WWUTT 1224 I Hate the Double-Minded But I Love Your Law? (Psalm 119:113-120)

Psalm 119:113-114 and the Problem of Double-Mindedness

Psalm 119, 113 says, I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. When we try to go our own way, our conscience is all over the place. But when we are established in God's word, we are true when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing. And if this is ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of Psalm 119 and we're picking up at verse 113, which is under the heading of the Hebrew letter Samech, or as you would rightly pronounce it, Samech. This is verses 113 through 120.

I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. You are my hiding place and my shield. I hope in your word. Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God. Uphold me according to your promise that I may live and let me not be put to shame in my hope.

Hold me up that I may be safe and have regard for your statutes continually. You spurn all who go astray from your statutes for their cunning is in vain. All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross.

Therefore, I love your testimonies. My flesh trembles for fear of you and I am afraid of your judgments. Boy, if this isn't deeply relevant to our present situation. Of course, all of the scripture is relevant, but there are certain things that might be popping out in your mind related to current events.

Cultural Double-Mindedness in America and the Church

So we start off here in verse 113 with I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. Our culture right now, speaking specifically of our American culture, is double-minded. The whole culture is double-minded.

Now, for those of you who live outside the United States of America, you've surely seen it in the news. But in case you haven't, we've got riots going on in our country right now. And it's amazing that the last couple of Friday episodes, I was just thinking about this earlier today, but the last couple of Friday episodes, we've talked about the lead singer of the band Hawk Nelson, a contemporary Christian music band having left the faith.

He claims that he's not a Christian anymore, says he was a Christian, but he's not a Christian anymore, nor does he even believe that God is there. When I did both of those episodes, the crazy stuff that's going on right now wasn't happening.

All of this has come about like a flood in just a matter of days. So the riots and everything started at the end of last week. It really kind of reached their apex over the weekend and have continued into just a steady chaos ever since then.

The stuff that's going on in America right now, unreal. I mean, everything that's been happening here in 2020, there are people twice my age who are saying, I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime.

So the stuff that's happening right now, we're talking riots, we're talking full-on looting stores, destroying property, burning neighborhoods, flipping over cars. I saw something just the other day, as a matter of fact, that a bunch of looters stole 72 cars from a car dealership.

The level of theft that's going on right now is in the, it's got to be in the billions of dollars by this point. It is crazy. Just the civil unrest that is going on in our country right now. And when you see the peaceful protests, the peaceful protests will boggle your mind because you're watching white people bow down to black people and they are even reciting and chanting certain creeds or confessions that they must make in order to appease their black brethren or atone for sins or something.

I'm not even really sure what the purpose is supposed to be because when it comes to all of this, whether it's Black Lives Matter, critical race theory and intersectionality, you know, all of the social justice philosophies that have kind of been permeating the American landscape over about the last half decade.

When it comes to these things, there's no end game. So nothing is ever being satisfied by it. It's just another chapter, another play, another scene is being played out, but it's never going to come to an end.

There's no final terms that have been established and therefore must be met in order for this stuff to conclude. If it ever does come to an end, it's just going to be an armistice, a ceasefire because no treaty has been established in one party meeting the other party's demands.

There's no grace in any of this. There's no forgiveness. It's you owe me, but I don't have to give you anything, including grace or forgiveness. So it's an incredibly Christless endeavor and pursuit as much as there are many, many churches that have hopped on board with this whole thing and have adopted the lingo and the language and have put it into their sermons and have made it their platform.

And many pastors preaching on it right now and asking for forgiveness because they retweeted the wrong person or something like that. And there are all sorts of craziness that is happening right now, stuff that even five years ago, I was not imagining was going to happen to evangelicalism, especially among some of my Calvinist brethren who have totally jumped on board with the social Marxist agenda that is happening right now.

It's not that I don't think they're Christians, but I do think that they have been led astray by the direction of our culture. And it is a double-minded mentality. Let me give you a more specific example of this double-mindedness.

James 1 and the Instability of Doubt

So everybody's been affected by COVID -19, right? I would assume that no matter where you are in the world, listening to this program, you have been affected by the pandemic. Lockdowns, quarantines, shelter in place, all of that kind of a thing.

Well, remember just a few weeks ago, at least here in the United States, we were being lectured on how we could not even go to church. And to go to church would be a death sentence to somebody else. So if you're gonna love your neighbor, if you truly love your neighbor, you're not gonna go to church.

But with all the protests that are happening right now, including the rioting and the looting, do you think that kind of a message is still being preached? Everybody go home. If you truly love your neighbor, if Black Lives Truly matter, go home.

Otherwise, you're gonna infect them with COVID -19. Do you think that that message is still being proclaimed? It's not. And the same media that were lambasting churches for even asking, when can we get together again, are praising these gatherings in which Black Lives Matter is being heralded as the movement of the age.

