What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 4

1 Peter 4:1-9.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 6, 2022.

What does God really want from Me?  We continue today on part 4 of God’s desire for us.

Last week, we talked about the analogy for spiritual growth given in John 15, the vine of Christ.  We want to connect into the vine of Christ and draw life from him, instead of drawing death from the vine of this world.

Today, we are going to look at some very practical ways in which we can focus ourselves and ensure that we grow spiritually.  Yet, we must remember that all spiritual growth is measured by Jesus Christ.  He is the goal, and the means by which we attain it.

Spiritual growth takes intentionality from God and from us.  God is always faithful to do His part, so the only question is me.  What is my focus on?

Let’s look at our passage in 1 Peter 4.

Live for the will of God, not lusts

In Philippians 2:5, Paul said, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”  In verse 1 Peter is basically saying the same thing.  “Arm yourselves also with the same mind.”  Peter’s version gives a distinct reminder that spiritual growth is also spiritual battle.  Christians need to get themselves ready to think like Jesus did, and Jesus thought about doing the will of God, not satisfying his earthly lusts, and fleshly desires.

Jesus physically suffered for us in order to do the will of God, and we need to do the same.  His life was first filled with slanders, which is emotional suffering.  However, he was also physically abused to the point of death for the will of God.

If Jesus had been living for the lusts of his natural self, then he would not have suffered a death on a cross.  He was put to death because he was following his Father in heaven. 

Do you remember that vine imagery in John 15?  Later, in verses 18-19, Jesus said,

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

To choose to live for God instead of living for your flesh is a hard choice that only those who are connected to Christ can follow through because it requires suffering that is emotional and physical.

In verse three, Peter reminds us that we spent “enough” of our past life living for the lusts of our flesh.  He goes on to list the various things that people pursue in such a life.

Lewdness is a life that is lived without any restraint.  Lusts are those strong desires that our flesh has for the pleasures of this life.  Next, we have three partying terms that often go together.  Drunkenness is drinking too much wine, but often can become a way of life.  Revelries represent the activities of those who get drunk with others and are caught up in all manner of public nuisance afterwards.  Drinking parties is a word connected to drunkenness.  It is seen as a worse stage than the previous word.  Lastly, we have abominable idolatries.  The worship of idols and the things connected to them is a constant challenge in this life.

For the Christian, we know that it is high time that we leave this stuff behind, and begin to follow Christ, to learn from him a new way of life that is truly life.

Peter then recognizes that people in this world will be annoyed that you don’t live like they do.  This judgment can be as simple as speaking evil of you, but can also go to the point, as it did with Christ, that they put you to death.

Being judged by people in the flesh has to do with this life and what we experience from sinners.  Their judgment of us is “thumbs down,” but it is a judgment of fleshly people who can only see our outer man.  Their judgments can only touch our bodies, as Jesus reminded us. 

“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”  Matthew 10:28 (NKJV). 

Don’t let the fleshly judgment of sinners bother you because there is One who is your judge, and it is only his judgment that matters.  In fact, he is also the judge of those who are judging you.  Verses 5 and 6 remind us that those judging us are about to be judged themselves by Jesus.  So, don’t pay a lot of attention to their antics and statements.  Focus on Jesus who is the judge.

Verse 6 continues this point, but is a bit cryptic.  The key is to recognize that the main point is in the second half of the verse.  You may be judged by men through fleshly means while you live on this earth, but in Christ we will live by the judgment of God through the power of His Spirit.  Peter points out that even those righteous men and women of the past who have died had to live with the same tension that we do. 

Think of those righteous people before the flood who were living in dangerous times.  There is a Jewish tradition that Noah’s father Lamech was killed by a wicked man.  They did not have as much information as us, but they knew to live for God rather than for the flesh, regardless of the judgments of the world around you.  They died and went into the grave awaiting God to vindicate them.  As Peter detailed in the prior chapter, Jesus went into Hades, the grave, and proclaimed his victory over sin and death.  This was bad news to those on the bad side of Hades, but it was wonderful news to those in the Paradise side.  They would now be enabled to follow Jesus into heaven and dwell in the presence of God while they await the Resurrection of their bodies.  All righteous individuals of every age must live in this tension of fleshly judgments of this world, and the judgment of God that is not clear to the world yet.  That day will come, and you will shine on that day!

