I want you to take your Bible
and turn with me to the book of Proverbs, chapter 15. Proverbs,
chapter 15. I'd like to read two verses of
Scripture. Verses 8 and 9. Proverbs 15,
verses 8 and 9. The scripture declares, the sacrifice
of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. But the prayer of
the upright is his delight. The way of the wicked is an abomination
unto the Lord. But he loveth him that followeth
after righteousness. Let's pray together. Our Father, as we call this morning,
knowing that you're here, we pray for Christ's sake. Lord,
speak to our hearts today. Help us according to your purpose,
grace, compassion, mercy. We pray for these that have been
mentioned. We ask that you would, Lord, heal according to your
good pleasure. And now I pray that you would
bless these words that are spoken, the glorious gospel of free grace,
Lord, to the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ and the good of
your people. For it is in Christ's name we
pray. Amen. In Proverbs 15, verses 8 and
9, I've entitled this message, What God Hates and What He Loves. When Adam and Eve ate of the
forbidden fruit, the scripture sets forth that they died. In fact, all mankind died. The Lord told Adam, in the day
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. That is, dying, thou shalt die. And when he ate, According to
the Word of Almighty God, he died. What does that mean? Well, the first thing I know
is that spiritually, his soul was corrupted. No knowledge, intimate knowledge
of God. He became a mortal creature.
Death, spiritual immediately, and physical death at once began
to work within. And man now was dead in trespasses
and sins and separated from God. had provided all for mankind. Everything that man needed, he
had, and would surely never be disappointed. But mankind in
Adam, in Eve, did not believe God, and death occurred. And the evidence their rebellion
against God and spiritual death, man now had a conscience. I want
you to turn to Genesis 3, verses 6 and 7. The Scripture says, And when
the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto
her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them
both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they
sowed fig leaves together. and made themselves aprons. Now, Satan had told Eve, he said,
that day that they ate of the fruit, he said, your eyes will
be opened. And they were. They knew, the
scripture says, that they were naked. Satan said, you shall be as gods
Knowing good and evil. Good. Evil. And now, they knew good without
the power to do it. And they knew evil without the
power to avoid it. Resist it. When their eyes were opened,
when they knew that they were naked, they came into a Possession
of now a conscience. We're naked before God. We have nothing to hide us. So what they did, they sewed
fig leaves together and made themselves aprons, or in the
margin here it says girdles, or things to gird about. Man needs a covering before God,
and he knows it. Now that's the first record right
there. A fallen man making an effort
to provide for himself a covering before God. And every man, every
woman born in Adam has that mindset. Man is born with a conscience. And he knows that there is an
offended God. He knows that. And he thinks
that he can hide himself before God by his own ability. I've told you, visiting down
in Mexico, going there to that temple, Whatever they called it. And
they knew that their God was offended. They needed a blood
sacrifice. They needed to sacrifice the
purest thing that they knew. They knew the heart was the issue.
They'd cut the heart out of these warriors or virgins or whatever
they would get, and they would sacrifice, they would place that
heart on an altar and try to appease. They knew! They knew! God's mad. God's offended. Well, Scripture says that the
Lord came to Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. He found
them afraid. He said, Adam, where are you?
He said, well, I was afraid. He said, why are you afraid?
Did you eat the fruit? God knew he ate the fruit. You were naked? He said, who
told you that? Well, you know what happened.
They were expelled from the Garden of Eden. But before they were
sent out, something marvelously merciful took place. In Genesis 3.21, the Scripture
says, unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord make coats
of skins and clothed them. A sacrifice had to be made for
Adam and Eve to possess the covering of God's providing. They had
tried to sew fig leaves together and Almighty God was not pleased
with their covering. But in mercy and grace And you
see the glorious gospel right here of the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ, putting away the guilt of His people. God
Almighty was going to have to be satisfied by one that could
satisfy Him. And it was by His sacrifice,
the sacrifice of God's Lamb, that the guilt of God's people
put away, and the robe that robes them is the righteousness that
was earned by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, knowing this truth,
we find back in Proverbs 15, we find now this truth set forth. Here is the reason for the sacrifice. Man is a rebel. Man is a sinner. Man is born
spiritually naked before Almighty God. Here's the reason. Here's the reason for the sacrifice. Man is a sinner. Here's the reason for the sacrifice. God Almighty is just. Sin is going to be paid for. God is merciful. God is a Savior. He's a Seeker. Now here, I'm going to give you
in these two verses that I just read, 8 and 9, Proverbs 15, 8
and 9. Here is what these two verses
say, and for the next few minutes, I'm going to make good on it
by these scriptures. Almighty God hates man's attempts
to provide his own covering. God hates, is disgusted with,
Man's attempt to hide himself. And secondly, God Almighty loves
His covering. And man calling upon His covering. God's Lamb. God hates man's sacrifice. And He loves his son. Now, wicked man had tried to
provide his own sacrifice. Now here was Adam, a dead man,
spiritually dead. And what he did while in his
deadness, when he ate, he died. After he ate, He was going to
provide himself, he thought, a covering. Let's get these fig
leaves, sew them together. God will be pleased with this.
This will hire us. Man tried to provide his own
sacrifice. And that was man's sacrifice. Those fig leaves. His own covering
to hide himself before God. But the scripture says here,
the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination, is disgusting. God hates it. He hates it. Trying to hide oneself is actually
calling God a liar. Any man, any woman, that thinks
that they can do something, that they can provide something to
hide themselves, to cover themselves, whatever it is. Call it whatever
you want to. Turn over a new leaf, go to church,
read through, pray through, be baptized, take the Lord's Supper,
walk down the aisle, pray the sinner's prayer, whatever you
think. you can do in order to hide yourself
and to provide a covering for yourself before God. Here's the
first thing you're doing. You're calling God a liar. Because
He said you're dead. He said you're dead. And you're
saying, I'm not. You see what I'm saying? God
Almighty is disgusted with the sacrifice of the wicked. You're saying that I can provide
for myself. And I'll tell you another thing.
