E09: Psalm 119: Living Life in the Light of God's Word - The Distinguishing Marks of a Godly Life...

Amen. How many of you are thankful for

the work of Jesus Christ? I love that song because it

reminds us that though we're not saved by works, there was a work

that saved us, and that is the work of Jesus Christ upon the

cross through His death, His burial, His resurrection.

We are saved not of any work of our own, but because of His

obedience to come into this earth and to die as a sacrifice

to redeem those who trust in Him as Lord and Savior.

If you have your Bibles, if you would turn with me.

And this won't be a surprise to anyone to the 119th Psalm as we

continue to make our journey through this one.

Chapter in the Psalms. As we look at this series,

living life in the light of God's Word and, and I pray this,

I pray that you are becoming more aware of how important it

is for those of us who are in Christ to live our lives in

light of God's Word. His Word is a lamp unto our feet

and a light unto our path as we have already heard and will be

reminded of over and over again as we study through this

particular chapter in Scripture. And today we come to the 8th

letter in the Hebrew alphabet, the letter heath.

And we know this, that when we come to that Hebrew letter, we

are going to see 8 specific verses that go along with that

letter. And this is no exception.

We will see this all the way through the 119th Psalm as this

has been arranged precisely by God in this order.

And that is why we are looking at each message, at those

particular 8 verses that are joined together.

It's important that. We as we look at this passage

this morning. It's important that we

understand that the psalmist is going to give us insight into

something that we really need to pay attention to if we profess

to know God, if we profess to be living a godly life.

Because we're going to look into the psalmist's life as we look

at these 8 verses, and it's going to give for us some

distinguishing marks of a godly life.

Now, if you're here today and you profess to be, to, to know

Christ and, and, and to be in him, and you have no desire to

live a godly life, something is dreadfully wrong with you.

But if you are in Christ, you will have this desire to live a

godly life. What we're going to do today,

we're going to look at those certain characteristics and

qualities that distinguish the psalmist from those in his day

and if you are truly in Christ. That will distinguish you from

the wickedness and the evil of your day, because it is no news

to us scripturally. We as true believers are to

look, to act, to talk, to behave distinctly different from the

world. Now let me remind you, just as

we sang a moment ago, that is not so that we can earn

salvation. That is because salvation has

already been earned for us through the sacrifice of Christ.

And so the psalmist here giving us a glimpse into his life also

gives us a glimpse into what does it look like?

What does it look like to be a man or to be a woman?

If if that be you this morning, who is truly living a godly

life, Who is truly a man or a woman who's after God's own

heart? Turn with me to verse 57.

There in the 119th Psalm, under the heading Het in the Hebrew it

says this. You are my portion.

O Lord, I have promised to obey Your words.

I've sought Your face with all my heart.

Be gracious to me according to Your promise.

I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to Your

statutes. I will hasten and not delay to

obey Your commands. Though the wicked bind me with

ropes, I will not forget your law.

At midnight I rise to give you things for your righteous laws.

I am a friend to all who fear You, to all who follow your

precepts. The earth is filled with your

love. O Lord, teach me your decrees.

Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, we

come to You now asking that Your Holy Spirit would illuminate and

enlighten us to the truths that we have seen with our eyes and

heard with our ears from Your scriptures today already.

God, we pray that You would root them deep into the depths of our

soul, that these would not just be.

Words that enter into our minds, from our eyes, and audibly

through our ears. But these be words straight from

God that penetrate the depths. Of our being.

God, I pray that you would use these words to mold us and to

fashion us and to shape us into the people that you desire for

us to be. That in doing so, we would give

you all the glory for what it is that you were doing in our life

and have done in our life through Christ.

Lord, I pray for that person who's here who does not know

Christ. God, I pray that you would

shower them with your mercy and your love today.

That you would usher them out of the darkness and into light.

That you would open their eyes spiritually, that they can see.

And that you would renew them and rebirth them today so that

they can believe God. That they would truly believe

and trust in Jesus today and be saved, knowing that that's the

only hope that they have of ever being forgiven of their sin,

never inheriting eternal life. God, I pray that your will be

done, that you receive all glory and honor and praise.

And we pray all these things in Christ's name, Amen.

As we look at the psalmist words here today, I want to make it

very clear to all of us so that we understand it.

And we're going to jump in because we have a lot of ground

to cover. There's a lot that's going to be

said today. There's a lot more that probably

could be said, but I want to make it very clear as we jump

into this today, if you're not living a life that distinguishes

you from the world, your profession of Christ is

completely pointless. It is a completely moot point.

No one gives any validity to your claim.

And so the psalmist here is going to give us some insight

into the distinguishing marks of a godly life.

And why are we going to receive this insight?

It is not so that we can measure the person sitting next to us,

or the person across the aisle from us, or our neighbor back

wherever it is that we live, or our husbands, or our wives, or

even our children. It is so that we can examine our

own lives this morning and to ask even the most difficult

question, do I bear to some degree, do I possess to some

degree these distinguishing marks that he is going to

highlight for us that the psalmist did possess in his

life? The psalmist we know, if you

take the stance that this is David and I won't be dogmatic

about it, but the more that I read, the more that I study, the

more that I tend to lead, lean toward Davidic authorship.

But that's neither here nor there.

Obviously, this is a person, a man who is after God's own

heart. And so here we see this example

of this person who is desiring to live.

A godly life. It would do us a great, great

favor as professing believers to examine his life and to say, OK,

does my life match the characteristics that I see?

Do I see these attributes being developed in my life as a

professing believer? Now, if you're not a professing

believer, if you don't know Christ, you're not yet in

Christ. I don't, don't, don't bother

examining to see if you possess these things.

You don't possess these things. You're not in Christ and these

things have not been produced in you.

But if you are in Christ, or do you think that you are in

Christ? If you are a professor of

Christ, please examine yourself, because mere profession will

never. Save a single soul, there will

be distinct evidence that that profession is legit, that it is

a work of God. And so I want you to examine

yourself. This morning and really lay your

life next to the life of the Psalmist.

Neither of you perfect in all of your ways, both of you sinners

at birth, but you claim redemption.

And of course, the psalmist claims redemption.

And So what we have to do is we have to look at a person who

who's proven that their life is a life of godly character.

We lay our life next to it. What does what I'm reading in

Scripture say about my life? And the first thing I want you

to see, the first distinguishing mark is this that he highlights

for us and what he writes. Verse 57 He says You are my

portion. O Lord, I have promised to obey

your words. He's speaking here in intimate

terms and that's the first thing that I want you to really

examine in your life is do you have an intimate relationship

with God, an intimate and personal 1 You see that right

off the bat with the psalmist. He says You are my portion.

What is he saying? He is considering God as his All

in all, that he can lose everything under the sun, all

the treasures of the earth. He can lose all of the the

members in his family. He can lose his job, he can lose

whatever income he might have, whatever retirement plan that he

is packing away. And if he lost all of that, he

would still have everything that he needs.

And that's when we understand, is God really our portion?

If you were to lose everything, is he still your All in all your

portion, your inheritance, all that you look forward to, not

only in the life that is to come?