In verse 7, Peter reminds us that the end of all things is at hand.  Remember, in chapter 1, we are told that Peter is writing to Jewish Christians who had been dispersed throughout the region of modern-day Turkey.  They knew that the judgment of God was coming upon the nation of Israel.  It was the end of national Israel until the times of the Gentiles would come to an end.  The way things were would come to an end and not continue into the way things were going to be.

This is a kind of template, or parable, for how the righteous should always live.  The pre-flood world had been warned that a judgment loomed over the earth.  The righteous lived in such a way that recognized the judgment on this world, whether it happens in their lifetime or not.  The righteous remnant of Israel lived this way, until Christ came and things changed.  We too know that this world is under the judgment of God.  The end of all things is near, and we should not view the world with the eyes of flesh.  It will look invulnerable and powerfully persuasive with such eyes.  However, with the eyes of faith, we will see that it is near to destruction and judgment by God. 

Peter tells us that this ought to inspire us to be a person of prayer, a person who spends time talking with God about the world around them, and what is to come.  This is a person who is serious, that is of a sound mind.  They haven’t been caught up in the crazy thinking of this world.  We are to be also watchful.  This word has the idea of sobriety at its root.  Instead of getting drunk with the world, we are awake and at our post in this spiritual battle. 

There is a connection in Scripture between watching and praying.  Jesus used this with his disciples on the night he was betrayed.  He asked them to come and watch with him for a while in prayer.  Yet, they kept falling asleep.  Thus, Jesus revealed the big problem in all spiritual growth.  “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Your spirit may want to be like Christ, but your flesh doesn’t!  Only a person who wrestles with their flesh in prayer and watches over their soul before the Lord in prayer can overcome in the time of temptation and trial.

Then, Peter tells them to love one another.  We need other believers around us, and we need to be there for other believers.  This world is hammering on our faith, attempting to get us to follow it into what it thinks is its glory.  Our love must be fervent.  That English word gives the idea of heated, on fire.  However, the original word is more the sense of stretching forward, or leaning forward.  Instead of holding back, we are to lean into loving one another.  It is the picture of eagerness in fulfilling the command.

Peter says that this would involve covering a multitude of sins.  This is not the idea of covering up sins, but in making a proper covering for sin.  Peter doesn’t explain, but James does in James 5:19-20.

“Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”

Without other believers around, we would be wandering away from the truth, and that’s the truth!  Keeping ourselves in Christ is the only way to properly cover sins.  That is why Repentance, Forgiveness, and the deeds of faith in Jesus are so important.

May God help us to help each other in this spiritual battle of faith.  In so doing, we will all spiritually grow through intentionally becoming like Jesus!

Grow part 4 audio

The Things that God Hates 4: Hands that Shed Innocent Blood

Proverbs 6:16-17; Deuteronomy 19:9-10; Matthew 5:21-22; John 8:44; Luke 10:29-36.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 5, 2021.

Today, we are going to look at the third thing in the list of seven things that God hates.  The emphasis moves down to our hands.  There are many sins that we do with our hands.  However, the Spirit emphasizes hands that shed innocent blood.  This is a way of emphasizing murder versus capital punishment.

God hates hands that shed innocent blood

So, what is meant by innocent blood?  The point in this phrase is that they are not guilty of anything that deserves death at the hands of society.  It is not saying that they have no sin. 

Another point to be aware of is this.  It is easy to be confused between the laws of a country and the Law of God that is made clear in the Bible.  The taking of a life of someone who does not deserve it will always be hated by God, even when the society declares it legal.  Rome had no problem killing innocents in their Colosseum in order to keep the populace entertained and distracted.  Many places in the world have no problem killing innocents because they follow a different religion.  Even in these united States, we have no problem killing innocents in the womb because their presence is an inconvenience.  Of course, to assuage our conscience, we they are treated as not being a full person yet.  Sound familiar?  Such arguments were used by some to support slavery 200 years ago.

Don’t kid yourself.  When you stand before God, you will not be able to use the excuse that it was legal where you lived.  God’s Word stands above all nations, and this Republic, and holds us accountable to the truth about God and His Law.

