Sustain Me According to Your Word

Good morning. It's good to have you all here. This morning, my name is Eric. If we haven't met, I am an assistant pastor here at Clear Note. This morning, we're going to continue in our series through Psalm 119. We will be going through verses 113 to 120. These stanzas are known as the psalmic. section. So that is one of the Hebrew letters. It's the 15th letter. So we're on the 15th sermon in the series. And each of the verses begin with a Hebrew. In the Hebrew, they begin with a word that begins with psalmic. Now, in this section, we are going to look at two different paths. We're going to look at the path of the double-minded man and the path of the psalmist, the righteous man.

The double-minded man is a man who's unstable. He's driven and tossed by whatever is going on. This is in contrast to the psalmist who is dependent on God. Though the psalmist goes through many trials and difficulties, he depends on God. And in the end, the psalmist sees the end of the double-minded man, and the psalmist fears God. And it helps to guard him against his own temptations towards double-mindedness. In the end, the difference between the double-minded man and the psalmist is not that the psalmist is more naturally inclined to love God or stronger or better. The difference is that the psalmist is the righteous man, is the one who depends on God, who is sustained by him, who is upheld by him.

So what about you? The question before us today is, what path are you on? Are you on a path of double-mindedness? Do you waffle in your obedience to God, in your devotion to God? Or are you like the psalmist who seeks God as sustained and upheld by him? Please stand for the reading of God's word. This is Psalm 119, 113 to 120. I hate those who are double-minded, but I love your law. You are my hiding place and my shield. I wait for your word. Depart from me, evildoers, that I may observe the commandments of my God. Sustain me according to your word that I may live, and do not let me be ashamed of my hope. Uphold me that I may be safe, that I may have regard for your statutes continually.

You have rejected all those who wander from your statutes, for their deceitfulness is useless. You have removed all the wicked of the earth like dross. Therefore, I love your testimonies. My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. The psalmist begins by saying, I hate those who are double-minded, but I love your law. This is a passage that I think often can make us feel uncomfortable because the psalmist says that he hates the double-minded. He hates them. And hatred, an open acknowledgement of hatred from someone who's godly like the psalmist sometimes doesn't seem very Christian to us. So, who are these double-minded that the psalmist hates? Well, the idea of being double-minded is someone who has divided loyalties. It is someone who is wavering between two opinions. And if we take this psalm to be written by Daniel, one could think of the Jews in Babylon. Think about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

or of Daniel, right? They come in and there's all these pressures. Are they going to live lives set apart, follow the dietary laws, not worship the idols that Nebuchadnezzar is setting up, or are they going to follow God? Are they going to blend in? Now, they were told that they should seek the good of the land that they're in, and they should plant and build. And yet, they were also still called to be living lives that were separate, that were holy. And so, you could imagine living in Babylon, in the sense that is what we are doing, and you say, there's all the pressure to live two different ways. Are we going to follow God and love God, or are we going to blend in with the culture around us? The double-minded man is the man who claims that he loves God, but tends to follow God when it's convenient. A man who sort of blends in wherever he is with whoever he is. We think of James. James says, but if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously.

and without reproach, and it will be given unto him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. That man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. So the double-minded man is a man whose allegiance, his loyalty, is divided between God and something else. It's a man whose loyalty is divided between God and something else. How might we know if someone's double-minded? Well, the double-minded man is someone who is compromising their faith. It's someone who neglects to obey God. It's someone who is hypocritical. They kind of chameleon-like want to blend in with whoever they're around. They desire to follow God at times, and they know maybe what they should do, but they're not consistent in that. Double-mindedness produces instability. It produces doubt. It's the kind of person who has committed to Christianity one day, and then he reads what the latest things the scientists are saying.

And now he's not so sure about Christianity. He wants the approbation of man, and yet he kind of wants to follow God. One day he's committed, I'm going to read the word of God, and he reads and reads and prays. And then the next day he neglects God's word and just wants to spend his time scrolling Instagram or YouTube. He's a man who claims to love Christ and be committed to Christ. But his commitment to the church is not there. It's this person who's of two minds. There's what is professed and there's what is done. Does the profession match the actions? So we have to ask, like, are we living double-minded lives? Now, the psalmist says he hates the double-minded.