We have a problem in the, in much of the Christian circles

today that we only look forward to the life that is to come.

Is he your possession Now? The psalmist didn't say he's

going to be my possession. He says he's my possession right

this minute. He is my All in all.

You want to see someone who displays distinguishing

characteristics of a godly life. God is going to be everything to

them. He says you're my portion.

Lamentations 324. We see there the lament of

Jeremiah and he says this. I say to myself, the Lord is my

portion, therefore I will wait for him.

Jeremiah lamenting over the fact that Israel did not repent of

their sin and he's not really getting all that that caught up

in it because he knows this that the Lord is his portion if if

all of the world ceased. The Lord's everything to Him.

If all of the world as you know it ceased, is the Lord really

everything to you? Is He your treasure?

Is He sufficient enough for you? Is he your everything?

That's what the psalmist is saying here.

He's considering God as His All in all.

Not only that, he's doing something that we don't do often

enough in our intimate relationship or our claim to

have an intimate relationship with God.

We must consider that He's our All in all.

But what about this? He's counting God as his own.

He says. You, Lord, are my portion.

You see the ownership there because we can quickly

understand this, that I belong to God, right?

I belong to God because I have been purchased by the precious

blood of Jesus Christ. He purchased men from God just

as Scripture says, and I belong to God.

Now Church understand this. He belongs to you as well.

And what a privilege that is to know that the sovereign God of

all belongs to us. He is our possession.

He is our portion. We have direct and intimate

connection to God, to Yahweh of the Old Testament.

We can boldly and directly enter into His throne of grace, just

as the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 4.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

You know it, He says in verse 16.

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that

we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of

need. He says that we have access

behind the veil because Christ has torn the veil and we can now

go in through the Holy of Holies, even to the mercy seat

of God, to His throne of grace. He is our portion, we are His,

but even more so, He is ours. We possess an intimate

relationship with the God who could not have a relationship

with filthy sinners. Yet in order to do that, this

God sends His only begotten Son, and His Son redeems sinners so

that we can now come in what a glorious and beautiful picture.

We can now not only be counted as His, we can count God.

As ours. This relationship, of course,

can only happen if we are reconciled unto our heavenly

Father, because we know that sin keeps us from Him.

But we also know this if we study the Scriptures, any amount

of time that Christ defeated sin on the cross, so that we can

then be reconciled unto the Father.

Colossians 122 says, But now he has reconciled you by Christ's

physical body through death, to present you wholly in a sight

without blemish and free from accusation.

What is He saying here? He's saying you don't have to

come into God's presence fearing that there's some accusation

that's going to be brought to your charge.

Those accusations were taken care of at the cross where Jesus

bore the wrath that you deserved for your sin.

And now when the accuser of the brethren says you can't come

into God's presence because you've done something wrong, you

can say, no, wait a second, I can boldly go before his throne

of grace in my time of need, just as Scripture says.

Why? Because I have been reconciled

to God, not by anything that I. Did or could ever do I have been

reconciled through the precious blood of Jesus Christ that

atonement has been made. I am covered.

And so now when I approach God because of Christ, physical

death. I have been presented.

What does he say again, wholly in his sight, without blemish

and free from accusation. I say that because there are

many of you who are believers here today and you are afraid to

own God as your own, to truly own God as your own, to to be

able to commune with him and to come into His presence at at

whatever time in your life or season in your life that you're

going through. Let me tell you this, if you are

in Christ, there's nothing in your past that is held to your

charge. Confidently enter into His

throne room to His throne of grace, just as Scripture

commands us to do. You have been reconciled.

Count God as your own, that when you approach Him, you approach

Him as intimately as a son would approach His.

Father, not only does the Son belong or the the Son belong to

the Father, but the Father belongs to the Son.

Church understand that the Psalmist gets that.

You are my portion. O Lord, I belong to you and you

belong to me. Many of you don't experience the

intimacy that God desires that you have, because yes, you know

you belong to God, but you have not reconciled in your heart

that He also belongs to you. What a beautiful picture that I

don't have to wait until I'm invited.

I have already been invited to Sup with him and to fellowship

with him. Not in the life to come, but

even in this life. I have communion with my

heavenly Father because of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus

Christ and faith in that is Romans chapter 5 tells us that

Romans 5 · chapter mention

faith in that and that alone allows us to be reconciled.

So the psalmist understands this.

He's counting God as his own. He's considering God as is All

in all, in this intimate relationship that he has with

God. But that intimate relationship

is also confirmed through obedience.

He says you are my portion. O Lord, I have promised to obey

your word. I promise to obey your words.

We submit to the Lord, we're simply showing Him the love that

is due for the love that we have received.

We are reciprocating what He has already lavished upon us.

And we will talk much about that in a moment.

But Galatians 5 tells us this in Galatians 5-6.

For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcision

has any value. Says there's no value in the

works of the flesh. The only thing that counts is

faith expressing itself through love.

And how do we we express faith through love in regard to our

relationship to the Father? We obey his word.

That's what the Psalmist is saying here.

You are my portion, O Lord, I've promised to obey your word.

Why? Because you're my portion.

You're my treasure. I.

Value you above all things. I count you as my own.

Therefore, I'm not going to go out and to defame the name of my

father by by living some sinful or wicked lifestyle, but.

What I'm going to do is I'm going to obey your word so that

my love for you is made clear. Is that not what Jesus said?

If you love me, you'll what? You'll obey what I command you.

You'll do what I tell you to do. So godly life will be marked

with an intimate relationship and close communion and

fellowship with God. That is never to be broken.

That is purchased for us in Christ.

Secondly, we see the Psalmist say this in verse 58.

As we look at that second distinction, he says, I have

sought your face with all my heart.

Be gracious to me according to your promise, We see here a

desire to please God. Now, the wicked, they don't have

an intimate relationship with God.

And the wicked sure don't have a desire to please God in

everything. However, the believer should

bear both of those characteristics in their life to

some degree. You ought to have that intimate

relationship. With God because of Christ, and

you ought to have a desire to please God.

He says I've sought your face with all my heart, with every

bit of it. What is he talking about?

Seeking God's face? You know what he's saying.

I want your approval. Now we know this to be true.

God sees everyone's life, doesn't he?

But the psalmist is taking it a step further.

I want God to look directly into my life and I want him to be

pleased with what he sees. I seek his face.

I don't hide from his face. I seek it.

I expose myself. God, show me, show me what it is

that you want me to do and and give me strength to obey it.

I want to please you because a true believer is going to have a

desire to please God seeking his face.

Going back to our scripture reading this morning,

Lamentation 3 verse 25, and it says.

This the Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him.

To the one who seeks him. Now the problem with that is

this. There's no one who seeks them.

That's what the Old Testament says, and that's what Paul

confirms in Romans, that there is no one who seek them.

There's none righteous, no, not one, no one who seeks after him.

And So what has happened? A work of God has transpired in

your life through the Lord Jesus Christ and now because you have

been changed by His grace. You now seek Him.

Isn't that what the psalmist says?

I have sought your face with all my heart.

Be gracious to me according to your promise.