Exodus 20:13 is the sixth commandment that God gave to Moses.  “You shall not murder.”  Yes, we are no longer under the Law of Moses.  Yet, murder was wrong before the Law of Moses (God held Cain accountable to his murder of Abel).  In the New Testament, we are reminded that murder is still wrong in the era of the Everlasting Covenant.  Why?  It is wrong because God still hates it, and it represents a rejection of the Truth of Christ.  The Law of Moses is filled with laws that were intended to teach symbolic truths such as the laws on sacrifice and the dietary laws.  However, the moral laws were not symbolic.  Early Christians understood that these things were still sin and God did not want people of any era participating in it.

It has become common place for our larger cities to see over a hundred murders a year, with places like Chicago leading the pack with over 1 murder a day.  Our systems do not keep track of the innocent who were murdered, and even if we did, they would not put the abortion numbers in it.  How enlightened we must be that we have legalized murder at the hands of some of the doctors in our land.  Around a million innocents a year have their blood shed in the united States of America.  Yes, the Taliban in Afghanistan are even now going door to door to kill collaborators and Christians.  This may seem repugnant to our delicate Western sensibilities, but God is just as repulsed by our clinical slaughter of babies in the womb.  You shall not shed the blood of the innocent!

Even though we are not under the Law of Moses, a study of it can help us to understand how God thinks on these matters.  For instance, take the cities of refuge talked about in Deuteronomy 19.  God is making provision for a person who accidentally kills another person (innocent blood).  He does this by having Israel set apart three cities to be a place of refuge for such a person.  He even tells them to add three more as they expand.  The point is not the system, but the intent that God had in setting it up.

Not all deaths are intentional.  Though it is bad to kill someone who doesn’t deserve it, it is also bad to kill the person who accidentally killed another.  By the way, the cities of refuge were never used as a sanctuary for murderers, law breakers.  The leaders of the city were to hear both sides of the event and any witnesses that were available.  If there was enough evidence to make it clear that the death was intentional, then they were to be handed over to their executioner.  There can be no sanctuary for a murderer, but the sanctuary of true repentance and faith in Jesus.  Our Republic has done a fairly good job in making a system that protects in the cases of manslaughter, though any system can be abused.

In Matthew 5:21-22, Jesus raises the bar for murder.  If God hates murder, then He hates the junk that goes on in a heart that leads to it.  No society can hold people accountable for the things that are listed in this passage: being angry at someone without a proper cause, calling someone an “idiot” (literally “empty-head”), and calling someone a fool (as an insult).  Yet, God will hold us accountable to these things.  He hates these things.  Jesus reminds us that to think and act in these ways towards another person is to be in danger of hell.  Like Jesus told the “Sons of Thunder,” you do not know what manner of spirit you are.  God is trying to save people from their sins, not execute them for them.  However, the rebellious will eventually be dealt with by Him.

A Christian doesn’t need to be against capital punishment, but they do need to have a heart that has given up anger, hatred, and despising others for their sins.  A Christian is a person who has repented of doing things that God hates, and who seeks to become like God, like Jesus, which raises this question. 

What image am I taking on?  When Cain killed Abel, 1 John 3:12 tells us that he was “of the wicked one.”  Cain had been warned by his Heavenly Father (God).  God was trying to help him overcome the temptation to sin, but Cain didn’t want to be like God.  He didn’t know it, but in refusing to become like God, he then became like someone else, the wicked one, aka the devil.  According to the Bible, Cain was not the first murderer.

John 8:44 tells us that the devil was a murderer “from the beginning.”  Who did he murder?  There may be more behind this verse than we know, since Jesus has knowledge that we do not and may be sending a message to the devil through it.  However, Genesis 3 lays out the classical act of talking someone into killing themselves.  We cannot blame our sin upon Satan, but his heart was the heart of a murderer when he tempted Eve to disobey God.  He is guilty of the death of innocent blood when he took advantage of their naivety.

I am either a child of God becoming more like Him each day, or I am a child of the devil, expressing one more novel way of becoming like the wicked one.  Thus, Jesus brought to the surface the real image that the religious leaders of his day had been taking on.  They didn’t believe that they were killers any more than our society today thinks that we are enlightened and righteous, more righteous than God Himself.  If Jesus were to step into my life, and I didn’t know it was him, would I hate him for revealing my sin?  Would I despise him and malign him to others behind his back?  Would I openly attack him?  Would I have the heart of a murderer towards him?  We duck these questions in this life because the people who may confront us are humans who are fallen too.  Lord, help us to be more aware of the image that we are taking on, and through repentance, keep near to God.

