The True Test of Character

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, June 27. Admirable character isn't suddenly forged in extreme situations. It's carefully crafted every day. The first 10 chapters of 2 Samuel provide the basis for examining the true test of character. 2 Samuel chapter 1. And if I should ask you, what is the true test of a person's character? Is it what they do in the midst of a crisis or how they respond to life's situations continuously? That is, not on a once in a time of crisis kind of response, but the true test of character is how we respond generally and continuously in little areas of life as well as the major ones. So that's what I want to talk about tonight.

And that is the true test of character. And what I want us to do, and this sounds like it'll take us a long time but it won't. I want us to go through the chapters up until David has a moral relapse in his life. So I want us to go up through the 10th chapter and I'm going to do it in a way that if you'll follow me, it will not take us a long time.

And I want to show you something about him as a man. And yet I want you to get the sweep of what's happening in these first 10 chapters. If you'll recall in 1 Samuel, we took a 10-year period of his life or thereabout when we were talking about what is God up to in David's life. And we saw his relationship to Saul is running continuously and what God was saying to him. So in these chapters, I want you to see the character of the man. So I want us to begin in chapter one.

And if you'll just follow me as I refer to some passages and let me show you what's happening. If you recall that now before in the 31st chapter, Saul was killed in battle or died in battle and also his son Jonathan. Well, the first chapter here begins with the fact that a man came out of that battle and came and found David. And he said in the fourth verse that the people are fled from the battle. Many of the people also fallen and dead and Saul and Jonathan, his son, are dead also. And so David said to him, Well, how did you know that they're dead?

So here's the story he told him. He said he found Saul wounded, having fallen upon his own sword, did not want to be slain by the Philistines. And so he asked this young man to kill him. And so he said in the ninth verse that he said that there was anguish upon him because his life was yet whole.

That is, he was still alive, though he was wounded. So the man said, I took the crown that was on his head and the bracelet and brought him to you after I killed him. Well, he didn't know David. So the Bible says that David took his clothes and rent them and also with his men. And the next part of this passage says that David in verse 17 lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan, his son. Now, listen, as I went through these 10 chapters, almost every one of 50 main primary character qualities are found in David's life.

Now, I don't have time to go through all 50 of them. So I'm just going to pick out some as we go through here, because what I want you to see, I want you to see. Listen, I want you to see beyond David's actions and see David's heart, because for the 10 years before this, all he's doing is fighting and running and trying to save his life. And in these 10 chapters, there is war, there is conflict, there is a civil war, all kinds of things happening. But I want you to find and listen and hear and feel the man's heart about which the scripture says he's a man after God's own heart. I want you to notice in verse 17, it says, and David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan, his son. And I can understand and you can why he could be so sorrowful over Jonathan. But how would he be so sorrowful over a man who for 10 long years did everything in his human power to kill him?

I'll tell you why. Because one of the character qualities found in David was that he was a very forgiving man. And that's found all the way through these 10 chapters, very forgiving. And here's a beautiful example of David's forgiving spirit. He says in verse 19, the beauty of Israel is slain upon the high places. How the mighty falling and he says this about a man who tried to kill him for 10 long years.

And all the way through this passage, verse 23, Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives. And in their death, they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles.

They were stronger than lions. He's saying this about a man who tried to kill him every way possibly tried to take his life. And he says again in verse 25, how the mighty fall in the midst of the battle. Oh, Jonathan, thou was slain in thine high places. I am distressed for thee. Here is a man of a forgiving spirit.

Chapter two. So naturally, Saul being killed, David knew that God had anointed him as the king. So notice, if you will, what he says. It came to pass after this that David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said unto him, Go up. And David said, Whither shall I go up? And he said unto Hebrew.

Listen, here is a beautiful example again of a beautiful character quality in him. Not only was he forgiving, but he was very cautious. He knew that God had anointed him king.

He got on his knees. He said, Lord, shall I go up to any of the cities of Judah or shall I not? He waited for God, being very cautious that he followed the mind of God.

In today's world, when an opening comes in business, an aggressive man wants to rush in and take it before somebody gets it. A man of character says, Lord, what will thou have me to do? I want you to notice it took him seven long years after Saul's death to become the king over all of Israel.