And when you look at the pictures and the videos online, it is massive crowds of people, thousands of people, whereas churches of just a couple dozen were not even allowed to gather. And if you did, your neighbors were gonna turn you in.

The media was gonna plaster you all over their pages. This is double-mindedness. It's insanity is what it is. But it's double-mindedness. You have to do what I say, when I say it, and how I feel about it in the moment when I say it.

But the next moment, I may change my mind, and that's okay. That's what a double-mindedness is. It's also described in scripture as a seared conscience because the person doesn't even recognize how hypocritical they're really being.

And you can even show it to them. You could show it on paper. Yesterday, you said this. Today, you're saying this. But they would find some excuse as to why that occasion when I said it was right and this occasion when I'm saying completely the opposite is the right thing, too, because they have a seared conscience.

They absolutely cannot see the problem with their hypocrisy. It's a double-mindedness. In James 1, when we're told to ask God for wisdom, it says, James 1, 5, and 6, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

We're told here to ask God without doubting because the person who doubts is a double-minded man. Going on. But let him ask in faith with no doubting for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

It's constantly changing. It blows to and fro. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man. Unstable in all of his ways. So as I mentioned, there are Christian brothers and sisters of mine that are being caught up in this cultural rhetoric.

That greatly concerns me. I don't think that they're not Christian, but it is incredibly concerning that they would be so easily led astray by worldly thinking and philosophy because as we have it said here for us in Scripture, the double-minded man will not receive anything from the Lord.

That's a scary place to be. And may it be convicting for any of us that our convictions, that our guide, our direction be toward truth that is established in God's Word right here in the Bible and that we seek a Christ-mindedness, that we have the mind of Christ.

Yes, we need to love our neighbor. Absolutely. But we need to do that consistently, do we not? The way you love this neighbor also needs to be the way you love that neighbor. The way you love your neighbor next door on the right is the way you love your neighbor next door on the left.

The way you love your neighbor across the street. You don't have one kind of love for one neighbor and another kind of quote-unquote love for another neighbor. That's showing partiality. And in the book of James, we're told there as well, do not show partiality in your judgments.

But we must love as Christ has loved us. He has died on the cross for our sins. All who believe in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life. He considered our needs. We must consider one another's needs.

We must put others needs ahead of our own as it says in Philippians chapter 2. And then when Paul gives that instruction, he says our example is Christ. We need to have the mind of Christ who did all things that he did for the glory of God.

So it takes more than just doing something and saying you're doing it in the name of Christ. You must do it according to the truth of Christ, what he has said in his word. Genesis, the revelation, it's all the word of Christ.

The person who does not follow the word of God and does not understand the consistency of God's word in the commandments that he has issued. They are a double-minded man, a double-minded person, man or woman.

And you can just see it going on in the culture right now. Those who are double-minded are lawless, idolaters, violent and destructive. But a person who loves God is going to be a law keeper. So I hate the double-minded.

Loving the Law, the Gospel, and God’s Protection

Now see, that's pretty harsh. I hate the double-minded. Are we supposed to hate the double-minded? Well, it's a hatred for the double-minded in such a way that you would not be like them. Their philosophies, their worldview, I hate it.

I don't want it. Give me the truth of God's word that I may be Christ-minded instead of double-minded. I hate the double-minded. But I love your law. How do we know what is pleasing to God and what is Christ-like?

It's written down in God's word. It's written in his law. The revelation of his holy and righteous character. Through the law of God, we have a recognition of our sin. We understand how we have broken God's perfect righteous law and have fallen short of his glory, how we deserve God's judgment and how we also see his love poured out to us through Christ.

For we know that we deserve the judgment of God, but he gave us his son who kept the law perfectly for us, died for us to take the penalty for our sin upon himself and rose from the dead, even conquering the very thing that our sin has wrought, which is death itself.

The wages of sin is death, Romans 6 .23. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Remember, as we've been going through Romans, that Romans 3 .21 says,. But a righteousness apart from the law has been manifested, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

So even the law testifies to this righteousness that would be given to us by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I hate the double-minded, but I love your law because it is through the law of God that we are going to come to an understanding and pursuit of godliness.

You are my hiding place and my shield, I hope in your word. When you see all the wickedness that's going on in the world right now, God's judgment is going to come down upon it. When you see wicked men clamoring the way that they are going after their selfish pursuits and the passions of their flesh, what is going to be our protection from all of these things?

It's going to be God's word because God's word promises us that he is going to be delivered, we are going to be delivered from the wicked on the day of trouble. We are told way back at the beginning of Psalms, of the Psalms.

Psalm 1, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away, double-minded being tossed to and fro by the wind.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Psalm 2, Why do the nations rage?