He says it's grace that allows me, the grace that has been

promised to me. It's grace that allows me to

seek you with all of my heart and to seek your face and to

live and to desire Your approval in my life.

The psalmist in Psalm 24, verse three, he says this, Who may

ascend the hill of the Lord, who may stand in his holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up

his soul to an idol or swear by what is false, he will receive

blessing from the Lord and vindication from God his Savior.

And he says this in verse six. Such is the generation of those

who seek him, who seek your face.

O God of Jacob, are you one of those?

Are you a part of the generation who seeks the face of God?

If you were in Christ, he is raising you up to be a part of

that generation who seeks the face of God.

The Psalm is making this very clear.

I sought your face with all my. Heart what was he doing?

He was desiring God's favor on his life.

He was desiring fellowship with God in his life in that

communion. That's that's all that he

wanted. He wanted nothing more, nothing

less. Psalm 27 verse 8 He says, My

Psalms 27:8

heart says of you seek his face, your face, Lord, I will seek.

He's saying my heart says seek his face.

Why? Because his heart has been

changed. And when your heart is truly

changed, when you receive that heart of flesh that Ezekiel

talks about in exchange for that heart of stone and sin that you

once had, when that's changed, you will now seek the face of

God because your heart will say this is the right thing to do.

I desire to please God. Do you have a desire to please

God in your life? Is that your chief desire to

please Him and to have his face shine upon your life as you seek

his face? That's what the psalmist is

doing here, revealing his desire to please God, seeking his face.

But not only that, he's surrendered to God

wholeheartedly. He's not halfway seeking his

face. You know what he's saying.

I don't seek his face one day a week.

I don't seek his face one day a week during a Lord's Day

service. I'm seeking him wholeheartedly.

This is 100% of the time. All the time I am seeking God's

approval in my life. I desire to please God, not just

when I'm in front of people. I desire to please God when I'm

all by myself, when no one's there watching, when no one's

monitoring what I'm doing. I desire to please God with my

whole being wholeheartedly. As a person who desires to

please God wholeheartedly is never going to accept the

lukewarm Christianity that we see in Laodicea.

You're never going to accept the lukewarm Christianity that we

see in America. You will desire to seek God with

your whole heart above all things.

You have that desire. You have that desire to please

God, to seek his face wholeheartedly.

He says. I've sought your face with all

my heart. He says be gracious to me

according to your promise. He knows this, that he's going

to fail in this, to agree a degree.

He's not going to seek God's face all the time, though.

That'd be his desire. And he's not going to

wholeheartedly surrender to him all the time, though that'd be

his desire. How many of you would testify?

Yeah, that's me. That's Paul, too.

He was torn. Romans Chapter 7.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

Man, the things that I don't want to do, I don't do.

The things that I want to do, I can't get those things right.

I'm not saying, nor is the psalmist saying, nor is the word

of God saying today that you are striving for perfection.

Perfection is going to be taken care of at glorification.

What I am saying this is there will be a change and you will

have a desire to please God, but at the end.

Of that you have to realize that you are secured by God's grace.

The psalmist is saying this. The only way that I'm going to

continue to seek your face wholeheartedly is because of

your grace. That's why he says be gracious

to me according to your promise. Anyone here thankful for the

grace of God, the faithfulness in God and giving His grace over

and over and over again and again?

Well, how many times have we gone in our minds and in our

hearts back to scriptures that talk about grace?

And I don't have time to do that this morning, all the scriptures

that teach on grace. But how many times do we go back

to those scriptures that talk to us about grace and we find

security there? We become dependent upon grace

alone. If you are truly in Christ, yes,

you will have a desire to please God, but you will know this,

that the only way that I can fulfill that desire is to

completely trust in God's grace and God's grace alone to do that

work in me. Because if any of you here

today, myself included, have a desire to please God, God has

graciously put that desire in you.

Don't go patting yourself on the back and saying, oh, look at me,

I'm a person who desires to please God because there's none

of you in and of yourself who would desire to please God.

That is a gift. It is a gift of his grace.

See for what it is, just as the Psalmist did.

Desiring more grace right? Aren't you thankful for

scriptures that say where sin increased grace did that much

more increase in the grace that he has continually just poured

out into our lives. How about Ephesians 2 in a very

familiar section of Scripture right 28 and 9.

We all know this. Most of you have this memorized,

but he tells us there in Ephesians 28 and 9 and he tells

us this as Paul is teaching us teaching the Church of his day.

He tells us so that we can remember we have no.

Grounds to brag on anything that God has done in our life.

He says word is is by grace. You've been saved through faith

and this is not from yourself. It's what the gift of God.

Why it's because it's not works and why is it not works so that

no one can boast. Let's be honest with ourselves.

If we could do something good in and of ourselves, we'd take

credit for it and we'd boast. In fact, some of you have not

learned enough about God's grace to know, stop bragging on what

he's done in your life as if you've done it, you haven't done

it. So the psalmist, you're

understanding this, that it is a work of God by his grace, that

he even has a desire to please God.

But his life is marked with that desire.

And that desire, just as he is, is secured only by God's grace.

And so he's dependent upon God's grace alone, just as Paul was

telling the church at Ephesus to be dependent upon God's grace

alone so that you don't brag on yourself.

And the godly person will find themselves dependent upon God's

grace because they know that they can't depend upon

themselves. Isn't that true?

All the times in my life where I've tried to depend upon myself

only to see that I have failed miserably and I am in deep need

of God's grace. Psalm 20, verse 7, the psalmist

Psalms 20:7

says some trust in Chariots and some in horses, but we trust in

the name of the Lord our God. We better keep our trust where

our trust belongs, right? Some, they trust in all of these

other things, but we need to trust in God and to trust in God

alone. And we trust in God and God

alone, knowing that we are secured by his grace alone.

So the psalmist, you're having a desire to please God, but not

forgetting that were it not for God's grace, he would have no

desire to please God. Again, not giving himself

accolade here, but pointing credit where credit is due,

giving God the glory that he rightfully deserves.

And so we see the psalmist even understanding that his desire to

please God comes from God. So if you have a desire to

please God, that's a great mark to have in your life, but know

where it comes from. So if you're in Christ, there

ought to be some element of this in your life, a desire to please

God and an intimate relationship with God.

Thirdly, we see this as the psalmist continues to unfold

this for us, we see a repentant heart.

Verse 59 verse says this. Through verse 60 it says I have

considered my ways and have turned my steps to your

statutes. I will hasten and not delay to

obey your commands. What does he first do?

He recognizes his, or maybe in your case today, her sinful

ways. The psalmist recognizing his own

sinful ways. I have considered my ways and

have turned my steps to your statue.

Now what did he say? He says this.

I've considered my ways, and my ways are directly opposed to

scripture. Isn't that the truth?

When we really get down to it, our natural sinful tendencies

are always in contradiction to Scripture, he says.

I've considered my ways and what I have found is that I always

fall short in and of myself. And now I've turned my steps to

your statutes. You see their repentance.

If you're going to have repentance, you must first

recognize your sinful ways. He recognized that in his own

ways, he is always rebelliously opposed to God and to His Word.

