Proverbs 6. I don't rightly know what prompted
this. I hope just the Spirit of the
Lord prompted this message to go in this direction. You know, we can worship the
Lord We can worship the Lord just
considering his holiness, his justice, his righteousness, and
his purity. Can't we? Don't we worship and
praise and exalt his holy character? I think it was John Calvin one
time that they said to him, John Calvin, what if you didn't find
your name? What if you could see the Lamb's
Book of Life and you never found your name there? Would you continue to worship
God as you do? He said, I surely would, because
He's worthy. And whether we receive mercy
or grace or not, He's worthy to be worshipped. This is what
we do here. We come here to exalt. and worship
our great God in all his character. How can I present this message in any way that will not appear
somewhat hard and convicting? Did you read it this afternoon?
Did you read the passage? I read in this text, it says
in verse 16, that six things the Lord doth hate. Six things
the Lord hates. God, who is love, mercy, grace,
compassion, tender, kind, long-suffering, slow to wrath, slow to anger,
delights in mercy, hates some things. The word is utterly despised. It's odious, detestable to him. Hate something. Do we need this?
It's God's word. And we sang that from Psalm 139. Search me, Lord, if these ways
are in me and you hate them. Oh, my God, get them out fast. And we're going to see that these
aren't just ways, these are people. These are people he's talking
about, not just things. You can't separate the sin from
the sinner, can you? Above all these things, we often
say it, don't we? God who is love and mercy and
grace, above all this, he's what? Holy. Holy. Holy. God the Father is holy. God the Son is holy. God the
Holy Spirit is holy. God is holy. God is just. God is righteous before he's
merciful, love, grace, compassion, and so forth. The righteous Lord,
Psalm 117 says this, the righteous Lord loveth righteousness. That's
what makes him who he is. He loves what is right. He loves
what's good. He loves what's just. He loves
what's equitable. He loves what's true. He loves
what's honest, right? Can we worship God for that reason? Surely, if that were not so,
this would be hell on earth. Right? If God were not so, we'd
be in the possession of demons. All of this means holy. God's right. God loves what's
right, good, just, true, equitable, honest. It means holy. Holy. And you could translate that
word holy, w-h-o-l-e, l-y, wholly. God is whole, complete. He says,
Be ye perfect. That means whole, as I am. Be ye holy. I am holy. Right? Since God is holy and loves what's
right, just, good, and true, and deals with people in a way
that's right, just, good, and true, it's no wonder he hates
these following things. No wonder he hates them. And
he says seven are an abomination unto him. No stronger language
can be used for the way the Lord hates these seven things. All
right, let's look at them. Verse sixteen, these six things
that the Lord hate. And as I say, there's just no
way I can present this message in any way that will be palatable
or pleasant or less than convicting. We sure need it, don't we? All
Scripture is proper for doctrine, for reproof, for correction. Number one, the number one thing
the Lord God, the Holy God hates more than anything else. Number
one on his list. Verse 7, 17. A proud look. Her haughty eyes. Turn with me
over to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. 1 Corinthians chapter 4, a
proud look. The thing God hates the most
is pride. Why? Why does God say that that's
the first thing and the worst thing that he hates? Because everything we have, he gave it
to us. Everything. And pride is to act
as if we had something, or did something, or were something,
or earned something, or deserve credit for something. That's
the basis of pride. That's what pride is saying.
Look at 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7. Who maketh thee to differ
from another? You young people, listen very
carefully now. You read along with me. You got
your Bible? Read along with me. 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? Who? There is God. That's who. God is the creator, sustainer,
provider of all things. God gives all knowledge, all
talents, all beauty, all strength, all riches, all honor. All things
are of God, through God, and to God. Belongs to his credit,
that is, to him. Should be used to him. And pride
says this, verse 7, What hast thou that thou didst not receive?
Now, here's pride. If thou didst receive it, why
would anybody glory, or take credit, or be lifted up, as if
they had not received it? Why? Turn over to Jeremiah chapter
9. Jeremiah 9. Everybody, young
and old, turn to these scriptures. Jeremiah nine. These are seven
things the Lord detests. And we need to learn. We need
to have them rooted out. Jeremiah nine. Scripture says
every good and perfect gift comes from above. Everything, every
good and perfect gift comes from above. Like rain that comes down. Every good and perfect gift comes
from above, and what makes us to differ is free grace and free
grace alone. Jeremiah 9, look at verses 23
and 24. Thus saith the Lord, Let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom. Intellectually wise, a smart
man, an educated man or woman. Neither let the mighty man, the
strong man, the robust man, the healthy man, glory in his might.
