Does God hate?

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "'But we did not yield in subjection to them "'for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel "'would remain with you.'".

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

We're here to take your calls as well. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Avendroth.

Does God Hate the Sin but Love the Sinner?

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Avendroth. I've got a question for you this day. Here's the question. God, true or false, hates the sin, but loves the sinner. Is that a biblical phrase?

Is that a biblical concept? Does God actually hate the sin, but love the sinner? Does God distinguish between the two? Does he distinguish between who someone is and what people think or do or how they act?

Is that actually true? Well, today on No Compromise Radio ministry, we're going to look at that very concept. Does God hate anyone? We don't usually like to talk about hate very often because it's not polite.

It's not sophisticated. We hear about hate speech in the political realm. We hear about hate crimes in our judiciary system. But what about hatred, God hating? What comes to your mind when I say God hates?

What do you think about when I utter the words God loathes, God abhors, God finds certain things our people odious? How do we think about these issues? It was just Thanksgiving, as you know. And for me, I love Thanksgiving because I get to pick and choose whatever I want to put on my plate.

I tend to put on dressing, the stuffing. I tend to put on turkey and cranberry sauce and then have some room for pie. I don't want anything else. I usually eat vegetables and fruit, but not on Thanksgiving.

I want to make sure I say to myself, the only vegetable I'm eating or fruit is going to be the pumpkin that's found in the pumpkin pie. I don't want anything else. I get to pick and choose. Normally I go to people's homes and they serve something.

I eat a little bit of everything just to be polite and to be nice. If I'm overseas, people serve you things, stand by you. And when you have a little spot on your plate, they fill it back up again. And I just accept that in another culture.

But in Thanksgiving, we just pick and choose. And for evangelical Christians even, let alone mainline liberal Christians, quote unquote, they pick and choose what they like regarding God and his attributes, his character and his perfections.

And so is that a biblical concept for people to say, I'll take a double portion of love, but hold the wrath. I'd like a heaping pile full of warm, wonderful mercy and forgiveness, but I don't really want to talk about God's hatred.

Friends, we have to understand that we are people under the book. We are not over the book and we need to think biblically. And whatever God has put in his word, it is profitable for us and important for us to know.

And for most Christians, sadly, they don't read 70 of their Bible. Somehow they relegate the Old Testament to Israel, to another generation, to an older covenant where they can't learn anything about our triune God, nor do they want to say, how can I learn how God deals with sinners?

And how does God love sinners? How does God forgive sinners? We can learn so much. If you have a Bible, you ought to be reading the Old Testament. So today we want to talk about that concept of hatred, not men and women hating God, but God hating people.

Is it biblical? If someone came to you and said, God, does God hate anyone? What would your answer be? What would your response be? And so we want to make sure we just say, well, I might like this, I might like that, but we are under the book and we will say the Bible teaches.

What does the Bible say? Does the Bible ever associate loathing, hating, abhorring with God? And the answer is yes. I don't know if you have a Bible handy. If you're driving, you don't need to look it up, but let me just give you an overview.

This is not exhaustive. This is not a concordance when it comes to every little detail, but I want to give you an overview of things that the Bible teaches God hates, and then we want to ask ourself the question, do I hate what God hates?

Do I love what God loves? If Jesus has zeal for the glory of God, well, I must have zeal for the glory of God. If God hates X, Y, and Z, I ought to hate them as well. That's what we're after. Left to our own hearts, we will deceive ourselves.

Left to our own desires, we still have a fallen remnant inside of us, even if we're Christians. We can't trust ourselves. That's the theme of the Bible. That's what makes Christianity different than every other religion, is that we have to go to an external, outside source, externos, outside of us, because we can't trust what's inside of us.

So when we have this, well, God said this to me. I was talking to God and he whispered to me that he didn't hate anyone. And that's just your own heart talking. You have a God and the God is not a capital G, it's a small g and it's the God that's in your own belly.

It's in your own conscience. And we ought not to listen to our own selves like the Shakers and like the Quakers and like some charismatics and evangelicals who say, I'm just listening to God in prayer.

Well, I'm digressing. Let's get back to this topic. My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. And we are talking about hatred. Why? Well, partly it's an under-taught subject and partly because it creates controversy, it provokes.