Romans in the 8th chapter, verse 7 tells us that the sinful mind

is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law,

nor can it do so in and of ourselves.

We are all in hostility toward God.

You have to recognize this. You have to own that.

Stop blaming everyone else. If there's going to be

repentance in your life, you must recognize that your ways

are contrary to God's ways, and the Word of God makes that so.

Very clear. Why is that important?

Because you won't repent until you realize there is a need for

repentance. You won't repent until you

realize how awful you are in comparison to the holiness of

God. The psalmist here experiencing

that exact same thing. I've considered my ways and I'm

pretty horrible. Can I just tell you this one?

Kirk Hall considers his ways apart from Christ.

I'm the chief unto sinners. I'm not pretty horrible.

I'm the worst Sinner that ever walked the face of the earth,

but I am thankful today that I have been rescued and I have

been saved and I have been turned from my ways and I have

been turned to God's word. That's what the psalmist is

saying. He's talking about repentance,

Repentance of sin, turning away from my sinful ways and turning

to the ways of God. Luke chapter 17, verse 3.

Luke 17:3

The Lord says unless you repent, he will all likewise perish.

That's for a church culture in today's time that forgets to

preach about repentance. Repentance is not just something

that occurs at salvation. Repentance is something that

ought to be the mark of our Christian lives, continually

turning from our ways. Considering them, Yeah, Kirk, if

you were going to handle that that way, that's you, man.

That's that's not what God would have you do.

In fact, that's opposite of God. Don't say that.

I have to consider my ways, and when I consider my ways, I see

this. I am not holy, but my God is

holy. And I look to His Word and I see

His Holiness unveiled and He shows me what it is that He

expects of His children. And now my attention is turned

to His statues and away from my own ways.

I have repented of my own ways and turned to the ways of the

Lord defined in Scripture. So we have to recognize our

sinful ways in order to repent. Yes, that is to repent of

salvation, but it goes on. It continues.

Thomas Watson said this. He said knowledge without

repentance will be a torchlight to light men to hell.

Pay attention to that. In the church where we promote

the Word of God, we teach the Word of God, and everything that

we do, we have a high view of God's Word.

But if you're not careful, what you can do inadvertently as you

can get so caught up in gaining knowledge from God's Word that

you miss out on the repentance part.

The fact that we have to consider our ways and we have to

turn from our ways and we have to turn to God and we know that

we turn to God in Christ and not just again at salvation.

This is a continual thing. We will repent all of our days.

It begins at salvation. We recognize who we really are.

We recognize who we are capable of because God shows us that and

He aligns us to that fact, that regeneration.

However, that someone is not going away.

That someone will be in your life until you are glorified.

And as you walk with Christ, what you will learn to do, you

will learn to hate. That old someone, so much I can

tell you this. If you don't hate that old

someone considering his ways or her ways, I would challenge you

to really examine your profession of faith to see if

it's true. I don't say that to cause you to

doubt. I'd say that because I care

about your soul. I am your friend.

And I do want you to know the truth that a true man of God, a

true woman of God. Who desires to please God?

Who has an intimate relationship with God?

As we've seen those things so far, they'll have a repentant

heart. That repentant heart's not going

to go away. No, you're going to blow it from

time to time, but you know what you're going to do when you blow

it? Repent and confess your sin and

to know what first, John 19 says that if we confess our sin is

faithful and just, to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from

all unrighteousness. You're going to make that wrong,

right? Not only with the Lord but also

with others. You're going to constantly live

in a state of repenting from your old ways.

He says I've considered my ways and I've turned my steps to your

statutes. He said they're opposite of your

ways and I'm turning to you. He recognizes his sinful ways,

and then he repents of his sin. But then he refocuses on walking

in accordance with the Scriptures.

He says I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands.

Now what he's not doing, he's not putting it off to a better

time, right? For all of you who have that

sin, that's your little pet sin that you're just putting off

repentance until a more convenient time.

What do you think that you're going to maybe not like it as

much? You're only going to grow to

like it more. It's only going to consume you.

Please understand what sin does. Sin does not decrease it grow,

so stop playing with it. That's a psalmist here.

You're saying I considered my ways and I know my ways are not

right in accordance with your word.

So I'm turning to your word and I'm seeing your way and then.

Seeing your way, I am urgently and intentionally moving toward

obedience. Moving toward repentance, look

at the terms that he uses. I will hasten.

This is not up for discussion. He has seen his ways.

He has seen the ways of God as revealed in Scripture.

And he says I have to turn from me and I have to turn to you in

obedience to you and I have to turn now.

I will not hasten and I will not delay.

I'm going to begin to obey you. Now listen to me professing

Christian in the room who has that little pet sin that I'm

talking about before you get all comfortable.

I'm not going to meddle. I'm not going to ask you what it

is. You know what it is.

I don't have to tell you what it is.

If you're a Christian, the Holy Spirit has already told you what

it is and you just keep ignoring him.

Stop ignoring him. Don't hasten to repent today.

Don't delay. There's a reason that the

psalmist put this in here so that we can have it, because

some of you need to repent today.

Some of you need to turn and obey the Lord today, even as

believers stop holding on to that thing that.

Christ died to free you from let it go and trust that God is

faithful to do all that He has promised him to.

Guard to it. Refocus on God's Word in

obedience to God's Word which you have been crafted and born

again to do. So we see the third

distinguishing mark of the godly life here today is is

repentance. True repentance will mark our

lives, the entirety of our lives.

You don't get to take the day off because when you take the

day off, you know what your ways are going to lead you into sin.

There's been many a man and many a woman who took the day off and

it cost them everything. Continually repent when that

first sinful thought from your old sinful ways comes into your

mind. Mortify and kill that thing

immediately. Immediately.

Don't play around with it because as James describes to

us, that lust, what is it going to do?

It's going to concede. It's going to give birth to sin.

So don't play around with it if you're playing around with sin,

I remind you here in Christ, confess that sin, He's faithful

and justice forgive you that sin and cleanse you from all

unrighteousness. Leave here today without that

thing hanging around your neck weighting you down.

Lay aside every weight and sin that so easily entangles you,

just as the apostle Paul says. So we see there repentant heart.

Fourthly, we see this as we continue on the 4th

distinguishing mark of a godly life.

Is this a devotion to God's Word?

61 He says this, though the wicked bind me with ropes.

I will not forget your law. At midnight I rise to give you

thanks for your righteous laws. What does the psalmist saying

here? He's saying I have a great

devotion to God's Word. In fact, it's so great that I'm

going to be devoted to God's Word despite any opposition

whatever. Comes my way.

Even though the wicked bind me up with ropes, I'm not going to

forget your law when they when they take me and they torture me

and they tell me not to remember the statutes and the precepts

and the commands of God's Word. I'm going to continue to focus

on God's Word. I'm going to continue to learn

God's Word. I'm going to continue to glean.

From God's Word, he says despite any opposition, no matter what

the wicked would do to try to hinder me in learning the Word

of God, I am going to stay focused on the Word of God.

People have asked me from time to time.

Kirk, what would you do if it became illegal in our country to

preach the Bible? And I don't take very long in

answering this. I'd go to jail.