God loves hands that heal

Let’s take some time to focus on what God loves.  Instead of hands that shed innocent blood, we should have hands that help and heal others.  To show this, let’s look at the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:29-36. 

The Good Samaritan had compassion upon an enemy.  The story is not ultimately about having compassion.  Most people are capable of compassion when they want to be.  However, those who were most likely to help this Jewish man along the road, a priest and a Levite, chose not to help.  We don’t know what their rationalizations look like.  Perhaps they speculated that it was a trick.  Maybe they just didn’t want to be inconvenienced or made late for the temple service.  For some reason, they both ignored the man’s dire situation.

Jesus makes the hero of the story a person that Jews despised, a Samaritan.  To be fair, there was much despising coming from the direction of the Samaritans also.  This “half-breed” follower of a religious cult was the one who stopped and had compassion on the dying Jewish man.  I know the story doesn’t exactly say the man is Jewish, but it is most likely since the man had gone “down from Jerusalem to Jericho.”  The people hearing the story that day would have understood him to be a Jew that was helped by a Samaritan.  This would be like a BLM protester finding a wounded cop and helping him, or the reverse, a cop finding a wounded BLM protester and helping him.

Just because someone is my enemy doesn’t mean that I should desire their death.  The good Samaritan is good because he did what God would do.  He did all he could do to save the dying person.  He had compassion.  The reason I said this isn’t about compassion is because it is ultimately about who we are imaging in our actions.  Many priests and Levites in Jerusalem of the days of Jesus lacked far more than compassion.  They lacked the image of God.

We are told some very practical things that the Samaritan did to help the man.  He treated his wounds with the equivalent of antiseptic and salve.  He bandaged the wounds.  He then took the man to a safe place where he would not be harmed further, and where he could recuperate.  This couldn’t guarantee that the man would live, but it would give him the best chance.  The rest would be up to God.  He even paid for the cost of the man’s convalescence.  This man was more than a neighbor.  He was more than a good neighbor.  He was a godly neighbor, the hand of God to a man in need.

Think about it.  This Samaritan, if he was religious at all, would have had some twisted doctrines.  No self-respecting Jew of that day would want a Samaritan living by them.  Rather, they would want good Jewish neighbors, especially a Levite or a priest.  Maybe some of their blessing will land on me!  However, this Samaritan was the better neighbor of the three, a better lover of his neighbors.  His hands were not quick to shed blood, or to allow it to happen, but quite the opposite.  They were quick to help and to heal.

So, what can I do?  Notice that this story is not about a Samaritan who purposefully walked the road looking for robbed travelers.  It was a chance (or was it) meeting that gave him no time to prepare.  This is life.  Tests and choices that come our way that we were not expecting.

What can I do?  It starts with quick repentance when hard-heartedness surfaces in me.  I must develop the image of God within my life through choosing to help others, spiritually and physically.  The sad thing is that they won’t always want your help, and may even reject it.  How more like God can you get than that?  His help is spurned every day by hundreds of millions of people.

Friend, the spirit of this world is stirring us up against one another, to despise, and not love one another, but the Spirit of Christ is here this morning to teach us to love one another, even when it hurts.

The Things that God Hates 3: A Lying Tongue

Proverbs 6:16-17; Exodus 20:16; Deuteronomy 32:3-4; Psalm 109:1-4; Revelation 21:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12; Ephesians 6:13-14. 

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 22, 2021.

Today, we will continue our look at the seven things that God hates.  Proverbs 6 lists a lying tongue as the second thing that God hates. 

Let’s get into our passages.

God hates a lying tongue

The word translated as “lying” in Proverbs 6 can be translated as: an untruth, a lie, a sham, falsehood, fraud, and deceit.  The phrase is literally “a tongue of falsehood,” or “a tongue of lies.”    It is like the tongue is the offspring of lies and belongs to them.  Of course, the tongue is not the real problem.  Even if God had not given us a tongue, we would still be capable of misleading and lying to one another.  The tongue is just a powerful tool for those whose hearts are inclined to mislead others.

