How are people supposed to respond to God’s Word? Among the worst of responses we would read about those in Romans 1…. READ v18-23, 25, 28…
But among the best responses to God’s word is found in Psalm 19:11-14. READ….
While reflecting on creation and scripture, David begins reflecting on his own life. As David looks on creation and sees creation declaring the glory of God, as David looks into the Law and sees the glory of God, David then looks at himself and wants to see the glory of God. That is the progression. That is the turn in verse 11 David takes. Now David is self-examining; he is finding his life brought into order in light of God’s revelation: his motivations, his ambitions, his goals, his purpose, his energies, his focus.
God’s revelation reorders our lives so that we live to glorify God. Just like the heavens declare God’s glory, and day after day they pour forth speech praising God, so too we find the effect on us is that we want our lives to show forth His glory, and day after day bringing Him praise.
#1 TAKE WARNINGS SERIOUSLY (11a)
First, for my life to bring God glory I have to take His warnings seriously. Verse 11a says, “By them [decrees] your servant is warned.” The decrees of God warn the servant of God. And I love that David said, “your servant is warned,” YOUR SERVANT. David is seeing God as His Master whom he serves. God is the Master of creation, the Master of Scripture, and the Master of David’s life. A servant understands the warnings God gives for disobedience and takes them seriously.
You know who didn’t take them seriously? The Israelites. In Jeremiah 5:12 God said, “They have lied about the LORD; they said, ‘He will do nothing! No harm will come to us; we will never see sword or famine.’” Or in 6:18 when God says, “Listen up, you nations; you who are witnesses, observe what will happen to the Israelites. Hear, you earth! I am bringing disaster on this people…” WHY GOD? He says, “because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law.” The words of God and the law which warned them they have ignored. So the words of God promising punishment and curses were going to be fulfilled. God’s word warns us in order to purify us.
“Stop sinning,” Jesus told the man he just healed in John 5, “or something worse may happen to you.” Everyone should make it their HW today to read Deuteronomy 28. Moses is speaking to the Israelite generation about to enter the Promised Land. He is rehearsing the law and the covenant God made with them. Deuteronomy 28 has two halves: the first half is the specific blessings promised for their obedience and the last half is the specific curses promised for disobedience. The nation was warned by the Law, just like David says in Psalm 19. God followed through on warnings in Jeremiah 5:25 when He says to rebellious Israel, “Your wrongdoings have kept these away; your sins have deprived you of good.”
Jump to Revelation 2 and 3 with me. Here Jesus gave personal messages to 7 churches.
- 2:4-5
- 2:14-16
- 2:20-23
- 3:1-3
- 3:14-19
The idea of warnings helps us to maximize our reward. Think about it: if I have more knowledge of how to live for God then my reward will be secured and not lost when I stand before Him. Turn to 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 with me, READ….Here Paul describes a Christian who did not take God’s warnings seriously. And while saved, he enters the next life with a lot less than what he could have.
APPLICATION: We must see God’s warnings as blessings. David clearly saw them that way. Any true servant of God treasures those warnings because they inform us and motivate us towards godliness. They keep us from becoming stupid and rationalizing our sin.
APPLICATION: Warnings maximize our reward. Think about it, if God informs us what we ought to do and what we ought not do then we know what pleases Him and what displeases Him.
#2 MOTIVATED BY REWARDS (11b)
Be motivated to be obedient because you know God rewards it. Verse 11b, “in keeping them [decrees] there is great reward.”
First of all notice the guarantee of reward when David says, “…there IS…..” Obedience to God’s word WILL BE rewarded. “God is not unjust,” Hebrews 6:11 says, “he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.”
One of the points at which people stumble is on this very point: they think there is NOT a reward for faithfulness to God. In moments of temptation they’re deceived by their sinful thoughts and so they give into sin because they’re thinking that there is NO blessing for denying that sinful desire so they might as well go all in on their sin.
Or someone may look at a hardship they’re going through and see only what’s in front of them and so they give up on the thought that there is reward for their obedience and so they give up on obeying God in their difficulty.
Second of all, it is not wrong or somehow less than godly to work for your reward. I know a lot of people who are uncomfortable with the thought of our obedience being motivated by our rewards. I think this is getting too pious for your pew though and acting as though obedience is purely about pleasing God and giving Him honor. And we must be motivated by those, but those are not the only motivations God gives us in Scripture. So I’m here to urge you to go after your rewards and let your rewards be a strong motivation for living obediently to Christ. After all – every single godly person in the Bible was motivated by their rewards.
- David was motivated by his reward, as Psalm 19:11 shows.
- Daniel was motivated by his reward (Dan 12:13)
- Abraham was motivated by his reward (Heb 11:8, 13)
- Moses was motivated by his reward (Heb 11:24-26)
- Peter was motivated by his reward and Matthew 19.When he asked we’ve left everything.What’s in it for us?And Jesus did not rebuke him for asking, but instead promised him.There is great reward for the sacrificial obedience
- Paul was motivated by his reward and said so often, as in 1 Corinthians 9:25-27 and Philippians 3:12-14. But the last words he wrote say it best in 2 Timothy 4:6-8. Notice how he describes his faithfulness and therefore his confident expectation of reward for that faithfulness.
If God tells us that he rewards obedience, and he even tells us it should motivate us, and the godliest people in the bible were motivated by their own reward, who are we to act like we’re “above” being motivated by our own reward?
- In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said to give and pray and do all your acts of righteousness not on display so everyone sees you, but in secret so that your Father in Heaven will see and reward you (Mt 6:4, 6, 18). Let God’s reward motivate you to be humble and discreet in your good works.
- Hebrews 11:35 says there were saints long ago who were imprisoned and tortured but refused to be let go “so that they might gain an even BETTER resurrection!!” Motivated by their reward.
- The Apostle John told a church, “Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked so hard for, but that you may be fully rewarded.” (2 John 1:8).
- The Lord Jesus Himself told the 7 churches to keep in mind their rewards in order to motivate them to keep away from idols and sexual immorality (Revelation 2-3).
- The whole bible ends in Revelation 22:12 with Jesus saying, “I am coming soon! My reward is with me and I will give to each person according to what they have done.” Motivating us with the reward that is coming.
This is not a motivation to earn or keep salvation. This is a motivation for reward. Those who are saved have the possibility of earning reward by how they live this Christian life right now. They can enter eternal life with a lot of reward, a little reward, or now reward (1 Cor 3:12-15)