“How Deep Is Your Love?” – FBC Morning Light (7/23/2024)

What a good Tuesday morning to you. Today in a Bible reading we're in the Psalms. We're reading four different Psalms.

Psalms 95, 97 and 98 and then Psalm 100. I'm gonna zero in on Psalm 97 and just the first part of verse 10.

It says this, You who love the Lord hate evil. You know, a good measure of my love for Christ is the depth of my hatred of sin, of evil.

And that's true across the board. You know, that's a good measure of your love for Christ.

How much do you hate evil? Now, be careful here. I didn't say how much do you hate evil people, people who do evil, the people.

But how much do you hate evil? You know, I've known believers,

Christians, well -meaning Christians who I think want to love the Lord, that miss the boat on this a little bit, and they have such a hatred of people who do evil that, you know, they're absolutely ineffective of being able to be a witness for Christ.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about hating the evil while we...it is possible to love sinners and hate sin.

In fact, it's essential. Isn't that true of our God? God so loved the world that He gave

His only begotten Son. Why? That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

But what did His Son do? He died on a cross. Why? Because of sin.

It was sin that put Him on the cross. Well, there ought to be a hatred of sin and what sin has done.

But love the sinner. And so, when I think about my love for Christ, I have to ask myself, what is my attitude towards sin, the sin that so easily besets me?

Do I loathe it? Do I long to loathe it more? Do I long to love

Christ more? You know, the greater and the deeper my love for Christ, there will be a corresponding hatred of sin because it takes me away from Him.

So on this Tuesday, as we think about and meditate on the first part of this verse, let's sing a couple of those songs.

I'm not gonna do it for you here, I'll just read the words. But one of the hymns in our hymnal is,

More love to thee, O Christ. It goes like this, More love to thee, O Christ, more love to thee.

Hear now the prayer I make on bended knee. This is my earnest plea.

More love, O Christ, to thee. More love, O Christ, to thee. And again, as I said, if we grow and deepen our love for Christ, then any love for affection for sin will fade into the background.

Another hymn is a hymn that should be, could be, a hymn of testimony. It's the hymn,

My Jesus, I love thee. It goes like this, My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine.

For thee, all the follies of sin, I resign. My gracious Redeemer, my

Savior, art thou. If ever I love thee, my Jesus, tis now.

So one of the things to pray when you prepare to open the

Scriptures, and you're gonna read the Bible in your Bible reading, even if you're following the Bible reading plan, this one that we're using, or some other one, one of the good things to pray, and I do this daily as part of my devotional time, is

I pray that through my time in the Word, I would long for the Lord more earnestly.

I would look for the Lord more eagerly. I would listen to the Lord more intently.

I would learn of the Lord more fully, so that I might love the

Lord more deeply, live for the Lord more faithfully, labor for the

Lord more diligently, and loathe sin more intensely.

And that middle request and the last request go together.

Love the Lord more deeply, and loathe sin more intensely.

I trust that'll be the prayer of your heart today. Our Father and our God, I pray that you would teach us that we might love you more deeply, and loathe sin more intensely.

Oh, do such a work of grace in our heart, we pray, and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your