You'd go to jail. And then what would you?

I'd start a prison ministry and I would preach the word of God

in jail. They said what if they took your

Bible away? It lives in me.

I have hidden his word in my heart.

That's why it's so important that we study the word of God,

because what if we do get in that situation where they do

take this away from us, Will. We be like the psalmist and say

even though the wicked bind me with ropes in all opposition,

come against me. I'm not going to forget your

law. It's going to come forth out of

my lips because it is inside of me and it is going to get out.

He had a devotion to God's word despite any opposition, but not

only that, he had a devotion to God's word denying

inopportunity. I want you to pay attention to

this because we could read right over this and not really even

give a second thought to it. He says at midnight I rise to

give you thanks for your righteous laws.

He is denying any inopportunities.

He's saying there is no. Inopportune time to praise God

for his word, to study God's word, to to glorify God, to

worship God. He's saying this at midnight.

Even at midnight, I'm not going to think it's an inconvenience

to get up and to praise you for your Word.

He didn't just lay there in the bed, He got up.

He was stirred by the Spirit, and he was stirred by the Spirit

to get into the Word so that he could then praise God properly.

But we would all call that if we looked at it midnight.

That's pretty inconvenient. That sure isn't inopportune

time. I know we can do it when it's

convenient, can't we? We open the church every Sunday

on the Lord's Day at 9:00 and 11:00.

Make it very convenient. You come in, He worship the Lord

and then you leave some of you from sincere hearts, some of you

because you just want to be seen.

Do we know that I don't think for a second that you're fooling

God about that and you know what I'm talking about right at

election time and the politicians come in right and

they pretend they want to be members of the church just so

they can get the votes of the church people and then they're

out the door just as quickly. They're just wanting to be seen

and some people they come into God's house to don't want to be

seen and there is no real devotion to God's word not the

psalmist here. The psalmist refused to embrace

that there is ever a convenient. Are an inconvenient time to

fellowship with the Lord and to meditate on his word he says at

midnight I rise to give you thanks for your righteous laws.

In fact, Mark chapter 1 we see the Lord exemplifying this in

Mark 1 · chapter mention

his life. Verse 35 it says very early in

the morning while it was still dark.

Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place

where he prayed. Even the Lord displaying this in

his life, not afraid, right? To wake up in the middle of the

night to be inconvenienced, but to go off and to pray and to

meditate on the things of God. Acts Chapter 16.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

We know the story verse 25 about midnight.

Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.

Why weren't these guys asleep? Seems like such an inopportune

time. But Scripture lets us know this

is at midnight, right? They had nowhere to go.

Why not sleep? No, instead they said, you know

what? Let's praise the Lord.

Let's praise the Lord even when it's inconvenient for us.

Let's praise the Lord even though everyone else around here

would think it was an inopportune time.

Don't you know that the jailer thought it was an inopportune

time? Like would these Christians

please shut up until the door flew open, until he was about to

take his own life? Until we asked them what must I

do to be saved? They went and they told him and

his whole household, and they were saved and baptized that

night. That's what happens when we

learn to praise God in inopportune times.

We learned to lean on the Word of God in inopportune times.

I can't tell you how many times in the middle of the night I've

been awakened from a dead sleep with one of you on my mind.

I'm not saying this to brag. I haven't.

I won't tell you who it is or what it was about, but to spend

the next hours praying for you and seeking God on your behalf,

carrying whatever burden it is that you're carrying to the

throne of grace. Why?

Because you don't inconvenience me.

There is no inconvenience. Time to petition the throne of

God. There is no inconvenience time

to focus on him, to meditate on him, to remember what his word

says, and to praise Him for the power that he does bestow.

At midnight, he says, I'll rise. I'll give you thanks for your

righteous honor. Now, I know all the key life

members here today were up at midnight last night praying for

me and the sermon this morning. I do appreciate that.

Sorry to inconvenience you so much.

Nobody sheds light on this, doesn't he?

He sheds light on the secret worship that ought to be taking

place in our life. And why was it taking place in

his life? Because he understood something

that we don't quite understand. Christians need to be concerned

with communion, not convenience communion.

Right, Those of you who are looking at your watch already,

when are we going to get out of here?

Just commune with the Lord. Just keep hearing His word.

Just keep fellowshipping with Him.

Keep fellowshipping with the believers that He's brought to

this place. We don't have to worry about

those things. Let's not be inconvenienced by

those things. Let's just enjoy communion that

we have that has been purchased for us by the precious blood of

Jesus Christ. And you know what?

If He wakes you up in the middle of the night to commune with

you, be thankful. Because before Christ, you were

an enemy of God. You were cut off from Him.

You could not commune with him. Now He desires.

That you commune with him, that you petition on behalf of the

Saints, you petition on behalf of your family.

Well, I remember when our kids were small, I would wake in the

middle of the night and just go into their room without them

even knowing it, without anybody else even knowing it.

Just in those secret times and just to to place my hand on

their sweet little forehead. They were real sweet when they

were asleep. And to pray for them, to pray

for their soul, to pray for their life, to pray for their

future spouses that would have to deal with them.

It's in those secret times that we really see what we really

are. Matthew Henry said it like this.

He said public worship will not excuse us from secret worship.

You know what's interesting about the psalmist here?

No one was going to see him at midnight.

He wasn't concerned with trying to impress people with his

spirituality. He was just simply awake in the

middle of the night giving thanks to the Lord for his

righteous loss for His word. Don't miss out on the joy of

that secret worship. I sometimes walk through this

auditorium in the middle of the week.

It's such a blessing to me because I'll see our pastoral

staff and I hate it when I interrupt one of them that's

here on the altar, praying just alone, not trying to be seen,

not working for any accolades, Pats on the back.

They'll have these cards out of this box, praying for lost

people that they don't even know.

And I rejoice that they're OK with secret worship.

They're OK with nobody else seeing what they're doing and

knowing that God sees all of it and he honors that.

So don't miss out on that. Don't miss out on that type of

worship, devotion to God's Word that you'll get up even in the

middle of the night and praise Him for how wonderful it is.

Thank Him for all of the things that he has taught you in the

Scriptures. I can tell you this, if you've

read the Scripture in any amount of time, you could spend every

midnight that you have until you pass from this earth thanking

him for all the things that we see in Scripture.

Never, never run out of things to thank Him for.

Psalmist said at midnight, I'm doing it.

I'm praising him. What a devotion to God and to

his Word that'll mark our lives if we're truly in Christ.

No one, no, no one will probably ever know that but you.

But does that mark your life? Do you have a devotion to God's

word despite any opposition denying inopportunity and the

idea that it would ever inconvenience you to get up in

the middle of the night to praise Him?

And are you desperate to worship God?

That's what I want to know in the church.

Where is the desperation to worship God?

See, in the American church we have no idea about this because

they're not people who are going to persecute us and take our

lives. We don't have to walk through 6

foot of snow barefooted to get to a church.

We drive our cars here, your air conditioner their air

conditioned and we come out and we walk a few feet in the heat.

We get in an air conditioned building.

