Turn in your Bibles to Psalm
5. Psalm 5. I want to read, first of all, the first five verses. Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my meditation. Hearken
unto the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for unto Thee
will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the
morning, O Lord. In the morning will I direct
my prayer unto Thee, and will look up. For thou art not a God
that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with
thee. The foolish shall not stand in
thy sight, thou hatest all workers of iniquity." I've called this message Who does God love and hate? The Bible is so clear and tells us that the carnal
mind is enmity against God. That is, our natural our logical
minds. The way we are born thinking
is enmity or against God as He is. Where everyone just like
Naaman, the Syrian, who rejected at the first the
remedy that God's prophet prescribed for his leprosy, which was for
him to go and to dip himself in that muddy Jordan River seven
times. But it made Naaman angry. because he already had his own
ideas about how the prophet's God was and how it was that he
would give his healing. His words ought to be a constant
reminder to us. He said, I thought. I thought. that the prophet would
surely say some kind of incantation, maybe wave his hand over the
wounds? I thought that. And he thought
that because, as is the case in every one, his natural mind
was enmity against God. And this natural logic, this
mind that we are born with as sinners, always raises a lot
of questions. We'd rather question God than
believe God. We'd rather ask questions about
why this or that about God than simply believe what God says
in His Word. And we'll have questions, it
seems, so many do, like one I read recently by a man who calls himself
a preacher, who says, do you really believe
a loving God would prepare a place like hell and allow the creatures
that He said He loves and died for to spend eternity in such
pain and suffering? Questions like, How can we say
that a loving God hates anyone? Or why would anybody believe
that God has any hatred for anyone? But sadly, the truth is that
such questions arise out of an ignorance, either innocent or
willful, of who God really is. They reveal an ignorance of the
Scriptures. And I can say that in all honesty
because I've been there myself. I've spent many a year being
one such as Naaman. I thought. And not only that,
but believing what was told me by preachers simply because I
didn't really know any better. I didn't know the Scriptures. I didn't know what God says in
His Word. And for that reason, all of God's
people, all that He saves, He says they will be all taught
of God. They won't simply be taught of
man who God is. They'll be taught of God, taught
from the Scriptures who God is, how He is, and who man is, and
how He is. There's only one place, there's
only one way, there's only one source of finding out who God
is and how He is, plus finding out who you are and how you really
are. And amazingly, sometimes he begins
to teach his people by causing them to think, by causing them
to consider such issues and such questions. And you can know if
he is teaching them, because those he teaches, he draws to
his Word. I do believe that the first thing
that God seems to do in a saving experience of a sinner is assure
him in his heart and mind that the Scriptures are the truth
of God. that the Word of God is the final
as well as the first say on every issue, the only answer to every
question. I may not at the first understand
all things, but I am convinced in my heart that what God says
in His Word about them, that is what's right, that is what's
true, because this is the Word of Truth. And He not only draws
and brings them to the Word, to the Bible itself, causing
them to search the Scriptures, promising them that everyone
who searches to seek out that he might glorify and worship
God, that he shall be taught, He brings them to someone who
really preaches the Word. who at all costs, who no matter
what, sets forth what God in His Word says about Himself and
all things. And in truth, all that has to
happen for any of us to perish, to die in our sins. All that has to happen for us
to go to hell is for God to let us alone. Let us go on the way that Naaman
was on, I thought, following that way that is right in our
own eyes. He says, there is a way that
seems right to a man. The ways thereof are the ways
of death. He just has to leave us to our
own thinking, leave us to our own answering of these questions. Leave us as was said of Ephraim. Ephraim is joined to his idols. Leave him alone. Leave him in his own way of thinking.
