25-0119a Transcript

Preacher: Jim Lokenbauer

(1:50) Well, good morning, everybody. (1:52) I’m happy to be standing here, looking at you rather than laying down somewhere, (2:00) you looking at me.

That’s how it felt occasionally. I was ready for the grave. (2:11) There was some just wicked virus that ran through the family and we just passed on one to another.

(2:18) And it’s one of those viruses that just hangs on. And while being sick, I couldn’t help but thinking, (2:29) is this a natural virus or was this something concocted in a laboratory somewhere? Kind of (2:36) like COVID-19, which they now know and have enough evidence to say that was a man made virus. (2:44) It’s sad that man in his greed to perpetuate the sale of pharmaceuticals and the evil idea (2:55) of population control combined would come up with such evil plans to play God and alter germs, DNA.

(3:11) If that’s the case, there’s a special place for them where none of us want to go (3:20) at the end of all things. Was I ranting? Sorry. But I thank everybody who filled in (3:32) during my period of absence.

I know that puts a burden on an already light crew. So thank you all (3:41) for stepping up and filling in for me. I’m grateful to be standing here and present the (3:47) word of God to you.

And as you could tell by the readings this morning, you might’ve noticed there (3:53) was a theme of double-mindedness. And that’s something that’s rarely talked about in the (4:04) church. When I think about it, I don’t know if any of our past preachers ever touched on this (4:13) subject, but it’s vitally important because I think it’s something that every Christian at (4:20) some point in their life has wrestled with because we as individuals lead our lives (4:30) and we have to take care of others in our lives.

So immediately our attention and (4:38) dedication to the Lord can be divided. And the Lord has talked about that. The apostles (4:46) have talked about that.

They would prefer that people wouldn’t get married so that they can be (4:53) devoted to the Lord without their attentions being divided. So the division of mind is an issue. (5:06) What is double-mindedness? It comes from the Greek word, (5:10) disukos, and that means double-souled.

It also can mean double-hearted or double-minded, (5:21) as it’s most often translated in the Bible. This idea has been talked about in Old Testament, (5:31) and some of the writers of the New Testament touch on it, but James is the only one (5:38) who actually calls it as it is, and his warnings for us did not fall on deaf ears. (5:50) So in my private study time, I found myself spending a lot of time in James.

(5:58) That is a worthy short letter to be examined. And in October of last year, just a couple months ago, (6:07) I presented a couple of lessons from James titled Tests, and that was primarily based on (6:16) what James says in the first chapter of his letter. So my primary focus was to explain that (6:24) we all will be tested in life through various trials that will prove our faith and how to pass (6:33) those tests.

That’s what I preached about. If you recall, there are two main types of tests, (6:40) trials and temptations. Both are from the same Greek word pervaso.

So the translators had to (6:49) pay special attention to the context of what was being written in order to translate it correctly, (6:57) whether it’s test, trial, tempt. One is permitted by God to try our hearts or to (7:13) test our faith. Both God and us can gauge the growth and maturity of our faith by how we respond (7:23) or react to these trials.

God doesn’t let us experience them in hope that we will fail, (7:31) but in hope that our faith will be proven genuine. The other type is temptation, (7:42) and they are from Satan and his demons. They’re rooting for us to fail those (7:50) trials.

He desperately wants us back into his kingdom away from God. (7:59) James in his letter to the church talks primarily about trials and faith. My past lessons on tests (8:07) were a more of a positive and encouraging type sermon.

Today, it might seem like I’m going a (8:14) little dark, informing and warning you about the dangers of weak faith, that if not repented of, (8:24) will in the end be viewed by God as no faith at all. So today, our focus is going to be on (8:31) a couple of different types of faith that James warns us against. And I, again, thank them for (8:40) reading today’s scripture for us, but I want to reread them so they’re fresh in our minds.

(8:49) The first reading was from Psalm 122. This is David. And also Psalm 119, verse 113.

(9:00) Everyone lies to his neighbor. They speak with flattering lips and with a double heart. (9:08) And I hate double-minded men, but I love your law.

Now, in these verses, (9:16) they will talk about the issue of double-mindedness. Sometimes they talk about the cause. (9:24) Sometimes they talk about the symptoms and what to look for.

And sometimes they talk about warnings. (9:32) And in James, the second reading, thank you, Roger, chapter 1, verses 5 through 8, it says, (9:42) Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know (9:49) that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its (9:57) work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

If any of you lacks wisdom, (10:06) he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to (10:15) him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of (10:27) the sea. He will be blown and tossed by the wind.

That man should not think he will receive anything (10:36) from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. (10:45) So we’re going to look at a lot of different scriptures from both the Old and the New Testament (10:51) today that speak of and define this type of faith, the double-minded man.

And there are many types of (11:03) double-minded people, and after giving it some thought, I kind of reduced it down to several (11:09) categories. First is the hypocrite. Second, those who assent in mind only in their belief of God.