Thinking that you can provide for yourself is to spit in the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ who said it's finished. You're
saying, no, it wasn't finished. I had to add my two bits to it. I had to provide my own free
will. The Lord provided what was necessary,
but it took me to do it. And God is disgusted with that. The Lord Jesus Christ. is God's
lamb, God's sacrifice. Adam's sacrifice were fig leaves. And the Scripture says, without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission. When I see the
blood, have you noticed that every time that man thinks that
he can do something, that he can do something, whatever he
does, Name whatever, just make a long list. All these things
that you said. What does blood have to do with
it? Nothing. Without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission. If you think that you're going
to be the one that provides your own covering, you better be able
to do it yourself. The righteousness of God is set
forth in the cross. And I'll tell you, the unrighteousness
of man is set forth in his own works. God hates him. The sacrifice
of the wicked is an abomination. It's idolatrous. The sacrifice of what you provide,
you know why? Because that's what you're worshiping.
You're saying, I did it. I added. And so you are your
own God. You have set yourself up as being
the one that is worthy to be worshipped. It took me. It took
me. I was the one. God wanted me to do it. He was
desiring me to do it. And I did it. I made the decision. It's idolatry. Idolatry. Thinking that a man has a free
will and can is idolatry. You've set yourself up as God. And Almighty God says the sacrifice
of the wicked is disgusting to me. But the prayer, the supplication,
the beseeching, The crying out for mercy of the upright is His
delight. This is my beloved Son. This is God's covering. This
is God's Lamb. This is God's life. This is God's
will. This is God's purpose. This is
my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. You hear Him. Lord, save me, or I'm going to
perish. Lord, I can of myself do nothing. Lord, being made to see my own
need, Lord, save this sinner. Lord, in me, that is in my flesh,
there dwells no good thing. Lord, without You, I can do nothing. Lord, You must save me. Lord,
You must give me faith. Lord, You must keep me." Those that have no confidence
in themselves and cry out for mercy, help, regenerated by grace,
robed in Christ's righteousness, God's sacrifice, that's His delight. God is delighted. Those that
call out from that new heart that He's given them, I'll give
you a new heart. I'm going to dethrone that old
heart. Oh, I know, as I've said before, the presence of sin is
with us. And man, regenerated by the grace
of God, goes through this world struggling and struggling and
struggling. and seeing the very presence
of sin, seeing the very gnawing of that old man, the effects
of it. But thanks be to God, I know
that He has put away my guilt. Here's all of my hope. I know,
I know. They said, how can you say...
Here's the hope of a believer. I know this. I know that I am
a sinner. I know that I can do of myself
nothing that's good. But here's all of my hope. Here
it is. Here it is. God's not going to
charge me with it. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. He's not going to charge him
with it. Is that mercy? Yes, it is. Where did it go? He charged it
to his son. You mean sins that I've committed
now? Yeah, yeah. that you've ever done, shall
do, Christ born. Made sin. Actually, made sin. What I am, what you are. By nature. God in the person of His blessed
Son, made all that His people are. Those chosen in Him, elected
from the foundation of the world. And that's what His Son was made.
The mass of guiltiness made sin. And there upon that cross, He
who knew no sin in Himself, He was not a sinner. As I've told you before, sinner
has to do with disobedience. By one man's disobedience. But
here's the miracle of God's grace. He who knew no sin, who was obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. Obedient! Obedient! He who was obedient! was made sin, willingly agreed,
and Almighty God in infinite justice dealt with the penalty
of His people's sin and rebellion and put it away. And now, to those that be in
Christ Jesus, No charge. No charge. Law looks at God's
people in Christ. There's now therefore no condemnation
to them that be in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit, believing God. That's what it is. If you
want to know what it is to walk after the Spirit, that is to
believe God. I know what I am in myself, but
God is not going to charge me with it. Verse 9, the way of
the wicked. Abomination unto the Lord. A way that seems right. A way that flatters man. A way
that dishonors God. A way whereby a man trusts in
his own righteousness. That's the ways of death. Death. The way of the wicked. that counts
the blood of the covenant of God's grace to be an unholy thing,
the way of the wicked. Abomination. Here again, same
thing as that first verse. That verse that sets forth that
man can add his work to God's work. Men may say, I
believe God graciously offers, but man must accept it. That's an abomination. but he
loveth him that followeth after righteousness." There's one righteous. There's one righteous one. One
righteous one in himself. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He
loveth him that followeth after righteousness. How does one know
that Almighty God has everlastingly loved him? I know, I know the
Scripture sets forth that God is loved as people with an everlasting
love. I've everlastingly loved you.
How does one know? How is it manifested in this
world that God Almighty loves a man, loves a woman? I'll tell
you how it is. In regenerating grace, that one
that God Almighty has given life, They follow Christ. They trust
Him. They bow to Him. My sheep hear
my voice. I know them and they follow me. What is it to follow the Master? It's to say, I don't possess
any righteousness in myself. I follow Him by faith. I hear
His Word. I trust Him. Matthew 5, 6 says,
Blessed of God are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
after Christ. Following after righteousness. That was Paul's desire. That's
what he said. Oh, to be found in Him. accepted
in Him that I may know Him, robed in His righteousness, I stand
accepted in the Beloved. The sacrifice of the wicked is
an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is
His delight. Especially is that so concerning
our great High Priest, the one who ever liveth to make intercession
for us, the way of the wicked abomination of the Lord, but
he loveth him that followeth after righteousness.