We never really have to suffer a whole lot as far as our service

to the Lord and our worship. Wouldn't it be awesome if we

would be desperate for that? Desperate.

We wake up every morning and we're excited with the sunrise

that we get to worship. We get to praise the Lord again.

We get to study His Word. We get to praise Him for what we

see in His Word. That's where the psalmist is.

What insight for us to glean from.

I'll lay that next to your life and see what do I measure up in

this? And here's the thing you you

might realize, you know what, I don't do that all the time, but

there have been those times that is there some element of that in

your life? And you're not afraid to be

inconvenienced, to give God the glory that he's due.

What would happen in the church if we would get desperate and

not care about any inconvenience, but just give God

the glory that he's due? So we see a devotion here to God

in his word. Fifthly, we see this, This is a

very interesting 1. He sends 63.

He says I, I am a friend to all who fear you, to all who follow

your precepts. What he's saying here, he's

saying that communion with God's people will also fifthly mark

those who are living a godly life.

He is agreeing that God's people ought to get along, they ought

to be friends, they ought to fellowship, they ought to

commune with one another. Did you know that we get to

commune with other believers? Why?

Because we get to commune with the Father through Jesus Christ.

And because we get to commune with the Father through the Lord

Jesus Christ, we also get the benefit of communing with the

Saints. This is a privilege and this is

a privilege that comes through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

It's almost understanding what communing with God's people is

all about. I am a friend to all who fear

you. I love when I meet brothers and

sisters in Christ that I've never met before.

You know what I'm talking about. You've met those people when one

conversation you can tell they're a believer and they know

you're a believer and you're both sitting there and one of

these man, should I ask and the other one's going, no, I'm going

to ask and finally someone has the nerve to ask.

And if you're at the hibachi, my wife saying they don't want to

talk to you. That's why I don't even have

hibachis because I want to know if everybody at that little

square rectangle table, I don't know if they're believers by the

time we're done eating that horrible steak that they charge

you way too much for. But you get to that point.

You're like, man, man, this, this, this person's speaking

with grace and they're speaking with kindness and they're

speaking with love and, and you get to that point.

Are you a believer? Yes, we are.

And then you have that bond immediately.

You are family members united, even though you've never met.

You go man, I love and I am a friend to the people who fear

the Lord. I love the communion of the

Saints. People ask me on this earth,

what do you love most? I say Christ.

What about second his church? You say you don't love, You

don't love your wife second, No, I don't.

I love his. I love his church.

Second, my wife's a part of his church.

I couldn't love her the way that I love her if she wasn't a St.

So I love his church. I love fellowshipping with

believers. I love for my family to get the

fellowship with believers because I think a lot of times

we get all. That out of whack.

I love Christ and I love my family and I love the church.

No, here's the thing, I love Christ.

I love his people and my family. They're his people.

And so they are my friends and they are my unit.

Not just those ones that live in my household, but all the other

Saints throughout all the ages. Those are my friends, the

psalmist says. I love and I am a friend to all

of them. He's embracing God's people.

Haven't you met those people? They don't want to embrace God's

people, right? They say this, Well, I can

worship in my recliner. No, you can't.

You can't fellowship and commune with other believers in your

recliner. Well, I don't really want to get

dressed, so I'll just watch on Facebook.

If you're watching on Facebook right now, stop being lazy.

Get dressed next week and come commune with real believers.

It's that simple. I've had people and it's been a

joy. They they said maybe we watched

Facebook for a year and a half before we ever came.

What were you waiting on? Most of them, if they're honest,

they say we're just being lazy and decided COVID made so many

believers just lazy or professing believers.

But real believers, you know what they're going to want?

They're going to want to embrace God's people.

They're going to want to run across the room when they see a

believer that they hadn't seen in a long time.

They're going to want to wrap their arms around them, hug

their neck, shake their hand, tell them how glad they are to

see them. You know this is important.

Why is it important? Because John says it's

important. John's first epistle, chapter 3,

he says we know that we've passed from death to life

because we love the brethren, because we love the Saints.

Psalm is here embracing God's people.

We also see an element of enjoying Godspeed.

We said, they're my friends. Don't we enjoy our friends,

right? None of you enjoy your enemies.

I think I'm going to call my worst enemy up and see if we can

hang out. No, he says that they're his

friends. He enjoys the fellowship.

Shouldn't we enjoy the fellowship of believers?

Right. I know some of you came in here

today kicking and screaming, and I'll tell you this, you have a

spiritual problem. I pray that God solves that

problem for you today. Your wife made you calm and you

really didn't want to, but you made a deal.

If I go to church with her, she'll let me go fishing this

afternoon. Stop making deals.

Come to Christ. And love to commune with God's

people. It's that simple.

Because a true believer will love to commune with God's

people they they will enjoy the time spent together and we know

what Hebrews teaches us there in Hebrews chapter chapter 10 verse

25, he says let us not give up meeting together a summer in the

habit of doing. But let us encourage one another

and all the more as you see the day approaching.

Now, I know the person who's going to jump up and say that's

not necessarily talking about the church.

You're right. It's not just talking about the

church and the Lord's Day services.

It's talking about doing life together as believers beyond the

church. Can I just help all of you out?

If your closest friends are the world, you have spiritual

issues. Your closest friends ought to be

believers. So you have the common bond of

Christ. You don't have anything in

common with the world anymore. And if you do have something in

common with the world anymore, a, you're not saved, or B, you

need to repent of whatever it is that you have in common with the

world. I didn't say that.

It's God's word that says for us to come out and be separate.

From the world you love, the communion that you have with

God's people, embracing God's people, enjoying God's people.

How about encouraging God's people there in Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

10. That's why he sparks the whole

conversation about not forsaking.

The assembly of the Saints, he says, so that you can spur one

another along as the day is approaching.

What day? The day of the Lord?

His return. Do you love God's people in such

a way that you just want to encourage them?

You want to encourage this, Pastor?

How many of you would say, Pastor, I want to encourage you?

Raise your hand. How many of you would say I

blatantly want to discourage you, Pastor?

You want to encourage me? Be faithful to the Lord.

Be faithful to the Lord. And you don't have to jump

through hoops. You don't have to go out of your

way to to try to make me feel special.

You don't have to. You don't even have to even say

hi to me. No, I like it.

I am a human. I like to be friends with those

who fear the Lord. Did you know that pastors can

have friends? I I was raised up with a group

of pastors that tell you silly things like this.

Well, you can't really be friends with with your

congregation. I looked at Jesus life.

I said that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Jesus was friends with his followers and he laid down his

life for his friends. That's exactly what he said.

And you know what I determined then you know what, I'm going to

be friends with the congregations that the Lord has

me to pastor over and I'll lay my life down for him just as the

Lord did. If need be, some of you looking

at me say volley Gray in your hair.

It won't be long, but community with God's people, what an

encouraging thing. And we get to come together and

encourage one another. You're an encouragement to me

every time when we come together.

I don't care if it's here on the Lord's Day.

I don't care if it's on a Wednesday night.

I don't care if it's something for some church fellowship.

I don't care. I get invited to birthday

parties, right? And everybody's always like, I'm

so sorry. I know you get invited to so

many birthday parties. I love it.

