The Things That God Hates (2) // Wisdom That Works, Part 8

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

There are three things that most of us really hate. Firstly - someone who punishes the innocent, secondly someone who makes wicked plans and finally someone who heads off and executes those plans. Turns out - God hates those things too. And if God hates them, well, maybe - they’re worth steering clear of, don’t you think?

I'm pretty sure that you have some people in your life that do things that really annoy you. In fact sometimes those things really hurt and sometimes they can hurt so much that we hate them. We often focus our hate on the person but, by and large, if they stop doing that one thing that was hurting us we'd probably stop hating them.

And that's because the thing that we really truly hate is the thing that they're doing to us that hurts us. Sometimes it's someone who kind of lords it over us and doesn't let us get on and do what we're good at. Sometimes people belittle us or rejects us. The list is endless. Whatever it is we hate what they're doing and so we can end up hating them.

Now as we continue looking at the sort of wisdom that works, Gods wisdom, I'd have thought it makes a lot of sense to look at the things that God hates. King Solomon in the Book of Proverbs chapter 6 lists seven things that God hates. Things that are an abomination to Him.

Why should we look at them? Because things that people hate is a two way street. We can not only be on the receiving end of some bad stuff but shock horror, as difficult as this may be to believe about ourselves, we can be the ones dishing it out.

So let's have another look at the things that God hates. 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, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely and someone who sows discord in a family.

As I said yesterday none of these things are particularly contentious. I mean you and I can't really go to that list of seven things that God hates and argue to toss on this one or that. They're all pretty obvious aren't they? They're not very nice. And yesterday we looked at haughty eyes, the sign of a proud heart, and a lying tongue.

So right now we're going to look at the next three in that list, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devices wicked plans and feet that hurry to run to evil. Those three seem to me to go pretty naturally together don't they? Hands that shed innocent blood.

I can't tell you the number of times I've seen this. Of course I've never seen blood shed, praise God, I'm absolutely sure that many, many people listening around the world today who actually have. In my experience though what I've seen is people who lord it over others and punish and ride and bully people who don't deserve it.

It's exactly the same. Bullying is something that happens all the time amongst children at school, it happens in the work place, someone who's stronger either because of their personality type or because of their position or both, decides to start playing with someone else the way that a cat plays with a mouse.

It's so incredibly cruel and sometimes the perpetrator doesn't even realise they're doing it. They're shedding innocent blood because the pain that this behaviour is causing the recipient is beyond anything that words can describe.

Can I tell you? Bullying, just toying with someone, treating them this way, it isn't some sport it is a sin, it is something that God hates, it is an abomination to Him.

It's something I used to do before I became a Christian. It's something I don't do now because it's wrong and because I don't one day want to be a sinner in the hands of an angry God. And some people, some people in their hearts devise wicked plans.

Proverbs chapter 6, verse 18 we just read it. These are people who scheme. 'How can I get back at this person? How can I make it so that they'll never do this again?' The old adage, don't get angry just get even.

Or how can I get my hands on something I don't deserve or haven't earned? Perhaps if I do this and twist that and lie this way and deceive that person that way. Perhaps then I'll be able to trick them out of the thing that I really want for me.

Jesus said murder begins in the heart. If you're angry with someone it's the same as murdering them in Gods eyes. If you look at a woman or a man who's not your wife or your husband, as the case may be, with lust and desire it's exactly the same as committing adultery.

What we do in our hearts and our minds, what we think, the anger, the resentment, the vengeance we harbour and the schemes and the plans that we devise in our hearts, all that matters an awful lot to God. And wicked plans in our hearts, listen to me, are an abomination to God.

Sometimes people make us angry and sometimes we want revenge or at least justice which ultimately involves some form of recompense, that's a natural reaction. But if we let that brood in our hearts rather than forgiving the person. The more it takes hold of us and grips us and takes over our lives it becomes a wicked plan.

That's why the Apostle Paul writes centuries later to his friends in Ephesus in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 26. He writes:

Be angry but do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger.

In other words, you're going to get angry sometimes but don't let it fester because if we do something else happens. Because there's a natural consequence to that and that consequence is in fact the third thing on our list of things that God hates that we're looking at today. Things that we do that are an abomination to God.

It's this, it's feet that hurry to run to do evil. See what happens in our hearts overflows into our lives. Thoughts turn into actions just as sure as God made little green apples.

And the more we allow some injustice or some evil desire to fester in our hearts the more prone we are to devise wicked plans and the more likely we are to go and run towards evil just as the moth flies towards the flame to its own destruction. The more likely we are to execute the evil plans, the more likely our feet are to run towards evil.

It's exactly what James writes in the New Testament centuries after Solomon wrote this wisdom book of Proverbs. Have a listen, James chapter 1 beginning at verse 13. He said:

No one when tempted should say, 'I'm being tempted by God'. For God cannot be tempted by evil and He Himself tempts no one. But one is tempted by one's own desires, being lured and enticed by it and then when that desire has conceived it gives birth to sin and that sin, when it's fully grown, gives birth to death. Do not be deceived my beloved.

It's a natural cycle. It begins with evil desires of our heart and they grow into actions and those actions are sin and sin ultimately leads to death. Think evil, devise evil plans and our feet are going to run towards doing evil things and towards our inevitable destruction.

This isn't some reluctant sinner here, let's understand, this is someone that is running towards sin, embracing it. Launching themselves into an evil act because of the darkness they've allowed to fester and to brood and to ultimately to control their hearts.

Friend this is just such great wisdom. God hates a scheming heart and He hates it when we execute our evil plans and do evil. There are things that God hates; He hates them to a point where they are an abomination to Him. That's why our hearts are so important.

That's why it is so important that we spend each and every day with God alone, some time to let Him direct our hearts. To let Him warm them and inspire them and lead them and fulfil them and cleanse them. Because when our hearts are set upon God there isn't any room for evil desires to take hold and to conceive sin.

Whatever it is in our lives, we're all different, whatever it is this is the wisdom from God that works and I implore you heed His Word.