God hates sin

God hates sin! Right?

OK, let me ask you this and I want you to think about your answer. Is there a sin or are there sins that God hates worse than others?

The Bible does single out some sins and describes them as sins that God hates. Prov. 6:16-19.

There are six things which the LORD hates,

Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him.

Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,

And hands that shed innocent blood,

A heart that devises wicked plans,

Feet that run swiftly to evil,

A false witness who utters lies,

And one who spreads strife among brothers.

Let’s look at these. Haughty eyes. This is an idiom for pride. This sin underlies everything that we do in our flesh. We want other people to think well of us. If someone says something unkind to us or calls us a name, we get our feelings hurt, despite knowing that it is the name caller that is in the wrong. We have to dress a certain way. We have to act a certain way. We have to drive the right kind of car and live in the right neighborhoods. Why do we have to do these things? So that we will look good in the eyes of other people. When we sin, we are telling God, “I want to do it my way, not Your way.” It is the sin that underlies all the sins that we commit.

Pride is the original sin of Satan led to the his fall. Satan said, “I will be like the Most High God.”

Paul warned the Romans in Rom. 12:3, “For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” We are “not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.” Do you think that just because you have not committed the same sins as some other Christian, that you are better than that other Christian?

Think about that a moment. Let me repeat it: Do you think that just because you have not committed the same sins as some other Christian, that you are better than that other Christian?

Let me illustrate that in a ludicrous manner:

“I am not a murderer and a bank robber. I live a better life than Bonnie and Clyde.”

Now that is not going to step on anyone’s toes here. But we often see other people commit sins. When the sins are the same as those we commit all the time, they don’t bother us. But let someone commit a sin that I would never do. Well, that’s a different story. Now how do I react? Do we tell someone else that Clarabell has the foulest mouth I have ever heard? Maybe I should thank God that I don’t have a trench mouth like Clarabell? Or maybe, I have always admired Clarabell. Since she uses that kind of language it is OK for me to use it. Or do we go to Clarabell and in a spirit of gentleness ask her if there is a better way to handle her frustrations?

Back to Bonnie and Clyde again.

Have you forgotten what Jesus said in Matt. 5:21-22? “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable before the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court ...”

Is there anyone here who has not at some time been angry at someone else?

You know what comes next: Matt. 5:27-28. “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; but I say to you, that every one who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

Which is worse, the anger or the pulling of the trigger? The lustful thought or the physical act? Jesus said that each one was a sin and violated one of the ten commandments.

How do we react when we hear about other people’s sins? How do we react when the sins of other people hurt us? Some one calls us a name. Remember when someone calls you a name, that it is the other person who is in the wrong. Don’t take it personally. Have you ever told someone something in confidence and then that person went and told someone else who repeated it again. Do we get angry?

Let me ask a question of the men here. What goes through your mind when a woman walks by dressed in a provocative manner? Let me turn that around. You ladies, why do some women dress in a provocative manner? I don’t really understand this next rhetorical question, but this is for the ladies. Some of you go to work every day. Perhaps you and your husband have been having a difficult time or you may feel that he has not been paying enough attention to you. You go to the office and another man there says just the right things to you and you think, Now why didn’t Clyde say that to me this morning? And then your imagination begins to continue along that line of thought.

Just because we aren’t guilty of the overt sins of murder and adultery, do we think that we are any better than a person who is, when we are guilty of the mental sins of murder or adultery. Paul commands us “not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.”

And Proverbs puts pride at the head of the list of sins that God hates.

Number 2 on the list is a lying tongue. This sin is clear enough. But certainly our little white lies aren’t what God has in mind. Are you sure about that? Is that what the text says? When we lie, most of us will excuse those lies by saying they were white lies. None of us tell real lies do we?

Well, let’s go on to number 3. “Hands that shed innocent blood.” This is another description of sin that is not hard to understand. But notice, this is the only overt sin in the list here in Proverbs. The others are mental sins, such as pride, or they are sins of the tongue like lying. But as Jesus showed us in Matt. 5, murder also includes the mental attitude sin of anger.

