# the heart of the matter is the heart

Category: Integrity & Godly Character
Key Passage: 1 Samuel 16
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: December 4, 2022

Turn your Bibles, if you would, to First Samuel chapter number 16, please. First Samuel chapter 16. Sometimes you feel like God is giving you a specific direction to shoot for, what you would think God is trying to do in hearts. I do not necessarily know that tonight. I believe this is what God has us cover. I do not know what all He would like to do in your heart through it. I pray that that would be accomplished, what He would like to do, and I pray you will be seeking for that.

I am going to steal a title from Brother Dumpert, but I am giving him credit, all right? It is not—this is not where they call it when you steal someone, you copy. Plagiarism. This is not—this is open plagiarism. I am admitting it is plagiarism.

And so here is what I am stealing from Brother Dumpert: The heart of the matter is the heart. Amen. Those are the Bible Institute [lessons]. I believe y’all have heard that already. Here has been the thing these six weeks: All the guys have been saying, “This is an institute, this is college-level work.” I am teaching the next six weeks. Brother Josh earlier, I said some of that smoked meatloaf can warm those teachers up pretty good. So we will see what happens the next six weeks on that. But the heart of the matter is the heart.

That would be for the internet. You can put down below that: Bill Dumpert, you know, Doctor, Professor, PhD, Professor Dumpert. Anyway, that is the title.

Now, the heart—here is the interesting thing. This is just a little side note about it all. They say it beats an average of 75 times a minute. Your heart, 40 million times a year. Wow, 40 million times a year. Two and a half billion times in a life of 70 years. At each beat, the average adult heart discharges about four ounces of blood. Now, that does not sound like much, but this 75 times a minute amounts to 3,000 gallons a day, or 650,000 gallons in a year. That is enough to fill more than 81 tank cars of 8,000 gallons each. Never got stuck behind a train that is 81 cars long? That is what your heart every year would fill up.

The heart does enough work in one hour to lift a 150-pound man to the top of a three-story building. Enough energy in 12 hours to lift a 65-ton tank car one foot off the ground, or enough power in 70 years to lift the largest battleship afloat completely out of the water. Your heart—it is amazing, just about the size of a fist, the heart. Now, all that has nothing to do with the message. We are not going to preach on your physical heart, but I thought it was interesting.

Now, you know, the heart—the heart of the matter is your heart. We are starting off where a preacher, a prophet, his name was Samuel. Back then in Israel, the preachers or the prophets would anoint the man that was to be the king of Israel. Saul, the king of that time, he had turned away from God; he was just all about himself. I think he was narcissistic, Saul was. And God said, “No, I am going to get another man to be the king.”

So God told Samuel, this prophet, “I want you to go to Bethlehem. There is a man named Jesse, and one of his boys—he had eight altogether—one died, but he had eight altogether. One of his boys is going to be the king, and I want you to anoint him.” Saul was already way out of whack, and Samuel the prophet says, “If I go down there anointing someone else to be king, Saul is going to get me.”

He said, “Well, say you are going down there to do sacrifice, and do sacrifice while you are down there. And then while you are down there, anoint someone to be king.” That is where we pick up the story, in 1 Samuel 16. We are going to start in verse number 6. First Samuel 16. Did I say Second Samuel a couple of times? Probably did.

Would you please stand? We are trying to show the Word of God respect; it is worthy of that. I am thankful we have God’s Word to teach us about so many things. 1 Samuel 16, look at verse number 6: “And it came to pass when they were come…” So it came to Jesse’s house, and he had looked at his sons that were there. They were doing sacrifice; he was sanctifying them. And he said, “No, those are not the one.” That is what is going on here.

Verse number 6: “And it came to pass when they were come that he looked on Eliab. He is the oldest. And said, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.’” But the Lord said unto Samuel, “Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature.” Remember, Saul was real tall, head and shoulders above everybody else. So maybe Samuel just thought he was going to find another big, strapping fellow again. God said, “Do not look at all that, how tall he is.” Maybe Eliab, being the oldest, was tall; I do not know. God said, “Do not look at all that.”

But the Lord said unto Samuel, “Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance.”

Your appearance is important because of what he just said: Man looketh on the outward appearance. I want to be a good ambassador for my Savior, so my appearance does matter. Your appearance has a lot to do with your influence for the Lord. So your appearance does matter, not really before the Lord directly, but man looks on the outward appearance. So I have to remember that. I want to be a good ambassador for Christ.

