7 Things God Hates - Part 1

[0:00] Well, good morning again as we are back here together in God's Word this week. We're going to be continuing through a few of the Proverbs this morning.

[0:11] We're going to be in Proverbs 6 and looking this morning at a few verses in Proverbs chapter 6. And we'll be looking at seven things God hates.

[0:25] And this will be part number one. And we're going to go through the first three things in the list that the Bible says that God hates. There are a number of these lists. This is one of those.

[0:36] But as we start off, we have to first start off with the love of God is beyond understanding. The way that God loves, we cannot even begin to comprehend.

[0:47] And the first thing that is difficult for us to understand, even about us, is that God loves sinners. God loves people who are his enemies.

[1:00] We see that in Romans chapter 5 and the 8th verse. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that we were still sinners.

[1:11] Even when we still were the enemies of God, still disobedient, still having our position, not having a position with him, and still being his enemies.

[1:25] As a matter of fact, it was God, it was Jesus' own people that sent him to the cross. But God demonstrated his love.

[1:35] Even that while those who were still sinning, still disobedient, still hating God, sent their own Savior, their own Messiah to the cross, God loves sinners.

[1:50] And because of that love, he makes salvation possible. We see that in John chapter 3 and verse number 16. Probably one of the most popular verses of the Bible. One of the most memorized verses in the Bible.

[2:02] People that don't even attend church or probably at one point in time have heard John chapter 3 verse 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, his unique son, none other like him, that whoever believes, whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

[2:26] That is how incomprehensible the love of God is. God so loved the whole world of humanity that he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross so that we would not have to spend the eternity separated from him.

[2:40] Because, after all, he created us to have a relationship with him. He created us for his own pleasure, for him to enjoy our presence with him.

[2:52] His love sent Jesus to the cross. We see that in 1 John chapter 4 and verse number 10. In this, his love, not that we love God.

[3:04] Here's the thing. We didn't love God first. He's the one who loved us first. And we simply return that love.

[3:15] Not that we love God, but that he loved us. And in turn, sent his son, Jesus Christ, to be the propitiation, the atonement, the payment that would please or would appease the wrath of God towards sin.

[3:31] Jesus Christ was sent to the cross of Calvary on your behalf and on mine because he loves us. But there are things that God hates.

[3:45] And what God hates are the things that bring his children pain. Things that are detrimental to us. Things that are detrimental to a God-honoring society.

[3:57] And there are seven things that we see in this list in the book of Proverbs that God hates. And we see that there are seven things, six things, but then a seventh.

[4:13] We'll consider three of them this morning as we are looking through these verses. And this text really is a serious one. Because if we think about what God hates and what God hates are obviously things that we don't want to have in our own life.

[4:31] So let's take a look and to see the things that God hates. We see Proverbs 6. We will be looking at verses 16 through 19, but spending our time in the beginning of those verses.

[4:44] These six things the Lord hates. Yes, seven are an abomination to him. First, we start off with a proud look.

[4:58] A lying tongue. Hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that devises wicked plans. Feet that are swift in running to evil.

[5:10] In verse 19, a false witness who speaks lies and one who sows discord among the brethren. So this six, seven pattern is used in other places in God's Word.

[5:28] It's used in the book of Job. In Job chapter 5, verse 19. This list, one number plus another. It's also used various times in the book of Proverbs.

[5:41] And the purpose of this poetical language, the purpose of this X plus one type of list, is to show that it's not a complete list.

[5:55] Because there are more things that God hates than six. There are more things that God hates than seven. But it is a way of the writer to say, these are the things God hates.

[6:06] It is by no means an exhaustive list. There are six things he hates. Yes, seven things that he hates. That perfect number. And what we see is the first number plus the last.

[6:22] And it's as if the last is a culmination of the previous. And it is the product of the previous six.

[6:33] And it's really, really bad. And so these are the things that we're going to look at. So let's take a look at the first thing that God hates. And the first thing that God hates, according to the writer of Proverbs, is a proud look.

[6:47] We see that in verse number 17. Pride. Pride is something that is a common trait that we all have.

[6:59] Pride is viewed as a great evil because it involves pretending to a greatness and a glory that belongs only to God.

[7:10] Because when we pretend greatness, or when we pretend to be something better than we are, what we're really doing is we are taking the glory and we are taking goodness and greatness that belongs only to God alone.

[7:30] We don't like being belittled. We don't like being outdone. We always like to be feeling like we are the most important or we're better or we're something more than someone else.

[7:44] As a matter of fact, one day a Maine potato farmer was talking to a Texas rancher at an event that they had at a political rally. And the man from Texas, from the Lone Star State, said, how much land do you tend?

[8:00] And the potato farmer said, well, about 100 acres. And not to be outdone, the Texas rancher said, well, I farm 6,000 acres.