Leaving him or her to listen to what men and women say about
God when they say the things that they naturally want to hear. Just leave us to it. We'll die
in our sins. And in our day, it seems like
that Satan, who is the enemy of God and the enemy of God's
people, it seems that he tries to keep men and women in what
I call a cycloptic view of God. Did you ever read about the mythical
creatures, the cyclops? They had one eye in the midst
of their foreheads. They could look in one direction,
see one thing. And that is the way it seems
like that Satan tries to deceive men and women in looking at one
attribute of God. and nothing else, shutting our
minds to anything else that the Bible says about God. Because to know how God really
is, we must see the biblical, not the natural, not simply the
logical. but the biblical view of Him,
because in the Bible we find God is as He says that He is. And yet, the only verse that most people could even quote
you out of the Bible, The verse that they have heard repeated
and repeated and repeated, printed, the only verse it seems like
that the devil would have them to look at is John 3, 16. For God so loved the world, that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. Their cycloptic view of
God is simply and only that God is love. God is love. Well, turn over to 1 John, 1 John chapter 4, and listen to
what it says in verse 8 of 1 John 4. John writes, by inspiration of
the Spirit, and he says, "...he that loveth not knoweth not God,
for God is love." Now, you can just mark that down. God is love. But if you go back and you look
at the context in which these words are spoken by John, directed
by the Spirit of God, they are set and given in a context of
warning, of instructing. of teaching. And part of that is, as we find
elsewhere in the New Testament, part of that is, for those who
would know the truth and know God, we are to try the spirits. Somebody said, don't question
anything. Wait a minute. The opposite is
true. Question everything. Well, don't
question Him. He's a preacher. Especially question
Him. Try the Spirit. Test the Spirit. Prove the Spirit. How do you
do that? By checking what they say, what
they preach, what they teach. their doctrine by the Scriptures. I'm not talking about a word
here or there, but in the whole of Scripture. What is the counsel
of God in the Scriptures? And the truth of the matter is
here, that fact, that true fact, that God is love, that doesn't mean He loves you. It just doesn't. I know a number of people who
have a lot of money, but that don't mean they give me any of
it. God is love, but that in itself
means nothing concerning the fact that He might love me. It
doesn't mean that He loves all. And it doesn't mean that He doesn't
hate. He's a God of love and hate. And the Bible, if we go to the
Bible, the Bible, irregardless of what most people say and what
most people in our day believe, the Bible says that God hates
some things and some people. You say, that doesn't fit in
my idea of God. Well, your idea and my idea of
God ain't going to change God a bit. He hates some things and He hates
some people. And you can't get around that
by saying things like this. He hates sin, but not the sinner. That's what I've heard. But in
truth, you cannot separate the two. We sin because we are sinners. We do what we do because of what
we are. We're nothing but sin. And what does verse 5 in our
text say? Psalm 5, verse 5, "...the foolish
shall not stand in thy sight." Now, David, in his first few
verses is distinguishing God from every false god. He said, I'm going to pray to
you. I'm going to acknowledge you
as my God and my King. And you're not a god that has
pleasure in wickedness, and evil will not dwell with you. The
foolish shall not stand in thy sight, thou hadest all workers
of iniquity." Now, do we need an English grammar
teacher to come in here and read that and state that? Any clearer than we find the
Spirit of God directing the psalmist to say it? David said, God, You
hate all workers of iniquity. That's pretty plain, isn't it?
Turn over to the book of Malachi. If you haven't been to Malachi
right lately, it's that book that precedes the Gospel of Matthew. And look back in Malachi chapter
1, where Malachi the prophet, by that same Holy Spirit, is
directed to write, verse 1 of chapter 1, the burden of the
word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith
the Lord, yet you say, wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau
Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated
Esau." and laid his mountains and his
heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness." Somebody says, well, the fact
that God says there that He hated Esau and destroyed everything
concerning him, that was in the Old Testament. But that's exactly
what Paul quotes in Romans 9. Turn over to Romans chapter 9. Because in Romans 9 and verse
13, the apostle in the New Testament quotes the same thing that was
said by Malachi. In verse 13, he says, as it is
written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau,
Have I hated?" And then someone says, well, that just means he
loved Him less. Loved Him less? If God who loves with a perfect
love, if He doesn't love all the same, then He hated. He absolutely
hated. and failure to see how God could
hate Esau, our failure to see that or understand that, or failure
to see how he could send him to hell, that shows, that's a
dead giveaway of our ignorance as to how God really is. In our day, when everybody is
so carried away by what I call celebrity pop culture, and people watch all these programs,
and they buy all these magazines concerning the lives of these
celebrities and these popular people, and what you read is
one thing, but what they really are is something else. We've