Let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that
glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth
me, that I am the Lord, which exercise lovingkindness, judgment,
and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight,
saith the Lord. But the man who has a proud look
I hate," he said. Those that are proud of me, I
delight in," he said. Those that are proud of self,
he said, I hate them. Pride goeth before destruction,
Scripture says, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Count on it. Now, you know it's
so. The thing you hate to see in
people more than anything else is pride, don't you? Isn't it
despicable to you when you see it in people, these athletes
and all? And if I make mention of these fellas and a lot this evening,
so be it. Because we see a lot of them
now, don't we? We're just absolutely inundated with these proud creatures. Here's some illustrations of
pride. Pride in young, pride in old, pride in rich, poor,
male, female, and so forth. Here's a man who has great intellect.
He's real smart. He's real smart. He has more
education. He has greater capacity to learn. He's articulate. He's just a
smart man. There are people out there who
have brains that just won't quit. And most of us, our brains quit
a long time ago. But here's a man who has great
intellect, great intellect. And over here is a man who was
born a mongoloid, who was born mentally retarded. Who makes the difference? I mean, this man could have easily
been born like this and this man like this, right? Who made
the difference? Why in the world would this man
ever be proud of his intellect? One little smack on the brain
and an automobile crash and he'll be as the mongoloid and he'll
get what he deserves if he's ever lifted up with haughtiness,
right? Here's a man who's rich and powerful
and famous and wealthy and so forth. Rich. Here's a poor Yucatan
Indian, a Mayan Indian down in the Yucatan living in the grass.
Here's a man living in a palace. Here's a man living in a grass
hut with a dirt floor. Who makes the difference? This
man could have easily been born down here and vice versa, right?
How could he ever? He's given it. God, the author
of life, puts people where he wills. He said there is those
that are rich yet are poor. There's those that are poor yet
are rich. Very, very few people that are
up on this side enter the kingdom of heaven, he said, but there's
a lot. There's a whole mass of people
down in the Yucatan that are going to be infinitely rich someday.
Here's a woman who's beautiful and attractive. She's the envy
of all the women and the delight of all the men. Beautiful, attractive,
gorgeous. Here's a woman who's ugly and
disfigured, perhaps was born with polio or something. Who makes a difference, huh?
Why would this woman ever again An automobile crash or something
could disfigure her very easily, change her outlook on things,
couldn't it? The old saying, beauty is only
skin deep. Well, here's a young boy or young man. He's an athlete. He's strong. He has ability and
athletics and so forth. He's strong. He's robust. Here's
a boy in a wheelchair. A boy in a wheelchair. Born that
way. Can't walk. Who made the difference,
Luke? Well, this boy could have been
born in a wheelchair and this one could have been born. Who
makes a difference? Huh? God does. Right? God did. Could have easily been
switched. And for this one to boast. of
his strength and his ability, and run around like he's somebody.
You know, it may bring him to this point later on. You've seen
it. These athletes, once again, they
get all lifted up with pride and become somebody and think
they're something, and they go out and they're drinking and
carrying on and partying, and all of a sudden get in a wreck,
and they're reduced to a wheelchair. Then what are they? They're has-beens. They're nobodies. They're nothings. And if they had gone up like
they came down, they came down like they went up. Here's a young
girl, very pretty, very popular. And if I may be very frank, she
develops more fully, quickly, more quickly than other young
girls. And here's a poor little plain
Jane, you know, born of a poor family. nothing going for it. Here's a girl who's a cheerleader
and popular with all the girls and the boys in the school, and
here's a nobody, a nothing. Who makes the difference? Could
it easily have been reversed? Could God make the difference?
You see why God hates a proud look? He wanted to be proud in
any of these areas, and there are many more. Proud in these
areas is to incur God's wrath eventually. It'll come down.