[8:11] And the Maine potato farmer wasn't that impressed. He goes, well, okay. Well, the rancher went on. He said, well, there's a much bigger ranch down near San Antone.

[8:22] To give you an idea of its size, the owner starts up in the morning in his truck. And by noon, he's barely reached the other side of his farm, or of his ranch.

[8:34] And the Maine potato farmer said, oh, I used to have a car like that once. You'll get it eventually. But we don't like being outdone.

[8:45] Every time someone comes up with a story, every time someone says, I did this, we, because of pride, think that we have to be better, or we have to give one better.

[8:59] As a matter of fact, pride is very, very, very, very bad in our lives. And God sees this. As a matter of fact, the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church defines pride as the inordinate love of one's own excellence.

[9:17] Think about it. The inordinate love, the out-of-control, or the out-of-bounds love, the inordinate love of one's own excellence.

[9:28] excellence. That's pride. Now, sometimes we use pride, and we say, well, you know, I'm very proud of you, and that may not necessarily be a very bad thing.

[9:39] But when pride is so out-of-bounds, or so inordinate, so extreme, that we think we are better than someone else, and that is the dictionary definition of pride.

[9:55] So let's take a look at verse 17. Where the writer says, this is the things that God hates. A proud look. So first on the list is pride.

[10:07] Because pride is usually the basic motivation for all other sins. It's because of pride that we may go on to other sin.

[10:18] As a matter of fact, it was pride that brought Lucifer down so low that he was cast out and becomes Satan. We see that in Isaiah 14, 12 through 15.

[10:30] Isaiah 12. How were you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How were you cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations? For you have said in your heart, and here's where we have the I wills of Lucifer.

[10:45] I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north.

[10:57] I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. And who is like God? There is none like God.

[11:07] And these were, this was the sin of Satan. Pride. I will, I am not satisfied with my estate. I am not satisfied with where I am. I am not satisfied with who I am.

[11:19] I am not satisfied until I will be like God. Not realizing that, that was an inordinate estimation of his own excellence. He was not God. He was not like God.

[11:30] He was a created being. Although, son of the morning, although a very, probably beautiful angel, he was not God. And thought more of himself.

[11:41] And he took to himself the glory and the excellence that only belonged to God or that belongs to God alone. So pride is what did this.

[11:53] He says, yet you shall be brought down to Sheol to the lowest depths of the pit. And also, pride typically comes before destruction.

[12:05] You see, we may be proud of ourselves and we may have it all together for a period of time. But eventually, what happens? we mess up and then we are humbled and then we have to realize, oh, I wasn't as good as I thought I was or I didn't have it all together like I thought I had.

[12:22] Pride precedes destruction. We see that in verse 18 of Proverbs 16. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

[12:35] Ever seen someone who is haughty? You know, we don't use that term a lot. But I think of the idea of when someone says that they're haughty, it's like they walk with their nose up in the air.

[12:46] Like, I'm better than so-and-so. Hmm, I would never do that. Hmm, I would never wear that. Hmm, I would never, or, you know, I would never, or I would not.

[12:57] And that's a haughty spirit. We're not realizing that, who knows, but that we may be destined for a fall, destined because we think that we are better than we are, and all of a sudden we slip up and we do something that now we are ashamed of.

[13:13] We have to always realize that they're there but by the grace of God. Go I. We're just one short breath away from doing something that we said we would never do. So we always have to be careful.

[13:25] That is why we don't play around with sin. We don't play around with anything that is potentially destructive. Because we may say, you know what, I would never get ensnared by that.

[13:37] And all of a sudden before we realize it, we are. And so he says pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

[13:48] You see sometimes, you ever been caught in a situation where you thought somebody gave you a compliment but they really weren't? The story goes, Mark Twain says that one day he was walking down.

[13:59] Mark Twain, in his older age, was a very, distinguished looking fellow, white hair and the big mustache. And it says that he was strolling through the park one day when a little girl pattered up to him and started following him.

[14:16] And highly flattered, Twain started regaling her with story after story. She walked next to him for about an hour in the park. and then he gave her a nickel and said, now run along little girl, one day you'll be able to tell the story that you walked with Mark Twain.

[14:38] And she started crying. She said, oh, I thought you were Buffalo Bill. So all this time he thought she was buttering him up.

[14:48] She thought she was so excited because she could walk with Mark Twain and, no, oops, I got the wrong guy. And you know, so burst his bubble. All this pride that he was feeling because someone was paying him attention because he thought he was an inordinate estimation of one's own excellence.

[15:08] And so be careful. Be careful. We need to understand that pride is something that we need to stay away from. To have a realistic estimation of ourselves.

[15:20] To realize, you know what, we're not all that. But by God's grace, we belong to him. And anything that we do, anything that we accomplish, it's really because of the grace of God.

