Sermon Central
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A List Of Stuff God Hates
Contributed by David Wilson on Jul 19, 2010 (message contributor)
Summary: This sermon deals with the list of things God hates-- and why He hates them.
A List of Stuff God Hates by David Wilson
A Checklist that God Hates
There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
a false witness who pours out lies
and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
When we see lists today we see them in base 10 math. For example, David Letterman puts out his lists in groups of ten. Often, an oldies radio station presents its list of top one hundred. These lists are thought to be the most important and most complete.
In ancient Jewish thinking the number SEVEN was used instead of ten. This is because seven was the number of fullness and completion. A list of seven would have been considered to be complete. God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested in seven days, thereby completing the cycle.
Also, notice that this list is a list of things that God HATEs. We don’t think often of God hating. God hates our sin. He loves us and wants to redeem us. He hates our sinfulness. He hates our wickedness. This list is a list of things that God especially hates.
The King James uses the word abomination which is a bit stronger than the New International Version’s “detestable” An abomination is something that is utterly and absolutely morally repugnant. It is something that goes against what ought to be. Therefore, the items on this list should have no place in the believer’s life. Since God is offended by such things, we as believers should be offended by them.
Did you ever reach into your refrigerator and discover that ground beef had gone bad? It is sticky, it smells bad, and has lost its red color. It is detestable and you should be repulsed by it. You should not even consider cooking with spoiled meat much less make a big, fat juicy burger from it.
In the same way, we must make certain that we avoid the items on this list.
HAUGHTY EYES/ A PROUD LOOK
A person with a proud look is making a public demonstration of his attitude that he is better than someone else. This is the look your teenager gives you when they don¡¦t understand or agree with your rules and they roll their eyes and look at you with disgust. This is that “I’m better than you¨ look.
There are a lot of people who think that they are better than someone else, but never act or demonstrate that belief. A person with a proud look has moved beyond FEELING superior and feels comfortable DEMONSTRATING that attitude. In other words, they have allowed this sinful pride to infect their lives to the point that they are now finding it difficult to hide their pride and the contempt that they have with others.
Pride is a destructive attitude that leads us to believe that which is not true. God made each one of us and none of us are created greater than others. Pride leads us to take chances in our demonstration of that pride in our lives.
During the American Civil War, a general was walking on the parapets giving his men orders. General Sedgewick was warned several times that he should take cover. His famous last words were that the enemy couldn’t hit an elephant at that distance. His own pride led him to expose himself to danger.
Our pride exposes us to danger.
It was pride which led to Satan’s fall. It was pride that led Adam and Eve to consume the forbidden fruit in the garden.
A LYING TONGUE
God hates it when truth is distorted.
One writer said, “Those who practice telling little white lies soon find themselves becoming color blind.”
James Dobson points out that if a person always tells the truth he can always be believed. On the other hand if a person tells the truth half of the time he can NEVER be believed. I go a stop further than Dr. Dobson and state that you only lie 1% of the time you can NEVER be believed.
Why do we distort truth? Why do people lie?
1) To make themselves seem better than they are
2) To conceal or minimize their own wrongdoing
Sometime back, Steve Jobs of Apple Computer held a press conference to address problems with the latest I-Phone. Instead of simply taking responsibility for a minor design defect (gripping the case in a certain manner causes a loss of signal, dropped calls, etc.), Jobs blamed the media for exaggerating the defect. Jobs had to admit that the phone gave a false representation of signal strength. Very few users felt the issue was so bad that they returned the phones. However, Jobs sought to minimize the problem.
