Things That God Hates // Wisdom That Works, Part 3

Christianityworks Official Podcast

God is a God of love and so we don’t often think about Him hating things. But He does - He clearly tells us so in His Word. So - what are the seven things that God hates … things that are an abomination to Him? Do you know - because my hunch is … they’re worth avoiding.

Proud Eyes and a Lying Tongue

One of the most common responses we receive from people who listen to this programme around the world is: well, how they’ve been blown away by how practical and down to earth God’s Word actually is. Many people have never realised that God, in this thing that many 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 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 Him "Abba", which translated means "Dad". So if God’s our Dad; if He loves us so much, why wouldn’t He want to give us down to earth, practical advice? Well, He does and He has.

That’s why we are 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 today we are going to take a look at seven 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 begotten Son.

And that’s the point: He loves us so much and He hates our sin so much that the way He sets us free from this sin; the sin that ruins our lives and separates us from Him, is through the supreme act of love in all of history – the death of Jesus Christ, His Son on the cross to pay for my transgressions and yours.

So, does God love us – you and me right now, given all that we have done to rebel against Him? Right at this instant, in Jesus Christ, the answer to that question is a huge, resounding YES! Of that we can be absolutely certain. Believe in this Jesus who came to die for you and 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 deals with it by letting His Son die for us to deal with them.

And through King Solomon, God tells us the sorts of sin that He really hates. We will have a look at just two of the seven, right now. But first have a listen to them all – 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 one who sows discord in a family.

Now, for much of my life, I thought of all this religion stuff, "God stuff", as being a whole bunch of outdated moralising but the list we just read out there – the seven things that are an abomination to God – well, I’d have thought that none of those, well, we wouldn’t have a problem with any of them. Take the first of them: 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 it as if to say, "Well, this isn’t decorated to latest fashion." And years later when I was in a desperate time in my life; when God had brought me down low, she was the person who gave me somewhere to live and encouraged me and strengthened me. And it turns out that she had noticed the way I had looked around her place all those years before; she had noticed my haughty eyes and remembered them. Why? Because haughty eyes are a sign of arrogance and superiority in the heart - looking down on people belittles them in order to exalt ourselves.

I remember a woman, a Christian, who would every now and then would stick her head into our office here at Christianityworks and instead of engaging with our staff – 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 since that 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 ... or just their own distorted self-view, or all of the above – this is an abomination to God. God hates it! The original Hebrew word for "haughty" means "to lift up, to raise up, to exalt on high" and the only person we are 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 an abomination to God. It’s something that God really hates.

Now, number two on this "hit parade", on this list of things God hates, is a "lying tongue". Let me ask you, do you like it when someone lies to you? Do you like it when someone deceives you? Of course we don’t! 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 – but on the inside they’re 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 then missed out, ninety percent of those prospective clients – well, they wouldn’t even give you an answer as to why. Me, I’d really like to know why even if it’s because the CEO of our opposition was a friend of the senior manager and the client. That’s okay, but tell me the truth so that I know; so that if there is anything that I can do better next time, I can take steps to improve.

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 very funny British sitcom, "Yes, Minister" once 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 – that is dishonest. We can be so clever in hiding the truth; we can think we are 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 – humour me – let’s say that God is in fact God; that He is 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 us – you and me. Well, maybe the things that God hates are things we should avoid!

God Hates Evil

Now, as we continue looking at the sort of wisdom that works, God’s wisdom, I’d have thought that it makes a lot of sense to look at things that God hates. So let’s have another look at the things that God hates – the next two on the list. Earlier, we looked at haughty eyes – the sign of a proud heart - and a lying tongue. Right now we are going to look at the next three on that list, in fact, not two, three, that I read out earlier from Proverbs chapter 6:

... hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans and feet that hurry to run to evil.

Those three seem to go pretty naturally together, don’t they? “Hands that shed innocent blood” – I can’t tell you the number of times I have seen this. Of course, I’ve never seen bloodshed – thank God for that – I’m absolutely sure there are many, many people listening around the world today who in fact have. In my experience what I have seen through, is people who lord it over and punish and riot and bully other people ... other people who don’t deserve it.

It’s exactly the same – bullying is something that takes place all the time amongst kids at school, in the workplace. Someone who is strong, either because of their personality or their position or both, decides to start playing with someone else the way a cat toys with a mouse. It’s so incredibly cruel. And sometimes the perpetrator doesn’t even realise they’re doing it – they are shedding innocent blood because the pain that this behaviour is causing the recipient, is beyond anything words can describe.