I want you to say, no, that can't be true, but there it is in the Bible. Let's look at first Leviticus 18. Leviticus 18, you shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female. It is an abomination. The Bible teaches that God loathes that, that he abhors that would be a good way to translate that Hebrew word.

Some translators call it a detestable thing, a thing of horror, something that's associated with pollution. And so we see from the Bible from the get-go here in the Mosaic law, as God is teaching Israel, that homosexuality is not good.

Of course, we can look at Romans 1 and other New Testament passages, but we're just having an overview here of things that are perverse to God and are repugnant to God. Leviticus 20 says the same thing.

Basically, if there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable, same word there for abomination, act. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood guiltiness is upon them.

And so most evangelicals would agree the Bible hates homosexuality. The Bible hates that concept. All right, what about the next thing? Not only homosexuality does God hate, but God hates idolatry. Deuteronomy 7, verse 25.

The graven images of their gods are to burn with fire. And again, God talking to Moses and the Israelites. You shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be snared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord.

And so God hates idolatry. He hates the confusion of creature creation, and when we focus on the creation and not on the creator, God is jealous for real worship and for real glorification from the person.

Deuteronomy 27 says the same thing, verse 15. Cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret. And all the people shall answer and say, amen.

So God hates homosexuality. God hates idolatry. Number three, God hates those that would blur the sexes. In this particular case in Deuteronomy 22, verse five, wearing the opposite sex clothes. A woman shall not wear man's clothing, nor shall a man put on woman's clothing, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

This is what God is saying to Moses for Israel. Well, I think you'd agree with the fourth one, Deuteronomy 12, God hates human sacrifice. Deuteronomy 12, 31. You shall not behave thus toward the Lord your God for every abominable act which the Lord hates, they have done for their gods.

For they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Can you imagine taking a little baby and then burning that baby as an offering to God for good grain, good crops, for fertility, to have other children?

God hates that kind of human sacrifice. Well, what else does God hate? God hates it when Israel would sacrifice something that was defective. Sacrifice was to give the best to God, hence the word sacrifice, it cost you.

And so while you don't give missionaries your old clothes, you don't give God back in the Old Testament days, in the cultic worship there of God in the temple or the tabernacle, you don't give him some kind of defective animals.

God hates that, Deuteronomy 17, one. He shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any defect that is a detestable, abhorrent, abomination to the Lord your God. Well, you would have to agree with that.

And by the way, if you don't know this already, I'm leading up to talk about some things that are much closer to our hearts. We would all probably stand off from the distance here in the distance and say, yeah, these are all things God hates, that's true.

Well, soon the finger is going to be pointed right back at us because there are things in our lives where we do them and God doesn't like it. He hates them and we want to make sure we stay away from those.

We want to glorify the Lord. We want to say based on the Lord Jesus Christ and what his work has accomplished, finished at Calvary, confirmed by the resurrection, we now have the Spirit of Christ, we have the Holy Spirit to help us live in a way that is pleasing to God.

What else does God hate? God hates occult activities. Certainly true back in the Old Testament day, Deuteronomy 18, when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, shall not learn to imitate the detestable, abhorrent, abominable things of those nations.

There shall not be found among you anyone who makes a son or daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord. Now you see the language there? It's not what they do is detestable, they are detestable. Because of these detestable things, the Lord your God will drive them out before you.

So the Bible teaches that God hates those who are in the occult. He also hates something else that I think is very, very fascinating. And he hates priests who don't do their priestly activity. Malachi chapter two is very clear there.

Priests back in those days should preserve knowledge, Malachi 2 .7 says. Men should come to the priest to seek instruction and this messenger of God, the priest, the messenger of Yahweh, the Lord of hosts, should give this information to the people.

And so that is the priest's job, that is his responsibility. He is called to do that by God. He was supposed to give true instruction. He was supposed to give righteous instruction. He was supposed to walk with God in peace and uprightness and turn others from iniquity.

And what did the priest do back in the days of Malachi? They did exactly opposite. Verse eight of Malachi 2 says, but as for you, you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by the instruction.

You have corrupted the covenant of Levi. And so you have priests back in those days that do not do what they're supposed to do. That'd be like a pastor today who doesn't teach his people the Bible, who talks about himself all the time, who talks about unbiblical concepts, who does the Oprah Book Club deal, who says much about self-esteem, social action, and does not keep the main thing, the main thing, and that is the gospel, 1 Corinthians 15, verse three and four.

