Mem

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a great joy to share the Word of God with the saints of Durbin Memorial Baptist Church.

Love has been a consistent concept for me recently. I shared with the men’s class on Wednesday that this past Friday was my fifth wedding anniversary with Miss Cassidy. We had a wonderful time celebrating that gift from God. Next weekend I get the opportunity to marry a couple I’ve know for some time. Throw on top of this that in our men’s class we were talking about the godly, manly discipline of marriage, and the concept of specifically marital love has been at the forefront of my mind lately.

We see in Scripture that marriage between a man and a woman is an imperfect picture of the perfect Union between Christ and His church. Ladies, I don’t have to tell you that men fall short of perfection, but in the book of Ephesians we see the model for husbands to follow, the model of Christ’s love for His bride, the church.

Ephesians 5:25–32 ESV

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

Now, we could spend the entire sermon diving through the wonderful love Christ shows and the implications that has on Christian Husbands loving their own wives. For the sake of our primary text this morning, I’ll just give you the cliff notes. In this text we see that Christ has a sacrificial love that loves even until death. A sanctifying love that elevates the bride, that cleanses her and builds her up, and a self-love that is loving the wife as much as one loves themselves. This is what the husband should seek to do in the marital relationship. Sacrifice for his bride, build up his bride, and care for his bride as he does himself. To the married men, that is a lofty calling. But for all of us who know Christ as Lord, we see that we are the recipients of this supernatural love.

The love of God is truly beyond our comprehension. In fact God IS love. We see this play out in the Triune God. God the Father loved us while we were still sinners He sent His Son to die for us. God the Son showed the greatest of love in that He laid down His life for His friends. And God the Spirit pours out the love of God in the hearts of believers. We see a full orbed love of God that shines so brightly upon His children. It is a remarkable thing.

The Love of God the Father for His Children is marvelous. The love of the Bridegroom for His Church is glorious. Oh how marvelous, Oh how glorious, is my Savior’s love for me.

I hope that it has been made abundantly clear how deep the Love of God is for all those who believe. But no marriage would be complete without the reciprocated love of the bride.

It is my hope today that everyone hearing this message would grow in their love of the Lord and seek to show that love in tangible ways as God has quite clearly shown His love for us.

We see an inextricable link in God’s Word between love and obedience. That is hearing God’s Word and desiring to follow Him. Straight from the mouth of Jesus we read:

John 14:21 ESV

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

With this in mind, open your bibles to Psalm 119. We will be walking through verses 97-104 this morning. Before we get into Loving God for His Word, allow me to give you a bit of refresher on the context of Psalm 119. This will now be the third summer that we spend some time walking through stanzas of the Bible’s longest chapter.

Psalm 119 is an interesting piece of literature being that it is an acrostic. Something we miss out on in the English translation is that each verse in sets of 8 begins with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. If you look at the sermon title in your bulletin, you’ll see this week’s sermon is title Mem. That is the 13th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet and, of course, it coincides with the 13th stanza of Psalm 119.

It is very interesting that the longest chapter in the Bible has a unified theme throughout all 176 verses. Almost every single one of them directly mention God’s Word. Using a variety of terms like, law, commandment, testimonies, precepts, and rules the Psalmist paints a beautiful picture of the goodness of God’s Word. One might be tempted to think that 176 verse on one topic may be excessive, but on the contrary, this exposition on the goodness of God’s Word shows us how important it ought to be to us! If all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for us, and then if God thought it necessary to provide so much detail on His Word in His Word, then we ought to have our ears, eyes, and hearts as open as ever when come across this text.

Spurgeon once wrote, “This wonderful psalm, from its great length, helps us to wonder at the immensity of Scripture. From its keeping to one subject it helps us to adore the unity of Scripture; for it is but one. Yet, from the many turns it gives to the same thought, it helps you to see the variety of Scripture”

In this morning’s stanza we are going to be presented with the Psalmist love of the Word. It is my hope that we would all come to see how a love for God’s Word is a great part of our love of God, and that we would be able to praise God for His Word as the Psalmist does in this section.

Let’s begin in verse 97.

Psalm 119:97 ESV

Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.

