You Hate Wickedness!

(Psalm 45:7)  “Thou hatest wickedness.”

“Be ye angry, and sin not.” There can hardly be goodness in a man if he be not angry at sin; he who loves truth must hate every false way. How our Lord Jesus hated it when the temptation came! Thrice it assailed him in different forms, but ever he met it with, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” He hated it in others; none the less fervently because he showed his hate oftener in tears of pity than in words of rebuke; yet what language could be more stern, more Elijah-like, than the words, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer.” He hated wickedness, so much that he bled to wound it to the heart; he died that it might die; he was buried that he might bury it in his tomb; and he rose that he might for ever trample it beneath his feet. Christ is in the Gospel, and that Gospel is opposed to wickedness in every shape. Wickedness arrays itself in fair garments, and imitates the language of holiness; but the precepts of Jesus, like his famous scourge of small cords, chase it out of the temple, and will not tolerate it in the Church. So, too, in the heart where Jesus reigns, what war there is between Christ and Belial! And when our Redeemer shall come to be our Judge, those thundering words, “Depart, ye cursed” which are, indeed, but a prolongation of his life-teaching concerning sin, shall manifest his abhorrence of iniquity. As warm as is his love to sinners, so hot is his hatred of sin; as perfect as is his righteousness, so complete shall be the destruction of every form of wickedness. O thou glorious champion of right, and destroyer of wrong, for this cause hath God, even thy God, anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. (C.H.Spurgeon)

It is now a time to sit back and to listen, to be lead by the Spirit of God is essential. Without over mystifying what that means, it is important to listen to the small still voice of God and we know that He has now spoken to us through His Son, for this we are truly thankful! There are so many truths in God’s Word that overshadow our carnal logic and for this I am thankful, The Word of God has weight over all that is carnal, in other words, if my own logic reasons out against the Word of God and it ends up contrary to it, then it is a liar and I must reject its findings. “What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though everyone were a liar, as it is written, "That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged." (Romans 3:3-4) - We understand the point of Paul’s message was to address the conflict between Jew and gentile in early Christianity, but I would like us to view this passage in principle and to draw some parallels to our lives; this is Matthew Hendry’s findings and they are helpful if we have ears to hear... “Against what he had said of the advantages the Jews had in the lively oracles, some might object the unbelief of many of them. To what purpose were the oracles of God committed to them, when so many of them, notwithstanding these oracles, continued strangers to Christ, and enemies to his gospel? Some did not believe, Rom_3:3.” But let us remember to view our logic and our own opinions as the enemy when they do not believe God’s Word! (My thought)

“Answer. It is very true that some, nay most of the present Jews, do not believe in Christ; but shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? The apostle startles at such a thought: God forbid! The infidelity and obstinacy of the Jews could not invalidate and overthrow those prophecies of the Messiah which were contained in the oracles committed to them. Christ will be glorious, though Israel be not gathered, Isa_49:5. God's words shall be accomplished, his purposes performed, and all his ends answered, though there be a generation that by their unbelief go about to make God a liar. Let God be true but every man a liar; let us abide by this principle, that God is true to every word which he has spoken, and will let none of his oracles fall to the ground, though thereby we give the lie to man; better question and overthrow the credit of all the men in the world than doubt of the faithfulness of God.” – That would include our carnal logic when in opposition to God’s Word. (My thought)    

God is the final authority over our lives and all of His creation, this we must come to grips with if we are to be set free in those trying areas of our lives. I have found that Christians have their struggles, I have my own struggle, but what I have understood is that we do not all have the same struggle, sure it is sin when broken down, but it effects us differently and in different area of our lives, wherever we are vulnerable and drop our guard, it is there that we will often succumb to sin although we have been set free by Christ perfect work. We are taught they we should no longer be slaves to sin; “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16)

Then to all who are born again and confess Jesus as Lord has a responsibility to seek out righteousness to their lives. We have found life and it is crucial that we seek out the path of righteousness to our lives. Our lives have begun a new journey, the day we were saved it began and we have an obligation, no matter how many blunder we may have incurred along the way, no matter how many times the story of the prodigal son may ring true to our ears, eventually we must arrive at this conclusion; the time for games is over, we must now be serious with God’s call to our lives.    

Have you ever really seriously considered the teaching of Paul in Galatians chapter 5; Paul exposes to types of fruit, the fruit of the flesh (sin) and then the fruit of the spirit! It is imperative that we understand the importance of both in our lives. We must read them side by side as we stand before the mirror of God and we ask Him to show us who we are. We will not be as foolish as to say; “mirror mirror on the wall who is the fairest of us all?” as we know that His name is Jesus and without His sanctification we would be unworthy to stand gazing into the mirror of God. However when we look at ourselves we unmistakably see many blemishes and we understand that nothing we could do would ever qualify us to call upon God. Holy Father we understand that if we were not covered by the blood of the Lamb, we would be without hope, but now we have the greatest of hopes because we are covered by His sacrifice and we have been sanctified by His blood, we now as your children we want to please you Father God, teach us to be honest with ourselves, teach us to obey your Word.

Now with that in mind, how can we say we love God but we still hanker after certain sins, God hates sin, in fact it is such an abomination to Him, that He sent His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to live amongst a wicked and perverse generation, He lived amongst sinners who on every side looked for a reason to get Him to fall into sin, they were unsuccessful, as He never sinned, no not once! We too must resolve to follow in His footsteps, of course we will fall along the way, but just as a child grows into manhood, we too must begin to be responsible with that which we have received. It will take a life time, nevertheless, we must seek out God’s grace to walk in obedience, and like I said even if our logic looks to excuse us when it is contrary to the Word of God we must place our trust in the Word of God, regardless of any other opposition. Help us prove you perfect will in our lives; “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2) 

Teach us Father we pray to be honest with ourselves and please reveal the areas in our lives that resist the Word of God, especially all those subtle area of our lives, we call upon our Saviour glorious name to help us root out any liar that opposes your glorious name. We cry out in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and King, Amen!

Signing off

Tyrone