• I hate it when:
o When everyone asks me if I play basketball just because I’m tall.
o People slow down to 40 miles an hour on the interstate just to gaze at someone with a flat tire
o People who take more than 10 items in the express lane.
• What do you hate?
Ask crowd
• God hates sin.
• It is unbelievable to some people that God could hate…anything.
o Isn’t God “love?”
o Isn’t God “peace?”
o Isn’t God “mercy?”
o Yes, he is most certainly all of these.
• But to picture God as one who does not hate anything goes directly against the very core, the very essence of who God is.
• Even we in the Church, who have been saved by grace, who have had our sins covered under the blood, who have been redeemed by the mercy of God – have forgotten what it means to serve a God who hates sin.
• In recent days the Church has too often been ruled by the authority of popular culture, rather than by the almighty God.
o We are constantly bombarded with calls “to be tolerant.”
o We are constantly told that it is uncivilized to hate anything.
o We are constantly fed the notion that all ideas, all religions, all actions are equal, that none should be looked at with any malice whatsoever.
• I believe that the Church has placed itself in a very dangerous position.
o For many fear man more than they fear God.
o Many want to be more in tune with what is popular in society, rather than what is told to us through the Word of God.
o Many have desired to see a powerful move of God, but yet they have neglected to hate the things that God hates, and to desire the things that God desires.
J. Kirk Johnston, in the book, “Why Christians Sin”
1. Some Christians choose to sin because they have lost sight of what God has done for them.
2. Some Christians choose to sin because they have forgotten that God will severely discipline disobedient believers.
3. Some Christians choose to sin because they have lost their focus on the future.
But I would add a 4th:
4. Some Christians choose to sin because they have forgotten how much God hates sin.
• And that is why I come to you with a message from God: “It’s time to take out the trash: What does God hate?”
• For the next 7 services I will be telling you seven things that God hates.
• Each service, we will be:
o Exposing a different sin listed in the word of God
o Examining ourselves to see if each sin is a part of our life. If it is, we will ask God to bring us to repentance, and ask him to rid it from our life.
o Examining our church to see if each sin is a part of our body. If it is, we will ask God to bring us to repentance, and ask him to rid it from our body.
o Fourthly, we will reveal the things that God does love and the things God does desire in our lives.
“No Trespassing” sign in West Texas, with the ranchers name signed in blood red next to the warning:
STOP. I know you’re thinking about crossing this gate. What you should know is that if the Coyotes, Cactus, Mesquite, Heat, Dust, or Rattlers don’t get you, I will.
• We have been given a similar warning in our lives.
• Open up your Bibles to Proverbs 6:16-19.
Proverbs 6:16-19 (NIV)
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.
• This is a warning that should be sticking out to us a plain as the warning to trespassers that I just spoke of.
• God is telling us, if the sin of pride, of lying, of murdering the innocent, of scheming to sin, of running to do evil, of lying to someone else, or of stirring up dissention doesn’t get you – I will.
• God has a clear message for us today:
Romans 12:9
Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.
• Before we expose what this first sin that is listed in the Word of God, let us first look at how this passage begins.
Proverbs 9:16
There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him:
• What does this mean, “six things the LORD hates” but yet there are “seven that are detestable to him?”
• You can plainly count the number of things listed and find seven, so why does it even mention there “are six things the LORD hates?”
• First of all, the number seven that we see in this text and throughout the Bible does not indicate perfection, but completeness.
o God has a complete hatred of these things.
o They are things that reveal the complete depravity of humans, and the total lack of godliness.
J. Vernon McGee
God has gone on record that he hates these things. God denies the thesis of liberal theology that He is some sentimental and senile old man who weeps but never works, that He simply shuts His eyes to the sins of mankind and is tolerant of evil, that he forgives because he hasn’t the intestinal fortitude to punish sin. God says, “I love,” bust He also says, “I hate.”
• Secondly, this list is not exclusive.
• It seems strange to see the number six listed followed by the number seven in the same sentence because it was a literary technique that was used by ancient Hebrew writers, including Amos and Micah.
• What is basically being said in this text is: The list is complete of the things God hates – all sin. But here is only a small representation of those things, in fact, here are six of them.
• But today, we are going to look at the first of these sins: pride.
PRIDE IS THE OLDEST SIN
Ronald Regan
Ronald Regan, recalling an occasion when he was Governor of California and made a speech in Mexico City:
“After I had finished speaking, I sat down to rather unenthusiastic applause, and I was a little embarrassed. The speaker who followed me spoke in Spanish – which I don’t understand – and he was being applauded almost every paragraph. To hide my embarrassment, I started clapping before everyone else and longer than anyone else until our ambassador leaned over and said, ‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you, he’s interpreting your speech.’”