Payday? Someday. God is just. Right? I'm glad. Aren't you glad? I really am. Sometimes I see
people get their comeuppance, and I thank God. I say, He's
just. Payday someday. Right? Payday someday. It's all over
the pages right now, isn't it? Man's heroes. Who are your heroes,
young people? These sports figures? Andrew,
don't make a hero out of these sports figures. They're despicable
people. They're filthy, rich millionaires
who could care less about the average man. They come out of
the ghetto and get rich, and they forget where they came from.
They wouldn't give you the time of day if you came around them. Because they can play a game
that makes them something. They're nobodies. Let me tell
you who your heroes should be, who you should look up to. These
men that have been faithful fathers, faithful providers, consistent,
faithful examples, faithful believers, disciples of Christ, followers
of of that which is right and true. That ought to be your heroes,
who you look up to. If we exalt ourselves, as Scripture
says, we can be ready to be abased. You can count on it. Believers,
the thing about believers, if we exalt ourselves, God in mercy
and grace and love will abase us, and it'll hurt. It'll hurt,
but he'll exalt us in the end. Him he abases, them he is able
to exalt. Those are the young ones. And you know, you don't have
to say anything. The text here says you don't have to say anything
to be proud, doesn't it? What does it say? A proud look. You've seen it, haven't you?
You've had it. But you've seen it. My wife is all the time talking
to me about, and teenagers are some of the worst at this. Once
you get to a certain age, you know, you become, you really
become something. And adults, everybody is, everybody,
no one is immune from this, but you've seen this look in you.
And I addressed it one time in a message to young Timothy, this
thing of being cool. Cool, being cool. Don't you hate it? Don't you
even hate the look of it? Henry, don't you hate it? You've seen it. A proud look. You don't have to do anything.
You don't have to say anything. Just look at it. God says, I
hate it. Get that haughty look off your
eyes. A proud look. Let me tell you who
to consider that alone had reason to be proud. The Lord Jesus Christ
came down here. He could have walked around like
this. Couldn't he? I'm somebody, he could have said.
Couldn't he? Couldn't he? What was he? What
did he do? Meek and lowly. The King of Kings and Lord of
Lords said, I'm meek and lowly. How should you be, Nancy Parks?
A handmaiden. Huh? Never should our eyes be
lifted up. We should be afraid to look up,
shouldn't we? Afraid there's going to be a proud look in them.
God says, I hate it. Didn't He? I'm not making more
of this than what it is. We can't make enough out of this.
God's going to send the proud to hell. Every last one of them. Number two. He says, the next
thing I hate is a lying tongue. You young people, listen to me,
Sarah, you can understand what I'm saying. Hannah. All the rest of you, David, Jacob.
Telling the truth will never bring bad consequences. Never. Do you hear me? Telling the truth will never
bring bad consequences. Lying always will. Count on it. This is surely what
he's saying when your sins will find you out. In other words,
we've lied, we've hid, we've tried to cover our transgressions. He said that be found out and
the end will be worse than the beginning. Well, if we come naked
in the beginning, the end will be better. I'll give you an example. Here's a man who is guilty. He's
guilty. This fellow that's in the paper
now, O.J. Sanford. It's on everybody's
tongue. Well, if he'd just come in to begin with. He wouldn't
be quite so suspect, would he? Everybody might believe him.
His chances might be better were not clear evidence brought against
him. He'd just come in and said, here
I am. But the fact that he ran and
hid and so forth, everybody thinks he's guilty, right? Here's a man who's guilty. He
holds on to his innocence until the end, and evidence is plainly
convicting him. His punishment is going to be
a lot greater than it would have been had he come in and just
said, guilty, guilty, mercy, mercy, mercy. I knew a man one
time who was pulled over by the police for speeding. He was speeding. He knew it.
And you know it, too. Every time they pull you, you
know it. Don't you? If it's fifty-five and you're
doing fifty-six in, you're guilty. Right? You're guilty. And sometimes,
Steve, sometimes we think, how could he pull me up? You're guilty.
