The Things That God Hates (1) // Wisdom That Works, Part 7

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

There are two things that most of us really hate. Firstly - when someone looks down their noses at us and secondly when someone lies to us. And not only do we hate it, but God hates it too. With a vengeance. And if God hates those things, well, maybe - just maybe - they’re worth steering clear of, don’t you think?

A few months back I had the privilege to be able to speak to a Church on mother's day. And the message that I chose to speak about was on the 5th Commandment of the 10 Commandments:

Honour your father and your mother so that you may live long in the land that God is going to give you.

The message was called, somewhat tongue in cheek, "How To Get More Out Of Your Parents?" We looked at what it means for children to honour their parents and the incredible blessing that flows out of that. Both right then and there because parents love to bless their children, I mean we're hard wired to do that but also for the rest of their lives as they learn the lessons they need to learn in order to become adults and parents themselves.

And afterwards several people came and spoke with me and they all expressed the same sentiment. They had been blown away by how practical and how down to earth Gods word actually is. They never realised that God, in this thing that we consider to be a stuffy old book, the Bible, gives us such incredible practical wisdom that makes our lives better.

It's pretty sad because He actually does. God loves us, He reveals Himself to us as our Father. To the shock and the horror of the religious leaders of the day Jesus actually called God the Father Abba which translated means Dad. So if Gods our Dad, if He loves us so much why wouldn't He want to give us down to earth practical wisdom and advice?

Well He does and He has. And that's why we're continuing this week in the Book of Proverbs, a father's Godly wisdom and advice, King Solomon to his sons, God our Father, Dad, to us.

And what we're going to be looking at today are some of the things that God hates. Now we don't often think of God hating anything. We think of God as the God of supreme love, a love so great that He would send us His only Son and that's the point.

See He loves us so much and He hates sin so much that the way to set us free from that sin that ruins our lives and separates us from Him was through the supreme act of love in all history, the death of Jesus Christ on the cross to pay for my sin and yours.

So, does God love us, you and me, right now given all that we've done to rebel against Him? Right at this instant? In Jesus Christ the answer to that question is a huge resounding "yes!". Of that there can be absolutely no doubt. Believe in this Jesus who came to die for you and for me, to pay for our sin and to rise again to give us a new life. Believe in Him and we are forgiven. Full stop! End of story.

But does God hate our sin? Well in Jesus Christ the answer to that question is also a huge resounding yes. So gravely does God view our sin that He doesn't sweep it under the carpet, He deals with it by letting His Son Jesus die for us to deal with the sin.

And through King Solomon God tells that the sorts of sin that He really hates, we'll have a look at just 2 of the 7 that He lists today. But first let's have a listen to all of them. Proverbs chapter 6 beginning at verse 16:

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that devices wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely and one who sows discord in a family.

Now for much of my life I thought all this religion stuff, this God stuff of being, well it's just out dated moralising. All they want to do is impose their morals and their rules on me and control me and get me to conform to some belief system I don't believe in. Give me a break.

And to be honest that's what religion is, that's why Jesus railed against religion and all the religious nuts of His day who wanted to heap rule after rule after rule on the shoulders of people who were already burdened with great loads.

But the list we just read out there, theseven things that God hates, that are an abomination to Him that none of us would have a problem with any of them. I mean take the first one, haughty eyes. Fancy God hating haughty eyes. But have you ever been around someone who looks down on you?

I remember before I became a Christian I visited a woman's home, an elderly lady, the mother of a friend of mine. And I looked around as if to say, 'well this isn't decorated to the latest fashion'. Years later when I was in a desperate time in my life, when God had brought me low, she was the person that gave me somewhere to live.

And she encouraged me and she strengthened me and it turns out that that first time I visited years before she noticed the way I looked around her place, she noticed my haughty eyes and remembered them all those years later. Why? Because haughty eyes are a sign of arrogance and superiority in the heart. Looking down on people belittles them in order to exalt us.

I remember a woman, a Christian, who would every now and then stick her head into our office here at Christianityworks. Instead of engaging with our staff and asking them how they were, how things were going, instead of caring for the people she looked around with haughty eyes. And those haughty eyes have brought her so much grief in a recent time, much, much grief.

Listen to me, that sense of arrogance and superiority that some people have because of their ability or their position or their status or their wealth or just their own distorted view of themselves, this is an abomination to God. God hates it.

The original Hebrew word for haughty means to lift up, to raise, to exalt on high and the only person we're meant to exalt on high is Jesus, God Himself. God doesn't share His glory with anyone and those people who look down their noses at others for whatever reason are doing something that is really an abomination to God. It's something God really hates, arrogance.

Now number 2 on the hit parade here, the things that God hates, is a lying tongue. Let me ask you something, do you like it when someone lies to you? Do you like it when someone deceives you? Of course we don't, I don't either. Lying equals deception, deception equals dishonesty and dishonesty makes a person rotten to the core.

They purport to be one thing on the outside, sweetness and light and all things good but on the inside there's something completely different. And so that we don't notice they tell us lies. You know I don't even like lies where people are trying to protect me and not hurt my feelings.

Back in the days when I was in business if we bid on a job and missed out 90% of the prospective clients wouldn't give you a straight answer as to why. Me, I just wanted to know why even if it's because the CEO of the client organisation was a friend with someone who is opposition to us.

I mean if that's what happened just tell me, it's okay, but tell me the truth so I know and so if there's anything I can do better next time I can take steps towards improving.

See the lying tongue takes all sorts of different forms. From not telling the truth, in other words a bald faced lie to, as a character in one of the very funny British sitcoms Yes Minister said 'being economical with the truth'. In other words not telling the whole truth. Even telling the truth in theory but playing on the situation and the context so that the recipient gets the wrong impression.

We have all told lies in our lives. We can be so clever in hiding the truth. We can think that we're so smart but listen to me a lying tongue is an abomination to God. It is something that He hates.

Now let's just say that God is in fact God, humour me, God's God, He's all powerful, that one day He is going to judge the living and the dead and that that judgement will have a huge eternal impact on you and me.

Let's just say that's true. Well doesn't it make sense to avoid the things He hates and two of the things He hates are haughty eyes and a lying tongue.