got a popular God in our day. We've got a celebrity God. He's
only love. Whatever your thinking is about
God, don't ever let it get in conflict with that. He is love,
that's all He is, and we're going to live under the stupor of believing
that till we perish. Dying ignorance. It shows an ignorance of God
as He really is. Because God is not simply love
to the exclusion of all His other attributes, and certainly not
to the exclusion of His chief attributes. Now you can go to the Bible,
just like we have there in 1 John 4, and you can read that God
is love. But many, many, many more times
than that, you're going to read and find out, if you read the
Bible, about His chief attributes. And
that's His holiness. I've always thought, after finding
out a few things about how God is, that God's attributes are
like a wheel on an old wagon. And right in the center of that
wheel is the hub which is God's holiness. You just turn in Isaiah or Revelation,
wherever you want to, where someone's given a vision of the throne
of God, what are those creatures crying out? Holy, holy, holy. And out of that central hub attribute,
chief attribute, if you will, are all these other attributes,
love and mercy and righteousness, but whatever it is, It's holy. God's holy. Habakkuk said, "...thou art of
purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." God cannot ever in anyone or
in any way look with favor on iniquity. Because God is just. God is absolutely, infinitely,
unchangeably just, and He must deal with sinners in a way that
is consistent with Himself, in a way that is consistent with
His Word. He said, I hate all workers of
iniquity. He said, I will by no means clear
the guilty. God is holy and He hates sin
and He must punish sin. He is the righteous God. He is not going to change just
because you think He is nothing but love. Me either. And Esau was undoubtedly a sinner
He had sinned against God. He had fallen in our father Adam
just like everyone else. And that's all he was. In himself, nothing but sin. Sin against God. And when you look at our text
in Psalm 5, he says, "...for thou art not a god that hath
pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee."
And then in verse 6 he says, "...thou shalt destroy them that
speak leasing, the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful
man." He abhors that. He abhors all sin. And these individuals, and they
are individuals, all are dealt with as individuals. They are
all just like Esau. Turn over to the book of Proverbs. To Proverbs chapter 6. Look down at verse 16. It says, these six things doth
the Lord hate. Now, if we didn't know from anywhere
but this text, we'd have to know that He hates something, don't
we? These six things doth the Lord
hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto Him, a proud look, a lying
tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
unheart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running
to mischief. What are all those a part of? They're a part of a person. That's
the description of people. And if we didn't get that, he
says, "...a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth
discord among brethren." Those are individuals. Those are people. Those are men and women who,
in God's description of them, are shown to be sinners. And you know what? Jacob was just like Esau. On the one hand, it could be
said of Esau, and it was, that he sold his birthright for a
bowl of soup. But it was also Jacob who along
with his own mother tricked him in it, connived him in it. And the very name Jacob means
conniver or trickster. And it's easy, once we know who
God is, it's easy to see how he could hate Esau. If you ever
find out who God is, it says, in His light we shall see light. We don't find out anything about
how things are until we find out how He is. We're talking
about God here, the Creator, Savior. It's easy to see how
He could hate Jacob. It's easy to see how He could
hate me. I hate to shock you with this,
but it's easy to see how He could hate you. You're not like Mama
said you were, that perfect little darling thing. You're not like
your husband or your wife thinks you are, although they probably
know full well that you might not be all they sometimes say
that you are. And it's easy to see in His light
how he could send all sinners to hell, and we know he has sent
many, such as the man in Luke 16, it says, and in hell he lift
up his eyes, being in torment. You see, the issue or the question
is not, can or will God send anybody to hell? He already has. This is not an issue of, can
he hate? He's already told us he does. It's not whether or not there's
a hell or not. That's not a question or an issue. He's already told us there was. And the son that's spoken of
in John 3, 16, he had more to say about hell than anybody else. Go look for yourself. In Matthew 25, he said, "...then
shall he say also unto them on the left hand, depart from me,
ye curse, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels." Christ said that. Proverbs, he states it. It is
joy to the just to do judgment, but destruction shall be to the
workers of iniquity. The way of the Lord is strength
to the upright, but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity." How awful it is to think about. having the hatred, the hatred of God against us. The hatred of the thrice holy
and almighty God against us. And once we find out how God
really is, The question is not how could
he hate anybody or how he could send any to hell. The question
is how could he love a sinner? How could he love any sinner?
How could he love Jacob? Jacob's the crook. Sometimes I think, in reading
about Jacob and Esau, I'd probably have liked Esau better. Jacob is a conniver. Maybe what
I don't like about Jacob sometimes is what I see in him of myself.