That's why. But I was only doing fifty-six. Guilty. Doesn't matter if you're
doing fifty-five and a half. All right? Here's a man, I know
a man who was pulled over by the police one time. And he was
speeding, and the officer was coming up to his door, and the
man started going, Mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy. He did, he said,
the policeman was taking him. Mercy, he said, Officer, I was
guilty. Please have mercy on me. I didn't
mean it. I won't do it again. Please have
mercy. Officer said, Go on. He said, I remember. Men, his
father one time was pulled over running a red light. And the
officer pulled him over and said, do you realize you ran a red
light? He said, I sure do. He said, but I was going too
fast to stop. The officer said, I've never
heard so much honesty. He said, go on. Don't do it again. You know how God deals in much
the same way? Guilty, guilty, guilty. He that
hath the transgression will have it. exposed and punished. He either comes naked or not.
Lying. Plead for mercy. Lying may get you out of a temporary
jam, but it will get you in deeper trouble in the end. Count on
it. And lying is a disease. It's a disease. The longer it
goes on, the worse it gets. Have you ever known a habitual
liar? Mindy and I know somebody like that. One of her past friends. This girl was a habitual liar. I mean, everybody knew. Finally,
you couldn't trust a thing she said. Her parents thought she
was the sweetest, most innocent. You know how parents do with
their darling daughters. Thought she was just faultless,
didn't they? She was lying on every hand.
She was running out around doing things that they wouldn't have
dreamed of. Everybody knew it. She's in a miserable state right
now, and she has a sad life, I'd like to tell you about it.
She has no credibility, no life. And you know the worst attempt
at lying? I've already made reference to it. The worst attempt at lying
is trying to lie to God. And this whole world's doing
it. Lying to God. But if we just confess, confess
your sins. Confess your sins. He's able
and He's willing. He's just to forgive us. We confess
our sins. He's able and just to forgive
us of all and cleanse us from all unright. We don't confess
them, He'll punish them. Right? That good advice? God knows us. We can't lie to
God, young people. We can't lie to God. We can lie
to a lot of people and fool a lot of people. Thou, O Lord, seest
us, the Scripture says. Here's the problem with lying.
After a while, you lie long enough, and after a while, you even can
start convincing yourself. You can start convincing yourself
that your lies are so. This is religion, isn't it? They believe the lie and love
to have it so. And after a while, God says,
all right, I'll send you strong delusion. You're going to actually
believe that lie. You rejected the truth, the gospel,
to begin with, wouldn't have it, saw it very clearly from
the scripture and said, I don't want that. I'll go this direction.
and receive that and believe that and made yourself believe
that lie, God says, OK, I'm going to send strong delusions where
you actually begin to believe that what's evil or what's good
is evil and what's evil is good. Isn't that awful? Whereas in
the beginning, just come confessing, come out. That's true, Lord,
that's true. Man come before God's Word and says, I don't
understand it. Don't say, I don't believe it.
Say, I don't understand it, but I believe it. That's true, Lord. Reveal it to me. God will reveal
it to me. The man says, I don't understand it, therefore I don't
believe it. I'm going to go and believe what I understand. God
says, all right. Because they receive not the
love of the truth. Lying. Lying to yourself. Lying tongue. Thirdly, hands that shed innocent
blood. Verse 17. Now this is not just
talking about murderers of men, killing the body. This is talking
about destroying a person's character. And you know, you can do that
with gossip. You can do that with a word. The old saying,
sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt
me. No, no, no, no, no. It ought to be the other way
around. You can set bones. But a friend that is offended
is harder to be won than a city, Scripture says. Reputation that is drawn through
the dirt, lies that have been spread, slander that has been
spread, is harder to recover. Harder to recover character than
anything and reset a bone, isn't it? The talebearer of gospel, God
says, I hate this. I hate this. hands that shed innocent blood. And, you know, James talked about
those who take advantage of the goodness of others. Remember
that? He said, oh my, you rich, the
hire of the laborers that reap your fields, that has been kept
back by your fraud, cries unto the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.
All of these rich owners and so forth that are getting filthy
rich, while the laborer who has a wife and children struggling
to make ends meet, the Lord of Sabbath sees that, Ed, doesn't
He? He sees it. The roles are going to be reversed
someday, isn't it? He sees that. Take advantage, and we can do
it in our own ways. Take advantage of the goodness
of others. Run over people. The Lord hates it. And Isaiah
1, he says this, the hands are full of blood. Hands are full
of blood. Let me read this to you. He says
in Isaiah 1, and if you want to turn you can, Isaiah 1, verses
13 through 15, he says, don't bring, he says, when you come
to appear before me, and here we are, we come in here tonight
to appear before God, and if you come to just Go through a
religious motion. Might as well quit, hadn't we?
