Some of the things hated by God!

“ . . . . which thing I hate,” Revelation 2:15.

It is all too commonly believed that such is the character of the Lord that there is nothing that He hates!

Such a notion is the offspring of the witness and ministry of those who claim to serve the Lord and preach His Word but who are in fact usurpers and deceivers misrepresenting the Lord in a most reprehensible way.

One day they will learn that they could not have been more wrong!

There cannot be LOVE without HATE. When the heart’s affections are set upon something, they will react most strongly when that which is diametrically opposed to that loved is presented to them. That which stirs up love, when replaced by that which is its antithesis, creates animosity and loathing!

The God of Holiness cannot love sin. Rather, it generates a hatred of it in the very being of God, which in turn produces wrath and judgment. God has reserved a most awful penalty for that which He hates.

Christians, being “partakers of the heavenly calling,” (Hebrews 3:1) and “partakers of the divine nature,” (2 Peter 1:4) will share in this hatred of sin. “Ye that love the LORD, hate evil,” Psalm 97:10. Please note that the child of God is directed by Him to HATE EVIL! Such a hatred is fuelled by the Word of God. “Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way,” Psalm 119:104. “I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love,” Psalm 119:163. Such a hatred is entirely intrinsic and integral to the heart that loves the Lord. “Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies,” Psalm 139:21-22.

What now for all those fools who say that we should never HATE anything?

I wish to illustrate and substantiate the truth that there are things which God hates from His Word.

I. THE FIRST REFERENCE TO THIS TRUTH SETS FORTH THIS DOCTRINE VERY CLEARLY

“These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren,” Proverbs 6:16-19.

When we consider these seven things that God hates, do we not see that which is most common, indeed endemic, within society today?

Pride; lying; murdering of the innocent from babies in the womb to slaughter on our streets and in our homes; evil scheming; the swift pursuit of mischief or evil as the word is more commonly translated; perjury and the stirring up of strife where none should be found.

How many ever give the slightest consideration to what it is the Lord thinks of the behavioural standards of today? Our nation is run, directed at the whims of ambitious, deceitful men and women without the least reference to God or His law.

The disposition of the Christian’s heart is very different.“The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate,” Proverbs 8:13.

Let us note then with horror of soul and humility of heart that heaven hates that which is the atmosphere and ambience of our nation today.

II. AGAIN LET IT BE NOTED THAT THE RUN-OF-THE-MILL RELIGIOUS PRACTICES OF TODAY ARE HATED BY THE LORD

“Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods. Wherefore my fury and mine anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as at this day,” Jeremiah 44:4-6.

These words of God, spoken by His faithful servant Jeremiah, may fittingly be applied to our nation today!

Idolatry, which God hates, abounds everywhere. The worship of false gods takes place on virtually every street corner. Islam is a religion of idolatry, following the teaching of their ‘prophet’, Muhammad. The various Indian religions, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism and more, have all become integral to the cultural and religious framework of the United Kingdom.

However, while we need at look to the ‘imported’ religions, when we examine that which is considered our ’native’ religion, CHRISTIANITY,  we find unadulterated idolatry, the worship of false gods.

The voice of the Reformation may be heard still in the ‘39 Articles of Religion’, formulated in the wake of the breaking away from Rome by Anglicanism and the attempt to conform to the Bible in the 16th century. They teach in Article XXII, which deals with Purgatory, the following.

“The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping and Adoration, as well of Images as of Relics, and also Invocation of Saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.”

In Article XXVIII, which deals with ‘Transubstantiation’ (or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine) in the Supper of the Lord, it states: it “cannot be proved by Holy Writ; but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions.

The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper, is Faith.

The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was not by Christ’s ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped.”

In Article XXX,  the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross is dealt with.

“The Offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin, but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was commonly said, that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits.”

These statements adequately show what Biblical Christianity believes concerning the worship which takes place in Roman Catholic establishments throughout the land. It is idolatry, repugnant and blasphemous and deceitful.

As such the Bible tells us God ‘hates’ it all!

How we would that our Roman Catholic neighbours understood this!

But we must not overlook modern-day ‘Protestantism’. What passes as Protestantism today is no more what it claims to be as chalk is cheese! In the last 100 years or so, a dramatic and horrific change has crept into professing Christianity in our nation and also those nations which profess to be adherents of the Protestant faith. As it was in the first century, so it has been in the 20th and 21st centuries.

“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ,” Jude 1:3-4.

The ‘creepers’ have been at work over the last 100+ years and have become dominant in the major denominations in our land. Modernistic, liberal doctrines which in essence are a denial of the teaching of the Word of God and a supplanting of such with the silly notions of men, have become the ‘staple diet’ of the church-goer. Hell, eternal retribution, the need for regeneration and the ‘new birth’ have been cast overboard as have the cardinal doctrines of the deity of Christ and His vicarious death at the cross. These and many other infallible truths have been rejected and despised as superstitious nonsense by modern ‘Protestantism’!

All this amounts to a reverting back to idolatry, a worshipping of a god which is of man’s invention.

“And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions,” Psalm 106:36-39.

This God hates.

How dreadful is it that the activities of a Sabbath Day here in Ulster consist largely of that which vexes, grieves and angers God!

Think on these words where the Lord speaks of the religious activity of those who, as in today’s ‘Christianity’, had ceased to obey God’s truth.

“I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols,” Amos 5:21-23.

The blessed and loving Saviour hates false doctrine and evil practices. “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate,” Revelation 2:6.

Let us walk in His Spirit!

III. AGAIN, I WISH TO EMPHASISE THE FACT THAT BEHAVIOUR WHICH HAS BECOME ENTRENCHED IN ULSTER’S RATIONALE,  IS HATED OF GOD

Heed these words:—

“These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates: And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD,” Zechariah 8:16-17.

Who can deny that the things identified here by the Lord as hated by Him, are inherent in the behaviour of Ulster.

I repeat the words for emphasis: ‘Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates . . . let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate.’

We have ruling us those who embraced terrorism, scheming and plotting against their neighbours to slay them and still rejoice in that  activity and allied to such are those who are happy, for the sake of their own political ambitions and pride, to work with such.

If truth be told, the Stormont regime is a thing hated of God and will never have His approval!

How Ulster has departed from God! From the slogan of our forefathers: “For God and Ulster”, we have descended to “For Self and Sin”!

For true Christians, this is a most sorrowful and harrowing situation. Opposition to what has taken place in our land, especially since 2007 when the power-sharing executive with Sinn Fein/IRA was established by the DUP, has brought upon the head of those who love God’s truth, scornful derision.

Take heart from the Saviour’s words:

“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me,” John 15:18-21. The same writer later added: “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you,” 1 John 3:13.

In these last days, Christians can but expect the hatred of those who reject all we seek to uphold to increase and intensify. The Lord makes that ever so plain by way of warning His people.

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained,” 1 Timothy 4:1-6.

“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry,” 2 Timothy 4:1-5.

“This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation,” 2 Peter 3:1-4.

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time,” 1 John 2:15-18.

These verses, to which could be added many, many more, all indicate that the haters of God are to increase and dominate the world as the end of this age approaches. It is that ‘hatred’ that will bring the intervention of Christ, the ‘Hater’of sin and rebellion.

He will come to establish His Kingdom of Righteousness and Peace.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this,” Isaiah 9:6-8.

May the Lord hasten the day of His return in power and great glory.

 

Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)

9th June 2022