A few months ago I saw a plaque which read, I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not sure. Now, we may find it humorous, and it is, it is humorous to be indecisive about certain things, but what is not a laughing matter is to be indecisive about God and the Word of God, the Bible. And the reason indecisiveness in this arena is such a serious, serious matter is because it involves eternal Consequences, those who hesitate to trust Christ as their Savior are in danger of dying without their sins being forgiven. and therefore facing eternal wrath and judgment. Now this morning as we return to our study of Psalm 119, we return to the 15th stanza where the psalmist addresses this very issue of wavering and being indecisive concerning God and His Word. As we discovered from our study last week, the theme of these verses is to be loyal. faithful to the Word of God, using his own experience and his own example. The psalmist tells us how he was able to maintain his own loyalty to the Scriptures, even though he lived amongst people who were not loyal. They were vacillating in their attitude towards the Lord and towards His Word. See, some of the people around him posed a serious threat to his own spiritual well-being, and he understood that, because they stood in opposition to his desire to walk in obedience to God's Word. Notice how he refers to these people in these verses. In verse 113, he calls them double-minded. In verse 115, he refers to them as evildoers, and he tells them to depart, to leave, to go away from him. In verse 118, he speaks of those who wander from God's statutes and he says that they are deceitful. And then in verse 119, he speaks of those unbelievers as the wicked of the earth and he says God will remove them. Now, who were these people and why was he so concerned about them? Well, there's a great deal of evidence in Psalm 119 to suggest that the psalmist, though a Jewish man, was presently living in Babylon as one of the exiles during Israel's captivity. This is the captivity that God predicted through his prophets that it would come to Israel and then Judah. as punishment for their rebellion against Him. Many times God said that, and 2 Kings reveals that it did come. It began to take place about the year 600 B.C. as Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon started to conquer Judah, the southern kingdom, by taking captive its citizens in a series of three deportations. There wasn't just one, there were three deportations, and eventually he destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the beloved temple. And it appears that one of those who was deported was the author, the writer, the unnamed man of Psalm 119. And I think one of the strongest indications of this is what we read earlier In the psalm, when he identifies those who hate him, he said, as princes who sit and talk against him. These men are very likely Babylonian princes, Gentile chieftains, who had the authority of their government behind them to put this man to death, which is why in this section of verses he prays, in verse 17, that he might live. And then later he expands on this in verses 85 and 87, where he says that they have dug a pit to throw his body in, so they have the authority and were thinking about killing him. Now, as pagan men, these Babylonian princes would have absolutely no interest in the God of Israel or His Word, I can assure you of that, to them, God was a defeated and conquering deity, a loser, because they won, they conquered Israel, they felt like their God would have given them victory, and therefore God's Word would have absolutely no value to them. And that's why we read throughout this psalm of the contempt, the sheer contempt, that these men have for the psalmist and for the scriptures that he loved. For example, in verse 42, you can look this up on your own, I'm just going to give you the principles, they reproach him, they mock him for his faith. In verse 51, he says basically the same thing, they taunt him, they scorn him. In verse 78, these men were told they lie about him, they spread slanderous lies about him. In verses 36 and 37 he speaks of being tempted with dishonest gain, and he asked the Lord to turn his eyes from looking at vanity, which, as I told you when we went through this, vanity in the Scriptures is often a reference to an idol, an idol. So this man was apparently encouraged by his pagan persecutors to turn from the God of Israel, to worship one of their Babylonian gods, with some type of dishonest monetary incentive. Now listen closely. If the psalmist's primary antagonists were Gentile unbelievers, as they certainly appear to be, then the question is, who are the people that he's writing about here in this 15th stanza? The reason I raise this question is because he describes them in verse 113 as those who are double-minded. And that would seem to put them in a different category than the Gentile princes, pagans. And let me explain. You'll recall, last Sunday we spent quite a bit of time describing what the psalmist meant by a double-minded person. We learned that the