• Although this was quite an innocent mistake, pride is one of the deadliest and oldest sins.
“Pride is the only disease that makes everyone sick but the one who has it.”
• That is certainly true of the first being that had the sin of pride.
Isaiah 14:13-15
You said in your heart, “I will ascend to Heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountains. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
• The sin that we find here committed by Satan is the sin of pride.
• The Hebrew word for pride here means “to lift up.”
o It was the attitude that drove Satan to try to lift himself up above all else, including God.
o I want to be equal to God!
• It was also the same lie that he told Eve in the Garden of Eden:
Genesis 3:5
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God…
• It is also the same lie that Satan tells man today through cults.
Book of Mormon
As man is, God once was; as God is, Man may become.
PRIDE WILL DRIVE A WEDGE IN OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD AND WITH OTHERS
• Besides being sin that easily can entrap us, pride is something that will very quickly drive separate us more and more from God.
• The Bible is full of examples of people who have had pride get in the way of their relationship with God:
o The Pharisees
o Saul
o King Uzziah
• Turn over to II Chronicles 26
• King Uzziah before he became proud
o He was successful with his foreign affairs
• II Chronicles 26:6-8
o He was successful with his domestic affairs
• II Chronicles 26:9-10
o He was successful with his military affairs
• II Chronicles 26:11-15
• King Uzziah after he let pride drive a wedge in his relationship with God
o II Chronicles 26:16
o He burned incense on his own
II Chronicles 26:18
Only priests could burn incense
Reminisant of the sin of King Saul
o His pride turned into anger
II Chronicles 26:19
How many know someone who is very prideful? They are not very pleasant to be around!
o He was disgraced at his death
II Chronicles 26:23
King Uzziah would normally have been buried in a tomb with the other kings of Israel, but because of his leprosy, a result of his sin, he was only buried in a cemetery that was next to the tomb of the kings.
PRIDE OPENS THE DOOR TO A HOST OF OTHER SINS
• When it comes to basic descriptions, pride an attitude that focuses undue attention on one self.
o For example, we give in to greed when we feel that SELF does not have enough;
o We give in to envy when we feel that SELF has not received its due, and honor has gone to someone “less” deserving;
o We most often give in to anger when SELF is offended;
o We give in to a critical spirit when SELF-ESTEEM has been injured;
o We feel resentment when our own SELF is threatened by that of others.
David Rhodes
Pride is the dandelion of the soul. It’s roots go deep, only a little needs to be left behind and it can sprout again. It’s seeds lodge in the tiniest encouraging cracks. It flourishes in good soil. The danger of pride is that it feeds on goodness.
• But we have not been left without a remedy to pride.
• The remedy from Scripture is very simple. Counter the vice with an opposite, and more powerful virtue.
What is that virtue that we can remedy pride with?
o Humility.
How can we gain humility in our lives, especially if we have struggled with pride?
o Confess and repent.
o Don’t take yourself too seriously
This is the part the Pharisees couldn’t get past.
They really thought they were too important to have to be humble.
King Uzziah became so prideful that he didn’t think that he needed to be humble
o Compare yourself upwards, not downwards
Philippians 2:3
Consider others better than yourselves
o Remember the example of Christ
He took “the form of a servant” even washing the disciples feet.
o Ask for cleansing
Both for areas you know about and for the great unknown area that we all have, especially when it comes to this particular sin.
Psalm 19:12
Cleanse me from my secret faults
Remember that spiritual pride is one of the most unseen dangers of our lives.
It is like an iceberg, the most dangerous part of it lies beneath the surface.
We do not have it within ourselves to be able to cure ourselves, even if we could see the entire problem.
The remedy must lie with our trust in the God who “looks at the heart.”
God hates sin. His word is clear about that.
But as I said earlier, “It’s time to take out the trash.”
o Out of our lives, and out of this church body.
I said we would be doing 3 things in each of the next services, and we have already done the first, expose the sins listed in the Word of God.
But now we are going to do the other 2 parts.
o The Holy Spirit has already been speaking to hearts here today for those of you that have pride in your hearts.
o First of all, as the music begins playing, I am going to do what I promised, I’ll meet you up front in the altar area, and I want to pray with you for repentance for the pride in your life, and I’m going to approach God with you and ask him to rid it completely from your life.
o Secondly, when the music begins playing, I’m going to ask you to come forward, and I want to pray with you if you feel that pride has become part of our church body.
o I know that each of you desire to see a move of God in this place, but if you feel that pride is something that is holding back a move of God, I want to pray with you and we’ll repent for this body together, and ask God to make us whole again.