The passage begins to get real interesting in verse 18. In verse 18 Solomon gives us two approaches by which all of us at times will find ourselves sinning. The fourth sin in Solomon’s list is premeditated sin: “A heart that devises wicked plans.” The fifth sin is opportunistic sin, “Feet that run rapidly to evil.” The contrast is between sinners who plan ahead for how to commit their sinful acts and those who just stumble into doing what comes naturally.

I once heard a preacher describe this verse this way: “The dummies run to evil, but the

smart people plot it first. So you can tell whether you are smart or dumb. Here is your IQ test. Do you plot it out first and then do it surreptitiously; or do you just wallow in it?”

Five of the sins that Solomon lists here as sins that God hates are specific sins, but these two in verse 18 cover the panorama of all sins. Any sin we can commit is picked up here as either a premeditated sin or an opportunistic sin. Again, I think Solomon hits us squarely between the eyes with these two. Let me illustrate a premeditated sin by using an unbelieving friend of mine. But this could just as easily have been a believer.

A business associate and I were in New York City on business. We had over a year of time and twice as much money as we should have had invested in the start-up of a new business. We were meeting with our investment bankers who were going to decide if the business could go forward or if we had lost all our money and wasted more than a year of our time. The meeting did not go well. The decision was postponed until the next day.

That evening in New York City after dinner, my associate told me that I should not expect to see him before early the next afternoon. We parted ways across the street from Grand Central Station and I went back to the hotel. My assumption was that my associate there in New York City was going to drown his concerns in liquid refreshment, but he could have had other plans. Whatever those plans were my presence would be a drag on them. I need to say that in the 40 years we have known each other, I have never seen him drunk. Whenever he drank in my presence, he did it in moderation. Whatever my associate did that night was pre-meditated. I didn’t see him again until the next afternoon. The good news was that the investment bankers agreed to finance our new business.

As I said, this example involved an unbeliever, but believers at times will also make elaborate plans that involve sin. What are you planning to do this afternoon. Sometimes you are at work and have big plans for that evening or you have plans for Saturday night. Do those plans include sin?

Then there are opportunistic sins. These sneak up on us.

When someone sins and adversely effects you, do you react in anger and then blow it off as you cool down? Or do you do a slow burn and think about ways to get even?

Dr. Leafe has taught us about the importance of having a biblical worldview. When we have a biblical worldview, we see life and the trials of life through a frame of reference based on what the Bible teaches. When we have a correct biblical worldview, we are not going to wallow in sin when the opportunity presents itself. We are able to make correct decisions and to apply the appropriate biblical principles. But we first have to know what the Bible teaches. That was one of Dr. Leafe’s strengths, teaching the word of God.

Before we move on to sin number 6, let me illustrate an opportunistic sin with the sequel to the business start-up story I told a few moments ago.

As with most start-up businesses the first couple years are rough. Ours was no different. After two years the business was in trouble and I was wondering how long I would have a job. I began to worry. I couldn’t sleep for 3 months worrying about how to fix the mess I was in. Finally, I prayed, “Lord, I don’t have a solution. You are the One who will have to fix things.” I realize that the words of this prayer were not some magical incantation that woke God up and brought Him into action. But within days, like less than a week, my associates and I developed a new strategic plan. The strategic plan got us moving in the correct direction. But it was the Lord who turned the company around during the next year and He did it in a way that was not in the plan. But that is a story for another time.

But the most important point of this sequel is that worry is a sin. It sneaked up on me as an opportunistic sin. A sin that Solomon lists as one God hates. But also note the outcome. Jesus Christ is in control of the situation. He knows the trials and difficulties that we go through. He has already worked out the solutions. Trials and difficulties are part of God’s training program for us. We can sit here in church week after week and listen to the teaching of the Word of God. We can listen to the pastor give us illustrations and applications. But until we go out into the laboratory of the world and put the Word of God into practice, we will never grow spiritually.