Ladies, didn't we talk about this? When we come in here, we
come to be, come to worship. We come to learn. We come to
be taught. We come to be, to hear from God. What does God have to say to
us? And it's not always comfort, is it? It's not always words
of kindness because we don't, we need other things. And he
says, you come before me. You come before me. He said,
don't bring these vain oblations. What's that? That is all of this
motions of religion, all your good words and fair speeches
and so forth, and all of your appearance of religiosity and
piety and worship, appearance of worship You draw near with
your lips, your heart is far from me. Look at verse 13. These
new moons, Sabbaths, calling of assembly, that's away with
this. God says away with this. God sees the heart. God's looking
at the heart while we come in here. He says away with this,
iniquity, this solemn meeting. We're having a solemn meeting
tonight. And if anybody, if we approach
this with any way, other way, other than Lord teach me. Search
me, try me, any other way than that, in any kind of haughty
spirit or whatever. God says, verse 14, your new
moons, your appointed feasts, my soul hateth. They are a trouble unto me. I
wear it to them. When you spread forth your hand,
I'll hide mine. Isn't that something? Isn't that
serious language? Here's a man who comes in and
pretends to worship. And he begins to ask for mercy
and grace. Or a woman. Here's a woman who
comes in and pretends to worship. And she sings these songs of
have thine own way and Lord be merciful and so forth, mercy
and grace, when he or she has been abusing their husband or
their wife or their children or acting like a monster all
week, and they expect God to hear them. That's what he means
when he says, when I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord's not going
to hear me. Right? Right? He said, wash you. There in Isaiah,
wash you, make you clean. Verse 17, learn to do well. Learn
to do well. We need to learn, don't we? The
fourth thing he says, I hate. Verse 18 of our text, a heart
that deviseth wicked imaginations. And once again, I said, there's
no way to present this message any way than what it is. Is it
there is no way. We talk about things God hates.
There's no way to present this message any other way. And then
come right out to Henry and tell it like it is. He says, I hate
a heart that devises wicked imagination. I hate it. I hate it. Look over at Psalm 36 real quickly. Psalm 36. A heart that devises
wicked imagination. Scripture talks about those who
devise mischief, evil, wickedness, naughtiness. When you devise
something, listen to me, when you devise something, that means
you premeditated it. You thought about it beforehand,
before you did it, right? It means something that you spend
time, you think about a while, you think about it, what you're
going to do, you lie in bed and you think about it, and later
on you carry it out. God says, I hate death. Look
at Psalm 36, verse 1 through 4. The transgression of the wicked
saith within my heart, there's no fear of God before his eyes.
Oh, he flattereth himself in his own eyes until his iniquity
be found, doubts found to be hateful. Words of his mouth are
iniquity and deceit. He hath left off to be wise,
to do good. He deviseth mischief upon his
bed. He setteth himself in a way that
he abhorreth not evil." Surely Solomon must have learned everything
from his father David, didn't he? Do you recognize so many
things that Solomon said that David had already said before? Let that be a lesson to us parents.
Our boys and our girls will be a chip off our old block head
too. But Solomon learned his wisdom from his father David.
But he said, Solomon said just like his daddy who said those
that devise mischief. God hates. To devise wicked imaginations
or evil or mischief is to do this. It's to think about how
you may swindle, trick, or get something out of somebody. Manipulate somebody. Think about a plan how you may
get back at somebody. You may have been wronged. God
says, vengeance is mine. I ought to pay, saith the Lord,
not you. Don't lay there and think about how you can get back
at them. He says, I hate that. I hate that. And the Scripture
says the heart is the problem, doesn't it? You read that? Verse
18 says, "...a heart that devises wicked imagination." A heart. A heart is a problem. That man
or woman who does that has a bad heart. And the only answer is
to cry out for a new one. Now listen to me for your comfort.