thought behind this word, this Hebrew word double-minded, is to vacillate, is to go back and forth, is to waver, and thus the term. It's a great translation. Double-minded in contrast to being single-minded and focused. This word is related, as I told you last week, to the same Hebrew word that Elijah the prophet used when he challenged the people of Israel to make up their minds as to who they were going to follow, either God or Baal. 1 Kings 18.21, he said, How long will you hesitate? That's the word, hesitate, waver, be double-minded. How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him, but if Baal, follow him. And if we were, as I told you, we were to translate this word hesitate literally, it would be to leap, to jump. So what Elijah is actually saying is stop jumping, leaping back and forth between the Lord and Baal. Stop wavering and seesawing between following the Lord and following Baal. Make your choice. See, the problem with Israel, at this time in their history, is that they were undecided, unsettled, vacillating, without having any firm conviction as to who was the God they were going to follow. Was it Jehovah or was it Baal? One day they claim to believe in the Lord, the next day something happens, and now they're in the Baal camp. So then it would appear that the double-minded people, who the psalmist found so threatening, were not outright pagans who would have absolutely no interest and no attraction to the God of Israel or His Word. But watch this. They had to be then fellow Jews, fellow Israelites. Israelites who had been taken in the same captivity with Him and who were now waffling in their opinion between the Lord God of Israel and some Babylonian God or gods. And that's what makes this section of Psalm 119 so very valuable and so very relevant and pertinent to us, because the people that posed a threat to this man's loyalty to Scripture were similar to those who pose a threat to us, because they're people we know, they're people we have a relationship, and they are people who have a certain amount of familiarity with the Bible. You see, the people who were a danger to the psalmist, they were not pagans born of pagans, confirm rejecters of God and his word, but rather they were his own people. They were the children of Abraham who knew the Bible and were familiar with the things of God, but who had no firm commitment to the things of God. These are people who had lingering doubts and reservations about the trustworthiness of the Scriptures, doubts about a God who would let them suffer so much by sending them into exile, even though He warned them about this, sending them into exile in a foreign land, and so they vacillated. in their opinions about the Lord. They were leaping back and forth between Him and whatever else they believed. And based on what the psalmist tells us about these people, they were not true believers. It's important to understand that. They were not true believers who were just going through a temporary lapse of faith, just struggling, but rather they were unconverted evildoers. He calls them evildoers. Wicked, deceitful men who were interested in pulling Him into their wavering state of double-mindedness. Folks, that's why this stanza speaks so loudly to us, because it instructs us that those who threaten our loyalty to the Word of God are often those who we know well, and those who we tend to associate with, because they have an acquaintance and some type of connection with Christianity. Some type. But they don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ. They may know a lot about the Bible. They may have gone to a Christian school. They may have been raised in a Bible-teaching church. They know a lot about the Bible, but they don't know the God of the Bible. Because they've never been converted, and that's why they are double-minded. These are not believers who are struggling. These are unbelievers. People like this tend to declare with great boldness and great confidence that they are Christians. You often meet people like this who, if you question them and say, like Paul said, examine yourself whether you're in the faith. No, I'm a Christian, they'll often assert. They'll tell you that they believe in Jesus as their Savior, but their profession is empty. There's no evidence. There's nothing there. There's no reality to their profession. No indication that they've been regenerated by the Spirit of God. Therefore, they're what the Bible would call hypocrites, pretending to be Christians, and even deceiving themselves into thinking that they are Christians, and knowing just enough of the Bible to be dangerous, because they'll use their knowledge, familiarity with Scripture to have a negative influence on those who are true believers. How? By sowing doubt in your mind about God's Word, trying to lure you away from being faithful to the Lord, so that you will be just like them, indecisive, knowing the Bible, but having no single-minded devotion to the Bible. Now that's the situation that the psalmist faced, living in the midst of people who weren't only double-minded and just