At its core, a lie is a refusal to face the truth, to face reality.  This is precisely why we see much of what we see in these last days.  Mankind is in league with fallen spiritual beings, and are rebelling against truth and reality itself.  Of course, to rebel against reality is to rebel against the One who created it.

Many people object to a God.  They may never say it this way, but they feel that reality is a straitjacket that restricts them.  Only a liar would call reality a straitjacket because it is their own perversity that restricts them.  It is their own life of pursuing pleasure that leaves them shackled and bound to sin.  This is what we all would be, if it weren’t for the love of God calling us back from the precipice, saying, “I love you.  Why will you die?  Choose life!” 

The ninth commandment in Exodus 20:16 tells us not to bear false witness against your neighbor.  Of course, it is wrong to bear false witness against anyone, but the neighbor part is added to intensify the command.  It is not setting the limits of the command, but rather intensifying it.  How could you do such a thing to your neighbor, or even your brother?  If neighbors do not live truthfully with one another, if we lie against those we depend upon for mutual protection, then no society can last long in such circumstances.

There are different reasons why people lie.  Some people really will say anything in order to protect or promote themselves.  Others lie because they believe the ends justifies the means.  Lies are told to conceal activity from others, and in some cases, lies are told to protect others from harm.

Regardless of the reasons why we may lie, such reasons are only the superficial motivation.  There are deeper reasons that go to the core of our human nature, which brings us to the rub.

In Deuteronomy 32:3-4, Moses declares the nature of God.  He is something that is like a large Rock.  It cannot be moved and can be trusted.  You can build your life upon Him and it will hold up, as opposed to sand, which looks solid at first.  I mean, isn’t it just broken up rock?  However, sand is not dependable between sinkholes and liquefaction.  God doesn’t change, yesterday, today, or forever.  The words Justice, Truth, Righteous, and Upright are woven together to highlight God’s nature.  God by His nature is truth, but we are not.  Even when we speak of justice, truth, and righteousness, we are not generally being completely honest.  We just want the justice that is in our favor, and not that which hurts us.  Moses reminds Israel, and us, of just who God is, so that they will do the hard work of fighting against their own sinful nature.

Lies come too easy for us, and only a person who keeps their eyes upon God and has a healthy fear of Him, can be transformed into His image.  The choice is always to conform to the perversity of this world, or be transformed into the truth of who God is.  Titus 1:2 tells us that God cannot lie.  Why?  He cannot lie because He is Truth.  It is His nature.  Whereas, lies are contrary to the nature of God and the reality He created.

In Psalm 109:1-4, David was able to take his prayers, his cries to God, and put them in poetic form.  Always remember that songs which move us deeply are crafted from the difficult things and the anguish that they have gone through. 

David speaks of how the wicked have lied against him, that is within society.  Saul is a good example of what David is talking about.  Saul continually defamed David as a rebel insurrectionist, a usurper, but the truth is that Saul was the true rebel.  He was in rebellion against the path of God, and though he was not usurping the throne, he was usurping God’s place of leadership within Israel.  Still, Saul deflects the truth and paints David as the bad guy.  David also mentions that the wicked do this without cause.  Even their feigned reason for coming after him is a lie.  He has done nothing to them, but good!

Like the cry of Israel rising up from the mud pits of Egypt to God, the cry of the righteous reaches God’s ears.  Even people who lie against others often complain about those who lie against them.  However, notice what David’s answer is to all this frustration. “…but I give myself to prayer.”  David appeals to The Power that is higher than King Saul, or anyone else on this planet, or in this cosmos, for that matter.

If you are not convinced that God will deal with all liars, then read Revelation 21:8.  There, we are told that “all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone…”  It may not look like it in this world, but God is committed to destroying those who give themselves to lies, and to lying.  This passage uses inheritance language.  They will have their part, their portion, their lot, in the Lake of Fire.  It becomes their inheritance.  They will not be allowed to enter into the new heavens and the new earth.

Any time a person complains that a good God should not allow so much evil on earth, remind them that they should be more careful.  God has set a day of recompense, but will you survive?  Will I survive and come through the coming Great Filter of God?

Let us not fool ourselves.  God hates lies and false causes.  He will bring to destruction everyone who embraces them, and He will separate them from His creation.