Now, verse number 7: “But the Lord said unto Samuel, ‘Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the what?’”

The heart. That is what God is looking at.

“Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him to pass before Samuel; and he said, ‘Neither hath the Lord chosen this.’” Maybe the second one in birth order. Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by, and he said, “Neither hath the Lord chosen this.” Again, I think maybe they passed by twice; I am not sure. But notice this again: Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, “The Lord hath not chosen these.”

And Samuel said unto Jesse, “Are these all thy children?” He said, “There remaineth yet the youngest; and, behold, he keepeth the sheep.” And Samuel said unto Jesse, “Send and fetch for him, for we will not sit down till he come hither.” Isn’t that amazing that the prophet, the preacher, had to say, “Look, fellow, look, Dad, we are not going to eat; we are not sitting until you go get that other boy”?

Verse number 12: “And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lord said, ‘Arise, anoint him; for this is he.’” And Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.

But that verse and that little saying there, “The Lord looketh on the heart”—the heart.

Would you pray with me that God would really have His way in our hearts tonight? Father, I pray that You would accomplish what You would like to do. Help us to see things, Lord, as You see them. Thank You for Your Word that tells us how You see them. Change us, grow us. Lord, I pray that our hearts would be better for You because of tonight. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

They say this is true. You talk about the “eye of the tiger” sometimes. They say that a tiger, maybe it is a lion, will take off after a herd of antelope. Maybe one is very weak or very slow, maybe he has a broken leg, and he can hardly run. That lion is after this herd of antelopes. He has his eye on one antelope. There may be some slower ones that fall by the wayside; he could easily get them. But he has his eye on just that one. That is what it is focused on.

The Lord says, “I am not looking at their height and their countenance and all that.” Now, that is part of it, and by the way, if your heart is right, you will do the right thing. But the Lord really says, “I am focused in on a heart.” When I am choosing who I will anoint, who I will use in a great way—to have a great marriage or just to minister in your family or wherever it may be—God says He looks; the key is our heart. It is so very, very important.

Here is interesting: For whatever reason, Dad did not think old David was worthy of getting out of the woods and bringing him up here when the preacher was coming and looking for someone to be king. It looks like Dad even brought the other seven boys in front of him again. But it is interesting that the preacher had to say, “We are not going to eat; we are not going to sit down until you go get that last boy.”

I do not know all the reasons. Some might say it was probably because David was too young to be king. Well, if David is too young, why in the world do you have him out in the woods by himself watching a bunch of sheep? Some say maybe it was because of danger. Later on, he testifies he killed a lion and a bear with his hands, so he was in danger for sure. He was out there protecting these sheep. Some think David was around 20 years old at this point; we do not know. But I do not think that would be the situation—just too young—or else why would he be out there watching sheep?

Some speculate that Dad thought David did not have enough education, that is why he is just a shepherd out there watching sheep. We do not know that. But for some reason, he just thought he was not fit. Maybe he just got forgotten about. I am not sure. Maybe he did not have a good relationship with his dad. I tend to think he did not. For whatever reason, I tend to think that. I think that maybe played a part later on. Years later, David was a great king but a poor father himself because I think he did not have a good relationship with his dad at this point either.

But for some reason, Dad just did not get David out of the woods to be the king. His biological father did not think David was fit to be the king. But can I say this? I do not know what was going on with David and his dad. Maybe David at this point had a little rebellious streak in him; I do not know.

But something about his heart—Dad just must have missed it, but Dad did not see it. Maybe it was not very obvious. Maybe it was covered over with some rough edges. Diamonds are in the rough a lot of times. Maybe there were a lot of rough edges at this point in David’s life. David was a warrior for a good while, and God—maybe about 10 years later—was rubbing off some rough edges of David for a long time.

But God said, “Hey, even your dad did not see fit to get you up here to be king, but I see your heart.” God said, “I see what is going on. Nobody else sees it per se, but I see what is going on deep down in the center of you, the core of you.” That is really the key. Man looketh at the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh at your heart.

Look over in chapter 17 here. This is a little while later on. David’s older brothers were out in a battle; they were in the military, and Dad sent the youngest boy down to check on his older brothers. David and his older brother had an exchange of words; they were not getting along very good. They are older now, still fussing and fighting. That is a sad thing. Usually, if adult siblings are fighting, that typically shows there are some major problems in the family.