(11:22) In other words, they agree to the idea that there is a God. And then three, those who genuinely (11:29) believe and are Christians, but they’re divided between two masters. So the first one, the (11:41) hypocrite.

Hypocrite is a person who deliberately pretends to be something they are not. I love (11:50) Webster’s dictionary. He explains it best.

One who feigns to be what he is not. One who has the form (12:00) of godliness without the power, or who assumes an appearance of piety and virtue when he is (12:08) destitute of religion that is true. Don’t you love Webster? He’s not afraid to put every definition (12:18) in the context of God’s Word.

Thank you, Mr. Webster, and thank you, God, for him. So Psalm (12:26) 12.2 speaks of hypocrisy. Everyone lies to his neighbor and they speak with flattering lips (12:36) and with a double heart.

Jesus dealt with hypocrites all the time. The scribes and (12:46) Pharisees had this particular faith, which to me was more of a personality character flaw, (12:53) similar to being a habitual liar, than a particular type of faith. (13:01) They were probably hypocrites about everything in their life, (13:10) including their religion.

To me, it is very irrational to be a hypocrite. It probably took (13:18) more effort to pretend to be religious than to believe and obey, which makes you religious. (13:28) The bad thing about hypocrisy is that it’s living a lie.

It’s intentionally deceptive. (13:36) It’s not real, but false. It stands opposed to the truth and needs to be called out in order that (13:45) those bad apples don’t rot the whole barrel of apples.

And that is exactly what Jesus did (13:54) throughout the Gospels whenever he came across a hypocrite. In particular, Matthew 23, Jesus (14:03) calls out the scribes and Pharisees for their wretched hypocrisies in his sermon that’s called (14:10) the seven woes. And I’ve preached on that.

It’s a fascinating subject. Jesus said, (14:19) woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses, and as a pretense, (14:26) you make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation.

(14:33) This type of faith is totally unacceptable to God. We’ll see later that James implies this type of (14:42) faith is demonic. Even the most devout Christians have to guard themselves against this type of (14:50) double-mindedness called hypocrisy.

We can read of the effect it had on the early church and how (14:58) it caused division. Our go-to guy, our beloved Peter, fell victim to this and had to be corrected (15:10) by Paul. Paul recalls in Galatians 2, 11 through 21, when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to (15:22) his face because he was clearly in the wrong.

Before certain men came from James, he used to (15:30) eat with the Gentiles, but when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the (15:37) Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other (15:46) Jews joined him in this hypocrisy so that by their hypocrisy, even Barnabas was led astray. (15:56) When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front (16:03) of them all, you are a Jew and yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew? How is it then that (16:11) you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? We who are Jews by birth are not Gentile sinners.

(16:20) Know that a man is not justified by observing the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too (16:29) have put our faith in Jesus Christ that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing (16:38) the law. Because by observing the law, no one will be justified.

If while we seek to be justified in (16:47) Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners and that means that Christ promotes sin? (16:56) Absolutely not. If I rebuild what I destroy, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. For through the (17:04) law, I died to the law so that I might live for God.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no (17:11) longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God (17:20) who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God if righteousness could be (17:28) gained through the law.

Christ died for nothing. So poor Peter here. Peter is a lightning rod (17:42) for correction.

And even though he was an inspired apostle who was guided by Holy Spirit to accurately (17:54) write the will of God down in his two letters to the Lord’s church, which we call First and Second (18:02) Peter, and is said to have been the source of Mark’s gospel, can still get it wrong in the (18:11) application of the word in his life. Bizarrely speaking, thank God for Peter because of Peter’s (18:22) example of great faithfulness being dedicated to his master Jesus Christ and yet failing on so (18:30) many different occasions, then being restored again. This should give us all hope and encouragement (18:40) when we blow it to keep on pressing on in our belief when we fail.

The important thing is (18:49) to repent when you come to an understanding of the truth or a granting of repentance (18:56) when you come to your senses. So this example of Peter suffered two types of double-mindedness, (19:05) believe it or not. First is hypocrisy.

Paul calls him out on this double-mindedness (19:15) and being a believer but being divided between two masters. Well, how does that work? First, (19:21) hypocrisy. We read in Acts that Peter went to Caesarea and was responsible for having converted (19:32) the house of Cornelius who were Gentiles.

The Spirit revealed to him in a vision it was okay (19:40) to be with Gentiles because the Lord was now calling them clean. So all the Old Testament (19:48) laws and customs of not mingling with the Gentiles were nailed to the cross of Christ. (19:56) Believing Jews and Gentiles are now Christ’s one flock.

So Peter enjoyed fellowship with (20:05) the Gentile converts early on, going into their homes and eating with them and worshiping with (20:11) them. But while in Antioch, Peter enjoyed fellowship with the Gentiles along with Barnabas (20:19) and other Jews. When James sent some Jewish men from Jerusalem to Antioch, reasons unknown, (20:27) Peter let the fear of them control him and he behaved as they did, acting like an Old Testament (20:39) Jew, pretending to be what he was not anymore, which is hypocrisy.