This is not the first time, but rather the third time that the Psalmist has pronounced His love of God’s Word. But this time it is preceded in English by the phrase, “Oh!” This is not a simple statement of fact, this is a deep expression of passion! Oh how the Psalmist, most likely King David, loves the Law of the Lord.

The rest of this stanza flows from and builds on this love the Psalmist has for the Word of God.

The question that we must ask ourselves at this point is, do we share this same love for God’s Word that the psalmist has?

The Psalmist says that God’s Law is his meditation all the day. That means that the Psalmist is consistently filling his mind with the goodness of God’s Word, not just to grow, not just to learn more, though those things may come, but because he enjoys the Word of God. He longs for it. He LOVES it!

Church, every summer I do a mini-series through these stanza’s of Psalm 119 because I believe it is important for us to be reminded of what we ought to love. There is never a bad time to talk about the goodness of God’s Word and we ought to be cultivating a love for it in our own lives.

How do we go about cultivating a love for God’s Word?

This is an interesting topic. I have a dear brother in Christ who gained a desire to read God’s Word through an intense personal conviction that almost came instantaneously one evening. It was as if God gave him a desire to read that had never been there before. But in God’s perfect providence in the World, it does not seem that this is always the case. There are some of us who dearly love the Lord, who understand Jesus lived, died, and rose again to make us right before God, who love discussing theology and sharing the gospel, but also may struggle to read consistently. For some of us, cultivating a discipline to be in the Word of God requires some Holy Sweat. Some effort. Some striving. We’re gonna see the fruits of those efforts as we continue on in the text, but for a moment I’d like to give some practical tips for cultivating a love for God’s Word.

Here we go:

Remind yourself that growing in knowledge and application of God’s Word is showing Love of God. Remember this Jesus said it is he who has and keeps His commandments who loves the Lord. We need to remind ourselves that love isn’t always about feeling like you want to do something. Jesus connects love with obedience not with fleeting emotion. There was a quote I heard some time ago, but I was unable to find who originally said it. “If I ever do not ‘feel’ ‘in love’ with my wife, may I act as if I do until the feeling returns.” There are going to be mornings when you are tired and in your flesh you do not want to open up that Bible. Push through! We’re gonna see the fruits of being lovingly committed in a moment, but for now, push through! To rip off a Nike slogan and put this first tip simply, just do it!

Speak about it. This entire stanza of Psalm 119 is a love song to God’s Word. Talk highly about the Word of God with others. Find someone who is willing to read through the same things as you and talk about it together. Invest together in the goodness of God’s Word. Excitement is contagious and accountability is convicting. Use community to your advantage and speak highly of the Word of God together.

Challenge yourself to apply what you read. In fact it is a grave miscalculation to think that you can read the Word of God without it making some impact on your life. We are told in Scripture not to be just hearers of the Word, but to be doers! One of the ways we disconnect from Scripture, especially the narrative portions, is that we think they are simply stories. Moment of history that have nothing to do with today’s difficulties. But the God of your Salvation has proclaimed that ALL SCRIPTURE is breathed out BY HIM for YOUR betterment. Challenge yourself to find application and seek to understand how God is using that portion of Scripture to train you in righteousness.

Listen to the Word of God. I understand that not everyone in this room is an avid reader. The only time you may even look at words on a screen is when the verse of the day pops up on your Bible app. Well one thing that’s kind of hit me recently is that for hundreds of years many people were unable to read. They depended upon the faithful exposition of God’s Word by faithful men of God to feed on the Word. Those saints are just as saved as you or I if we have faith in Lord Jesus Christ. You can listen to the Word of God through the faithful preaching of God’s Word. There are countless hours of sound preaching available to us in this day and age. You can listen to the reading of God’s Word. You can listen to songs that are filled with God’s Word. Listening to God’s Word is a valid and sometimes overlooked system for delivery. I do want to put a small note of caution here. Some only half listening may perk up at this suggestion and think that they’ve found their escape from having to read God’s Word. Let me say that if you are capable of reading hours of posts on Facebook, you are capable of reading your Bible. You might say, “but Facebook has pictures.” If pictures are what you need, I can point you to a really good Children’s Bible.

To cultivate a love for God’s Word we are to be committed to it, speak about it, apply it, and listen to it. The overarching point here is that our love grows for God’s Word as we saturate our lives with it.