Can I tell you: bullying; just toying with someone; treating them this way isn’t some sport; it’s a sin. It’s something that God hates; it’s 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. There are people who scheme: "How can I get back at this person; how can I make it so that they will never, ever do this again?" Now that old adage, "don’t get angry, get even". Or, "How can I get my hands on something that 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 that thing that I want for me."

Jesus said, “Murder begins in the heart.” If you are angry with someone it is the same as murdering them in God’s eyes. If you look at a woman or a man who is not your wife or your husband, with lust and desire, it’s exactly the same as committing adultery. That’s what Jesus said. What we do in our hearts and in our minds – what we think, the anger, the resentment, the vengeance we harbour, the scheming and the planning and devising in our hearts – that matters an awful lot to God. And wicked plans in our hearts 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. It’s a natural reaction but if we let that brood in our heart, bubble away instead of forgiving the person, the more it takes hold of us and grips us and takes over our lives, well, ultimately it turns into wicked plans.

That’s why the Apostle Paul, centuries later, wrote to his friends at Ephesus in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 26. He said:

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

In other words, don’t let it fester because if we do something else happens. There is a natural consequence to that and it’s the third thing on our list that we are looking at right now, of the things that God hates – things that we do that are an abomination to God – it’s “feet that hurry to run to do evil.” What happens in our hearts, overflows into our lives. The 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 devising wicked plans and the more likely we are to go and run towards evil, as a moth flies into a flame, to its own destruction.

It’s exactly what James writes in the New Testament, centuries after Solomon wrote this wisdom in the Book of Proverbs. James chapter 1, verse 13:

No one, when they are tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God”; because God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself does not tempt any one. But we are tempted by our own desire, being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. Do not be deceived.

It’s a natural cycle: cause and effect. Think evil, devise evil plans and ultimately our feet are going to run towards doing evil and towards our own inevitable destruction.

This isn’t some reluctant sinner here – let’s understand – this is someone who is running towards sin; embracing sin; launching themselves into an evil act because of the darkness that they have allowed to fester and to brood in their hearts and their minds and ultimately, a darkness that controls them; a darkness that causes them to run to towards evil.

This is such great wisdom from God. There are things that God hates – He hates them to the point where they are an abomination to Him. That’s why our hearts are so important to God. That’s why it is so important that we spend time each and every day with God, alone – to let Him direct our hearts; to warm them, inspire them, lead them, fill them with His Spirit and goodness and love and peace and mercy, because where our hearts are set upon God, friend, there’s no room for evil desires to take hold, to conceive sin.

Whatever it is in our lives – we are all different – whatever it is, this is wisdom from God that works and I implore you to heed this wisdom. If there is something going on in your heart – some unforgiveness, some evil, something you want to do that you know is rebellion against God – I want to encourage you, right now, to lay it down at God’s feet. To go to God and say, "God, You have just spoken to me through Your Word. You don’t tempt me, I am being tempted by my own evil desires and I know that that’s going to lead to destruction. Father, I repent, I turn away from it and I come back to You because You are my God."

I want to encourage you – this is God’s Word; this is God’s wisdom and it works.

Lying and Dissension

Today so far on the programme, the third message in this series that I have called, “Wisdom that Works”, we have looked at the seven things that God hates. Let’s just recap - Proverbs chapter 6, beginning at verse 16:

There are six things 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 one who sows discord in a family.

And we have managed to chat about all except the last two in that list: “the lying witness who testifies falsely and the one who sows discord in the family.” Now, law courts are not a place where I have spent a whole bunch of time. Once for a car accident I was in when I was nineteen years old, several times with soldiers who had been charged with this or that, when I was an officer in the Australian Army and once to be sworn in as a Justice of the Peace. I have never, for instance, been at a murder trial or anything like that. But I can imagine the gravity of proceedings in a serious trial.

There is a lot at stake. I mean, justice itself in at stake – that there should be a fair trial with the burden of proof resting on the prosecution. The defendant is on trial – his or her whole future depends on the outcome. I mean, imagine if an innocent person were convicted. And to some extent the victim or the victim’s family or both are on trial, depending on the nature of the alleged crime. In a sense, they feel as though they are on trial. For them, a large part of the healing and recovery process involves seeing justice being done.