He should have behaved as (20:50) a Christian under grace rather than an Old Testament Jew. Sometimes we slip back into old (21:00) habits, old prejudices, and Paul called Peter out on this and the others that acted along with Peter. (21:12) And see how Peter’s influence of his double-mindedness affected those around him.

(21:21) Oh, Peter’s not eating with them anymore. Oh, maybe it’s right. Maybe we should be (21:27) separated from these Gentiles.

Secondly, the root cause of his hypocrisy was doubt. (21:36) And James spoke about doubt. In his mind, he wavered between the Old Testament law and Christ’s (21:48) law of liberty.

He behaved as they did and separated himself from the Gentiles. His mind was (22:04) divided because of his doubt. So he was serving two masters, believe it or not, the old law (22:13) and Christ’s law.

He was divided. This double-mindedness had a domino effect on the (22:22) other Jews. And even Barnabas, who was called the son of encouragement, so that even he separated (22:30) himself from the Gentiles.

One bad apple was affecting the whole barrel. So when Paul saw, (22:42) when Paul saw what was happening, and since it was done in public, it was having a negative (22:51) effect upon the church, he publicly corrected Peter in front of everybody. Private sin should (23:00) be handled privately, but public sin, especially when it affects the church, has to be called (23:07) out, and that’s exactly what Paul did.

And Paul reiterates this later in the Galatian letter (23:18) of how to correct somebody. It isn’t to get in their face and tell them they’re wrong (23:26) angrily. You don’t win anybody over that way.

Paul says in chapter 6 and verse 1 and 2 (23:39) of the Galatian letter, brothers, if someone has caught this in you who are spiritual, (23:45) should restore him gently. But watch yourself, for you also may be tempted to carry each other’s (23:56) burden in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ. So Paul restored Peter, and we don’t see (24:06) that Peter defended himself for his actions, no.

Peter most likely took the rebuke properly (24:16) and obeyed and repented. This was done lovingly by Paul. Okay, that’s hypocrisy.

(24:29) Second, another form of double-mindedness are those who assent in mind only. They agree with (24:38) the idea of a loving God, but that’s as far as they care to go. They are people of not only the (24:46) weakest form of faith, but when you actually analyze it, they have no faith at all.

(24:55) They say that they believe in the God of the Bible or believe in Jesus, (25:00) but are not changed by what they hear or read. I sadly have family members who fit this category (25:09) to only assent or agree to the idea that there is a God is not really believing in God. (25:19) They are God-aware or simply agree with the idea that there is a God.

They have no personal (25:27) relationship with their Creator. It’s like saying, yeah, I believe in God, (25:33) and there’s no change in their life. They go on living the way they have been living.

(25:40) Belief is provable. Assent without repentance is just agnosticism at best. As I brought up before, (25:54) the Greek textbook definition for the word repentance is metanoia, which means to think (26:06) differently afterwards.

Repentance is when you hear some information, in this case, (26:15) the gospel. You think about it and then come to believe what you heard. Now you think differently (26:22) about it because what you now believe changes the way you behave.

Repentance leads to faith, (26:31) and it’s provable. John the Baptist told the people after preaching to them, produce fruit (26:39) in keeping with repentance. A faithful person produces fruit.

That’s action. So you do something (26:48) with your new mind of thinking. The repentance part that causes action causes you to go from (26:57) one behavior to another.

If you were robbing banks, you stop robbing banks, feel bad enough (27:04) about it to restore or give restitution. You make things right. It causes actions.

(27:12) That’s repentance that leads to faith, and that’s the producing of good fruit because of your faith, (27:22) and God is glorified. In Genesis 6, God ended up being so sad because he made mankind because (27:33) they were so evilly corrupt that the Bible said he repented of having made them. His repentance (27:45) was genuine because it led to actions proving his faith that his summation of mankind (28:00) was a bad idea.

He proved his repentance by the fruit of bringing a global flood (28:11) to remove man from the earth, save Noah and his family. He thought about mankind differently (28:23) after thinking about that because of their evil. The double-minded people in this category (28:35) of ascent only insist they have faith, but do they really? They cannot be pleasing to God (28:43) because they have never repented.

They never got to the point where what they claimed they (28:50) believed in caused any change in their life, and if there’s no repentance, can there then be any (28:59) faith? That’s just lip service, and people of this type of double-mindedness claiming one thing yet, (29:14) not being what they claim to be, they can only expect to hear on the day of judgment, (29:23) apart from me, I never knew you. And we’re going to explore the third type of double-mindedness (29:32) this evening and conclude our study of the double-minded, and so at this time we offer (29:39) the invitation to anybody who might need any kind of assistance from the church, be it prayers or, (29:46) well, we’ve all been baptized in here, so I’ll skip that part, (29:51) but if anybody needs anything from us, we’ll be glad to help you, so come as we stand and sing.