As we move towards the fruit of God’s Word, allow me to share a Spurgeon quote on the importance of having our lives saturated by God’s Word.

“I beseech you to let your Bibles be everything to you. Carry this matchless treasure with you continually, and read it, and read it, and read it again and again. Turn to its pages by day and by night. Let its narratives mingle with your dreams; let its precepts color your lives; let its promises cheer your darkness, let its divine illumination make glad your life. As you love God, love this Book which is the Book of God, and the God of books, as it has rightly been called.”

Not all of us have been called to be scholars or theologians. But all who love the Lord should cultivate a love of His Word, because it is such a grace that He would give us so great a treasure.

One Pastor put together a list of the incredible truths we find as we saturate our lives with God’s Word. We find:

· “The Bible is a letter from our distant Father.

· The Bible is a picture of our best and most faithful Friend.

· The Bible is the certificate of our adoption into the family of God.

· The Bible is the declaration of our liberty, our freedom from slavery.

· The Bible is the description of our heavenly inheritance.

· The Bible is the evidence of our nobility, for we are made kings and priests by God.

· The Bible is the instruction manual for wise and blessed living.

· The Bible is both a statement of our account, and a checkbook for what belongs to us by the promises of God.

· The Bible is a telescope where we see the heavenly city that is our destination.” (Guzik, Enduring Word)

Let’s begin looking at the fruits of God’s Word.

Psalm 119:98–100 ESV

Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.

Remember that this section is a love song, a hymn of praise to the Lord. Beginning with a declaration of love for God’s Law, the Psalmist now highlights the great wisdom that has been obtained from the Word. This is a wisdom that brings confidence when embattled by enemies, deeper understanding that goes beyond that of teachers and the aged.

It is clear in reading these verses that the Psalmist is presented as being wise. Many of us may not think that we are very wise. We may find this section to be hard to relate to. However, make this note or even highlight or underline these phrases in your Bible. YOUR COMMANDMENT makes me wiser.... more understanding than all my teachers FOR YOUR TESTIMONIES are my meditation.... more than aged, for I keep YOUR precepts!

Where is all the wisdom coming from?! It’s coming from dwelling in God’s Word! This is a point I was hoping to drive home as we looked at the first two chapters of Proverbs some months ago, but God’s heavenly wisdom is readily available to us through His Word! The Psalmist was wise, King David brilliant, even King Solomon had wisdom unsurpassed by any mortal man, but at the end of the day the beginning of true wisdom is fear of the Lord! We all have been graced with heavenly wisdom attained by humble submission to the Holy Word.

The Psalmist asserts that God’s Wisdom obtained through His Word has surpassed that of the enemies, the teachers, and the aged. We can gather three lessons from the inclusions of these groups.

First the enemies, let it be known once again that the psalmist is not reveling in himself but in the Lord. He is saying that those in opposition to him may boast of their own knowledge but it is not greater than the Wisdom of God. There are many people directly opposed to God in this day and age that will flaunt their education, their own religious philosophy, or their superior schemes in their attempts to deconstruct the one true God. They may speak with lofty speech and even the tongues of angels, but if they have not the love of the Lord found through the reverential fear of the Lord, they are nothing but clanging cymbals.

Then we see teachers. Unlike enemies, this word teacher does not carry a negative connotation. This isn’t saying that having teachers is wrong or that the pursuit of a higher degree is wrong. Rather, it supports that the psalmist had people in his life that he allowed to pour into him and teach him. We are seeing that being filled with God’s Word, dwelling on it, meditating on it is greater than simply having a teacher. Teachers are very helpful. I hope that I have been of some benefit to each of you in the study of God’s Word. But I say often, don’t take my word for it! Take God’s Word for it. Dwell on it. See that it is in there! See what the Lord says and cherish that!

Last we see the aged. In the time this psalm was written the wisdom of the elders was help in higher esteem than it seems to be today. This may have been a controversial statement at the time. But the point is that while we do have much to learn from other generations, the wisdom of the Lord is greater and it is attainable without regard to age. My thoughts are drawn to the apostle Paul writing to young Timothy as he sought to work in the church of Ephesus. Paul wrote to Timothy, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.” Though Timothy was young, he was able to be a leader in the church through God’s providence and Timothy’s commitment to following God’s Word.