Why do the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.

But he who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord holds them in derision. Everything that's happening in the world right now is not shocking God off of his throne. He's laughing at how mankind thinks that he can go his way and there will not be consequences or repercussions for his actions.

The Lord's judgment will be poured out on the wicked. And so my brethren, you must turn from your sin and trust in the Lord Christ who is the only salvation from the judgment of God when it comes. This is why the psalmist loves the law of God for it guides us in the way of God.

We continue in verse 115, depart from me you evil doers that I may keep the commandments of my God. Let us not be led astray by the enticements of the wicked. Consider these words in Proverbs 1, 8, starting in verse 8, hear my son your father's instruction and forsake not your mother's teaching for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.

My son if sinners entice you do not consent if they say come with us. Let us lie and wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent without reason like she'll let us swallow them alive and whole like those who go down to the pit.

We shall find all precious goods. We shall fill our houses with plunder. Well, that's that's what's going on right now. Isn't it throw in your lot among us. We will all have one purse. Now see their wicked people though.

They're trying to entice you with the promises of wealth and riches and return and reward, but they're liars. So you can't trust them. How do you know that they're not just going to use you to get what they want and then they're going to turn on you when the opportunity presents itself.

So do not go in the way of the wicked. Therefore you have the psalmist here in verse 115 saying depart from me you evil doers that I not go your way that I may keep the commandments of my God and may we desire for peace in our days that we have that opportunity to obey God without fear of repercussion of a society or a culture coming against us simply because we pursue godliness.

We go on in verses 116 on uphold me according to your promise that I may live and let me not be put to shame in my hope. Remember we were just reading just yesterday in Romans chapter 5 and hope does not put us to shame because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

There are people that are going to mock us for the hope that we have but we're not put to shame in it. Deliverance will come for us and on that day especially we will be vindicated for our hope in Christ.

Verse 117 hold me up that I may be safe and have regard for your statutes continually asking God I want to obey you uphold me. Don't let me be discouraged by the wicked or tempted by the wicked uphold me and again, we've seen this over and over throughout Psalm 119 the prayer of the psalmist being my ability to keep your law comes from you.

God is the one who upholds us and gives us a conscience that desires the law of God. So asking God once again uphold me that I may be safe and have regard for your statutes always you spurn all who go astray from your statutes for their cunning is in vain again Psalm 2 the nation's plot in vain all the wicked of the earth you discard like dross just like we saw in Psalm 1.

They are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore. I love your testimonies because in loving the testimony in the word of God were planted like a tree by streams of water now consider this verse this final verse here verse 120 and how convicting is this my flesh trembles for fear of you and I am afraid of your judgments.

Holy Fear, the Gospel, and Prayer for the Nation

Now we read in first John that perfect love casts out fear because fear has to do with judgment. So if we are followers of Christ, we don't need to fear judgment, but nevertheless there is a reverend fear that must remain it is a holy fear not a fear that as wicked people we will come under the judgment of God because that price has been paid for us in Christ, but there still must be an understanding that God is judge and he will judge the wicked and so we cling all the more to Christ knowing that he saves us and the love of God has been demonstrated through the giving of his son.

We desire God which is a desire that has come about in us by the Holy Spirit that has been poured into our hearts. So in all of these things we cling to Christ desiring God, but we do not forget that God is judge and he will pour out his wrath on the wicked.

May this also motivate us to share the gospel with others. So they may not fall under the wrath and the wickedness of God black lives matter all lives matter. And so we must share the gospel with everyone without prejudice regardless of skin color doesn't matter.

Every person man woman and child is made in the image of God all have sinned and desecrated that image and are under the judgment of God. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that lifts us up out of that judgment cleanses off the image that we've desecrated clothes us in righteousness presents us justified before God so that we may no longer live as sinners but walk in righteousness and remain so until the day of Glory preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So others may turn from sin and live let's conclude with prayer. Heavenly father. We thank you for Psalm 119 reminding us of just how wonderful your law is for it teaches us your statutes and the very mind of God give us a mind and a heart that desires to keep it that turns away from every wicked way.

The the culture is going to sound enticing. It's going to sound convincing at times. Let us not be led into worldly philosophies, but help us to have a mindfulness of godliness that has been established by your word.

We meditate on these things continually because we love Christ and desire to be like you grant us repentance but pour out your repentance upon this land that these clamoring people may recognize their sin and turn from it and find Jesus and live and may there be gospel heralds out there proclaiming the gospel to a people who are perishing.

We ask for your grace and your mercy upon us this day. Keep us safe in the midst of chaos and to those who have been affected by all the calamity going on around us. May they find comfort in your word.

We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .wutt .com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page.

Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study When We Understand the Text.