Bargainer, conniver, trickster. How can God Love somebody like Jacob. You
see, what the Bible says is that God has chosen not to impute sin
to a people that He chose out of Adam's race. He has decided
before the world ever began that he would choose a people
in Christ. And he determined that he would
not charge them with their sin. Now you know who tells us that? The same man who wrote that 5th
Psalm. Who was no lily-white subject
himself. He lied. He committed adultery with the
wife of one of his own soldiers, and then lied and schemed to
have the captain of his host have that man sent to the front
of the battle where he'd surely die. David. And David says, with Paul
quoting him even in Romans 4, He says, blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. Everybody nowadays is talking
about how blessed they are. Have a blessed day. How are you
today? Blessed. I'm blessed. Blessed is that person. to whom the Lord will not charge
or hold to their account their sin." That's one side of the
coin there. He also says in Romans 4, quoting
David, He says, even as David also describes the blessedness
of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness without works. Now you talk about the blessed
person. Truly the only blessed person
is that person to whom the Lord will not charge their sins, and
to whom the Lord charges to their account righteousness, perfect
righteousness, without their works. And this is how God dealt
with Jacob. And how he describes all his
people by that term, ye sons of Jacob. You say, how did Jacob
get by? You see, God loved, and He loved
with an everlasting love, as He does all His people. He loved
and He showed mercy to Jacob in Christ. He joined him to Christ. He put
him in that covenant of which Christ is the mediator of. He determined to bless Jacob
and a multitude of other sinners by entrusting their entire salvation
to the Lord Jesus Christ. To their surety. To their substitute. Because as Paul says, closing
out that 8th chapter of Romans, he said, the love of God is in
Christ Jesus. And outside of Christ, God is
a consuming fire. He hates everyone outside of
Christ. There is no neutral ground. There
are not three groups of people, Christ, the devils, and the undecided. If we are not in Christ, as those
Pharisees were not, He says of them, you are of your father
the devil. Go back to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9, and listen
to the Apostle Paul. This is exactly what we find
throughout this book. It is of equal importance to
John 3, 16. But Romans chapter 9, God talks
to us, answering these foolish objections, stating His own right
to be God, and His own right to love, hate who He would, and
save who He will. Verse 7, he says, "...neither because
they," that is, the Jews, "...or the seed of Abraham are they
children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called." Not anything
to do with what they were in the flesh through Abraham as
an earthly father, Because as it was in that day, the promise
was to the promised son, Isaac. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word
of the promise. This is how the promise works.
He said in that day, at this time will I come and Sarah shall
have a son. Sarah was barren. Sarah was past
childbearing age. Abraham was past childfathering
age. And that which was impossible
with men came to pass because of God's promise and His power. At this time will I come, and
Sarah shall have a son." And not only this, but when Rebecca
had also conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, and then there's a parenthesis, and he lets us know this, "...for
the children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, according
to God's choice, according to God's will, might stand not of
works, but of him that calleth." It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated." These men were twins. They had
the same earthly father. They had the same earthly mother. They were born virtually at the
same time, in the same environment, with the same nature. So what's the difference in them?
They're both sinners. It's easy to see why God could
hate Esau. How could he love Jacob? Because
he loved Jacob in Christ. Salvation is according to God's
purpose, according to God's election. He says, what shall we say then? Oh, there's that natural mind
raising the question and issue again. Is there unrighteousness
with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy."
And God not only can and does hate every
Esau justly, but in Jesus Christ, He loves every Jacob justly. Justly. You say, why did he do
this? Because he would. Because he
could. You know, when you stop and think
about this, and I think that this is really at the heart of
our natural rebellion, is there anything that bugs us and goes
against our grain than to be brought into a situation that
we can do nothing about? Nothing. Seems like the older I get, the
more of those situations the Lord brings me into. that I can
brought into the reality that in truth I can really do nothing
about it. But that's the way it always
is. How could we as sinners, how could we as powerless individuals,
how could we all like some preacher described one time, we're all
like fleas at a gathering to see who can jump the nearest
to heaven. Man at his best state, altogether
vanity. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but by His mercy He saves us. You see, He's the God of Jacob. God loves those He loves and
saves them all by His grace. You know that. Is that real to
you? If that's what we really believe,
we really have reason to thank Him, don't we? And to praise
Him and give Him glory, give Him all the glory. Cease our boasting. Have hope
in Him alone. You see, grace is all grace and
no works of man included. He says, for by grace are you
saved, are you being saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. The psalmist said, the Lord hates
all workers of iniquity. Well, wasn't David a worker of
iniquity? No. And we know that by virtue of
how he begins that psalm. He said, Lord, I'm going to look
to You. I'm going to call out to You
as You are. I'm going to worship You and
honor You as You are. And when you come to that A few
verses that follow that. Listen to what he says. He said,
you're going to destroy them and you abhor the bloody and
deceitful men, but as for me, I will come into thy house in
the multitude of thy mercy. And in thy fear will I worship
toward thy holy temple. Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness. I don't want my righteousness.