kept it to themselves, but who wanted him to join them in their double-mindedness. And you can certainly see then how this would be relevant to us, because all of us find it challenging to be loyal to the Lord, to be loyal to His Word, because there are so many forces trying to pull us away from being loyal to Him. not only our own flesh, not only the world, not only the devil, but those people we know who are double-minded doubters, who, if we left them, would weaken our faith and weaken our resolve to follow Christ and His Word. And so, what the psalmist does in these verses is he tells us how he maintained his loyalty to Scripture even though he was surrounded, completely surrounded, by those who were disloyal, those who were unfaithful to the Word of God and wanted Him to join them in their disloyalty. And He does this, as I said, by His own example. What He does specifically, He reveals certain actions that He took, and then a certain attitude that He had that enabled Him to persevere in His fidelity to the Lord. So, if you'll take these words to heart, and follow this man's example by doing the same actions and then embracing the same attitude, you'll find yourself being just as loyal to the Lord as he was. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Because this is a special man. I want to be like this man. This is a godly man who loved the Word. The first course of action he tells us he took to maintain his loyalty to God's Word is that he separated himself from those who were double-minded. Verses 113 to 115 say, 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. Now, as we saw last week, in these verses the psalmist tells us that he hates those who are double-minded, but he loves God's Word. And while he seeks refuge in the Lord as his hiding place, meaning he's hiding from these dangerous people in the Lord, he also takes responsibility. His responsibility is to separate himself from those evildoers. He orders them to depart from him, just leave him alone. Now, what may sound strange to us, as I pointed out to you last Sunday, is to hear the psalmist say that he hates those who are double-minded. And I understand that. We don't often say that, but that's what he says. We would be more comfortable hearing him say that he hates the sin of those who are double-minded. But that's not what he says. He says that he has hatred for these people, and not simply their sins. Now, last week we spent a considerable amount of time examining this thought of hating an unbeliever. And in doing so, we saw that God tells us in a number of places in his word that he actually hates unbelievers. We saw in verse, for example, in Psalm 5, verse 6, where he says, the Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit. We saw from Psalm 11, verse 5, that God says that the one who loves violence, his soul hates. And of course, there's Malachi 1, which Paul quotes in Romans 9, and both of them say, Jacob have I loved, but Esau, Have I hated? But in addition to these statements of God's hatred of unbelievers from the Psalms, we read in Proverbs 6 that God hates certain wicked activities. And note this, he says he hates those who practice such activities. Proverbs chapter 6, starting in verse 16, we read, there are six things which the Lord hates. Yes, seven which are an abomination to him, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife amongst brothers. Now, we need to understand this, and this is not an easy concept for us to grasp. We need to understand that God's hatred is a perfect, holy hatred. It's not at all tainted by sinful attitudes. We are not to think of God's hatred as anything but pure, holy hatred that is repulsed, that is revolted by anything contrary to His perfect and righteous nature. Nor are we to conclude that because God hates sinners that He doesn't love them as well. commenting on God's hatred of Esau and his descendants. John MacArthur, in his book, The God Who Loves, writes this, and I'm quoting this so you know that I'm not a heretic, okay? Because others agree with this. You didn't laugh at that. That's a little scary up here. Okay. MacArthur writes this, but God's hatred for Esau and the nation of Edom does not prove that he had no love, no compassion, no charity whatsoever to Esau or his descendants. In fact, we know from Scripture that God was kind to this despicable nation. When the Israelites left Egypt on their way to Canaan, they passed through the land of Edom. God firmly instructed Moses, do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a footstep, because I have given Mount Sierre to Esau as a possession. MacArthur continues, this holy hatred combined with loving kindness implies no inconsistencies on God's part. Both love and wrath are reflections of his nature. He is loving yet holy. He is compassionate yet indignant over evil. Hatred and love, he says, are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Even in the range of human emotions, such feelings are quite normal. Most people know very well what it is to hate and love the same object at the same time. One might, for