0603 Do You Really Love God? Psalm 116:1

 0603 Do You Really Love God?

Psalm 116:1; John 21:15-17; Psalm 63:1-2

 

Quacco Baptist Church

Savannah, Georgia

April 23, 2023

Introduction - 

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. (Psalm 63:1–2)  

Only God can satisfy a heart like David’s, so the question is; is your heart like David’s? Scripture says that David was a man after God’s own heart. Just what does that mean?

We get a hint in Acts 13:22 - “After He had removed him, [Saul], He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, 'I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.'.  In essence, to love God is to be satisfied in Him, not just His gifts, but God himself. John Piper puts it, “The glorious person that He is!”... That includes obeying all His commands; believing all of His word; and thanking Him for all His gifts. But those are extras. The essence of loving God is admiring and enjoying all he is. This enjoyment of God makes all of our other responses truly glorifying to him. 

Jesus made this clear on the eve before his crucifixion when He said to the disciples, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. … "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me, and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him."  This is a recurring theme, in John’s first letter. 

This we know, we feel, by instinct, intuitively, as well as from the written word, Scripture. We just go to Ecclesiastes 3:11, from Young’s Literal Translation- The whole He hath made beautiful in its season; also, that knowledge He hath put in their heart without which man findeth not out the work that God hath done from the beginning even unto the end. 

… he has put eternity into man's mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. (RSV)

Some commentators look at this as being rather negative - God has given man some knowledge, how to find out things we don’t know and yet we know there is more and God has left that knowledge out of our reach. That then leads to frustration and man then begins to leave God out of the picture — 

But actually, this all can help man find his way to God. The teacher/preacher of Ecclesiastes alludes to the possibility of finding satisfaction in God –

Augustine explains it the following way: You are great Lord, greatly to be praised - man desires to praise You - You have made us for Yourself, restless is our heart until it comes to rest in You.

C.S. Lewis writes in ‘Mere Christianity’, If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.”

Let us be thankful for the longings and the blessings God gives us in this life, but look forward with hope to spending eternity with Jesus Christ in heaven. 

Psalm 116, opening verse, I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. 2 Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.; Psalm 77 opening verse,I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me. 2 In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted…

You can hear the emotional calls of the psalmist, maybe some problems in his life brought him to God, crying out in heartache and anguish. We have many reasons for loving the Lord, but we’re most affected by his loving-kindness when we’re relieved out of some deep distress and sense the state we’re in and we fear that we’ll sink under God’s wrath, then we find trouble and sorrow. 

It is in these times when we are burdened and heavy laden that we come to him, and find rest to our souls. We can say I love, because the Lord hath heard," my voice and my pleas for mercy.  Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.; 

We feel most honored by the love of others and from the delights of fellowship. So with God. He is most honored when we accurately reflect the character of God. We glorify Him. To glorify God is to honor Him for who He really is. 

God has glory because He is infinitely valuable; We have glory because we are created in the image of the One who is all-glorious, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27). We glorify God when we demonstrate through word or action His glorious character or deeds. Modeling the character of Jesus is a way to glorify God, because we are showcasing His attributes. When we glorify God, we bring Him honor.

So what then is your chief purpose? That is the first question of the Westminster Catechism and answers the question: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. Psalm 86:9 All nations whom thou hast made shall come And worship before thee, O Lord; And shall glorify thy name. Deut. 6:4-5, the Shema “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 

For Jonathan Edwards this was the great biblical truth that mastered his theology, that motivated his preaching, and which molded his ministry to his family and church. Edwards believed that the whole universe was designed to demonstrate the knowledge,the power, the sovereignty, and grace of God–in a word, his glory.

I’m not one to try and put anyone on the spot, but for the seven years that y’all have given me the honor to preach, share the word of God here at Quacco I have come to more understand what it is to honor God. Not just outwardly. But from the heart. “The Lord says, ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’” (Isaiah 29:13). When we delight in the Lord (Psalm 37:4), seek Him in everything we do (1 Chronicles 16:11; Isaiah 55:6), and make choices that reflect the place God has in our hearts, we bring Him the greatest honor.

Can we be as David and be believers after God’s own heart? Yes, by admiring and enjoying all he is. This enjoyment of God makes all of our other responses truly glorifying to him. We were created for His and only His glory. When man asks why am I here, for what have I been born? The answer is: clear that God created man and that He created him for His glory.

There is no need for deep philosophical Q & A’s. Therefore, the ultimate purpose of man, according to the Bible, is simply to glorify God. By giving glory to God you honor Him. By honoring Him you show your love for Him. So, Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.

Heavenly Father, teach us to rest in Your unfailing love. May we take comfort in knowing that Your purposes for us will be fulfilled. There is nothing that we will encounter that can separate us from Your love. Thank you, Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. In Jesus’s name, amen.