And there are a few things that when it comes to this idea of hating the double-minded that I want us to consider. First, this is not a contradiction to the commands that Christ gave to forgive, as we talked about last week. Second, you must hate the double-mindedness that you find in your own life every bit as much or more than you hate double-mindedness in others. We'll get to the last verse in more detail, but... Remember that when the psalmist sees the end of the wicked, that the wicked are rejected and they are removed. It is not a source of pride in his life. Rather, it causes him to tremble and be afraid of God's judgments. And so a proper understanding and hatred of double-mindedness does not leave someone comfortable in their own sin and condemning others' sins.

The hatred that the psalmist has is not born out of personal animosity or hurt. Rather, what we see is it's born out of his great love for God's law. The psalmist is a student of God's law, and he knows it, and he loves it. And so it's in the light of God's law, and it's in his love for the law of God, that the double-mindedness of man is revealed. And it's in that contrast, the contrast to who God is and what his law reveals to the double-mindedness of man and his instability going back and forth that leads to his hatred of double-mindedness. God is faithful. He's merciful. He's full of justice and love and holiness. He has wrath that's born out of his justice.

And that will be demonstrated on those who are double-minded and unfaithful in their sin. And so it's the very love of God's holiness that leads to a hatred of the double-minded. And this is what makes a godly hatred, a godly anger, so difficult. Because too often, our anger is born out of personal offense, hurt. conceit, pride. We think that we're better, that we're superior. And so when people offend us, we get angry. This is not the psalmist. The psalmist's hatred of the double-minded is born out of his love for God's righteousness, his love for God's word, and the audacity that anyone would dare sin against such a holy God.

That's where the hatred is born out of in the psalmist. And so, first, you ought to be hating the sin in your own life. And don't tell me your offense against the sin and the unrighteousness out there when you are not every bit as much offended at the waywardness of your own heart. Because it's hypocritical otherwise. Now notice what the psalmist declares. See, the psalmist is not coming out of this out of a place of apparent strength. He's not condemning the double-minded because he thinks that he is so superior and he is so holy and his people are so much better than those people. No. See what he says. He is hiding. He's in need of a shield.

He's begging God to sustain him. These are defensive things. These, in the eyes of man, are not strong positions. This is a man who's under deep affliction and hardship. He's under attack. He has pressure to not love God's law, but rather to conform to the world. And that's not something that's uncommon, is it? I mean, this is something that we all face. We all have a question. Will we witness to Christ at work? Will we testify of his goodness in our lives? Will we testify of his love and mercy, of his wrath against sin? What about in school, with your friends at school? What about with your friends in your neighborhood? Do your neighbors know that you're a Christian?

Have you borne witness to Christ? Do we bear our faith publicly? You know, one thing I was thinking about is we had an opportunity to go to a party recently and there's a pool and there's going to be swimming and all these different things, right? And so Ruthanne and I were talking about what we were going to do. We were going to go to the party, right? But there's going to be a pool there. So the question is, how will people be dressed? And if there's a bunch of skin being paraded around, will we stay or will we leave, right? And so you feel this pressure, right? Because no one wants to show up and then find out that it's just a parade of skin and have to leave and then explain to the hosts why you showed up and five minutes later are walking out.

right? So you have this pressure to just conform to what the world thinks is normal, to just sort of blend in. We always feel pressures to compromise, to be of two minds. And there's this deceitful lie, right? If we conform to Christians when we're with Christians and to worldlings when we're with worldlings, if we can kind of split the difference, then life would be easier, right? Right? We just sort of be at peace with all men? No, no. The double-minded man is never at peace. He's never at ease. Being of two minds is the most unsettling and unstable way of life. The psalmist hopes in God's word. The psalmist believes in the promises of God and that they're true. And he believes that in the face of every opposition.

So he takes refuge in obedience to God, having faith in God's promises, and hoping that God will pull through. And that is where true stability and safety in life are to be found, and a firm commitment to the Word of God. Now, the psalmist then moves on, and this is an interesting verse, this next verse in verse... he says, depart from me, evildoers, that I may observe the commandments of the Lord. This is striking because if you've noticed, almost all of the psalm is directly the psalmist praying to God. You, oh Lord, you, you, you, right? But now it's, he shifts and he's saying something to the wicked. Depart from me, evildoers. He tells the wicked to depart. Why? So that he can obey God's command. The psalmist feels the pressure of the wicked pulling at his sinful nature and he sends them packing. And we ought to do the same. Be aware, think of the people whose company you're with and do they lead you into sin? Do the people you spend time with lead you into sin? If they do, stop hanging out with them.