[15:33] It's because the power of God in our lives. Harry A. Ironside said, haughty eyes belong not to the one who has been a learned, belongs not to the one who has been a learner at his feet, who is meek and lowly in heart.

[15:50] Meaning, if we spend any time at the feet of Jesus, in his word, and drawing closer to him, pride has no place in that person's life. We think of the psalmist's example in Psalm 131.

[16:03] Verse 1, Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty, neither do I concern myself with great matters. You know, there are some people that go around talking about big things and world issues, and you know what?

[16:19] They don't know what they're talking about. Or, they don't know as much as they think they know. So the psalmist says, you know what? I don't go around concerning myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me.

[16:31] You know what? There's nothing to be ashamed of to say, you know what? I have no clue what you're talking about. That's over my head. Nothing to be ashamed about. Because there are certain things, there are certain areas that you are an expert in that someone else may not be.

[16:48] And someone may be the most learned person on earth, but you may know more about certain things than they do. It may be plant work, it may be electrician, it may be whatever, it may be, who knows, baking, who knows.

[17:05] And they're going like, what? That's over my head. Well, you know, they might be the most brilliant physicist on the planet, but they may not know how to bake a cake.

[17:15] And so, don't feel like you have to have pride to say, well, yeah, I understand that when you have no clue. So we can be like the psalmist and say, you know what?

[17:26] I don't concern myself with things like that because it's over my head. I just know that by God's grace, I am who I am and he loves me for who I am.

[17:37] So, take it from the psalmist. Let's not concern ourselves if matters too great for us. Just know what God, know God and stay away from pride.

[17:48] As a matter of fact, Spurgeon said, lowliness and humility here in this verse in Psalm 131, lowliness and humility here relate to a sanctified heart.

[18:00] A will subdued to the mind of God. When our will is subdued to the mind of God, we won't have to worry about pride because we will leave that up to him.

[18:13] So pride, the first thing that God hates. The second thing that God hates is a lying tongue. We see that in verse number 17. A proud look, a lying tongue.

[18:28] We see God is a God of what? Not a God of lies. Satan is the father of lies, but God is a God of truth.

[18:39] God is a God of truth. It's one of the ten commandments. Exodus 20, 16. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. One of the ten commandments.

[18:50] Lying actually began in the Garden of Eden. You remember that? When Satan comes up, when the serpent comes up, and says, you shall not surely die. What was that? That was a lie because God didn't say that.

[19:03] God didn't say that if you touch it, you would die. He says, if you eat of it, but Satan said, if you touch that fruit, you're going to die.

[19:13] That was not what God said. He distorted what God said. You're going to be just like God. Why don't you go ahead and try it? And so this began in the Garden. Jesus, in John 8, 44, called Satan, the father of lies.

[19:30] We see that in John chapter 8. You are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a, what was Satan, a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

[19:45] When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources. For he is a liar, and the father of it. See, God desires truth deep within us.

[19:59] Not just that we speak truth, but that we live truth. That truth is within us. It's part of us. An honest heart.

[20:10] Psalm 51, verse 6. You see, God doesn't see lying necessarily as an act of speech, but as a deadly force that goes to work in society, and it divides, and it destroys.

[20:28] See, lying is not just an act of speech because lying begins before we ever open our mouth. We make that decision. We make that choice not to tell the truth. And it's, we can think of it as you go into a well, you go to a well, to draw water.

[20:45] Whatever's in there is what comes out. And so, if we are a lying individual, that says that we have a lying soul. And then that's what comes out when we open our mouth.

[20:56] So, God desires truth deep within. When we lie, what we're literally doing is we're opening the door for Satan to go to work. We're opening the door for Satan to use that against us.

[21:08] Because think about it. When we tell a lie, when we don't speak the truth, then we have to remember what we said. And undoubtedly, it will ultimately come back where it's used against us or it is going to hurt someone else.

[21:25] So it opens the door and allows Satan to go to work. God desires truth. Look at Psalm 51 with me. Verse number 6. Psalm 51 and verse 6.

[21:37] Behold, the psalmist says, you desire truth. Where? Not just on our tongue. Not just on our lips. But the psalmist says, God, you desire truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part.

[21:52] You will make me to know wisdom. So deep within us, God, that's where truth begins. That's where truth begins within us. Spurgeon says, God desires not only outward virtue, but inward purity.

[22:05] God desires not only outward virtue, because it's much easier to look good on the outside than it is to be pure on the inside.

[22:17] And when we're pure on the inside, that will come out when people aren't watching. That's what Spurgeon says. Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life.

[22:28] Chapter 14, verse number 6. God wants us to be an honest people and outwardly to make our own worth. You see, our truth is apart from Christ.

[22:40] We, without Christ, are destined to the lake of fire, the Bible says. And on our own, what can we accomplish? We can accomplish nothing of eternal value. That doesn't say people can't do anything that's good.