example, have both sincere compassion yet deep revulsion toward a filthy tramp who has lived a life of dissipation. A little bit later in his book, MacArthur makes this statement concerning those who deny God's hatred of sinners. He states, others deny that God truly hates anyone. They'll say that God hates the sin, but not the sinner. He said, this is a false dichotomy, however. Remember that it is the sinner himself who is judged and condemned and punished. If God hated only the sin and not the sinner, He would strip the sin away and redeem the sinner, rather than casting the whole person into hell. Hell is, after all, the final expression of God's hatred. God does hate the reprobate sinner in a very real and terrifying sense. He concludes by saying, I would never say such a thing were it not clearly taught in Scripture. This is not malicious hatred. It is a holy abhorrence for that which is vile, loathsome, and evil. But it is true hatred nonetheless. Now, if God hates sinners with a holy abhorrence, then what the psalmist then is telling us is that he too has this same holy hatred towards those who are double-minded. And the reason He says he feels this way because he loves the word of God. That's very key. It's exactly what he tells us at the end of verse 113. I hate those who are double-minded, but I love your law. See, if you love God, and you love His Word, then you can help but hate everything and everyone who stands opposed and in rebellion to it. That's exactly what these double-minded individuals were doing. They were opposing and they were resisting God's Word by failing to commit themselves to following it, even though they were familiar with it. Now, I don't want anyone to misunderstand. I don't want anyone to misapply this thought on hating sinners. We are not. Hear me clearly, we are not to treat unbelievers with disdain and sinful contempt. This hatred is more of an attitude than an action. And if you ask me, well, Steve, how do you apply it to your own life? I would honestly say, I don't know. I don't know. It's easier to preach this than to live this. We have to preach the word. This is what the word says. I'm asking the Lord to help me to have a balance on this. But we are not to treat unbelievers ever with disdain and sinful contempt. Your unbelieving family can come here and know that we will treat them with absolute love and courtesy and respect. This hatred, as I said, is more of an attitude than an action. We are to love unbelievers. We are to treat them with nothing but mercy and kindness. I want you to see this. In Romans chapter 12, hear what the Apostle Paul, into the inspiration of the Spirit of God, says. In Romans 12, verse 14, he says this, Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. And notice what he says, starting in verse 17, Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, then feed them. If he's thirsty, give him a drink, for in so doing you'll heap burning coals on his head. Do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. So please don't hear me or the word of God saying that we are to treat unbelievers in a hateful, despicable manner, because that's not what's being said at all. In fact, the only thing, if you notice, as you go back to Psalm 119, the only thing that the Psalmist says that reflects his own hatred is that these who are double-minded, he tells them to depart from him. Because they were a threat to him. That's all he says to them. Depart from me, leave me. And they were a threat to him because they wanted to draw him away from his commitment to the Word of God. And that's why he commands them, depart from me so I can continue to observe the commandments of the Word. Now, all of us are potentially in the same danger of being lured away from being loyal to the Word by being negatively influenced by those who are familiar with Christianity, but who have no love for the Lord, all of us are potentially in that same danger. But those I am most burdened about are our young people, those in our youth ministry, because they are so vulnerable to being influenced by friends who know the gospel, but who don't love Jesus. So to those of you who are young, I say to you, be so careful who you hang around with. Those who you are close friends with, because even though they may claim to know Christ, if they are double-minded and have no interest in God's Word, their skepticism, their doubts about Scripture and Christianity will eventually rub off on you. And they will weaken your faith, and they will weaken your resolve to follow Christ. to weaken it so that you will find yourself believing and embracing their views and their values, which are the views and values of mainstream America today, and not the Bible. Views like homosexuality and transgenderism is just okay. Views like sexual activity outside of marriage is okay. Views like smoking pot and taking other drugs, that's okay. views like it's wrong to condemn anyone for what they're doing, because that would be judging and we are not to judge. Who am I to judge? That type of thing. Listen, if you want to be loyal to the