It's one thing to fall into sin out of anger, out of malice,
out of flesh, to get in the flesh and to fall into sin. in a fit
of sin and a fit of flesh and anger. It's one thing to do that
and be nasty and evil and so forth and have wicked imagination
and thoughts towards someone. That's wrong. That's wrong, but
that's one thing. It's quite another to plan evil. Do you see what he's saying here?
To actually lie around or sit around and plan to do something.
That's why David's sin was so odious to God. You see what I'm
saying? David lied around one day and
plotted that thing. He thought about it a good while. It wasn't a fit of passion necessarily. David watched her. Called for
Took a while for her to get there. He could have changed his mind,
couldn't he? Huh? She got up there, and you know
what happened. And then later, and then David planned even worse. See, it got worse, didn't it?
David planned and plotted that man's death. Stan, that's the
reason David was done for. That's the end of David. Because
God's merciful and long-suffering, and God's gracious and loving,
and because of his everlasting covenant ordered in all things,
ensured David was not going to be cast away. David was God's
son, but David was done. He was through. He was a salt,
a man that was the salt of the earth, a man after God's own
heart, but he was finished from that day forward. His reputation
was gone. His ministry was gone. His kingdom
was removed. Gone. And from that day forward, he
was pursued like an animal from his sons, and so he was miserable. He had a miserable life from
there on, miserable. Never got any better. Let's learn
from this. All right, the next thing. It
says, "'Faith that be swift and run into mischief.'" Now, this
is bad enough. Now, listen to me very carefully.
We're all Calvinist in here. I'm a Calvinist. I don't make
apologies for that. I believe exactly what Calvin
taught. You can get hyper with it, though.
You can take that too far. And we can talk about self-righteousness
to such a point that we forget that any sin is sin, and it will
bring damnation, won't it? On it is? Sin is sin, but it's
self-righteousness or open committal of it, isn't it? God hates it.
God will deal with it. Bad enough to think evil, and
God will hold a man accountable for every idle word, it says.
A man should be held accountable for every idle word. That's bad
enough, isn't it? That's sin. God says it's evil.
It's damnable, right? Just the thought of foolishness
is sin, right? Is that right? It's worse to
commit it. I'll show you why. Evil starts
in the heart, and it's carried out with the feet. That's for
sure. That's what he's talking about
there. Feet that be swift in running to mischief. Wherever
the feet goes, that's where you want to be, isn't it? Now, my
feet have never gone, but don't go there. Have yours? Wherever your feet are, that's
where you want to be. Your heart says, feet, go here.
Not your feet, your heart. Right? So what this is, this
is your person. It's what you do. Now, we talk
much of sin, of thoughts. Like I said, as a Calvinist,
and I'm not bringing, I'm not making that a, I'm not making
that a derisive term at all. Calvin, I am a Calvinist. But
we talk much of sin of thought, the guilt of motive, and the
evil of our nature, and so forth. It's all abhorrent to God Almighty. But actually carrying these things
out is to heat judgment on judgment. It's to add to our condemnation.
Now, here's a man who's guilty of adultery for thinking it.
Christ said, you look upon a woman and lust after her in your heart.
He said what? Guilty. And that bothers us, doesn't
it? That bothers us. We're guilty, and we plead our
guilt before God. Here's a man who thinks adulterous
thoughts toward a woman, and he needs to repent and ask God
for mercy, beg mercy, plead the blood, plead just as if he had
done it. He's guilty. He needs to be repented
of. Here's a man who actually commits
it. Scripture says he's going to
pierce his soul with sorrows. Look at verse 32 here in Proverbs
6. 6 verse 32, Whoso commiteth adultery
with a woman liketh understanding he that doeth it destroyeth his
own soul. Why is that? You know, a taste just makes you want more of them,
huh? The weakness of this flesh, unless God intervenes. You know
what I'm saying? It might lead to more. It might
lead to others, and others, and others. And it could very possibly
bring a breach in the relationship between that man and woman that
is irrecoverable. Right? No matter how merciful
or gracious or loving or kind a wife or a husband may be, if
that breach, that oneness is broken. The Scripture is very
clear about that. If that's ever broken, It makes a breach that is rarely,
rarely healed. So isn't the actual committal
of it, you sin against more people than God and yourself, you sin
against everyone. Right? Is that good advice? Feet. He said not only a heart
that devises, but feet that do it. You see that, Stan? You see
what he's saying? That truth, that righteous, that
just, that's God's Word in it. It's bad enough in the heart
to devise it, it's worse to do it. The consequences are the
same for you, but the consequences for everybody else are far more
reaching when you actually commit. Okay? Young people? Don't you ever get the idea that
we preach around here that sins, that, you know, a man's only
a sinner because he thinks that sin is sin and God will punish
him. All right, number six. Verse
19 says, A false witness, he hates a false witness that speaketh
lies. Now, this is different from lying
lips. This is different from a man that just lies all the
time. This is somebody that lies on people. This is somebody that
his obituary lies on somebody else, to purposely, willingly,
with malice of forethought, say, I don't like Henry Sword there.
