Why You Should Love Gods Law

(Psalm 119:97-104)



I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.

This evening, were looking at the psalmists love for Gods Law and why he loved
it.

It shouldnt surprise us by this time that he did

And hes been telling us why through the entire psalm.

For instance, two weeks ago, he told us obedience brings blessing:

The Lord wont give His blessings to those who disobey Him.

And though sometimes He even withholds them when we do obey to teach us
important lessons,

He most often blesses those who honor Him first.


Last week, we saw this is true even though our obedience is imperfect

We can never obey perfectly, because we still have so much sin in our hearts to
contend with.

How then can God give us His blessings? Because of the perfect obedience of
Christ.

He earned them for us, and is willing to give them freely to us,

But encourages us to obey by not giving them to us until we do.


B. Preview.

Tonight, were going to look at another reason we should love Gods Law: because
it shows us how to gain these blessings.

Why cant we do like most professing Christians,

Who are satisfied with just a vague idea of what God wants?
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Why cant we just love God and others the way we want

And not be bothered by all the details He gives us on how to do this?

Because God wants to be loved in a very specific way,

And He wants us to love others in a particular way as well.


There are so many today even among professing Christians

Who think theyre loving God,

When theyre actually doing things that are offensive to Him.


There are so many who think theyre loving others when they support tolerance

Who want to treat everyone equally, regardless of what they want to do

When in reality, theyre encouraging them to do things that will destroy them.


There is only one way to love God and our neighbor

The way God tells us

And if we refuse or neglect to do it His way,

Well not only offend God and lose our opportunity to save our neighbor,

Well also miss out on the blessings God promises to give those

Who will love Him and others as themselves.

Ignorance in this area isnt bliss the more we know the better we can do what
God wants us to do, and the better we do it, the better our eternity will be as
well as for the others we can reach.

The Lord has handed us the blueprint on how to do these things in a way that
pleases Him,

And so we should see its value, love it, and do it.

Lets look at three things:
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1. That you should love Gods Law.

2. Why you should love Gods Law.

3. What that love should move you to do.

II. Sermon.
A. First, lets consider that you should love Gods Law.

Its plain the psalmist did:

He says, O how I love Your law! (v. 97).

The writers of Scripture were not given to exaggeration.

The psalmist says this was his heart

Not that he liked or just tolerated the Law, but that he loved it.

Love is a very strong affection

A very strong inclination of the soul

He had a passion for Gods standard of how he should live.


How strong was his love? It was so strong it produced a familiar sensation in his
soul

Not unlike what we experience when we eat something we really enjoy:

How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
(v. 103).

He delighted in it it was very fulfilling, like when you finally get something
youve been wanting for a very long time.


Was he the only one who felt this way about it?

Paul showed his high regard for the Law, when he said,

So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good
(Rom. 7:12).

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And of course, so did our Lord: He delighted to do His Fathers will (Ps. 40:8;
Heb. 10:7-9).

If this is how Jesus felt towards it, how should you?


Weve been looking in the mornings at what it means to know Jesus

How it means His image is being formed in you.

How whatever Jesus experienced, you should experience as well

His Spirit lives in you and is transforming you into His image from the inside out

This is what you should also be experiencing: You should love this Law.


B. Second, why should you love Gods Law?

Why did the psalmist/Paul/Jesus love it?

Because it showed them how to love and honor the One they loved most of all:
God.

And because it showed them how to love those God would have them to love

In a way that really is loving.

It gave them the understanding, insight, and wisdom to do this.

The psalmist writes,

v. 100 I understand more than the aged, because I have observed Your precepts.

v. 104 From Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

v. 99 I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my
meditation.

v. 98 Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever
mine.


In all other areas of useful endeavor, whatever you learn helps you to do it better.

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The better you can do it, the more you help others and yourself.

But without the Law, it will only help you here, and not hereafter.

E.g., business, law, agriculture, sports, etc.


But Gods Law, shows you how to do what you do in a way that glorifies God,

So that what you do becomes profitable not only in this life, but also in the life to
come.

Paul writes to Timothy, Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for
bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things,
since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come (1 Tim.
4:7-8).

When you do what you do to glorify God,

You not only do it better here, and benefit more from it here,

But you get to keep what youve done forever.


How can you put a price on that?

Everything you might do in this world

Everything you might gain all your money, possessions, the closest relationships,

The skills you acquire, even your own body

Youre going to have to leave behind when you die.

But heres a way to keep something forever:

Everything you do for God, all you give to Him, all you surrender for Him,

You can take with you when you leave.

Thats why Jesus said, Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where
moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where
thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will
be also (Matt. 6:19-21).

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The Law shows you how to store up these treasures,

Which is why you should love it.


C. Finally, what should love for the Law move you to do?

The same thing the psalmist did.

1. First, meditate on it:

v. 97 It is my meditation all the day.

v. 99 For Your testimonies are my meditation.

He mulled them over in his mind, thought about them,

Until he understood how they applied.


Thats what you should do.

Dont just know what the commandments say,

Dont just memorize them,

But study them until you know how they apply.


2. Second, apply them/keep them:

v. 100 I understand more than the aged, Because I have observed Your
precepts.

Notice he said he understood more than his elders

Those who would have had more time to think about them

Because he kept them.

John Frame, in his Christian Ethics class,

Talked about the relationship between understanding and applying.

The more you understand something, the more you can apply it,

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And the more you can apply something, the better you understand it.

Because he observed them, he understood more.


The more you keep them the more you put them into practice

The better you will understand them as well,

And the better you will be able to keep them,

And so gain Gods blessings.


3. Third, understanding what God wants you to do,

You will fight against the temptation to do the opposite:

v. 101 I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your
word.

As we saw this morning, if you are to know/be like Jesus,

You must resist every temptation:

To do the things He tells you not to do,

Not to do the things He tells you to do,

Even to go after right things in the wrong way.


4. Finally, you will set your heart on keeping the commandments

Because you know this Law didnt come from any man, but from God Himself:

v. 102 I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, for You Yourself have
taught me.

Knowing that the God who made you, redeemed you, and will care for you
throughout eternity, calls you to do these things,

You wont just conveniently set them aside when it suits you.

You wont because you will hate the alternative:

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v. 104 From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false
way.


5. If you love Gods Law,

Because in it you see the blueprint He has given you to honor Him and receive
His blessings,

You also will meditate on it that you might better keep it,

And you will fight against every temptation to disobey it.


Jesus loved His Fathers commandments,

Because He loved His Father,

And so He meditated on His Law, kept it, and resisted everything that was
against it.


If you know the Father and the Son,

If you have His Spirit in you,

If Jesus is being formed in you,

This is what you will do as well.

Not perfectly, but consistently and with increasing commitment.


If this isnt true of you,

I invite you to come to Jesus

To give you the grace to do so.

The Lord says if you will turn from your sins and look to Him,

He will forgive you, cleanse you, and give you a new heart.

Trust in Jesus and receive the power to gain His blessings. Amen.

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