I love to see the Saints operating and working as a It's

family. It doesn't bother me one bit.

I tell people all the time, if I can make it, I'll make it.

If I can't, I just won't. I won't.

I can't apologize. I mean, I'll apologize for it,

but there's nothing to do about it.

But I love to commune with the Saints.

I love to just sit around and talk to believers and to listen

to believers. Why?

Because there's. Something inside of me that says

that's right. There's something about that,

that love that we have for one another because of the love that

Christ has had for us. The psalmist gets that.

He says I'm a friend to all who fear you, to all who follow your

precepts, those who fear you and who follow your word.

Those are my people. If you fear him and you follow

his words, you're my people and I'm your people.

It's high time we value that communion that we have with

God's people, not not take it for granted any longer.

Church, you don't understand how blessed you have been to be able

to be a part of a fellowship. That is the way that this

fellowship really is, that God has blessed by His hand and His

hand alone. I see it all the time.

I see how things just organically happen.

I see people become best friends not because they had something

in common from a worldly vantage point.

But because of Christ and I see mothers ministering to other

mothers, I'm thankful. I'm thankful for all the young

mothers in in this church who when my daughter had her first

baby, they just surrounded her and they minister.

She had all these questions right about stuff that I.

Don't even want to know about, right?

And to see that the Saints would then pour into one another.

I love to see on Thursday nights when the men join together for

Bible study. And you can tell when somebody's

going through something. And I love to see four or five

other men split their arm around.

And just take them over to the side and encourage them and to

pray for them and to lift them up and to not just do it that

one time, but to continue to do that over and over and over

again. I am a friend to all who fear

the Lord, to all who follow his precepts.

That's what the psalmist is saying here.

He's valuing the communion that we have with God's people.

He value that. He value after you begrudgingly

come to church again, no, a true believer wants to be with God's

people and if you don't want to be with God's people, I would

implore you today examine your heart and see if you were truly

of the faith because a true believer will have a desire to

be with God's people. Lastly, we see this and I'll do

my best to hurry. Verse 64 says the earth is

filled with your love. O Lord, teach me your decrees.

The last thing that we see that the psalmist is going to teach

us this morning in, in, in reference to the distinguishing

marks of a godly life is this. As someone who has the mark of a

biblical understanding of God's loving kindness, I say that

because we're so confused about God's love in our church

culture. So I'm going to make some things

very clear for some people today, and I'll just go ahead

and tell you that some of this is going to make some of you

uncomfortable, but hear me out and hear the word of God out.

More importantly, the psalmist here says the earth is filled

with your love. Now some of your Bibles says

mercy instead of love. Some of your Bibles says love

like mine, and then some of you have a translation that might

say loving kindness. What we're talking about is

God's love and his mercy put together and then poured out

into the world. And so either way that you

define that, it's right, the earth is filled with your mercy.

The earth is filled with your love.

The earth is filled with your loving kindness.

That is simply his love and action in the form of kindness

and mercy. The psalmist is looking at this

and he's analyzing this. The psalmist understood God's

love and he wanted others to understand God's love.

Paul prayed the same way. Remember in Ephesians chapter 3

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

when Paul prayed for the the believers there at Ephesus and

he said in verse 17, he says so that Christ may dwell in your

hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being

rooted and established in love, may have power together with all

the Saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is

the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses

knowledge that you may be. Filled to the measure of all the

fullness of God. So, so Paul.

They're wanting the church to to know and to grow in their love

and our understanding of God's love for them.

The Psalm is here wanting the same thing.

The earth is filled with your love.

He's drawing attention to the fact that the earth is filled

with God's love. What does that mean?

Does that mean when you walk through this earth, little

hearts, you're floating around? No, that's not what that means.

And we see God's love in many fashions in the.

Earth as he is describing for us.

And the first one is this. You have to consider God's

general and His common love for mankind, OK?

This is His benevolent love. The fact that He has not, as we

saw in Lamentations chapter 3, consumed all of mankind when we

Lamentations 3 · chapter mention

definitely deserve it. His loving kindness has not

allowed Him to do that. And I am thankful for that.

I'm thankful that His loving kindness secured me until I

could hear the gospel and until I could be brought into faith in

the Lord Jesus Christ. But we're talking about God's

general and common love first because we have to make a

distinction that goodness toward all mankind.

Did you notice the lost man woke up today and he took his?

First breath Because God has a benevolent concern for him, He

allowed him to take that first breath.

He allows him to live. He allows him to have a family.

He allows allows him to have a job.

Right, so, so that the Sinner can never say anything as stupid

as God didn't love me. Yes, He did.

He loved you with that general basic love that He has for all

humanity. However, I want you to see

beyond that. We can see God's general and

common love for everyone. I want to see God's gracious and

effectual love, because God's gracious and effectual love is

different. This is the deeper love that He

has for His own. And let me just make this clear,

this love is only found in Christ.

You're not going to find it anywhere else.

If you are not in Christ, you have not experienced this.

Love. And when you?

Experience this love. It will usher you into Christ.

This is His salvific love. This is His effectual love

producing the effect that He. Desires for it to produce again

found only in Christ. How do I know it's found only in

Christ? Because it's only addressed to

Christians in scripture. In fact, Romans chapter 5 verse

Romans 5:8

8 Romans 5/8. We know it, it says, but God

demonstrates his own love for us in this now US.

It's very important. I learned this in English class

at a very young age. When I come to a pronoun, I have

to find what an antecedent and I have to find that antecedent

because it's going to tell me what US really means.

Now the antecedent of this but God demonstrates his own love

for us in this the antecedent if you will go back and you will

look at the context of Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

It is those who have faith in Christ.

It is the believer that he is addressing and he said, but God

demonstrates His own love for us in this.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Who are the US's? They are those that God

sovereignly chose before the foundations of the earth for

Christ to die for. I do not make an apology for

that. I know it's going to torque some

of your theology, but I will not apologize to you for what God

has already proclaimed and what has happened here.

As we look at this, we have in our own human minds equated

God's salvific love with His general love.

Don't make that error. Don't make that error because

God loves his children with a special and a unique love.

I know some of you in our culture, you're going to say,

what do you mean his children? We're all just his children.

No, we are not. Only those who have been

purchased through the precious blood of Jesus Christ are his

children. They are the only ones who have

been loved with that kind of salvific love.

So we look at Ephesians chapter 2 and looking at that love a

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

little deeper. He says this, but because of his

great love for us, again, who are the US's here?

God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ.

Only those who are now alive, reborn in Christ are the US's

that he's talking about. So God, because of his great

love for the believer, God who is rich in mercy, made the

believer alive with Christ even when we were dead in

transgressions. It is my grace.

You have been saved. We know this to be true, but we

get confused about the love part of it.

And I know what many of you do you get in your fields right

now. Some of you already in your

fields. Let me help you if you.

Think that God loves everyone the same?

I'll ask you the simple question.

Do you love the babies in the nursery like you love your own

kids? If you do, when church dismisses

in a few minutes, you go pick them up and you take them home

with you. Even the crying ones, the ones

that need their diapers change, you get all of them.