Now my personal experience of investing a year of my time and twice as many dollars as I could afford to lose in a new business and have its fate determined by the arbitrary decision of a group of investment bankers at Number 2 Wall Street is not something any of you will probably ever face. There is no application that I would expect to hear in a sermon that would ever tell me how to handle this situation. The specific ways each of us will have to apply the Word of God in our lives is different for every one of us. The Bible gives us the basic principles. The pastor can give us examples and applications in his messages. But God allows each of us to face our own sets of trials and difficulties because He is training us for our specific future roles in His kingdom.

The sixth sin that God hates in this passage is similar to the second one. This is a “false witness who utters lies.” This is the sin of perjury. James comments on this in James 5:12. “But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but let your yes be yes, and your no, no; so that you may not fall under judgment.”

Judgment! God does and will judge sin. He judges all sin. For believers this judgment occurs in Time. God’s training program described in Heb.12 includes discipline. God disciplines each of us in love when we sin.

While I am talking about judgment, let me digress a moment and talk about the Judgment Seat of Christ – the bema seat. We are all familiar with Paul’s teaching on the bema seat judgment. From I Cor 3, at the Judgment Seat of Christ our wood, hay, and straw are burned up leaving only the gold, silver and precious stones. The gold, silver, and precious stones are the fruit of the good that we produce while living our lives under the filling of the Holy Spirit. Our sins are not a factor at the bema seat. They are the wood, hay and straw that is burned up. This week, as I was thinking about this, I realized that in a sense our sins are a factor. I will call this the “crowding out factor.” The sins in our life, in essence, crowd out the fruit of gold, silver, and precious stones that we could produce as fruit in our lives. Because of our sins crowding out spiritual fruit we will miss out in some of the spiritual blessings God has laid up for us in heaven.

Even though God has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west, there are consequences for our sins. There is divine discipline in Time and the loss of future reward under the crowding out factor.

Back to James: James is concerned with more than simply telling a lie, but actually giving false testimony about events and other people. James is reiterating Jesus’ teaching that we are not to try to build the case for the truthfulness of our lies by making them in a form of an oath, “As God is my witness ...” Or perhaps we try to sell someone else on our opinion by stating, “God gave me this vision or spoke to me last week, that we should do ...” I have heard that in church meetings. I have heard it from preachers. But as I read the Bible that is taking God’s name in vain.

What we say is important. James 3:1-12 is concerned with the power of the tongue and how much damage it can do. The sins of the tongue may be the most overlooked sins in the Christian life.

All of our sins originate here in our minds. Some of them will never express themselves in overt sins or in verbal sins of the tongue. Those remain mental attitude sins. Solomon covered these with the first sin God hates, “haughty eyes.” Solomon identifies one overt sin, murder in this list. Numbers 4 and 5 relate to how we enter into sin and cover any sin of which believers can be guilty. But three of the sins that Solomon singles out as sins God hates are sins of the tongue. Lying was number two and perjury was number 6. We now come to the last sin and it is another sin of the tongue.

“One who spreads strife among brothers.” I label these people as troublemakers. Are we building each other up in our conversations or are we criticizing others? Do we say hateful things to others? In our conversations are we creating problems and strife among our brothers in the Church?

Eph. 4:29 says, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.” “No unwholesome word, but only such a word as is good for edification.”

Recently I attended a baseball game and saw the Astros and the Mets play. Every time one particular Mets’ player did anything the crowd booed. Those of you who follow the Astros know why and know who the player is. When I was younger, I was taught that booing a player was unsportsmanlike. But at Minute Maid Park last month it was all a part of the fun of the show. However, was the booing edifying? Some of you go out on Friday nights and watch our church softball team play. Do our actions at those games show our spiritual maturity? If the umpire makes a call we don’t like, do we boo? When someone does something we don’t like or has rubbed us the wrong way, do we call them names? Of course, when our team makes a good play, we cheer and applaud.

Like the first three chapters of Romans, the list of sins that God hates catches all of us in many ways. The main point is that we are all sinners. God hates all sin. While Solomon singles out the mental attitude sin of pride, the overt sin of murder and three sins of the tongue, he also includes the et cetera: premeditated sin and opportunistic sin that encompass any sin we can commit.