But he was a very cautious man. So if you'll notice down in verse eight, but Abner, now Joab and Abner are the two generals. Joab, who's the commander for David's army, Abner, the commander for Saul's army. So Saul's dead, of course, and so Abner takes Saul's son, Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, brought him over to Mahanim, and so they crowned him king over the rest of the tribes.

So now, of course, you know what's going to happen. We've got two kings in Israel, one over the major tribes, the vast majority, one over the tribe of Judah. So naturally you can expect civil war to set in. Now, what happens here in the rest of that chapter is that Joab and Abner have a little contest. They get some of the soldiers out of both armies and they put them together to see who's the strongest. And Joab, who is David's general, they just wipe out Abner's crowd and sets them to flee. And one of the things that happens is that Joab's brother is killed in the fight. Not that fight, but he's chasing Abner and Abner tells him, he says, don't chase me. He didn't really want to kill Joab's brother. But they fought and he killed him, which later cost Abner his life. Well, what happens is that Abner returns to Hebron. And so Joab and Abner, the two commanding generals, now they began to talk.

So Joab said, look, I want you to come over here quietly and let's talk. And when he did, he killed Abner, which meant that this destroyed Saul's general and now Ishbasheth's general, who was the commander of all of his army. Now, I want you to notice, again, David's response. How he responded when Saul's enemy died. How he responded now when Abner, who had fought against him before, but now has come to say, I'm willing to bring the armies of Ishbasheth.

I'm willing to turn Israel over to you. The scripture says that when he found out that Joab now, who is his general and whom he loves dearly, has fought with him. He's found out that Joab has killed Abner. Instead of being glad, the Bible says he is in great distress.

And look what happens. Look in verse 31. And David said to Joab and to all the people that were with him, rend your clothes, gird you with sackcloths and mourn before Abner. And King David himself followed the bear, all the casket there, and they buried Abner in Hebron and the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner and all the people wept. The interesting thing about David, somehow there is a compassion about him that is evident at every turn.

And here is one of those character qualities of compassion. Here's the man he'd fought against, a man who was his enemy. But here he is slain and the scripture says that David lamented over Abner and said, died Abner as a fool died.

Move on down to 38. And the king said unto his servants, know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel. And here's another character quality of David.

He had great respect for men who were skilled and gifted in whatever area they had as a responsibility. He says a prince and a great man has fallen this day. Well, chapter 5, what happens? Everybody comes and they decide the time has come. And so if you'll notice in verse 3, the latter part says they anointed David, king over all of Israel. So here he is now. He's become the king. David was 30 years of old when he began to reign and he reigned 40 years. Now listen, there are several things not many people can stand.

One of them is power. There are not many folks who can stand power and prestige and honor and position goes to their head and absolutely destroys them. And how many people, how many people has God offered opportunities of position and prominence, prestige and wealth and all the rest only to end up on the shelf because they didn't know how to handle it. But here is David in his humility saying, God's done all this. And as a result of that same chapter, verse 17, when the Philistines heard that they'd anointed king, man, they began to get all the troops together. The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephahim. David inquired of the Lord saying, shall I go up to the Philistines?

Wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? The Lord said to David, go up for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thine hand. David was a man of prayer and I'll tell you if he learned anything, David knew how to talk to God. Now he was a man diligently beseeching the Lord's guidance. That's why he was a man up to God's own heart. That's why he was a man of great character. He listened to God.

He didn't say, well, if we've been successful here, we're going to be successful. Don't have to ask God about that. Chapter 7. Well, here, if you notice, it came to pass when the king sat in his house that the Lord had given him rest round about from all of his enemies. I mean, through all of this now he's been crowned king and he's whipped the Philistines in two big battles and so everybody's sort of calming things down. The king said to Nathan, the prophet, and we'll hear more about him later, see now I dwell in the house of Cetan, but the ark of God dwells within curtains. And here I think is a beautiful expression of his gratitude toward God. He said, look, I live in the house of Cetan and God's house dwells in curtains and that's not right.

Now let me ask you something. I wish I knew how to tell you what I feel in my heart. Only God knows what I feel.

I want so badly and so deep in my heart that you learn something and I can't make you learn it and I can't cram it down your throat and I can't shove it into your mind. My deep yearning longing heart's desire, is that not a one of you would miss what God's got? Well, David had a real grateful heart and here is his reverence before God in his honor of the Lord. Reverence before God, here's this mighty man. As a warrior, he's absolutely matchless and if there's ever a man in the Bible that could be said of him, he is a man of steel and velvet, David is the man.

