Proverbs 6:16-18; 1 Samuel 18:8-27; Esther 8:3; Psalm 51:10-11.
This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 12, 2021.
We have made it to the fourth thing that God hates. I would take a second to remind those who balk at the concept of God hating something to read the first sermon on this topic dated August 13, 2021 on this blog.
Proverbs 6:18 moves to the heart and the wicked plans that are often plotted in it. We have many examples of such in the Old Testament. Let’s start with Saul plotting against David in 1 Samuel 18:8-27.
By this time, Saul has already been told by Samuel that God has rejected him as king because of his rebellions against God. It is in 1 Samuel 15 that Saul is confronted by the prophet and two things are pointed out. First, Saul’s problem began when he ceased to be “little in his own eyes” (1 Sam. 15:17), aka pride. Second, Saul’s rebellion was like the sin of witchcraft, and his stubbornness was like idolatry. Of course, Saul is king. Such things are not always evident to the common people in a nation or republic. God rejected Saul because Saul had continually rejected His words and instructions.
This is the context of David’s great deliverance over Goliath, and his subsequent rise to public glory. The women had been singing a song that said “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” Saul becomes jealous of David’s popularity that has risen above his own. In his jealousy, he flat out tries to kill David with his spear. When this doesn’t work, he talks David into marrying his daughter with a steep dowry. He hopes that David will be caught in a Philistine trap with his own daughter as the bait. Despite Saul’s hopes, David is doubly successful and Saul became David’s enemy “continually,” or literally “all the days.” (verse 28). Saul begins to publicly slander David as a rebel and an outlaw to the people of Israel, when this is exactly what Saul was. He had become a rebel against God plotting plans that were against the Law of God (shedding innocent blood).
Another example is found in the book of Esther, and is mentioned specifically in 8:3. Haman plotted against Mordecai and the Jews. Notice that this story begins when Haman’s pride (ceased to be little in his own eyes) was wounded by the fact that Mordecai the Jew did not bow in his presence. Haman plots against Mordecai in order to hang him on gallows that he had specially made for the occasion. Yet, this was not enough for Haman. Haman wants to exterminate the people that Mordecai belongs to, the Jews.
It is worth noting that Haman is called an Agagite. This means he is descended from Agag the Amalekite king who Saul did not kill when he was instructed to do so by God. That is an interesting twist in the story. However, through Esther, God moves the heart of the King of Persia to be against Haman and with the Jews.
When you compare this plotting to Saul’s, you find that Saul’s plotting is focused on one man, David. Yet, he is also plotting against the Lord, and the interests of the people of Israel. He may not be trying to kill the Israelites, but he is injuring them by his actions. Haman is actively plotting against the people of God out of wounded pride. Perhaps, he knew the history of the death of his ancestor, and that fueled his hatred. Ultimately, even though he wouldn’t think so, Haman is plotting against the plans of God.
Always remember when you are worried about the plans of the wicked that the High King of heaven has plans as well. The plans of the wicked will eventually come to nothing, but the plans of the Lord are established forever!
Lastly, I would point to the plotting that the chief priests and elders of Israel did against Jesus. It is the same story as before. Their pride is injured because Jesus exposes their sins. Instead of choosing repentance, which is the proper action, they plot to kill him.
Even today, the world is plotting against the Word of God, and King Jesus whom the Father has installed as the authority above all in heaven and on earth. It is not just “wicked Jews,” or any other ethnic group, that we should be pointing the finger at. Just as God has people from every tribe, nation, and tongue who are his, so Satan has workers from them all. They are a proud people who bristle at having their sin exposed, who even hate that the things they love are called sins. They imagine that their plans against God’s people will be successful, but they walk the path of Saul the Benjamite, and Haman the Agagite, men who are like the wicked one.
Many are the designs of the wicked, but those plans are all an abomination to God, and He will destroy them. Choose this day whose side you are on, the Lord’s or Satan’s.
Yet, many who are going along with these plans are unwitting. They are unaware of the wicked plotting and slander. They are duped in speaking for the cause by the one who disguises himself as an angel of light. Our job is not to hate even those who plot. Our job is to spread the Gospel. God does not delight in the destruction of the wicked. He would rather that they see their coming judgment, repent, and be saved from it, and so must we. Now is not a day to get offended and hurt. It is a day to take a kiss on the cheek and a knife in the back, all the while sharing the good news that they can be saved from their sin and guilt.