God loves truth

The flip-side of hating lies is that God loves truth.  I could have said that He loves a truth-telling tongue, but there is a deeper issue here. 

In 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, Paul reminds us that part of what God is trying to do is to give us a love of the truth.  Think about that.  What is God doing right now?  He is working to help us learn to love truth.  To love truth is to love God because He is truth by nature.  You can’t separate these two.  This includes our wrestling with our sinful nature, and learning to cooperate with the lessons of truth that God is trying to teach us.

Paul pictures the end times as a time in which God quits trying to convince the world to love truth, and He hands them over to a strong delusion, a great lie that the whole world will believe hook, line, and sinker.

In fact, we should recognize that salvation itself, the Gospel, is all about asking people to embrace truth.  I am a sinner, that is the truth.  God’s judgment hangs over my head, that is the truth.  Yet, God doesn’t want me to be destroyed, that is the truth.  If I will throw myself upon His mercy, die to self, and put my trust in the person and the way of Jesus, then I will be spared.  Truth!  If you don’t love that truth, then something is very wrong with your heart.  Something is wrong with all of our hearts, but God can help us if we will trust Him.  Many today keep pushing away the love of God that continues to reach out to them. However, one day it will come to an end because God loves others too much to give you eternity of choosing lies over truth.

In Ephesians6:13-14, Paul reminds us that Truth is part of the armor of God.  Like Saul with David, this world offers us all kind of armor that it says will protect.  Lies and deception are the protection of the wicked.  David knew that he would not survive using this world’s armor.  His trust was in God and the truth.  The truth is that God has either sent Goliath and the Philistines to chastise Israel, or that God is looking for someone with enough guts to trust that He would be with them.  David was that man.

Of course, Jesus also trusted in truth, and it got him killed.  At least, that is what the world, and your flesh, wants you to think.  The truth did not get Jesus killed.  They were actually killing truth when they killed him.  He willingly laid down his life for us, that is the truth!  To overcome the attacks of this world upon our faith, we must love truth more than life itself.  This is the real battle.

As we close, I bring to our remembrance the warning of Jesus himself.  Perhaps Matthew 24 and the Olivet Discourse is what Paul had in mind when he wrote 2 Thessalonians 2.  There, Jesus gave his disciples a look at what lay ahead of them from the first century to the end of the age and his Second Coming.

Jesus emphasized and warned against deception, false prophets, false christs, and lying signs and wonders that are coming to convince the world of The Big Lie.  It will be convincing to those who have not clung to the truth of God and loved it.  Many who claim to be believers in Jesus will become believers in the anti-Jesus because they let themselves use lies as a defense instead of repenting before Christ.

Today, let us not only hate those lies that are told against us, but to hate the deceptive cause that is dripping with a false coat of righteousness and appeals to our sinful nature.  May God enable us to love truth because He is truth, and without Him, we will not survive what lies ahead of us.

A Lying Tongue audio

The Things That God Hates 1: Introduction

Proverbs 6:16; 1 John 4:7-8.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 8, 2021.

We are starting a series on the things that God hates using the seven things listed in Proverbs 6.  In order to do justice to the gravity of the subject, we will take a week on each item, with this week introducing the concept of God hating something. 

Some use this idea of God hating to charge the Bible with inconsistency, and error.  In short, they use it to defame the character of God.  However, if we think more deeply on these things, we will find that this is not so.

Let’s look at our first passage. 

How can God hate?

Proverbs 6:16 clearly states that there are things that God hates.  The knee-jerk reaction of some is to ask, “How can God hate?”  Now the word that is translated “hate” here is the same word we have talked about in prior sermons.  This Hebrew word has a much larger range of meaning than our English word “hate.”  You have to look at the context in order to determine whether it speaks of something that is merely loved less than another thing. 

We saw this in Genesis 29:31. Many translations will say that God saw Leah was unloved, but it is actually the Hebrew word that in some cases can mean a disdainful hatred towards someone.  It is clear from that passage that Jacob does not “hate” Leah in the English sense.  Rather, when it comes to choosing between Leah and Rachel, he would reject her and choose Rachel.  Rachel was loved by Jacob, but Leah was not.