You take them home because because you think it's OK for

you to love your children with a greater love and to love the

other children in the world with a lesser love, but yet you don't

give that same privilege to God Almighty.

Not only do I take note with that, Scripture takes note with

that. And so when we look at this, we

have to understand God's gracious and effectual love.

It's important that we get this. This is again his special saving

or what we call in theological circles, salvific love.

First John 3 verse one, back to first John there in chapter 3,

he says this. How great is the love the Father

has lavished on us? Who?

That we should be called the children of God.

How great is the love that He's lavished on the children of God?

You know what that means? He hasn't lavished the same love

on those unrepentant people who are not children of God.

That doesn't mean that He won't. In time, I pray that He will.

I'm not in charge of that, but what great love he has lavished

on me that I should be called a child of God.

And he says that is what you are.

That is definite. That's what I am and I am that

because he has lavished this specific and salvific love upon

me. He says the reason the world

does not know us. It is that it did not know him.

See the distinction there? He's distinguishing from the

world and the believer. The reason the world does not

know us is because the world does not know him.

And if the world does not know him, he has not lavished that

same kind of love that he has lavished on us.

He says this is important, that we understand this.

This is essential that you understand this because many

Christians have never really understood the blessing of

salvific love. You think that He's always loved

you just like He loves everyone else.

Isn't that the lie that everyone tells?

God loves us all the same? That's sad.

If He loves us all the same, that some of some people that he

loves all the same are going to spend an eternity in hell.

That's not the God of Scripture. Did you know this?

One day for the lost person who remains in their sin, God's

common love will be removed, and they will face the fury and the

full fury of his wrath and indignation for hell for all

eternity. There will be no love in hell,

not even the common love that has allowed you to live to this

point where you can hear the truth and believe in Christ and

have His love lavished upon you. Not even that common love, but

only God's indignation and judgment of sin.

So we see the psalmist understanding this.

The earth is filled with your love.

Oh Lord, teach me your decrees. Teach me all about your love.

This is specifically what he's talking about.

Teach me more about your love. God's general love, God's

salvific love is gracious and effectual love that's found only

in Christ. That's special, that saving

love. Oh, teach me more about your

guaranteeing love. Aren't you thankful that as

believers we have that love that guarantees?

This is, I told you a second ago, his love is going to be

removed from the unbeliever. But did you know this?

We as believers, we have some promises, don't we, that are

very important. Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter

Romans 8 · chapter mention Romans 8 · chapter mention

8 says, For I'm convinced that neither death nor life, neither

angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any

powers, neither height nor death, nor anything else in all

creation will be able to separate us from the love of God

that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What a promise from the Word of God that if we have received

that salvific love, if it has been lavished upon us, it'll

never be taken from us. Well, with that general love

that the lost man received every single day will one day be taken

from him. For the believer, we have the

security of understanding that the love that we have been loved

with is final and that love guarantees us many things.

First, John 4 says this, this, this is love.

Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as

an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

It it assures us that God truly has atoned for our sin.

There will never be a sin held to our charge.

If we have been loved with that salvific love, it'll never be

taken away. That means we will forever be

cleaned and we will be granted with and gifted with eternal

life in the presence of God forever because of the atoning

work of Jesus Christ. I don't know that makes some

people upset. They think in their mind,

because they haven't reconciled it with the scriptures, that

Jesus died for everyone. Jesus died for those who he came

to save, all who the Father right has given me.

Will come. Jesus came for a specific group

of people that the Father had given unto him.

And even Jesus in a conversation said this.

He said, I laid down my life for my sheep.

He laid down his life for the sheep.

Who are the sheep? Those who they are, those who

God has lavished his love upon. Those who God in eternity past

chose to save. Well, listen, I don't teach you

these things so we can get into a doctrinal debate.

You can A believe the Scriptures or B refuse to believe the

Scriptures. But what I pray is this.

I pray that you gain a biblical understanding of God and His

loving kindness toward all. Yes, He has loving kindness in

the form of general love to the unredeemed Sinner, but he has

such a greater love and a greater loving kindness and

mercy that he has bestowed upon the Saints.

Why not so that we can puff our chests out and be arrogant?

No, so we can fall on her face and say, God, why would you ever

lavish your love upon a Sinner like me and stay there in

humility for a while and just bask in that love?

What do you have a biblical understanding of God's loving

kindness? Do you know the guarantees that

we have, if we're truly in that salvific love, guaranteeing that

salvation for us, just as Jude says this?

He says in 21 of Jude's short epistle, it says keep yourselves

in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus

Christ to bring you to eternal life.

Oh, what a guarantee to bring. It's coming, the guarantee of

eternal life. And why do we have the guarantee

of eternal life? Because we are wrapped in God's

love, we are abiding there, not because of anything that we

could ever do or ever have done, but because He so chose to love

us. And that ought to bring you to

your knees in adoration and praise for Him.

So we wrap it up this morning. We have seen the six

distinguishing marks or characteristics of a godly life,

and I want to take this opportunity to challenge you.

Lay your life next to that. Lay your not life next to that

and see where you are. See how you measure up to a

godly life as defined by Scripture.

Do you profess Christ? Do you bear these marks to some

degree in your life? Because you will.

Now for those of you who aren't in Christ, of course your life

doesn't bear any of these marks. Your life can't bear any of

these marks. No fruit produced by the Spirit

is going to be seen in you at all unless you first repent and

turn to Christ as Lord and Savior.

And my prayer for you today is that He would graciously allow

you to do that, that He would by His mercy today, His loving

kindness, open your eyes to see that you need a Savior, and that

that Savior is Christ who died on the cross.

And He died in your place to wash you and to forgive you of

your sin. That He would make that ever so

clear to you that you couldn't do anything but cry out in

desperation for Him to save you. And I promise you this, for

whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

When He provokes you to cry out to Him, that is a guarantee that

He will save you. Cry out to Him and be saved

today. May God draw you out of the

darkness of your sin, may you draw you out of the wickedness

of your own ways and your own nature.

And may He lavish His mercy and His loving kindness upon you

today, giving you the salvation His only begotten Son came to

earn for you. Let's pray together, Father, in

the name of Jesus, we thank You for Your Word.

You know how we could spend hours upon hours upon endless

hours looking at the things that we have discussed today.

So God, I pray that you use the limited time that we have had,

that you use it to do only the things that you intend to do

with it. Lord, that this service today

will bear fruit for you and for your glory.

God, I ask that you would reconcile sinners unto yourself,

giving them grace and mercy through Christ.

Lord, I ask that you would encourage believers today to

examine their lives and see if they display these Marks and or

that your spirit would give them a desire to even more so see

these things in their lives. God, we ask all these things so

that you would be glorified, so your name would be praised while

we were here on this earth. We long for the day that we see

you face to face because of Christ and we give you all the

praise for what you're going to do in Jesus name, Amen.

You have been listening to Key Life Fellowships Pulpit Ministry

podcast. Join us each week for more

teaching from God's Word. If you would like to speak with

one of our pastors, please visit us on the web at

keylifefellow-ship.com. Thank you again for joining us

today.