David was there when Goliath came out and defied Israel. David said, “Somebody needs to do something about this. Is there not a cause?” And David said, “Man, I will go shut that big mouth up. God will help me to do that.” The older brother was mad. I want you to see what he says about David. We are in 1 Samuel 17, look in verse number 28.

“And Eliab, that is the oldest brother here, heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David. And he said, ‘Why art thou come down hither? And with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart.’”

Wait a second. The Lord anointed him to be king because of his heart, but now other people thought his heart was not right—in fact, somebody pretty close to him, his oldest brother. By the way, be careful of judging people’s hearts. Be careful. You do not even know your own heart, to be honest with you.

“‘For thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.’” This is where David made that famous statement: “Is there not a cause?” I think that is a very significant thing. Verse number 30: “And he turned from him toward another.” David was wise enough to say, “I am not going to fight with you; that is not my fight.” So wise there. But his heart—even his very own brother did not know his heart.

Some say that David was pretty much at the bottom of the pole, and some say this was a fulfillment of what the Bible says in the New Testament: “But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” David was a little bit the last, if you will, and God said, “No, I am going to make you king.” But the heart, the heart of the matter is your heart.

How is your heart? We can look so good on the outside. I am for being a good ambassador for Christ, but I can have everything on the outside. I can have my eyes dotted and my teeth crossed to look exactly like we are supposed to look, and yet my heart… I can actually have all the outward actions, I am doing everything, quote, unquote, that you are supposed to do to be a great Christian, and I have it down, all the lists checked off, and I get out of my heart. Some people get bitter over that. “Well, I am doing what I was supposed to do.” The fact that they are getting bitter shows that something in their heart is not right.

Your heart is the key. The Lord looketh on the heart. Just for a bit tonight, can I just ask you—and I am not going to know your heart, but maybe if the Holy Spirit would guide these words a bit—maybe you have a little jealousy in there. Maybe you have bitterness in there. Maybe you have unforgiveness. Maybe you have pride in there. Self-dependence in there. I do not know.

But your heart—we can become so consumed if we look right to everybody else. Now, I want to make a good testimony, but can I say this? Beyond your testimony, in some ways, who cares what everybody else thinks about you? It is the Lord that is going to bring promotion. He is the one that puts up and sets down, and He is the one that knows my heart. We get so focused on the outside looking good to everybody else. God says, “I do not look at that mess. That is what man does. I am looking at the heart.”

Oh, friend, that is so very important—your heart.

Now let us move on just a little bit beyond that. We will talk about the importance of your heart. Would you look over in Luke chapter number 6, verse number 45? Sometimes, in emphasizing the sinfulness of the natural man, the Adamic man, we just focus on our heart being sinful, and it is on its own. But it does not have to stay that way. For a couple of minutes here, focus on this: Luke 6:45.

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

Here is what I mean now for a little bit here: You can have a sinful heart and just leave it that way, or God can give you a good heart. You do not have to go on with the wicked, sinful, awful, deceitful heart. God can change your heart. It is biblical. What did Jesus say? “Blessed are the pure in heart.” Many passages are along this line.

1 Timothy 1:5: “Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart.” On its own, it is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things; who can know it? But you can also have a good heart. We sometimes just focus on the one side of the coin—what is bad about our heart. But God can give you a good and clean and pure heart. You can have that through the Lord.

Number three—that is number two—you can either have a good or bad heart. Number three, look over in Jeremiah 17, if you would, please. This is the verse I think we mentioned this morning. Jeremiah 17, verse number 9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Now, that is the heart you get from Adam, that sin nature you get. Notice the last four words of that verse: “Who can know it?”

Watch what it says: Deceitful above all things, desperately wicked—who can know it? If you think this thing through, it is so deceitful above all things; it will deceive its own self. It will deceive you. Your own heart will. That is why I believe in 1 John 1. He said, “If you say you have no sin, you deceive yourselves, and the truth is not in you.” So who can know it? You do not even necessarily know your own heart because it is deceitful above all things. It is desperately wicked. To try to make yourself have a good heart—that in itself is frightful. There is no way you can make your heart right; you do not even know your own heart.

Now look at the next verse, verse number 10: “I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins.” That may have to do a little bit with desire. I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. Yes, what you do does matter, and the path God has chosen for you, your ways. God might not want you to be a preacher and all that. You say, “Well, I have to be all that to be used by God greatly.” No, no, no. According to the ways, whatever way God has for you.