word of God, to the Lord, then you have to do what the psalmist did. He separated himself from those who were double-minded. Be gracious to them, be kind, but don't make them your best friends. Witness to them, have a relationship with them, but don't let them be your closest companions. Your closest friends should be those who have biblical convictions and those whose lives are characterized by obedience to those convictions. Those who will encourage you to obey the Lord and have convictions as well. When I was a new Christian and a student in Bible college, a very wise individual told me, he said, Steve, find the godliest person you know and make him your best friend. What great advice! And I pass that pearl of wisdom on to you. Make godly people your closest companions. So, by his action of telling those who are double-minded to depart from him, the psalmist has revealed to us that the very first thing he did that enabled him to be loyal to the Word of God was he separated himself from evildoers. But he moves on in the next couple of verses to tell us about a second course of action he took that helped him maintain his loyalty to the Word. He tells us that in addition to separating himself from evildoers, he leaned on the Lord for his sustaining grace. He depended on Him. Notice verses 116 and 117. 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. Now, these two verses are essentially saying the same thing. Knowing how easy it would be for him to be negatively influenced by these double-minded man, he diligently asks the Lord to sustain him and uphold him. Notice in verse 116 that he asks the Lord to sustain him by his word. And what he means by that is he needs the promises of Scripture to help him persevere in his faithfulness, by reviving and renewing his life. Otherwise, he won't be able to maintain his loyalty to the Word. His hope of being delivered from these dangerous, evil men would then be dashed and he would fall into despair and be ashamed and embarrassed by it all. Again, in verse 117, he asked the Lord to uphold him that he might be safe. Safe from what? Safe from these double-minded people who would try to lure him away from his commitment to the Word. He wants nothing to hinder his high regard for Scripture. So, what's the principle here? What is the timeless truth that this man is teaching us by telling us about the way that he prayed? Listen closely. He's teaching us that the way to remain faithful to God's Word in a world that tries to pull you away from the Word is by leaning on the Lord for His help and His grace. You see, the point is that you and I can't do this on our own. We're not strong enough on our own. We're not capable enough to resist the temptations of being pulled in the direction of disobedience. We're weak people. Therefore, we must ask the Lord for help. And if we do that, will He give us His help? Well, let's see what Hebrews chapter 4, verses 15 and 16 tell us. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help," notice this, "...in time of need." The writer is telling us that because Jesus is a man, fully human, and one who dwelt among us as a human during his earthly ministry, He knows what it's like to be tempted. Jesus knows exactly what it's like to be tempted. He experienced temptation, and He sympathizes, therefore, with us. During His earthly sojourn, our Lord was tempted in all of the same areas that we are tempted. And I want you to keep this in mind. He felt the full force of temptation. whereas we often give in to temptation before we feel its full power. But Jesus felt the full force of temptation. He never sinned, but he felt temptation. So, in light of how Jesus experientially understands and sympathizes with our temptations, the writer is telling us, he invites us to enter his presence through prayer, and to ask for his help in resisting temptation, so that we will find mercy and grace in our time of need." In other words, if you come to Him asking for His help when you are faced with temptation, He'll give it. That's what He says. Just ask, and He'll give it to you. All of this to say is that you and I are not alone in fighting the battle of being drawn away from Christ and His Word. We're in that battle of just trying to be loyal to the Word, While we say with the hymn writer, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God of love. So we also know that the Lord is there to give us strength, so that we're not going to wander, but remain faithful to Him. And we need a strength, because as I said, we're too weak in and of ourselves to resist this temptation. I remind you that our Lord said in John 15, without me, you can do nothing. Now, he didn't mean you couldn't accomplish anything, obviously, in life. There's a lot of people who accomplish a great deal of things without Him. But in this sense, what he meant that, apart from Him, there's nothing we can do that is spiritually good, beneficial, worthwhile. Listen, the only way that any of us are ever going to be loyal to the Word of God, and able to resist the temptation of being pulled into a life of spiritual