So, imagine in a highly charged; high stakes trial for a major crime with so much at stake, imagine that a crucial witness gets up on the stand and lies; that bears false witness and as a result there is a miscarriage of justice - either in one direction or in another. That’s something of an abomination, isn’t it?

We can totally understand why God hates this and yet, people lie all the time, in day to day life. They say and do things in the workplace that will get their work colleagues into trouble. They tell the boss one thing and something else entirely is the truth. "Aw, well, you know, that’s not the same as lying under oath in a murder trial." But what God is saying to us here through Solomon, in the Book of Proverbs ... what He is saying is "Yes, it is! It is exactly the same thing. It is an abomination to Me and it is something that I hate.”

I trust that you find this bit of insight into God’s nature and God’s wisdom as sobering as I do. Last week we saw that Solomon kicks off this wisdom Book of Proverbs with a statement that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”, I trust that is becoming so clear why he said that.

You know, we start bearing false witness pretty early on in our lives. Of course, I never once blamed my sister for something I did wrong! Not much! Of course I did! And I’m sure if you have brothers and sisters; you have been on the receiving end of that and the dishing out into that as well.

And that leads us to the last of the seven things in this list of things that are an abomination to God – “... someone who sows discord in a family.” Families are such a precious thing – hard sometimes, isn’t it, to be a part of a family? Whether it’s husband and wife, with the stresses and strains of modern life, tearing away at the marriage and conspiring, seemingly, to pull them apart. Or the pressure of bringing up children, or holding down a job and paying the mortgage and putting food on the table.

And as I remember, it’s not that easy being a child and growing up in a family either. As we move into those teenage years, we want to spread our wings and have our own way and we are yet we are still subject to the authority of our parents, which is why there is so often conflict in families.

Guess the point that I am making here is that there is already so much going on in life that puts pressure on families, the last thing that a family needs is pressure from within. The last thing a family needs is a husband; a father who is so domineering that his wife’s personality is being suffocated or his children are being provoked. The last thing that a family needs is a mother who doesn’t show respect to her husband and who undermines his authority in front of the children. And the last thing a family needs are children who deliberately set about rebelling and dishonouring their parents.

In each of those cases it’s about sowing discord into the family. And it’s like sowing seeds for weeds – those weeds grow and thrive and take over the good fruit that should be growing in the family. I know that relationships in families can be highly charged and that’s why God hates it when we sow discord into our families. Husbands - love your wives. Wives - honour and respect your husbands. Mums and Dads - nurture, love and discipline your children. Children - obey and honour your parents.

It ain’t complicated! And in living our lives that way in a family, that’s how we honour God – that’s how we show that this family who says it believes in Jesus; who professes a faith called Christianity, is different from the rest.

Is a family ever going to be perfect? No! Am I ever going to be a hundred percent perfect father or husband? No! I’m me – I make mistakes, just as you do. But friend, when we set about being peacemakers in the home; when we turn the other cheek; when we discipline our children out of love rather than out of anger and resentment, then what we are doing is sowing good seed that will bear good fruit.

I know it’s a journey, this wisdom thing. I know it frustrating and I know that to sow peace rather than discord, involves sacrifice and pain sometimes. But it’s pretty obvious isn’t it - all seven things in this list that God hates, this list of abominations, is so obvious. Let’s just look at them one more time. If you’ve got a Bible, go there and open it up. Proverbs chapter 6, beginning at verse 16:

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him; haughty eyes (which are the sign of a proud heart), 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 one who sows discord in a family.

It’s quite a bundle of things! And let’s make no mistake about it – God hates them. They are an abomination to Him and as much as we might want to sweep them under the carpet; as much as we might want to tell a little lie here and maybe upset the family there and look down our noses at this person there, and as much as we think, "Ah, no one notices – none of that matters," friend, these things are things that God hates. They are an abomination to Him and as we saw earlier, the beginning of wisdom; the place where wisdom starts, is with a fear of God.

One day you and I will stand before God and we will be judged. One day we will have to stand before Him and give account for our actions. Now, I believe that I am saved and I am forgiven through Jesus Christ – it is pure grace; it has nothing to do with my works – but once we accept that, God calls us to start living in obedience to Him. Not many things – I mean, there only seven on that list - not many things He says, “Don’t do!”, but there are a few. He loves us, He cares for us and the very few things He says, “Don’t do”, are the things that are going to hurt you and me and the people around us.

It is not rocket science – it is wisdom. It is wisdom that works.