let’s pick up at verse 2. Wash away, wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. He knew he could be washed and cleaned. Verse 3, for I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. And this is after he, you know, had committed adultery and murder. Again, David murdered. I don’t know that there’s any worse sin than murder. It’s taking the life of another human being. So if you think you’ve done the worst sin, even if he murdered, David did it. And he received cleansing and forgiveness. Verse 4, against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. So he repented fully and wholeheartedly. And again in Psalm 51, down in verses 16 and 17, you do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. What does God love? Why did God consider David a man after his own heart? Because he also had a contrite heart. a heart that was repentant, broken before the Lord. He repented wholeheartedly and sincerely. Is your heart contrite and repentant, penitent before the Lord when you do wrong, when you know you do wrong? And then he also said earlier, as we said, forgive my hidden faults. So forgive my hidden faults and forgive my willful sins and help me to not do them. And then number 10 says, David was a man who did receive his forgiveness and righteousness by faith. That’s what I was just talking about. He did receive his forgiveness and righteousness by faith. What he did was he reached into the next dispensation. Now, what do you mean sharing? Some of you know this. Some of you don’t. But the timeline of the human race is divided into dispensations. And I think basically they divide it into three, up to now it’s three periods of 2,000 years. But the first dispensation was pre-law, before the law. They had no law. So it was the dispensation of conscience. They had no law. They lived by their conscience. But then Moses came and Moses brought the law. And then that period of time from Moses till Jesus was called the dispensation of law. And they had to live by the law, not just their conscience, but law. Then Jesus came, and Jesus to the present, we are living in the dispensation of grace, forgiveness, grace and mercy, forgiveness. And so he lived in the dispensation of law. He came after Moses. The law came. He had the whole law. He loved and studied and meditated the law. So he lived under the law. But his faith reached ahead a thousand years to the dispensation of grace and mercy where there is forgiveness and righteousness. There were a few people in the Old Testament who tapped into the dispensation of grace. Abraham was a man who lived by faith. He tapped into the dispensation of grace. Rahab, the prostitute, received forgiveness. She reached into the dispensation of grace. David also reached ahead a thousand years to the next dispensation, which grace was for that dispensation, but he received it by faith in his own time. So he received forgiveness, cleansing, and righteousness by faith. He also had the revelation of being blameless, although yet not perfect. So he put his sin behind him. I love the picture that after he committed adultery with Bathsheba, Bathsheba had a son. She became pregnant and had a son. And in judgment, the son died. David repented wholeheartedly, and he prayed for the life of the son. And he stripped, he took off his royal robe, I think he put on sackcloth, and he went around mourning and praying before the Lord for days and days until the baby died. And then he got up, washed his face, and went and he ate. But he put the sin behind him. 2 Samuel 12.20 says, Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions, and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshipped. Then he went to his own house and at his request, they served him food and he ate. So you see there, he put it behind him and he moved on. You also need to put any sin, your sin, behind you. Receive your cleansing now. Receive forgiveness, receive cleansing, receive righteousness by faith, put it behind you, bury it, and move on with your relationship with God in a relationship that has no obstacles, no walls between you and God, no guilt, no condemnation. So that was a great thing about David. He repented wholeheartedly, radically. But when he was forgiven, he got up, put it behind him, and went on and called himself blameless. That’s what the power of the blood does. Praise the Lord. Psalm 7, verse 8. Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness. according to my integrity. Notice, he is calling himself righteous, having integrity, almost high. Psalm 1820. The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands. He has rewarded me. So you can be rewarded also. Psalm 51, verse 7, cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. He had the revelation of being clean and whiter than snow, receiving righteousness by faith. And Psalm 101, verses 1 and 2. of David, a Psalm. I will sing of your love and justice to you, Lord. I will sing praise verse two. I will be careful to lead a blameless life. When will you come to me? I will walk in my house with blameless heart with a blameless heart. So he received his forgiveness and and as cleansing by faith and righteousness by faith, so he could stand before God and say, God, now thank you for cleansing me. Now I am blameless before you because you are a God of mercy. You are a God of forgiveness. You have cleansed me and made me clean and made me righteous. Praise the Lord. So these are all characteristics, attributes of David, and particularly tonight we were looking at his heart. And the heart of David. What made David a man after God’s own heart? Well, first and foremost, primarily, it was his heart. And then in our next service, we’re going to look at the actions of David. Some of the things he did that showed great character. We’ll look at that next time. But again, I want you to challenge yourself. And all you have to do is be honest with yourself and with God. All you have to do, it’s not hard, is put God first. Have no idols before you. That doesn’t mean a graven image necessarily. It means having anything else in this life that you put before God. Love him, love his word. Keep a contrite, penitent heart before the Lord. What that means also is that you receive correction and rebuke. Sometimes from people. You know, they may not even always say it in the nicest way. But you need to take a step back and say, am I really like that? And a humble heart receives correction and is penitent. And then certainly, whenever God deals with you, Keep a soft, tender heart. Having a soft heart. Don’t harden your heart. How do you harden your heart? By resisting God, by resisting his word, by resisting his will. When he corrects you and rebukes you, you resist repentance. If you resist repentance, if you resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit or the direction God wants you to go, he’s nudging you this way and you resist it, what are you doing? You’re hardening yourself. You can harden yourself and harden yourself and harden yourself so you no longer feel his conviction or get his direction. That’s a dangerous place and a scary place. You don’t ever want to be so far. You never even feel his conviction anymore. If you feel like you’ve already gotten that far, guess what? All you have to do is bow your knee right now and say, well, I don’t feel his conviction, but I think I’ve hearted my heart. Lord, wash my heart, cleanse my heart, soften my heart. I receive right now your conviction, your direction for my life. Show me my heart. Show me my ways. Just as David prayed, show me my heart. Show me the ways in me that aren’t pleasing to you. And so keeping your heart pure is keeping your heart repentant before the Lord. and desiring to do his will, not resisting his will. So it’s being sensitive to conviction and sensitive to direction and leadings. Nudges, do this. If you’re sensitive to him, then he’s going to keep drawing you. And these are things that make David a man after God’s own heart, and it will make you a man or a woman after God’s own heart. Amen? Amen. Let’s pray. What you just heard was the conclusion of part one in a series of messages that I preached in our victorious faith services called What Made David a Man After God’s Own Heart. And I trust that these messages are encouraging, inspiring, and challenging you to grow spiritually in your walk with the Lord. Now join me again tomorrow and remember God loves you. You are blessed and highly favored by the Lord.