[22:54] But anything that is of eternal value can only be produced by God's Holy Spirit working within us. God desires us to have an accurate estimation of ourselves.

[23:05] Anything that we do that's awesome, where does the glory go? God, it's like the athlete who says, oh, what is it of God that I can do this? Well, that's awesome because if we understand that and realize it, because people say, oh, I'm a self-made man, or I'm, you know, I did this and I did that, and I don't need God, until they realized that they needed God to breathe.

[23:28] They needed God to continue to allow their brain to work so they could have that multi-gazillion dollar idea and then put it to work.

[23:41] God was the one that is working behind the scenes that we don't realize. So we need God. So pride says, I did this. Pride says, I accomplished this.

[23:51] Pride says, I am all this and more. But before long, we will be brought low because pride is something that God hates and God hates and then we see verse 17 that God hates hands that shed innocent blood.

[24:10] God hates hands that shed innocent blood. Now what does that mean? A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood.

[24:22] The third thing God hates is murder. The third thing that God hates is murdering someone else. God's grief came early with this.

[24:35] Cain and Abel. We see that in Genesis chapter 4 verse 5. So murder is something that is very, very old, beginning of mankind. We see it go back that far.

[24:46] It's also one of the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not kill. Sometimes people confuse that, especially those who are in the military or those who are in law enforcement and come to a point in their career when they have to take a life because it is incumbent upon them to save another life.

[25:05] Now God gave government the ability and the right to uphold law. There is a difference. Matter of fact, there are different Hebrew words for killing when it is necessary and murder, shedding innocent blood.

[25:25] And so we have to understand that just because someone took another person's life, we have to look at these circumstances, whether it was justifiable. So that's why God hates shedding innocent blood.

[25:41] God permits the government to exercise control, exercise capital punishment, and strengthen justice in the land because if it were not for this, there would be no justice.

[25:53] There would be no strong justice in the land. We see that in Genesis. chapter 9, verses 5 and 6. We see that in Romans chapter 13, verses 1 through 7, where God gives the government the ability or the power to exercise punishment and strengthen justice.

[26:15] So there is a difference, but the shedding of innocent blood, according to Numbers chapter 35, pollutes the land. So that is why there should be such strong justice on someone who would shed innocent blood, no matter whose life that is.

[26:32] So as we think about these things that God hates, this is not the only list, but there are other lists of things that God hates, and a part of that list may be a little bit surprising, because it may be a thing, you know, some people think, oh, well, I would never do anything that God hates.

[26:50] You know, but then God, the seventh thing is sowing discord among the brethren, and sometimes that's pretty easy to do. So we're going to look at that next time we get into these verses, the next time we are together.

[27:05] But this list, things that God hates, God hates pride, God hates lying, God hates murder.

[27:16] So while God hates sin, God offers forgiveness. So this is the awesome thing about God. He hates sin, but his love and his forgiveness is beyond measure.

[27:33] Because of what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross, we can have forgiveness of sin. Now, think about this. This is our part of our homework this week.

[27:47] think about as we do, as we inspect our lives, think about is there anything in my life that God would hate? Is there any attitude in my life that would be an abomination to God?

[28:01] Is there anything in my life, any of my thoughts, anything, my actions, in my attitudes, that God would hate, whether it be pride, whether it be lying, whatever it would be.

[28:14] Let's think about that. We can do an inventory. Is there anything in my life that would not be pleasing to God? And then there's hope for us because of God's grace.

[28:26] For it's by God's grace that we're saved. And it's through faith. And the beauty is, it's not of ourselves. It's not of our works, lest anyone should boast. That is what God offers us.

[28:39] There are things that God hates, but there's so many more things that God loves, our obedience. We looked at that last week. God loves you. God loves me.

[28:50] He sent Jesus Christ to the cross to die in our place so that we could have not only everlasting life, but we could have a new life right here and right now.

[29:04] So as we go through this week, let's be thinking, God, is there anything in my life that is displeasing to you? that is when we say, well, God, forgive me.

[29:16] That is sin. Thank you for your forgiveness and by your grace, change my life, change my attitude, change my action, and help me.

[29:30] Give me the power and the strength to please you from this point forward. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you. We thank you that you have given the boundaries.

[29:42] We thank you, Lord God, that you have told us what displeases you, things that you hate, so that we can steer clear of them.

[29:53] Your Father, we pray that this week we may be able to honestly and accurately look into our own lives.

[30:06] and assess where we may have an attitude that is not godly, not honoring to you, that may be hurtful to others, that may open a door for Satan to work in our life or to begin to destroy our testimony, or help us to be honest with ourselves.

[30:30] We thank you for what you're going to accomplish. We thank you, dear Father, for the grace, that you show to us. We thank you for the power that you provide to please you.

[30:44] Father, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.