I deliver to you that was of first importance, and then preaching the entire counsel of God from Genesis to Revelation. What does God think of a pastor or a priest back in the Old Testament days who will not fulfill his commission?

Does God say, oh, that was good. I'm glad you like the church growth strategy because I do too. Numbers matter, buildings matter, cash matters. Attendance, buildings, and cash, that's what I'm after. What does God think about that?

Well, God hates that. In this particular language of Malachi chapter two, the language isn't directly saying God hates it or it's an abomination, but I think you'll agree with me after I read these verses that the language couldn't be clear.

The image given is one that will arrest you. It will arrest your attention. Here's what happens. Listen to Malachi chapter two. As God describes priests who don't do priestly things, could just as soon describe pastors who will not preach the word.

Behold, verse three of Malachi two, I'm going to rebuke your offspring. Literally, it could be seed, it could be grain, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts, and you will be taken away with it.

Malachi two, three. How striking is that? How provocative is that? That is amazing. We don't speak like that in polite company. Most people don't talk that way and want to remain sophisticated. Most don't stoop so low to say these kinds of things, but God says them, and you need to know what God says.

God says this, if you're not going to do what I told you to do as a leader, as a priest, who should be preserving knowledge and teaching people the instruction from God as his own messenger, then what you need is, you need refuse smeared all over your face.

Well, the priest back in those days would do what? They would have a sacrifice. Someone would sin and bring an animal in for sacrifice. It was the priest's job to kill that and sacrifice it, and he would have some of the animal sacrificed to God.

He would have some of the animal kept for himself since he was not allotted any of the land, and that was what he lived off of, was part of the sacrifice. And the gross parts, the intestines and the stuff that was in the intestines, the, as what S. Lewis Johnson called it, the awful things, the intestines, they were taken out away from the camp.

You wouldn't let those stay in the camp. It was horrible. It was gross. It was atrocious. You'd want to get those away. It smelled. It was icky, as my kids would say. And so what happens? God says, if you won't preach the word, I hate that kind of thing.

And the most awful thing that I could do to you on the earth, short of hell, of course, is I'm going to spread this on your face. I'm going to rub it into your face. I'm going to rub your nose in it. I'm going to rub your nose, it all over you.

And God says he hates that kind of thing. It is shocking. It is surprising in the culture we live in today that God would hate some kind of activity, that God would have some kind of reaction, allergic reaction to this kind of heinous sin.

And so we now move to Proverbs 6. There are six things which the Lord hates. Yes, seven, which are an abomination to him. Did you know that? Here in Proverbs, we have Solomon writing, and Solomon writes in a very Hebraic way.

He writes in a way that shows emphasis. If I were to emphasize something, I would probably get out a yellow marker. I would try to, on my computer, say font 14, bold underline, put a box around it with a border, some sparkles or something.

Well, the way you do it in poetry, in the Hebrew language, is you could say something three times. God is holy, holy, holy. Or you could say God is holy, separate, set apart. Repeat something three different ways using synonymous language.

Or you could say something like this. There are six things which the Lord hates. If you're a math person, that would be X. Yes, seven, which are an abomination to him. X comma X plus one. The seventh thing is what is underlined.

It is the emphatic thing. It is at the top of the list. What does God hate? By the way, when the Hebrew talks about this word hate, what's actually going on there? What's the language depicting? Well, one of the language tools that I have says this.

It expresses an emotional attitude toward persons and things which are opposed, detested, despised, and with which one wishes to have no contact or relationship. It is therefore the opposite of love, whereas love draws and unites, hate separates and keeps distant.

The hated and hating persons are considered foes, are enemies, and are considered odious, utterly unappealing. And can you imagine with this Hebrew pattern found in Job 5 and Proverbs 30 and Amos 1 and 2, this literary listing, the last one, this Hebrew form of climax, it's called amidda, M-I-D-D-A, shows what God hates the most.

He hates these things, but he really, really hates this. If you could come up with a list of seven things God hates, and you were to write it in poetry, what would that list be? Well, I think some of us would come up with homosexuality, pedophilia, and other those kinds of things, but this one is going to shock you because the pattern is interesting, but what's at the top of the list is most interesting.

