“Marks of True Love” – FBC Morning Light (6/22/2023)

Well a good Thursday morning to you. Today we're reading in 1 Chronicles 3 and 4, Romans chapter 7, and Psalm 119 verses 41 through 48. It's kind of tempting to look at the prayer of Jabez in chapter 4 of 1 Chronicles, but I'm gonna pass on that today and instead focus on the passage in Psalm 119.

Love for God’s Word Is Shown by What We Do

I want to preface that by asking this question. How do you know that someone loves something or someone? I mean, I live in a western Illinois, northwestern Illinois, northwestern Illinois, and this is baseball season and you can tell people who love the Cubs because they have Cubs banners hanging from their windows, there are even people close to the church who have a Cubs flag flying just below the American flag.

There's a home that I walk by every once in a while that on game day, if the Cubs win, they have a W flag that they put out because the Cubs won, and a lot of ways people demonstrate that they love the Cubs.

Now if I lived in southwestern Illinois, it'd be a little different story. People would love the St. Louis Cardinals. Well, my point is that you know people are Cubs fans, they love the Cubs by what they do, by their actions, right?

They hang flags, they go to Cubs games, they have all kinds of Cubs paraphernalia perhaps, etc., etc. Well, how do you know that you love God's Word? You know, the end of this section of the psalm, the last couple of verses, verses 47 and 48, the psalmist says, your commandments which I love, and he says the same thing in verse 48, your commandments which I love.

Now, you know, it's easy to say, I love God's Word. I would guess that if you're taking the time to listen to one of these devotional things, you would affirm that, that you love the Bible, you love God's Word.

But how do we know if we truly love God's Word? I would encourage us to look at the rest of the verses in this section of the psalm, and what you find is a repetition of actions of some kind that are manifestations, expressions of that love.

Trust, Hope, and Obedience as Expressions of Love

So just look through this section. In verse 42, he says, I shall have an answer for the him who reproaches me, for I trust in your word. One of the expressions of loving God's Word is trusting it. I can't say I love God's Word if I don't believe what it says, and I don't count on what God says in his Word.

And then in the next verse, he says, I have hoped in your ordinances. I've put my hope in your ordinances. So trust is based upon what God has said for the present, for the current situation I'm going through.

Hope has to do with what God says in relationship to the future. I've hoped in your ordinances. I love your word, and I manifest that love by hope, hoping in your ordinances. Verse 44, he says, so shall I keep your law continually forever and ever.

Now, did the psalmist fulfill that commitment of keeping the law perfectly, continually, forever and ever? No, he was a fallen man just like you and I. But what a commitment, what a desire, what a longing that is an expression of your love for God's Word.

I will keep your word, I will obey your word, and I will do it forever and ever and ever. This is the longing of my heart, this is the desire of my heart that's flowing from my love for your word. Verse 45, he says, I seek your precepts.

I seek your precepts. That means I'm looking for your word, I'm looking for your truth. Where do you look? Only place to look is in where God has revealed himself to us in very clear and specific ways, the Bible.

I will seek your precepts. Verse 46, he says, I will speak of your testimonies also before kings. I will speak of your testimonies. Talk about God's truth, you talk about what God has to say, what God's Word means to you.

He says, I will speak. And then in verse 47, I will delight myself in your commandments. I will delight myself, I find joy in your commandments. Is that our attitude when we approach the Scriptures and at church or in our personal reading?

And then lastly in verse 48, he says, my hands also I will lift up to your commandments. That is, I come with expectancy when I come to your word, expecting to hear from you, expecting to be taught and challenged and convicted and directed in my life.

And then lastly, the very last thing he says in verse 48, he says, I will meditate on your statutes. I'll think them over, I'll mull them over, I'll go over and over and over again and again and again in my mind, in my heart.

I will meditate on your statutes. Now all of these actions that the psalmist takes, they come as a result of his love for God's Word. So let's go back to where I started here. How do you know if you love his Word?

It's going to be shown by what you do, by your actions in some way or another. So Father, I pray that our testimony of loving your Word, what we say when we say we love your Word, will be backed up by the actions of our lives, and this we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, well listen, you have a good rest of your Thursday, and may the Lord bless you richly. Good day.