But the thing I want you to see is the Lord searcheth the heart. He is the one that can really determine what is truly going on in your heart. We do not even know. Who can know it? It is deceiving. We need the Lord. God is the only proper judge.

It is so true. You ever meet someone so proud and they know it all, and everybody in the room knows it besides that person? We have probably all been there before because we can be deceived by our own heart. God is the only one that can properly judge our heart.

Let me read for you a couple of verses. We already have Jeremiah 17:10, “I, the Lord, search the heart.” Jeremiah 11:20: “But, O Lord of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart.” Proverbs 17:3: “The fining pot is for silver… but the Lord trieth the hearts.” Kind of like we try silver and gold, but the Lord tries the hearts. Romans 8:27: “He that searcheth the hearts, what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

The Lord searcheth the heart. He is the one, the only one, that can properly know what is going on in your heart. The oldest brother said, “I know the pride and naughtiness of your heart.” He was so way off base. God said, “I am anointing you to be king because of your heart.” The Lord is the one that knows what is going on in my heart.

You know, I am not a doctor or anything like that. My wife is an LPN, so she has it all down pat. She knows everything in the medical field. But you go, you have maybe a pain or a hurt. Maybe you think it is a broken bone. They will take X-rays, maybe a CT scan. But really, to get in there and find out what is going on, what do they have to do? An MRI. That tells you everything that is going on inside there. God is the only one that really can get in your heart and tell you all the details. He is the true heart doctor, if you will. He is the true heart surgeon.

D.L. Moody used to tell a story. He said he saw a picture in London, and from a distance, it looked like a monk that was praying—his head was bowed, his hands were folded. Moody said when you got up close to the picture, the painting, he said it was actually a man squeezing a lemon into a punch bowl. That is the way we are trying to figure out the hearts. The Lord, He is the proper judge of the heart.

God is the only one that can properly search and cleanse. Remember David? Years after his anointing, David became king, and God used him greatly as a king, but he messed up royally with Bathsheba; he had Uriah killed. Remember Nathan, the preacher, said, “Thou art the man”? And David repented. Remember what he wrote over there? God inspired him in the writing of Psalm 51. He said, “Create in me a clean heart.” David realized God is the one that creates a clean heart. God is the one that does the work inside that nobody else knows about.

Peter was testifying about how the Gospel was given to the Gentiles. When he was testifying back over in Jerusalem, he says in Acts 15:9, “And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.”

When Saul was anointed king, years before this situation with Samuel anointing David—when he was within his own sight, remember he was out looking for his dad’s donkeys—Samuel anointed him to be king. Let me read what the Bible says there in First Samuel 10, verse number 9: “And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart.”

I am just talking about how God can change your heart. God is the one that searches it, and God is the one that can change your heart. God does that.

I say this often, parents: While you are making sure your children are doing the rules and what is right—and that is right for you to do—watch their heart because one day what is in their heart is going to come out. That is so very important, parents, to watch over their heart and try to shepherd and guard and keep their hearts right and steer the heart in the right direction, because one day they will keep the commandments from their heart. Proverbs 3 talks about that—their heart.

God is still in the heart-changing business. Do not give up on them. God can do works in people’s hearts. God one day will change the heart of Israel. Ezekiel 11:19: “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh.” God still can change hearts today. If I am not careful, I will say, “Well, I have dealt with this so many times; there is no hope,” and shame on me. God is still changing hearts. God can still change the very center, the very core of people, make a different person out of them, and be careful of giving up on God changing hearts.

There is a young man, I think he is around 50, that was here this morning. Years ago, his heart was so messed up. In fact, his heart was not working for a while. They had put in a device—actually, a mechanical pump for a heart. He did not have a heartbeat at the time; he did not have a pulse. There was just a wheel pumping a little bit of blood all the time that was turning inside. Maybe a year or two ago, he had a heart transplant; he has a new heart.

I was talking to him this morning, and he said, “You realize,” now he is about 50, “the heart I got was from a 27-year-old person.” He has a new heart. He was here this morning. It was not his heart that was pumping that blood; he has a transplanted heart. God is still in the heart-changing business. Do not give up on God changing the heart of someone, maybe a neighbor or someone you just think is beyond that. No, they are never beyond God changing hearts. Keep praying.