If every time you hang out with these friends, you drink too much and get drunk, don't hang out with those friends. If when you go and spend time with those friends, you begin to talk like them and you begin to use foul language or you take God's name in vain, don't hang out with those friends. Think about this, kids. If you hang out with these people, with your friends at school or wherever, And every time you hang out with them, when you come home, you have an attitude with your parents and you start talking back. Then they are influencing you in sin. You have to stop. If every time you go to her house, you guys begin gossiping and it's a draw and a pull and the gossip is there and you can't keep yourself from it, then you have to stop the relationship. You have to cut off.

the things that lead us into disobedience. Does that podcast that you're listening to bring about the peaceful fruit of righteousness in your life, or does that podcast breed anger, discontentment, fear, and anxiety? Does that news anchor, right? If they're leading you in to sin, unsubscribe. I give you permission to pull out your phone and do it right now. Cut it off. Christians are people who observe, that is, they obey God's commandments, and they do not put up with people drawing them into sin. Now, I'm not saying that we leave the world. I'm not saying we go out and start build monasteries and withdraw from the world, and that's not what God calls us to, right? We have to be innocent as doves and wise as serpents as we live out in the world. What I am saying, though, is that if there is a relationship that you have with someone and it always leads you and pulls you into sin, then for the sake of your soul, end it. Get wisdom from godly men. But you cannot persist in relationships that always result in you following wicked men. It's a danger to your soul. And so the psalmist says,

I want nothing to do with the wicked. Depart from me. Go away, right? Not every person who needs Christ is your responsibility if that person always pulls you into sin in a way that you cannot recover from. You then tell someone who's stronger than you. Okay, now the next two verses that the psalmist has are some of the most encouraging. They're wonderful because these verses remind us that a Christian is not left to his own devices. A Christian is not left to his own strength. Rather, what it says is that Christians are sustained by God, not by their obedience to him. The psalmist is not immune to the pull of being double-minded, but what protects him is his reliance on God. He's sustained by God. 16 and 17 say, sustain me according to your word that I may live. And do not let me be ashamed of my hope. Uphold me that I may be safe, that I may have regard for your statutes continually. And so the psalmist here calls on God to sustain him, to preserve him, to keep him upright, upholding him. And so what

is implicit in this is an acknowledgement that he cannot remain faithful on his own, that the psalmist needs God's help. And that is something that's true of all of us. If our salvation and preservation were dependent on our own strength, which one of us could stand? Which one of us would have the ability to remain faithful to God? As the song says, right? We have hearts that are prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love. Apart from God's sustaining and upholding of us, we would all fail. And this is the beauty of Christianity. In Christianity, everything is accomplished in Christ. There's nothing left for us to earn for our salvation. Christ did it all.

Every other faith is about doing. You have to earn your salvation. You have to earn your justification. But it's not so with Christianity. In Christianity, the work is accomplished by Jesus. And then we are upheld and sustained in that. And that is why, as Christians, we can have assurance. Because think about it. All of us in our fallen flesh are very fickle. One day we want one thing. The next day we wake up, we want another thing. Like we're just so wishy-washy in the things that we want. One day we wake up and we're on fire for God. And then it can be later that afternoon, we just aren't even thinking about God. We can be so double-minded. If our salvation was dependent upon us, we would lose our salvation because of that. What security could there be if our salvation depended on us?

holding on to Christ and not us being in the hand of God, being held by him. Now, this doesn't mean that we don't obey. The psalmist is continually speaking about obedience to God, but our obedience flows out of and is in response to the work of God in us and out of the love that we have for God because of the salvation with which he wrought, not in order to earn that salvation. Now, the psalmist says, sustain me. How does God sustain his people? Well, one of the primary ways and what we see here is that the psalmist is sustained in accordance to God's word. God's word is one of the primary means by which he sustains his people. God's word reveals God to us. It teaches us of our salvation.