Lukewarmness and compromise is to spend time daily in prayer with the Lord, unburdening your heart to Him, honestly praying over your weaknesses and sins, admitting how vulnerable you are to being negatively influenced by others, and asking Him for a fresh supply of His grace and enablement to say no to sin and yes to Scripture. All of us need that. If you do not plan, note this, if you do not plan to set time aside for a prayer like this, I assure you, it will not happen. And you don't need to wait till New Year's Day to have a New Year's resolution. Your flesh will do everything it can to not make this happen. concerning this need to be disciplined, and that's what it is, discipline in prayer. Jerry Bridges in his book, The Discipline of Grace, said these words, it is precisely because we are not endowed with a reservoir of strength that we need to pray daily for the Lord's enabling work in us. Holiness requires continual effort on our part and continual nourishing and strengthening by the Holy Spirit. Unless you plan to pray, however, and set aside a specific time to do it, you will find that you will not carry out your good intentions. He's absolutely right. You'll be too busy. Other things will crowd it out. Your flesh will say no. So, apply this truth. Apply it. about leaning on the Lord for His grace to be loyal to His Word by right now, not New Year's Day, right now, deciding to set aside a specific time each day to meet with Christ. And when you do meet with Him, be honest. Read His Word and then specifically ask Him to sustain and uphold you in your many battles to remain faithful to Him. He loves to do that. He loves to hear you say that. And He'll answer. Now, so far, And the psalmist has told us from his own experience how he remained loyal to God's word. He tells us that he took two courses of action. One, he separated from evildoers. He separated himself from them, commanding them to depart, to leave him. And he leaned then also on the Lord for his sustaining grace. Those are two things that you can do. You can do this. But now as he enters into the last few verses of the stanza, he tells us not a specific action that he took, but rather he tells us about a specific attitude that he cultivated that helped him to be faithful to the Lord. He tells us that he cultivated a healthy fear of God and His justice. verses 118 and 119. 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. Now in these two statements, the psalmist tells us about the fate of those double-minded evildoers he's been talking about. He says that God rejects all who wander from His Word. They knew about His Word, but they wandered from it. Like him, they were raised, apparently, in Jewish households, hearing the Word, but they wandered from it. He says that God rejects all who wander from His Word. In other words, He rejects those who reject Him. And God does this, the psalmist says, in spite of all the arguments these people come up with to justify their doubts and their double-minded unbelief about the Word and about God Himself. Because all of their arguments, he says, are useless. They are based on deceitful lies and falsehood. In fact, he calls them deceit. In other words, all the opinions, all the views that skeptics give as to why they reject Scripture are not true. They're not valid. They're a bunch of lies, mere excuses that they have invented, that end up deceiving them and those who listen to them. Listen, don't fall for the doubts of those who reject God's Word, because these doubts are nothing but deceitful lies. That's what the psalmist says. Invented by Satan himself, and sent by Satan through people to weaken your faith. God rejects all of these doubts and those who propagate them. That's what he's saying. But he says more. Not only does God reject those who reject him, but in verse 119 the psalmist says that God removes them. Look again. You have removed all the wicked of the earth like dross, therefore I love your testimonies. What he means by this is that just as impurities that form on the surface of molten metal are removed and discarded, so God removes those who reject Him. In other words, what he is saying is that God judges them. He judges them by removing them from the earth and based on what we know from the New Testament, He removes them and casts them into hell, where his eternal wrath is poured out on them forever and ever. Now, I realize that the subject of hell and eternal punishment is not an easy or a pleasant thing to think about, but it is what Scripture teaches. In fact, it may surprise you to know that Jesus spoke more about the subject of hell than about any other subject. For example, in Matthew 8, verse 12, Jesus spoke of unbelievers being cast out into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In Matthew 25, verses 41 and repeated in verse 46, Jesus spoke of hell as eternal fire and eternal punishment. In Mark 9, 48, he described hell as a place where, and I quote, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. In addition, in Revelation 14 verse 11, we read concerning those who are in hell, that