1. Before Israel entered the land God promised them, He stressed that their hearts must belong to God.

   Deuteronomy 6:4,5 Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)

   Deuteronomy 10:12-17 Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord's commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)

   After warning Israel that times of unfaithfulness and punishment would come, this is what God told them.

   Deuteronomy 30:1-6 "So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)

2. After Israel entered Canaan and was initially faithful to God, there followed generation after generation that was increasingly evil.
   1. God led them through judges, and the evil increased.
   2. God hand selected and appointed them a king, and the king became an evil man.
   3. God sent Samuel to anoint a second king from among the seven sons of Jesse.
      1. When Samuel saw Eliab, he thought to himself, "Surely this is the son that God has selected!"
      2. Listen to God's reply to Samuel:
         1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
      3. David was selected to become king because of his heart.
      4. David revealed his heart in his failures as well as his successes. This same David after a horrible, evil failure wrote:
         Psalm 51:7-10 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)

3. Jesus who became the Christ was a direct descendant of David.
   1. The Son of God came to be God's king in God's kingdom.
      1. He spoke and taught as God in the flesh.
         Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)

         Matthew 15:10-20 After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, "Hear and understand. It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man." Then the disciples came and said to Him, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?" But He answered and said, "Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit." Peter said to Him, "Explain the parable to us." Jesus said, "Are you still lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man." (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)

4. This Jesus is the Christ, our Savior. But for us to permit him to be our Savior, our response must be internal as well as external.
   1. A listen to the understandings Paul gave to the Roman Christians.
      Romans 6:3-7 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)

      Romans 6:16-18 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)

      Romans 10:8-10 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart"--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)

What man or woman belongs to God? Our answers stress many responsibilities. "The person who has faith in God." "The person who obeys God." "The person who does the will of God." "The person who serves God."

All those answers are incomplete. Who belongs to God? The person whose faith in God comes from the heart. The person who obeys God from the heart. The person who does the will of God from the heart. The person who serves God from the heart.

If you and I want to live with God eternally, we must belong to God internally.