It teaches us of the great and the magnificent promises of God. The word of God feeds us. It strengthens us to obey him. I mean, have you ever thought how many times the word of God is compared to food or drink? I mean, it's constant throughout scripture that this is what God's word is comparing us to. Think about if you've been working outside on a really hot day and you're working and working and you're just, Dripping sweat and exhausted. How refreshing a glass of water is. How invigorating and sustaining it is for you to get back out and to continue the work, right? Well, this is what God's word is to us. If we neglect the reading of God's word, then of course we'll be exhausted spiritually. The psalmist calls God to continue the work of sustaining, upholding him. If we're feeling spiritually dry, If sin is looking especially appealing to us, if we feel weak, the question we ought to ask is, have we been nourishing ourself on the word of God? Have we been reading God's word? Have we been listening to God's word? Have we been listening to sermons? Have we been listening to godly songs which catechize us in the word of God?

God's word will sustain us. Turn to God's word for life, for comfort. Now, from the reading of the Bible, the psalmist has acted on faith. The psalmist has put himself out there acting on God's promises. He has faith in God. He acts on the promises of God. And he has hope that what God says is true and that God will come through. Now, how do we know that he's putting himself out on faith? Well, he says to God, do not let me be ashamed. He puts everything on God. If God does not sustain him and uphold him, he's lost everything. He loses his life, his honor, his safety, all of those things he depends on God for. There's the story, I can't remember.

I think it was one of the Romans, and they're going to attack, right? So they sail to the enemy land, they disembark, and then what do they do to the ships? They burn them. Why? Well, because once the ships are burned, there's no going back. The psalmist is living by faith. There's no going back. It's all on God. If God is not faithful, he's doomed. Where is your hope? Where is your hope? Have you put your life on the line? Is your whole life oriented around obedience to and love of God so that to the fact that if God doesn't pull through, you would lose your life, your honor, your safety, all that you care for? How might we know what our hope is in? Well, Maybe we put our hope in politicians or in our retirement accounts. Maybe our hope is in fitness or in eating healthy. There's all these different things that we think we'll give ourselves to these things and they'll be good for us. And sure, those are things that will benefit you in many ways. However, they are terrible places to put your hope because all earthy things have this about them. They will fail.

all these things will prove to be faulty. So here's a test to think about. Okay, where is my hope? Well, if you throw up some candidates in your head, what do you think is my hope in this? And then ask, when these things are proven to be faulty, to be unstable, does that make you feel depressed and angry? Do you become unstable? If that is the case, these are indications that your hope are in these earthy things, not in the God who is unchanging. Paul says, we read in Philippians, Paul says, I have learned the secret to contentment in all things. Why can Paul be content and of one mind in all things, no matter the circumstance? It's because his hope does not lie in earthly things. His hope is in God.

So the psalmist does not put his hope in earthy things, but in God and in God's word. So he gives and hope. He gives his money and hope of a greater reward in heaven. He's generous. The psalmist turns his cheek. He doesn't feel the need to get his pound of flesh. His hope is not in eking out every last right that he has on this earth. His hope is in the final judgment when God will right all wrongs. The psalmist gets married young and has kids, and he teaches them to follow God despite the chaos of the world around him. He gives his time to the church and is committed to God because he hopes in God, because he knows that earthy things will fail him. But if he lives his life in accordance to the promises and the commands of God, he will truly live, and God will be faithful.

And he doesn't care what the world thinks. Now, the next verses are very sobering. And they're a warning to wayward hearts. They're a warning to double-minded men. They're a warning to hypocrisy, to hypocrites. Because hypocrisy cannot stand God's scrutiny. He says, you have rejected all those who wander from your statutes. Their deceitfulness is useless. You have removed all the wicked from the earth like dross. Therefore, I love your testimonies. So first we are told that those who wander from God's statutes are rejected. Those who wander from God's statutes are rejected. This is a warning shot across the bow to us every time we give into sin.

and we start turning from the commandments of God. These are warnings. There are means of God used to keep us from wandering, to warn us that if we persist in wandering away from God, we may be cut off. So we must call on God to preserve us, to sustain us, as the psalmist does, because he sees that when wicked men wander from God, they are cut off. We read this already earlier, but I'll read it again. Jeremiah 17, 9 and 10 says, the heart is deceitful above all else and desperately sick. Who can understand it? There's an answer. There is someone who actually understands the heart. I, the Lord, search the heart and I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds. In other words, our hearts can be so deceitful.