And this is for me to, with purpose, with malice of forethought, to
willingly lie about him, to defame, destroy his character. Whether
it be blatantly, openly to somebody, tell them out and out, lie or
subtly make innuendos and hints and all that about to bring down
his courage, God says, I hate that. He says, I hate that. Doesn't he? I hate that. We're not considering our
own selves. Whenever somebody ever does that, they're not considering
their own selves, are they? Lie about someone. When we're
full of lies, David said, I said, in my case, all men are liars.
I'm a liar. In Psalm 120, he says this, let
me read it to you real fast. He says, and this was right after
David lied to, now he lied John to save his skin. He lied to
save his skin one time. But it is still a lie and David
was convicted over and he said it's not one twenty he said deliver
my soul or from lying lips from a deceitful time what's going
to be done under the. What should be done under the
thou false tongue talking himself. God hates it lie about somebody
imagine what God thinks about those who lie about him. He says
he hates those who. bear false witness, speak lies
about other people. And you imagine what he thinks
about those that lie about him. Or worse, Terry, that lie about
his son. All these fellows going around
lying about his son. Oh, my. Hell is not hot enough. Yes. That lie about his Word,
that do all they do in the name of God and His Word, that lie
about God's Word, say this is what God's Word says, and say
the opposite. His anger will be unleashed someday. Lie about God's character. Lie
about God's gospel. Lie about God's Holy Spirit.
Attribute to God's Holy Spirit what the devil does, and attribute
to the devil what the Holy Spirit does. Huh? That's blasphemy.
God says, I'll never forgive that. My Holy Spirit. Lastly, lastly now. And maybe, he said this in verse
16, he says, six things the Lord hates, yet seven, yea, seven
are an abomination to him. He says the first thing he hates,
the worst thing he hates is a proud look. And he says the last thing
is not least, but it's an abomination. Verse 19, he that soweth discord
among brethren. He that soweth discord. among
brethren. You know that has to come from
pride, doesn't it? God loves peace. Those of you who've had more
than one child—there were four of us in our family. I remember
when my dad—most of the time my dad was just kind Well, sometimes he wouldn't deal
with everything that went on. Like Scripture says, God winks. Sometimes he just didn't deal
with some things. But to tell you the thing that
he hated worse than anything, when us kids were fighting, when us brothers, Sammy, me and
my brother, my middle brother, oh, we went at it time and again. My dad hated that worse than
anything. Boy, he tore into both of us. It doesn't matter who
was at fault. He tore into both of us. Why?
Disturbing the peace. That's his home, and we're bothering
him. He's ordained peace in the house.
There's no reason for him not to get along. No reason. Now, think about this church.