the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, they have no rest day and night. Listen, hell is a terrifying place. A place that is so horrendous, so horrible that it is beyond our capacity to fully comprehend its horrors. But it is real. And it is the eternal destiny of all sinners who refuse to repent and trust Christ as their Savior. So, the question is, why does God then do such a terrifying thing to unbelieving sinners? If it's so horrible, why would God do this? The answer is because He is perfectly holy and just. And those who violate His laws, violate His holy character by rebelling against Him, must be punished because His justice demands punishment, and this punishment must be eternal because of the enormity of their sin and the eternal glory and magnitude of the one that they have sinned against. This is a heavy, profound thought. See, God's justice will not allow Him to overlook sin, any sin. The Bible says that He will by no means clear the guilty. All who are guilty before God and who refuse to be forgiven of their sins in Christ must be dealt with in perfect and holy justice. And that perfect justice is the reason for eternal punishment in hell. Now, frankly, the doctrine of hell and eternal punishment causes many people to have negative thoughts. concerning how he could possibly do such a thing. They often think and say, if that's the way God is, then I want nothing to do with Him. I don't want anything to do with Him if that's the way He is. But I want you to notice, this is not how the psalmist felt. This is not how we should feel. On the contrary, the psalmist's understanding of God's justice caused him, watch this, to love God's Word and God even more. Notice what he says at the end of verse 119. Therefore, therefore what? Therefore because you judge people and remove them in judgment, therefore I love your testimonies. See, the fact that God is perfectly just and punishes sin, that doesn't turn this man off. It enhances his love for the Lord. And folks, it should do the same thing for you. I don't think anyone put it any better than Charles Spurgeon when he said these words. Even the severities of the Lord excite the love of his people. If he allowed men to sin with impunity, meaning he didn't punish them, he would not be so fully the object of our loving admiration. He is glorious in holiness because he thus rids his kingdom of rebels and his temple of them that defile it. In these evil days, when God's punishment of sinners has become the butt of proud, skeptical contentions, we may regard as a mark of the true man of God that he loves the Lord nonetheless, but a great deal the more because of his judgment, an appropriate judgment of the ungodly. Wow! Have you ever told the Lord that you love Him because of His holiness? That you love him because of his justice? That you love him because of his punishment of evildoers? He should. We all should. Because God delights when his people acknowledge and honor who he is, and that includes his justice in judging sinners in hell. But watch this. God's justice didn't only enhance the psalmist's love, For the Lord had also instilled in him a great sense of awe, a great sense of fear towards God. Notice what he says in the last verse of this stanza, verse 120. My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I'm afraid of your judgments. As the psalmist contemplated, he's thinking about this, that God rejects those who reject Him. He tells us that here's the effect it has on him. It causes his flesh to tremble. And what he means by this is that he shudders. He shakes physically. It sends what we would say something like it sends shivers down his spine. He gets goosebumps at the thought of offending someone as holy and as great as God. It causes him to fear God's judgments. Now I want to just once again clarify something. No believer in Christ should read this and think that he should be afraid. that God will judge him and send him to hell. You should not have any fear like that. The Bible makes it very clear that the moment you trusted Christ as your Savior, your sins are judicially forgiven. All of them. And that you are no longer condemned. Paul said in the clearest words in Romans 8, 1, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. But what the psalmist is talking about, it's not that. It's a healthy, wholesome, godly fear and deep reverence that all believers should have for God when they consider that He is the great and awesome Judge of the universe, who has already judged and will continue to judge all who regard Him lightly by rejecting Him. What the psalmist is really telling us is that what helped him to maintain his loyalty to God's Word is that he held God in awe by considering his judgments. It caused him to have such a reverence for the Lord, such a love for the Lord, that the doubts and the double-mindedness of others meant absolutely nothing to him. When he considered what God was going to do in judgment to those who rejected him, it brought him to his knees, trembling, and worshiping the Lord for His great holiness and justice. So, if