Cultivating a love for God’s Word produces Wisdom but that is not all. Look at the next two verses:

Psalm 119:101–102 ESV

I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me.

The second fruit of loving God’s Word is guidance. A guidance that takes the Psalmist away from evil. By the grace of God, the Psalmist has gotten a taste of God’s holiness from God’s Word and seeks to live righteously in response.

You may be familiar with the Lord’s prayer. Christ gave it to us as a model for our own prayers to follow. In that prayer there is the interesting phrase, “Lead me not into temptation but deliver me from evil.”

This might just be the Bible nerd in me, but I think it is just incredible that we see in Psalms the Normative way in which God answers that prayer! If you have been praying for the Lord to deliver you from evil, see here how through the love of God’s Word, the psalmist is empowered to hold back his feet from evil. If you pray for being removed from temptation, see how the psalmist does not turn aside from God’s rulings by the instruction he has received in God’s Word.

Scripture, God’s Word, the Bible, in many ways is quite literally the answer to your prayers! I’m not suggesting that we do not have to pray for God’s divine intervention in our lives, but continue to pray and be in the Word and watch how God shapes you in Christlikeness!

God guides us in His Word. We see His standard of holiness, we are given instructions. We are reproved of our wrong doings, we are taught of His greatness. It is a grace to receive instruction from the Word of God!

Let’s look at one last fruit from cultivating a love of God’s Word.

Psalm 119:103–104 ESV

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

The final fruit we see in our text today is Joy. Remember those words Oh How Marvelous, O How Wonderful when speaking of our Savior’s love? Here we see O How Sweet is His Word.

The Phrase “O How Marvelous” or in this case “O how sweet” goes beyond a simple statement of fact and into an expression that goes beyond quantification. The psalmist is not simply declaring the Word to be sweet. But saying o HOW SWEET, SWEETER THAN HONEY. Sweeter than I quite have a word to give it. As we cultivate a love for the Word of God, as beyond seeing it as a simple transference of facts, a collection of narratives and poems, as we see the Word of God for the grace that is, we see how life giving it is and we find joy in God’s Word.

Not only do we find the joy of the Word, but we see its superiority to everything else. The Psalmist writes, “Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.” It is interesting for us to note that this stanza begins with the love of the Word and the hatred of everything False. This brings home the idea we’ve been cycling throughout the sermon, the validity of 2 Timothy 3:16. All Scripture is breathed out by God and it is profitable. God’s Word is good for us. Better than we realize.

As we we read about the psalmist stating that the word of God is sweeter than Honey, I’m reminded of the story of Jonathan that we looked at a few weeks ago recorded in 1 Samuel 14. There was a whole lot of other things going on, but something I want to focus on for just a moment, was that Jonathan had been battling the Philistines and was exhausted from battle. He had been through a lot that day. He entered into a forest that was dripping with honey. Being famished from the fight, Jonathan sticks out the tip of his staff, dips it in the honey, and puts the honey in his mouth. verse 27 says that when he put the honey to his mouth, his eyes became bright. That means that he was satisfied. It means that Jonathan was nourished.

Christian, as you are wearied by the battles of this world, may you find the nourishment you need radiating from the sweet sweet Word of God It is sweeter than anything this world has to offer and we go through the hardships of this life, it is the primary means through which the Lord brings consolation to your soul. Cultivate a love for the Word by being committed to reading, reciting, and repeating it. See how God uses His Word to produce wisdom, guidance, and joy in your life.

But this message is not exclusively applicable to the Christian. If you are here this morning and have never truly made a profession of faith, you need to know that what we are speaking of this morning is absolutely true. You have a lot of forces seeking to direct your life. But there is nothing sweeter than the Word of God. Remember that the Bible, as Spurgeon put it, is the Book of God and the God of books. And here is the overarching truth we find in Scripture.

Three Circles

In the Beginning God Created the world and it was good. Man sinned. We continue to sin. In His great love. Sent Jesus. God has not been defeated. We will see His plan consummated and it is a grace that He would allow us to be involved in His plan. That is a story sweeter than honey that brings consolation to the soul beyond anything else in this world.