That we can knowingly devise a lie in order to cover ourselves and end up believing the lie that we know we're lying about. It's incredible, right? That we can try to deceive people and know that we're deceiving people. And in the end, we believe our own press. That's not God. God knows. Our lies are worthless. when brought before God. God knows your heart better than you do. And so the deceit of the double-minded men that they use to try and cover themselves is, what does the psalmist say? Useless. Their deceit is useless. It won't accomplish anything. You understand the point here is that the wicked think they buy their own press.

They can deceive all the men around them. But the reality is when it comes to God, he is not deceived. The lies are valueless. They do not accomplish anything when it comes before, when you stand before God. It's such a warning shot because we all think that we'll gain something through deception by shaving the truth. God sees clearly. Next, he says, that the wicked are removed like dross. So when you have metal and you heat it up really hot and the metal melts, there's all these impurities that are revealed. And the impurities are collected and that is dross. Dross is scum. It's worthless. Actually, dross makes the value of the metal, that makes the metal less valuable. That is the wicked. And the Lord removes them.

And it's really striking, isn't it? Because what he says is, the Lord will remove the wicked like dross. Therefore, I love your law. Which this reminds us of the first verse, doesn't it? That he hates the double-minded and he loves the law of God. See, God's people, when they see God dealing with wickedness, it helps them to love God's righteousness more. Because we all have the law of God written on our hearts. We all have an understanding. Everyone has some idea of justice and of right and wrong. And when we see God deal with wickedness, it can be a comfort and help us to love God's righteousness more because we see things being dealt with. But the last verse, the last verse says, where do we have it?

I tremble, my flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments. My flesh trembles, and I am afraid. When the psalmist looks out, and he sees the end of the wicked, and he sees how God deals with a double-minded man, it causes him to fear. And this isn't just like a theoretical, like I'm sort of afraid, but He feels it in his flesh. His body trembles. Theology is not merely an intellectual exercise. What we know about God ought to be felt in our bones. It ought to affect our emotions. And when he sees the end of the wicked, he's afraid. We might ask, what kind of fear does the psalmist fear?

Well, it's not a slavish fear, right? It's not a fear that would drive someone away from God. You think of Jesus when he tells the story of the talents and there's the man who's given one talent and he says, I know you reap where you haven't sowed and all these different things, right? And so he takes the talent and he buries it. That's a slavish fear. He fears to do anything. He doesn't love God. The fear doesn't drive him to God, it drives him away from God. That's a slavish, ungodly fear. But throughout the psalm, what we know is that the psalmist loves God. He loves his word. He loves his law. The psalmist is constantly reminding us how good God is and how good his word is. So the fear that he has is not an unreasoning terror, which causes someone to run away. No, the fear of the psalmist is the fear of a son for their father.

It's a son who dearly loves his father, but who does not want to cross his father. He's seen the consequences of his father's wrath on those who cross him. This fear, a godly fear, is helpful to us because having a fear of God will guard us against our sin. It will keep us from spiritual laziness. It will keep us from sins of presumption. We're told in scripture to work out our faith with fear and trembling. If we fear God, it will help us to honor God. And, and we've been talking about this double-mindedness. You want to know one of the best cures for double-mindedness? The fear of God.

The fear of God is the best cure for a divided loyalty and a double mind. Because when you have a proper fear of God, you will be driven to take refuge in him as the psalmist does, to hide in him, to cling to God, because you will know that it is God who sustains you and you will look at sin and you will realize the deceitfulness of it. The varnish is rubbed off. You'll see the death, the hatred of God. against sin. And all of a sudden, you know, Eve looked at the apple and thought, or whatever the fruit was, and thought, hmm, looks good. It wasn't. It was death. It was poison. Well, if you fear God, all of a sudden you will see the poison of sin for what it is, and you will not want it. And you will see the danger of trying to have a foot in two camps, and you won't want it.

Because you'll see the end of the wicked is rejection and being cut off. And so to help cure a wandering heart of being double-minded, like the psalmist, we must turn to God's word and love God's word. In God's word, we begin to see the greatness of God, his holiness and his faithfulness, his faithfulness to his people. We see that we're sustained by him. We learn in God's word that we're given great and mighty promises, promises to sustain and uphold his people through all the difficulties. God's word will teach us of his holiness and his wrath and the punishment of sin, and that God will not be patient forever. And when God raises up his hand to deal with the wicked, it's final. And so the cure for a divided heart with mixed loyalties, is not found in just trying harder.