The chief of all what God hates is fascinating. Matthew Henry said, a catalog of those things which are in a special manner odious to God. God hates sin. He hates every sin. He can never be reconciled to it.

He hates nothing but sin. But now listen, no compromise radio ministry listeners, but there are some sins which he does in a special manner hate. What would those sins be? What are those sins? Well, let's just take a look at each one as we build towards the top of the list.

And again, my goal today is, for those listening at WVNE 760, my goal is for you to think the way God thinks. The topic today is, does God really love the sinner and hate the sin? Or does God really hate the sinner too?

Does God hate anything? Does God loathe or abhor or despise anything? Today we live in a world where it's God is love, God is love, God is love. You never see that in the scripture at all for the trifold emphasis that God is love.

There's only one trifold emphasis, and that is God is holy, holy, holy. And holy, just God must hate iniquity. He must hate anything that is not holy and not just. And so what does God hate? Here at the list, the start of the list, not at the top of the list, but the start of the list, haughty eyes.

God hates those that have proud looks. He hates those with arrogant ambition. And they look down their nose at other people. Everybody's not as good as they are. And God says, I hate this kind of pompous look because compared to other people, you may think you're better, but you're comparing yourself to the wrong person.

You should be comparing yourself to God. And when you do, the conceit and the contempt and the pride will vanish. Well, what else does God hate? A lying tongue, Proverbs 6, 17. A tongue, literally, the Hebrew says of deception.

A tongue that loves to spew falsehood and spout out fraud and lies. God says he hates that. He hates it. A lying tongue is only for a moment, thankfully, but God still hates it. Number three, hands that shed innocent blood.

Those that are bloodthirsty. Those that want to kill. Those that want to plan on this kind of thing. Filling the streets with innocent blood. God hates that because the people are made of, in God's image and likeness.

And when you kill someone and murder someone, you are defacing the image of God. Number four, devises wicked schemes. Calculating evil. Enough of number four. Number five, feet that are quick to rush into evil.

They don't want to lose any time. They've got to get on it. There's no time like the present to live it up and do some evil things. Number six, false witnesses who pour out lies. This is an affront to God.

And number seven at the top of the list, what does God hate? What's at the pinnacle of what God hates? Remember Proverbs 6 .16, there are six things which the Lord hates. Yes, even seven, which are an abomination.

Meaning in Hebrew, at the top of the list, what does God hate? One, in verse 19, who spreads strife among brothers. Can you imagine that? Out of all the things that God hates, here in poetic language, God hates at the top of the list here in Proverbs 6, one who spreads strife among brothers.

One who has dissension in a local church. Are you one that causes trouble in a local church? Or do you unite? Are you quarrelsome? Do you bicker? Do you somehow run around gossiping about people and leadership?

God hates that. God hates you. If you do that, the Bible says God hates you. And so you ought to stop that. You ought to stop whispering and stop causing contention. You ought to stop putting the wood of contention on the fire so that just dies out.

The Bible says the words of a whisper like dainty morsels and they go down into the innermost parts of the body. You ought to stop doing that, devouring the gossip. You ought to tell people at your church, I'm not gonna hear that about the pastor and the elder.

You need to go talk to them. I'm not gonna listen because God hates this. There's some people that know exactly how to form a question. So they don't come off as factious to the immature, but they know how to say something.

Well, what do you think about that? I don't know if I really like that. Friends, dissension is especially irritating to God in a special manner provoking to God as Matthew Henry would say. You don't want to be a person who wants to sow discord among the brethren, do you?

Earlier in Proverbs 6, that kind of person is worthless, wicked, and has a perverse mouth. Winking and signaling, that is not what you wanna be. You want to be a person who delights in unity, in conquered.

Remember, if you disagree with your pastor and your elders, to disagree means disagreement. Submission means I disagree and go along anyway. And so you just go along, they're under God. You wanna be a person who God loves and God loves those who search and strive for unity.

God hates disunity. God hates factiousness. God hates the factious person and you ought to as well. And if somebody is factious, you need to call them on it. You don't need to listen to that. You don't need to listen to those who say things about the leadership.

My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Ministry. God hates, God loves. God especially loves truth and Jesus Christ. You must too, God bless you.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.