Steel is a warrior, velvet and tender and compassionate as a man in his relationship to other people. So he sat before the Lord in chapter 8. It's just one long chapter of David's continuous victory.

Look if you will. Chapter 8 says, and after this it came to pass that David smote the Philistines and subdued them. Move on under verse 2, he smote Moab. Verse 3, smote also had his ear, the son of Rahab and so forth. Verse 4, he took from him a thousand chariots and seven hundred horsemen, twenty thousand footmen and David hewed all the chariot horses but reserved all of them for a hundred chariots. Verse 5, David slew the Syrians, two and twenty thousand men. Verse 15, and David reigned over all Israel and David executed judgment and justice unto all his people.

Now listen now, watch this. Years have gone by now since Saul died. But here is the sensitivity of a great man. Chapter 9 says, and David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? And all the way through these chapters you'll find him showing kindness to people.

Now watch this. He's been king for quite some time, one battle after the other. A lot of things have gone through David's mind and it's as if Saul was a thing of the past and his friend Jonathan, of course, he'd never forget. But here he is now, king of Israel, all this time has gone by and he says to one of his servants one day, he said, By the way, is there any trace of anybody left of Saul's family that I'm not aware of that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?

There's that loyalty. Look in verse 2, And that was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Zeba. And when they had called him unto David, the king said to him, Are you Zeba? And he said, Thy servant is he. The king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God unto him?

Now isn't that beautiful? He says, I want to show him the kindness of God. Jonathan hath yet a son which is lame on his feet. And he says he's over at Lodi Bar. And so you remember the story that he went and he brought him.

And here's what he said. In verse 11, he says, He'll be like one of my sons. He never forgot Saul.

He never forgot Jonathan. He says, Is there anybody left of the house of Saul? And Saul's grandson, Jonathan's son, was left.

And he says, He'll eat at my table. Now, up until this time in the life of David, here he is, a man up to God's own heart, all through the turmoil and the trial, here he is with his beautiful character. But if you recall in the first part of this book of 2 Samuel, what he said when he talked about Saul and Jonathan, he said in verse 25, How are the mighty fallen?

Listen, How are the mighty fallen? Here he is now king over Israel, one victory after the other. Down in the valley, God's sifting him and pruning him and getting him ready to be a king. And here he is now having succeeded as the king of the whole nation of Israel. And all you see in him, mighty man of valor, mighty man of war, military genius, never having really lost the battle, he really won ultimately every single time. And now the next event in his life proves that no man is beyond falling. And I believe God has some lessons for us in chapter 11, just like he has in these previous chapters.

So would you stand, let's pray together. Father, so often we judge people by the world standards and we place upon them qualities that don't belong to them because we only see them in decisions that seem to be evident of their greatness. When you see how man lives every day, what we are when we're all alone, what we are in our heart, you see us as we are when everything is going our way and when things are not going our way. So you see us as we really are. You know the true character of every one of us, our faults, our failures, our strengths, our weaknesses. And Father, we thank you for the life of David, a beautiful example. You didn't hold anything back when you described the lives of these men. You showed them as they were in order to motivate us and help us to see what you are able to work out in our life and also to see them, to see ourselves as we look into their life, we see a mirror. Some things we may see of ourselves that we like and some things we may not like. But Father, we do pray this evening that you may so work in our hearts that you could say of us as you said of David, a man, a woman after God's own heart.

And we want that kind of life relationship with you. And then Father, how many people tonight are described in their hearts like we saw in this passage? We saw two kingdoms, two kings, David, Ish-bosheth. And as long as there were two, there was civil war.

When only one became the king, there was peace. And Father, we know in our hearts, as long as self sits on the throne and the Spirit of God desires to sit there, there is conflict and civil war. Only when we give up one and yield everything to the Spirit of the Lord is there peace in our heart. And it's my prayer that somebody tonight would be willing to say, Lord, giving up all my old ways, yielding everything that you want to give up the civil war in my life, I want Jesus Christ to be the reigning king in my life beginning tonight. We'll praise you for it, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to The True Test of Character. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.