There's absolutely no reason for us to ever have a fight,
is there? That blessed, blessed time. That's
ladies. You ladies and me. I felt like one of you. I sure
did. That's entering into it, isn't
it? Isn't that entering into the spirit of oneness? We had such a good time, didn't
we? I wouldn't take anything for that. I think some of you
felt the same way. Our Lord loved to be around those
ladies and they him, didn't they? We had such a good time, such
a spirit of fellowship and camaraderie, is that the name? And worship,
and around the Word, and laughing, and crying, and edifying one
another, and profiting, and eating the Word, and eating food. Just
a good time. And I thought, what could possibly? Who could possibly? Why would anybody possibly? Do
anything to disturb this. I've said this for going on five
years now. At this church, there just hadn't
been a ripple. There just hadn't been a ripple. Well, why should
there ever be? Huh? Why should there ever be
a problem? Unless I make one. Unless you make one. Problems. If I preach the gospel, and I'm
preaching according to the word, and yeah, I'm going to make mistakes,
I'm going to say things I wish I hadn't said, and the Lord's
going to deal with me about it, and vice versa. But if we labor,
like the scripture says, endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit,
and so love, he says, see that you love one another fervently,
actively. This is something that's foreign
to our nature, something you've got to work at. You don't have
to work at hating. You don't have to work at being
angry. You don't have to work at getting mad at somebody, do
you? Huh? You have to fight that. So he says we're to endeavor,
we're to labor, we're to actively endeavor to keep the unity of
the Spirit and the love and the fellowship. And the only thing,
and I said this like it was last Sunday morning, I said, I can't
do anything about it, Henry. I can't do anything about his
attitude. The only one that I can really do anything about is this
old boy right here, right? So what I'm to do, my chief responsibility
is to keep me from being a problem, not him, right? And God says he demands peace
and unity. And for someone to knowingly,
willingly, whether blatantly, or like I said, or subtly, and
we need to watch it. The devil is behind me. I hate
to use these terms. They sound real, sound like,
you know, the devil did it, but it's so. We're not wrestling
with flesh and blood, but principalities and powers. There's nothing he'd
like more than to sow discord among the brethren. And we might
be the means of that. He can use us, can't he? He got
in Peter. Thank God Christ said, Peter,
Christ cast him out, didn't he? Get thee behind me, Satan. And
then restored Peter. He didn't restore Judas, did
he? He entered into Judas. The Lord
left him there. For someone to willingly, knowingly,
whatever, cause problems and trouble and stir up people against
each other, God Almighty utterly abhors it. He said, this is abominable
to me. He says, see that you love one
another with a pure heart fervently. He says a new commandment, not
a request, not an option, a new commandment I give unto you.
Didn't he? He said, I command you that you
love one another as I have loved you. How's that? Do we deserve love? Do we deserve
mercy? Do we deserve grace? Do we deserve
forgiveness? Don't we deserve anger and wrath? Be ill treated from him. He says,
I don't do that to you. I give you love. I forgive you. I'm merciful towards you. I love
you. He said, see that you do it to
one another. That's a command. And if you
don't, I'm going to get rid of you. Like a child who is disrupted. And a troublemaker. And causes
a stir among the other kids and all he's going to be taken out
of there. He's an evil influence that evil communication is corrupting
the good manners of the others. He'll take them away. So will
the man or the woman or the child that soweth discord among the
brethren. Because it's God's church, and
he said, I'll take care of it. Eventually, in time. These things are serious, aren't
they? Like I said, there's no way to deal with them than we've
dealt with them. No way to deal with them. These
things, you know, I said things, but if you notice, they're not
things, they're people, aren't they? These fools that say God
loves the sinner but hates his sin. No, that's not what the
Scripture said. He's talking about people in
the enemy. He that soweth, discord. These are things that God Almighty
hates. Woe unto the one upon whom the hatred and wrath of
God Almighty abides." Man! Turn to Psalm 139 in closing. I want us to read this together
in closing. We've already sung it. Now let's read it. Woe unto the one upon whom the
wrath and hatred of God abides. Oh, infinite blessings upon the
one whom the love and mercy of God
abides in Christ." Are you guilty of all these things? Surely you
are. Well, I'm not going to leave
you there. We're all guilty to a degree,
aren't we? Well, you confess these things,
come to Christ and he'll forgive you. He knows, he knows you. Come clean. This is where we
started. Don't lie. Don't lie. Fess up. Confession's good. Fess up. Lord, please. This is
me. That's me. Lord, this was for
me. You were talking to me, Lord. Somebody may say, was he pointing
that at me? You better believe it. Let's read this out loud together. OK, let's stand. It says that
when the men opened the book, when they found the book and
read it, all the people stood and they read the Word of God
out loud. Psalm 139, and this will be our
closing hymn and prayer and benediction. Psalm 139, read verses 23 and
24. Do more than quote it now. Do
more than read it. Say it from the heart. Psalm
139, verse 23. Search me. Out loud. Search me,
O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting. That's to Christ.