But can I ask you personally tonight, when was the last time you had an old-fashioned Spirit cleansing of your heart? Or God renewed your heart. He refreshed, He cleansed, He purified your heart, where God did something beyond what you can do or man can do, or maybe even what a sermon did. God might use that, but it is just beyond all that. God was doing something in your heart. That is what you need. All of us need that because life, hurts, pains, and problems will taint your heart. The old Adamic heart, the flesh of the heart, is always trying to move in there. You need the Spirit of God to change your heart, to do something in your heart that you cannot do in your own heart. Sometimes, even us trying to get it all right, we are doing it for selfish reasons. But when God changes a heart, He changes the very center of you.

Just briefly, to end it here tonight: I wonder—as far as I know, scripture does not tell us—if Samuel, when he anointed David that day (David was a young man, maybe 17, maybe 20, I do not know), I wonder if Samuel said, “David, the reason why God chose you is because of something in your heart.” I do not know.

I do know this: God used David to pen a lot of scriptures about the heart. Would you look over in Psalm 139? I believe it is the last two verses there, 23 and 24.

Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24: “Search me, O God, and know my what? Heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Look over in chapter 51. We already mentioned this verse earlier. Psalm 51, verse number 10: “Create in me a clean what? Heart.” David knew how important the heart is. He said, “Lord, would You create in me a clean heart?” He knew where to take his heart—to the Lord.

Look in Psalm 26, verse number two. All these penned by David. Psalm 26, verse number two: “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.” I wonder if David said, “I remember as a young man when God, through Samuel, had anointed me to be king, and it was a matter of the heart.” David said, “Lord, I am bringing my heart back to You.” Our hearts get so selfish and so prideful and so self-centered, and they get so tainted by this whole world. Our hearts—the level we talked about this morning, trying to go through our mind and get into our heart, and my eye affecteth my heart, and all the filthy junk around here we see. David was good about saying, “Lord, would You search my heart? Would You do the work? I need You to create in me a clean heart.”

That over there in Psalm 139:23–24, “And lead me in the way everlasting.” It is kind of like David said, “Man, I cannot keep my heart right. I am giving it to You, Lord.” Friend, that is the key because your heart is so deceitful, you are not going to get it right. It will deceive you where you think you have it right.

But you take the heart to the One: “I, the Lord, search the heart,” He says in Jeremiah 17. You take it to the Lord. The Lord says, “Yeah, there are some problems there, but I am the heart doctor, and I can fix your heart.” Can you just bring your heart to the Lord so often?

They say that the way the story reads, it was two little Zulu boys in South Africa. They had heard a missionary speak, and one of them was asked later by a caretaker lady. She asked what he heard. The little boy said, “There was a wonderful man, and the people were very unkind to him. He died and went up to heaven, but he came down again and was like a little child in people’s hearts.”

The lady asked him what he did when he heard about this man—about Jesus who died and rose again and wants to live inside your heart. The little boy answered with a shining face, “I opened my heart and let that little babe Christ come in. He came in my heart, and my heart closed over Him, and He is inside.”

Later, that little boy went back to his own people, and the story says they tried every way to get the love of Christ out of his head and out of his heart, but they could not do it. The little boy kept saying, “He is inside, and you cannot get Him out.” You must be very careful not to hurt him because the Lord was in his heart. He is the heart doctor of the Lord.

I am going to ask you tonight: Would you give your heart to the Lord? Would you ask the Lord, “Search my heart. Holy Spirit, would You speak to me about my heart? Would You change my heart?” If you have never given your heart to the Lord Jesus, that salvation tonight will be a wonderful night to invite Him into your heart. Jesus, I am asking You to be my Savior, to save me for all eternity, but to save me from this sinful heart. Regenerate me; give me a new heart.

But all of us, even if you say, “I have been saved,” would you just give Him your heart again? All of us—our hearts are prone to wander. Just bring your heart to Him tonight. Lord, search my heart and create in me a clean heart, and cleanse my heart. Change my heart for You. This world cannot give you that; it is from heaven. I want my heart to resemble You a little bit. Only God can do that.

God can strengthen your heart. “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart.” He can give you strength in your heart that you do not have. It is not from you; it is from the Lord. Your heart—give Him your heart. That is the key. The heart of the matter is the heart. (This is from Brother Dumpert.)

Original File: The Heart of the Matter is the Heart - Pastor Paul Chisgar - Sunday PM 1242022