This is what God hates. So, what is it that He loves? Psalm 51 teaches us that God loves a clean heart.
It is interesting that David had been hated and abused by King Saul. God delivered David from the wicked plans of Saul, but He did not deliver Uriah from the wicked plans of David. This mystery, of when God steps in and when He doesn’t, often angers people, but the true issues of life are not about getting justice. The ultimate issue of life is my heart, what is in it, and what am I becoming. David ends up becoming the very thing that he prayed God would save him from.
When David was faced with his sin by the prophet Nathan, David was forced to make a choice. He could kill another man, and add to his guilt, or he could stop and repent. This is the setting of Psalm 51, which begins with the cry, “Have mercy on me, O God!” This is a cry that should rise up from every person around the globe and in every language on earth. (Hebrew) חָנֵּנִי אֱלֹהִים. (Greek) ἐλέησόν με ὁ θεός.
In verse 10 of Psalm 51, David recognizes that his heart needed cleaning. It had become defiled. That defilement began when he contemplated, plotted, to sin. His plots grew until he was trapped by his sins. Everyone would know when Bathsheba began to show her pregnancy. He then plotted to neutralize the trap by adding to his sins the murder of Uriah the Hittite. How ironic it is to see that Uriah the Hittite, that is not an Israelite, had more integrity at this juncture than David who had been the poster-child for integrity in his youth.
David had no one to blame, but his own heart. Saul was no longer around to blame. Jesus reminds us in the New Testament that a man is not defiled by what goes into his body, but by what comes up out of his heart. Adultery, murder, and deception (lies), came up out of David’s heart and flowed into his life. David is proof that even the most righteous among us are faced with a heart that gravitates to sin. Unless we are daily vigilant at keeping it clean of those “gravitations,” we can do the basest of things. My heart, your heart, needs cleaning. All the hearts on this planet need a clean heart more than they need justice for the sins done against them.
David recognizes that he can’t do this cleaning by himself. He needs God’s help. This is not the cry of a man on the couch asking God to get him a drink from the fridge (I.e., do for me what I don’t want to do). This is a man who is broken over his sin and realizing that he cannot remove it by himself.
Throughout this whole Psalm, there is wording that makes it clear that David recognizes that he has become what Saul had been. In verse 11, David begs that God will not cast him away (as a rebel), and also remove His Holy Spirit from him. When Saul was rejected by God, an evil spirit began to bother him. David recognized what comes next. He should be cast away and harassed by an evil spirit. Such is the lot of those who rebel against God. Yet, this is not God’s desire for Saul or David. David begs for mercy where Saul only doubled down on his insolence.
Let us not fool ourselves. If we fail in embracing God’s heart-cleansing program through pride and arrogance, then we will eventually come under the judgment of God. It is not enough to be a church member, or to have been a Christian for decades. Each time we are faced with defilement in our heart, we must humble ourselves and take our medicine.
Cleaning begins with a broken spirit and a contrite heart. In verse 16, David points to the sacrifices that God is not looking for, those that could be done on a public altar, but are not from the heart. Interesting, Saul had several times used public sacrifices as an excuse for his sin. One time, he did the sacrifice himself instead of waiting for the prophet. The second time, he tried to justify his disobedience to God by saying he wanted to make a big sacrifice out of it. Saul tried to create a moral fig leaf for his sin, but God saw through it to the heart behind the actions.
God has not called us to do what we want for Him. There are a lot of Church leaders today who have great plans they are promoting for God, but they are not doing what He told them to do. In short, they are rebelling.
May God stop us from only seeing their sin and their defilement. May He help us to first deal with our own through a broken spirit and a contrite heart. My heart must be broken, not because I am devastated to learn that I can sin, but because I realize that God’s love is only by His grace, that I never deserved, and even now only deserve His wrath. It must be contrite. Contrition requires two aspects: a sense of guilt over our sin, and a desire for God’s cleansing. May we come to Him today with contrite hearts, and may we learn to do the actions of repentance in every aspect of our life.