you want to be loyal to the Lord, then consider His justice. Consider His judgments. Think about hell. Unpleasant in one sense, though it might be. But think about hell. and that at any moment God could send someone there. At any moment. Life is over, if God says so. In light of that, all the doubts, all the skepticism, all the criticisms that puny man has for God mean absolutely nothing. Nothing. All God has to say is, depart from me, and they'll be sent to hell immediately, never to return. How could you possibly be disloyal to a God as great and as awesome as this? The fear of the Lord always leads to reverence, obedience, worship, not disobedience. Now, if you don't know Christ as your personal, and I mean personal Savior, then you should also be afraid of God, but not in a reverent way that the psalmist feared God and that believers in Christ fear Him. Your fear should be an anxious fear, an anxious fear for your soul, because at any moment God could say, that's it, and end your life and cast you away from Himself into eternal hell. Listen, you only live today by His mercy and grace, that's all. There's only one way to avoid the judgment of hell. Only one. And that is by trusting in Jesus Christ as the only mediator between God and man. Trusting in Christ as the one who on the cross experienced the judgment of hell for sinners. He submitted himself to God the Father's eternal wrath. He experienced it. He tasted it. And he was punished in the place of sinners so that they could be forgiven. You can be forgiven of your sins if you've not trusted Christ. You can be forgiven of your sins if you will turn from your sin and turn to Christ, trusting Him as your only hope, your only confidence, your only basis to go to heaven. I urge you to do that. Don't let a day go by. You don't know if you have tomorrow. And for those who do know Christ, the message of the psalmist is this. Separate from people who would drag you down spiritually. I mean, witness to them. Have a relationship with them, but don't let them be in your inner circle. Separate from people who would drag you down spiritually. Lean on the Lord to help you to be loyal to Him. Don't try to do this on your own. And don't take Him lightly. Fear Him. Reverence Him. recognize His majesty, recognize His grandeur, recognize how splendid He is, and love and worship Him. Let's bow for prayer. And I once again remind you, there will be elders in the front for you to speak to and pray with, if that's what you'd like. But let's be still before the Lord and think about these things. Think about what does God want you to do with these truths. Are there people you need to separate from? Young people. There's somebody who you're too close to, who's bringing you down. Depart from them. Separate from them. Witness to them. Have some type of relationship with them, but don't let them corrupt you. Don't be too close to them. Does this mean Two, that you need to set up a time to meet with the Lord daily to pray. Yes, it does. If you're too busy to pray, you're too busy. You're busier than God ever intended you to be. Make sure that, starting today, you set some time in your schedule to speak to the Lord. If you can't give him a little bit of time each day to pray, something's seriously wrong. And then make sure that you fear him, that you hold him in awe. Don't be flippant about him. He's not the man upstairs. He's the God of the universe, the just one, the holy one. Recognize his majesty. Humble yourself before him. And if you don't know Christ, once again, I urge you to come to him. Father, we thank you for this stanza in Psalm 119. Lord, some concepts that are not easy for us to grasp, not easy for us to balance. In many ways, easier to preach and teach than to apply. But Lord, this is thy word. This is thy truth. Help us to think biblically and then to act biblically. Lord, I pray for all those who are too close to unbelievers that they'll do something about it, that they'll make their closest friends with those who really love you. And I pray that you help each of us to recognize that in ourselves we can't be loyal to you, but your grace is sufficient to help us, so help us to ask you. Because even you, Lord Jesus, according to your word, you were tempted like this. But you resisted. Help us to resist temptation, to be disloyal to the Word. And Lord, help us to see you in all of your glory, and not to be turned off by the thought of eternal hell, but to love you all the more, because you are so perfect, you are so just, you are so holy, we couldn't respect you and wouldn't respect you if you let people get away with sin, but we thank you that sin is what Jesus took upon himself. Lord, thank you that you who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be clothed in your perfect righteousness. So Lord, I pray that you'll draw to yourself those who need salvation. May they have a real fear that their life could end any moment you would remove them from the earth, never to return. May that fear lead them to you. All of this we pray, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.