Well today we are going to look at three detestable things as we continue our series “Seven things God don’t like. Last week we looked at the sin of “Haughty eyes” being too full of ourselves and how we need to humble ourselves and realize that it isn’t all about us.
Now the three things we are going to look at today are a little different, one may be a little hard for us to think about. So let’s get started this morning.
The first thing I want to address is hands that shed innocent blood, now this part of the sermon was the hardest to deal with and it’s not for the faint of heart or the squeamish, and I’m going to ask you to put aside any political views or preconceived notions for just a moment.
It tells us in the scripture that God doesn’t like hands that shed innocent blood, now I think we can all agree that there is nothing more innocent than a child, Except maybe an unborn baby, and people kill them every day it seems that every time we turn around we here about abortion clinics and abortion doctors taking the lives of little unborn children every single day.
Did you know that in 2008 1.2 million American women had an abortion, 1.2 million innocent victims? That’s a lot of innocent blood on our hands. Now I’m not talking about me and you but our country, and the sad thing is it’s been made legal by our government, the people we elect to be in charge. It saddens me that some of that blood could be on all of our hands because we say nothing, we do nothing, we keep electing the same people to the same offices as a nation we are guilty. And I think God should be angry.
We all know the argument that a fetus isn’t a child till its born or as the medical world puts it Viable, (not able to live outside the womb) or apart from the mother. How many of you know grown people that aren’t viable in a medical or mental sense? We aren’t trying to abort them; we aren’t trying to shed their blood. Here’s what’s strange to me, have you ever noticed that all the people that protest for abortion, they have already been born.
What does scripture say about the unborn children?
In Jeremiah 1:5 it says: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
Before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Before Jeremiah was even conceived God had already planned his life.
And the same holds true for us. Before we are even conceived God knows us.
The psalmist tells us in Psalm 139:13
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
These scriptures and a few others tell me that God is already at work in our lives even as we are still in our mother’s womb.
Now if those scriptures are not enough to prove that abortion is shedding the blood of the innocent let me give you a few facts:
• 18 days after conception heart beats on its own.
• 6 weeks the fetus quickly moves in the womb.
• Brain waves present at 8 weeks & child grabs, swims freely, heartbeat measurable.
• 12 weeks cries, sucks thumb, sleeps and wakes, all organs systems function, including mental. They can definitely feel pain.
• From this point on nothing new develops just growth and the maturing process.
And there are some doctors that will support the act of abortion even up to 20 weeks; they have to actually deliver the baby partially in order to perform the procedure. How can anyone hold a baby in their hands and think that abortion is a right and Godly thing to do.
God don’t like those that shed innocent blood and we cannot continue to support these kinds of actions in our country by staying silent and expect God to bless us as a nation.
I think the bible is plain in what it says about those that shed innocent blood Look at Psalms 106:37-40:
They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to false gods. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood. They defiled themselves by what they did; by their deeds they prostituted themselves. Therefore the Lord was angry with his people and abhorred (hated) his inheritance.
So what are we to do? We certainly don’t want the blood of the innocent on our hands.
We have got to pray for our nation. We need to take heart what we are told in 2nd Chronicles 7:14
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
And we need to call abortion what it is, MURDER. And when we vote we need to vote for the people who stand on Christian values not free giveaways or tax breaks. That’s the only way to right this ship were on through obedience to God.
The second thing we are going to look at today is a heart that devises wicked schemes. God don’t like it!!
Jeremiah 17:9-10 says this about the heart
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
“I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind to reward each person according to their conduct,
According to what their deeds deserve.”
The creator understands it, he made you, he knows what’s in your heart, and he don’t like wicked schemes to be there.
People all the time come up with evil and wicked schemes, why? I’ll tell you why to fulfill their selfish and sinful desires.
A heart devising wicked schemes is nothing new, in the Garden of Eden the serpent devised a scheme that seemed to touch right on eves pride and desire to be like God and Adam fell right into that selfish boat with her.
King David committed adultery and then devised a scheme to have the husband of his mistress killed when his first scheme didn’t work out.
When we start falling prey to what I talked about last Sunday Our hearts start devising wicked schemes either to make us look better or to get us out of a jam. People do it all the time, we can’t help it, and we just have a sinful nature about us. Do you remember what the Apostle Paul says about it in Romans 7? (Vs. 18-20)
He says basically I want to do good but I can’t, I don’t do the good I want to do but the evil that I don’t want to do is what I keep doing.
God don’t like the wicked schemes of our heart.
So what’s the cure?
We have got to get saved and stay saved, we have got to make sure the Holy Spirit is dwelling in our heart; We have to make sure the Holy Spirit is filling our heart, and we have got to make sure our heart stays focused on Godly things.
And the last thing today is Feet that are swift to run to mischief.
Mischief means to cause trouble or do others harm, to be dangerous and destructive. Mischief is a desire in the heart to do harm and corrupt people
We all know people like this. Someone who is involved in anything and everything just for the thrill of it. Not giving a thought to right or wrong. Most of the time they live with what we just talked about an evil scheme in their heart and they just can’t wait for an opportunity to try it out.
God don’t like these fast feet people. And let me tell you they are everywhere, people with no moral compass, no desire to flee from evil.
When you or I may walk away or say why would someone do that? They move forward and say I bet I could do that and not get caught.
Now it’s easy for us to get caught up in mischief or maybe we have already been there at one time or another. Titus 3:3 it puts it this way At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another
All of the things we discussed today God hates most of today’s Sins are pretty easy to avoid but we can’t let our guard down
We must continually pray and seek guidance from the Holy Spirit and if we fall into one of these sins and it gets a hold of us, we need to repent and rely on Jesus taking our hand and leading us away from these things.
The best thing we can do is keep our heart full of the Holy Spirit and our minds on Godly things.
