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

Faith Baptist Church

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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.

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It's kind of tempting to look at the prayer of Jabez in chapter 4 of 1

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Chronicles, but I'm going to pass on that today and instead focus on the passage in Psalm 119.

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I want to preface that by asking this question. How do you know that someone loves something or someone?

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I mean, I live in northwestern

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Illinois, and this is baseball season, and you can tell people who love the

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Cubs because they have Cubs banners hanging from their windows.

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There are even people close to the church who have a Cubs flag flying just below the

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American flag. There's a home that I walk by every once in a while that on game day, if the

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Cubs win, they have a W flag that they put out because the Cubs won. In a lot of ways, people demonstrate that they love the

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Cubs. Now, if I lived in southwestern Illinois, it'd be a little different story.

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People would love the St. Louis Cardinals. Well, my point is that you know people are

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Cubs fans. They love the Cubs by what they do, by their actions, right?

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They hang flags, they go to Cubs games, they have all kinds of Cubs paraphernalia, perhaps, etc.,

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etc. Well, how do you know that you love God's Word? The end of this section of the

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Psalm, the last couple of verses, verses 47 and 48, the psalmist says, your commandments which

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I love. He says the same thing in verse 48, your commandments which

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I love. It's easy to say, I love

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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

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Bible, you love God's Word. But how do we know if we truly love

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God's Word? I would encourage us to look at the rest of the verses in this section of the

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Psalm, and what you find is a repetition of actions of some kind that are manifestations, expressions of that love.

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Just look through this section. In verse 42, he says,

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I shall have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in your

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Word. One of the expressions of loving God's Word is trusting it. I can't say

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I love God's Word if I don't believe what it says, and I don't count on what

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God says in His Word. Okay? And then in the next verse, he says, I have hoped in your ordinances.

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I've put my hope in your ordinances. So trust is based upon what

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God has said for the present, for the current situation I'm going through. Hope has to do with what

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God says in relationship to the future. I've hoped in your ordinances.

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I love your Word, and I manifest that love by hope, hoping in your ordinances.

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Verse 44, he says, so shall I keep your law continually forever and ever.

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Now, did the psalmist fulfill that commitment of keeping the law perfectly, continually, forever and ever?

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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.

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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.

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This is the desire of my heart that's flowing from my love for your Word. Verse 45, he says,

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I seek your precepts. I seek your precepts. That means I'm looking for your truth.

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Where do you look? The only place to look is in where God has revealed himself to us in very clear and specific ways, the

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Bible. I will seek your precepts. Verse 46, he says, I will speak of your testimonies also before kings.

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I will speak of your testimonies. Talk about God's truth, you talk about what God has to say, what

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God's Word means to you. He says, I will speak. And then in verse 47, I will delight myself in your commandments.

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I will delight myself. I find joy in your commandments. Is that our attitude when we approach the

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Scriptures and at church or in our personal reading? And then lastly in verse 48, he says, my hands also

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I will lift up to your commandments. That is, I come with expectancy when

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I come to your Word, expecting to hear from you, expecting to be taught and challenged and convicted and directed in my life.

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And then lastly, the very last thing he says in verse 48, he says, I will meditate on your statutes.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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So Father, I pray that our testimony of loving your Word, what we say when we say we love your

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Word, will be backed up by the actions of our lives, and this we pray in Jesus' name.

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Amen. All right, well listen, you have a good rest of your Thursday, and may the