How do we handle sin? For the unbeliever, it is “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” We are to change our minds about what we think about Jesus Christ and place our faith and trust in Him and Him alone for the forgiveness of sins and for eternal life. As Heb. 6:1 says, we are to repent of our dead works – our dead works, not our sins. Dead works are all the things people do to try to gain salvation. The good lives we live, being baptized, going to church, walking down the aisle, crying tears of repentance, all these are dead works if they are not preceded first by faith alone in Christ alone for the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life.

For the believer, what do we do when we sin? I John 1:9, We confess our sins to God. As Troy aptly put it last Sunday, we openly admit and name our sins to God. “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Confession of sin restores our fellowship with God.

There is another aspect for believers. Paul stated it in the second half of Phil. 3:13, “forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.” Once we confess our sins to God, we aren’t to dwell on them. We can learn from them, but we don’t need to have a guilt complex. God has forgiven them. We don’t need to engage in “what ifs.” Paraphrasing what Paul says, forget it and keep moving. Keep moving ahead in our Christian life. We need to be in the Word of God every day and we need to apply it in our lives.

Also let’s recognize that we are all sinners. We all have an area of weakness where we are prone to sin. This area of weakness arises from our flesh. My area of weakness differs from yours and yours differs from mine. In our pride we have a tendency to judge and condemn other believers who sin in different ways than we do. I hope none of us would ever justify a sin of our own with the idea that another believer whom we admire does the same thing, therefore it must be all right.

There is another situation where the Bible teaches us that confession is necessary. That is where our sins have involved another person or hurt another person. James 5:16. “Therefore, confess your sins one to another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.” When our sins affect another person, we need to go to that person and confess our sin to them. Ask for their forgiveness. This verse also shows that the other person should respond in kind. Anytime there is a problem or difficulty between two people, there is usually fault on both sides.

Husbands and wives are you having problems in your marriage? Well, husband, don’t tell your wife what she is doing wrong. Tell her what you did wrong. And wife, don’t tell your husband what he is doing wrong, tell him what you did wrong. As James writes, “Confess your sins one to another.” If you want more detail, read my book on James.

How should a church deal with a believer who is living in sin? The Bible gives us specific instruction. Matt. 18 sets out a four step process. Step one: we approach the believer and point out the sin. If the believer refuses to turn from his sin, we then bring two or three witnesses with us. If he still does not turn from his sin, we bring him before the church and rebuke him. If he still refuses to stop sinning, then we are in a I Cor. 5 situation. He is “delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.” The Amish call it “shunning.” Some call it being “disfellowshiped.” The point is, the sinning believer is then removed from the fellowship of other believers in the church. But if at any point he repents, that is, he turns from his sin, the four step process of Matt. 18 stops and if it reached the point where the sinning believer has been removed from fellowship, he is welcomed back into the church.

The purpose of this is not punitive but for the restoration of the sinning believer to fellowship. Once the sinning believer discontinues his sin, church discipline ceases.

If we see another believer sinning, we don’t tell others about it. The Bible teaches us what to do in these situations. Gal. 6:1, “Brethren even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted.” The purpose is restorative, not punitive.

Heb. 3:13 has an important admonition for us: “But encourage one another (another of the “one another” passages that Dr. Leafe often taught us about) day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

Let me summarize what I have covered. Proverbs 6 lists 7 sins that God hates, but these cover any sin that we might commit. We all have a pretty good idea what sin is. We are all guilty of sins. We tend to overlook our own sins, but sometimes make a big deal out of the sins of other people.

The Bible teaches us how to handle sin in our lives.

The unbeliever must believe in Jesus Christ. Faith alone and Christ alone.

The believer confesses his sin to God. While he may learn from his past sins, he is to forget them and keep moving ahead in his spiritual life.

When our sins adversely affect another person, we are to go to that person and confess our sin to him.

In the church, church discipline comes into play when a believer continues in sin and refuses to acknowledge and turn away for the sin. The spiritual believer is to go to the sinning believer and with gentleness work to restore the sinning believer. Only when a believer refuses to turn from his sin, should it ever come before the church where it is rebuked. The purpose being to restore the believer and not for punishment. That is God’s prerogative.