It's like filthy rags. I want your righteousness. I
want that righteousness of God in Christ. I want you to view
me in your Son. I want that perfection that is
in Christ, the gift, that imputed righteousness that you give to
your people. I don't want to be one of those
workers of iniquity. Now, how are workers of iniquity?
Turn over to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew 7. In Matthew 7 and verse 21, this is what Christ says. And he's warning here about false
prophets. Verse 15, he says, "...beware
of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they're ravening wolves. You'll know them by their fruits,
their doctrines." Verse 21, he says, "...not every one that
saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."
What is that will? Well, before I say what it is,
let me show you what it's not. He says, many will say to me
in that day. Many. Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied, preached in Thy name? And in Thy name have cast out
devils? And in Thy name done many wonderful
works of charity and community good Whatever. And then he says, will I profess
unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Did you think he was going to
say you that do mass murder or you that or this, that and the
other, that's understood. But the shocking thing will be
to these people that what they call Christianity, he calls it iniquity. The word iniquity here means
basically unrighteousness. He says, say to them in that
day, they'll be so satisfied with what they are and what they've
done. But He'll say to them, what you have done, your works
are all unrighteousness. I went back to Psalm 5 to see
what the word iniquity in Psalm 5 meant. And according to Strong's, It means to pant or to exert
oneself, usually in vain, to work, strive in vain, so that everything you
try to do, it says, comes to naught. Well, what is the will of God? Turn over to John 6. John chapter 6. Some people asked
Christ. They said, what shall we do that
we might work the works of God? Verse 29, Jesus answered and
said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him
whom he hath sent. Believing is simply a ceasing
from trusting our works to trusting totally in Christ and His work
alone. But when you look down at verse
37, he says, All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that comes to me I will in no wise
cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all
which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up
again at the last day." Christ said, the Father sent me to save
everyone whose care had been totally entrusted to me, whose
salvation was all put to my hand as their substitute and surety. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son. My friend, if you've
never seen how God could hate a sinner, how He could hate an Esau, how
He could love a Jacob, and be the same God we've never seen
the Son. And believeth on Him may have
everlasting life, and I'll raise Him up at the last day." God
has to give us an eye to see Him. God must give us understanding. He must teach us His truth, enable
us to see that salvation is of the Lord, that it is totally
by His grace, and that it is in the crucified Christ alone. If you'd see the love of God,
you'll have to see it looking at the cross of Christ crucified. You'll have to see it where justice
and mercy and love and righteousness, they all come together without
conflict and without discord. I read that 85th Psalm in that 10th verse. Tells us
how it is. It says, mercy and truth are
met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Where'd that happen at? in the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, where God shows mercy to a people
like Jacob, and at the same time demonstrates His justice in punishing
their sin through Christ. Oh, my prayer is that we'll be
not workers of iniquity, but be like that old sinner David.
He laid down on his deathbed. He didn't lower God's standard. He reiterated how God requires
some things. He requires of a ruler his house. And he acknowledged that his
house was not that way. He said, although my house be
not so with God, Yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, and sure." How sure, David? Because it depended
on someone outside of myself, the Lord Jesus. And he said,
this is all my salvation. David says here, but as for me,
I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy. And in thy fear will I worship
toward thy holy temple. Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness. I want to be found in your righteousness. I want to be saved the same way
that David was, that Jacob was. I want to know that love of God
that is in Christ. Father, we pray that you would
teach us, that you would open our understanding,
our hearts, Renew our minds. Give us right thoughts about
yourself. Bring our minds, our wills, our
hearts to bow before the truth of your word. Give us the grace
that enables us to worship you as you are, to exalt you in all
that you do, and to thank you for your saving mercies to us
in Christ. Thank you that nothing can separate
your people from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Grant that we might be found
in Him. We ask all things in His name. Amen.