In Proverbs 6:16, the verse has another word that is clearly meant to be synonymous, or parallel with the earlier word “hate,” and it is the word “abomination.”  In Hebrew, this word has an extremely thin range of meaning.  It pretty much means something that is loathed and detested.  Although it can be used of humans, it is mostly used of God.  Some of these abominations that God hates are perversions of the Mosaic sacrificial system, but most of them are immoral activities that God has gone on record as stating that he detests them.

So, we can be assured that contextually the word “hate” here is on the other end of the spectrum from Genesis 29:31.  It means to hate, as we English speakers would think.  These are things that God has a strong aversion to, and detests.

Now, let’s look at the passage in 1 John.  This passage categorically defines love as an essential part of God.  “God is love.”  In other words, God can’t quit being love any more than we can quit being human.  Yet, we should note that, even though the Bible speaks of God hating things, it never states that God is hate.

It is here that we should understand that, for us, hating something is generally rooted in something that is wrong in my heart.  With God this is different.  Just as we find it impossible to be angry and righteous at the same time, so we find it impossible to hate and be loving at the same time.  In the Bible, we see that because God loves His creation so much, especially humans whom He made in His image, that He hates anything that threatens to destroy it, us.  He can do this perfect, not in spite of His love, but directly flowing out of His love.  If God is perfect love, then he must hate that which threatens to destroy the object of His love.  Like I said, it is impossible for humans to do this perfectly, which is why Scripture tells us, “The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”  James 1:20.

This brings us to two important understandings.  One, sin, as defined by God, is that which destroys us, others, and the world around us.  Second, God’s wrath, His active hatred for sinful things that destroy what He loves, is for the purpose of setting things right, producing righteousness.

There is a common statement that has surfaced over the years.  “God hates the sin, but loves the sinner.”  Is this true though?  My answer would be, yes, and no.  If this statement is used to remind people that God always desires the salvation of the sinner, even in the midst of their judgment, then it is true.  God is not willing that anyone should go into eternity lost.  However, He will not force anyone to put their faith and love in Him.

How is this statement wrong?  If we use this statement to justify not repenting of our sin, not repenting of destroying ourselves and others around us, if we use it to coddle and excuse rebellion, then we are treading on thin ice.  The sinner who refuses to hear God’s call for them to turn from sin, and to embrace His righteousness, will find out that God’s love for them will not cancel out their choice.

In John 3:17-19, we are told that the condemnation of God, His hatred for sin, is even now looming over the sinner.  That person is a destroyer of God’s good things, both within himself, and others around him.  Yet, God’s love constrains Him to make a way for that sinner to be saved from his fate.

With the cross, God wants us to see at least two things.  First, it shows how greatly He hates sin, and how serious He is about destroying it completely.  Second, it shows how greatly He loves us and is willing to move heaven and earth in order to save us from this fate.  He takes our sin upon Himself in order to make room for repentance, but the room is finite.  Yes, He loves you and has made a way for you to see the error of your way and believe on Him, but He can’t wait forever for your decision because He loves everyone else too.

Do not be deceived.  The person who goes into eternity refusing to repent of their sinful destruction of God’s things will not find the love of God.  Why?  They will not find it because they have rejected it at every turn, over and over again on earth.  To repent is to embrace the love of God.  That person will find God’s love on the other side of mortal death.

Thus, we see the picture at the end of Revelation 21.  The creation is melted down, and recreated as a new heaven and new earth.  An eternal city, built by God, comes down out of the heavens.  It is symbolic of the righteous, but it is also real.  We hear these words about it.

Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there).  And, they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.  But, there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

At the cross, Jesus dealt with my sin, your sin, and took the judgment of our wickedness, our sinful destructions, upon himself.  However, I must choose to turn from my sin, quit loving wickedness, and start loving Jesus, the One who died for me.  The day will come when there will be no more room to choose for me, and for you, for your neighbor, your friend, even your enemy.  The day will come when there will be no more choice for this world because God’s plan is to bring us to a place where there will be no more wickedness forever, amen!

It is not His plan to bring us to a place where there is only wickedness.  However, for those who reject His plan, and embrace wickedness, He allows them to enter into the fruit of their choice, a place of only wickedness, and none of the goodness of God.  This is a repulsive thought, but it is even more so to the God who loves us and does not want this for us.  Why will you choose death?  Choose life and live!

Things God Hates 1 audio