Sermon: God Hates These Things

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You can open your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs chapter 6.

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We're going to start at verse 12. This is our series,

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Wisdom from Above. It's a verse by verse working through the book of Proverbs, God's wisdom.

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Proverbs chapter 6 and verse 12. Hear now the word of the living and the true

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God. A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech.

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Winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger.

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With perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord.

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Therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly. In a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

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There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him.

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Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood.

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A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil.

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A false witness who breeds out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray together as His people. Lord, we come before You as redeemed children, forgiven under Your grace.

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In Christ chosen before the foundation of the world, loved by You, given mercy.

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And yet Lord, we come to Your word here to learn things about Your character and what You hate, what

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You loathe, what You call an abomination. Lord, I beg of You to please meet us today in this place under the hearing of Your word.

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That You move God by Your spirit, that You would teach today Your people. That You Lord would grant to us repentance, the kind of hatred and loathing that You have for these sins.

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This is not the way the world ought to be. And so we pray

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God that You would give us a hatred, the holy hatred that You have for these things in our hearts, in our minds, in our midst.

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We pray God that You would sanctify us by Your spirit. Heal us.

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Heal us individually. Heal us in our families. Heal us in this body in any way,

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Lord, that You see fit according to Your word. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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There is a temptation in coming to a set of verses like this that are clearly so powerful...

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that display the holiness of God, the character of God in such a way that we often have tried to avoid in our lives.

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That it's just so clear that God abominates these things, that He actually has a holy hatred for these things.

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And it's very easy to come to a set of text like this and try, as you hear it, to think out there.

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Out there in the public square, out there in the marketplace, out there in the media. To think about that guy that you know that is like that.

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I mean, it's rather easy if you look in our century, in the West right now, to see so much of what

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God hates here in the text, what He abominates, so much out there. It's not hard to put a finger on or to put a pin in and say,

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Yeah, I know exactly what that looks like. I can put a name to that person. I can put a name to that gang.

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I know where they operate. I know what that's like out there. It's very, very tempting to hear a set of text like this and to try to find out who it applies to out there...

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rather than actually doing the hard work that we ought to do as God's children... who are under His grace and have peace with God.

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The hard work of actually examining our own hearts and our own minds and saying, Where are these things remaining in me?

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Where are these things at in my life, in my family, in my life in the church?

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Where are these things in my life? How am I identified with any of these things? That's the way to approach this text.

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This is God's wisdom. It's how do I live? This is what God is like.

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This is what God is like. And He's giving to us the wisdom from above. This is how I've called you to live.

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This is how you ought to live. And I think supremely, this is how Jesus is.

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When you think about Jesus, He is God incarnate. He is also the very embodiment of divine wisdom.

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This list of text here is something that Jesus opposes. And you can see in the life and the ministry of Jesus.

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You see in His teaching. You see in His interaction with others that He is wisdom. He is the embodiment of wisdom.

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He is the opposite of all of these things in all of His interaction. And you see in His character, Jesus is that wisdom.

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And so we start this text with the worthless person. In verse 12, chapter 6 of verse 12, the

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Word of God says, A worthless person, a wicked man goes about with crooked speech.

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Now the word here for worthless, a worthless person is the word in Hebrew, belial.

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Sound familiar? Heard that word before, belial? This is actually used a number of times in the

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Old Testament, in the Hebrew. And in different variations in translation. You'll have belial translated as worthless.

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You'll have it translated as wicked. You'll have it translated as ungodly, worthless. You see it in Proverbs, chapter 6, verse 12, 19, 28.

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And in particular, you're familiar with this one. In Psalm 101, verse 3, the text says,

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I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. I will set no worthless thing before my eyes.

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No wicked thing before my eyes. No worthless thing before my eyes. Just think about what that means in relation to the

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Psalms. And when we sing that, and when we delight in that truth, not setting any worthless thing before us, what does that mean when we say it?

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No worthless thing before me. And the text says, using the very same word, that it is the worthless person, the wicked man who goes about with crooked speech.

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Worthless, the word belial, is also used in the New Testament. So it's

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Old Testament word, Hebrew word belial. But it's also used in the New Testament as a name for Satan himself.

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In 2 Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 15, the Apostle Paul says this, very famous, you know this.

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He says, what accord has Christ with belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

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So the contrast there. Christ versus Satan, and the believer versus the unbeliever, the contrast.

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That word belial, identifying Satan himself. And so it's very clear if you take the word of God as a whole, this worthless person is a person who is motivated by Satan.

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This is a person who is influenced by the demonic. And so it is a worthless person, a wicked man, somebody motivated by Satan who goes about with crooked speech.

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You see, this person is a wicked person, as it teaches. He goes about with crooked speech.

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What's that mean? You're familiar with this. Some of you guys have been around this world, this fallen world, long enough to have run into the person who has that crooked speech.

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Their words aren't straight. They don't actually speak the truth. They try to flatter you.

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They speak what they speak through a smile, through rotten teeth. They lie.

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They flatter. Flattery is, by the way, a sin. Flattery is a sin because you are saying things to people that you don't actually believe.

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You're manipulating them. It's crooked speech. It's not a straight line.

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Just consider the ministry of Jesus, Jesus being the very embodiment of wisdom. You never see in the ministry of Jesus that when he speaks to people, he speaks with crooked speech.

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Jesus always speaks in a straight line. He says what he means, and he means what he says.

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And so this person being described, this worthless person, this wicked man, they go about with crooked speech.

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They're saying things in a calculated way. Just consider that for a moment because you wouldn't normally use it that way.

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To say something in a crooked way almost seems like it's off, like it's not hitting the target. It's not actually calculated.

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But the wicked person, the one motivated by Satan, actually is doing what they're doing in a very calculated way.

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Their intention is to take you down. Their intention is to harm you. There's secret hatred in their hearts.

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And so they smile and they speak to you in a way that is crooked. They don't mean what they say.

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They're calculated in the sense that when they speak, their actual intention behind it is to find some way to wound and to destroy.

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Some way to wound and destroy. We know what scripture says about our mouths. I mean, the book of Proverbs, oh my goodness, if we read the book of Proverbs more and we digested it and meditated upon it, we would heal in so many ways in our minds, in our hearts, in our relationships, in church bodies.

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We would avoid church splits many times. If we would just walk according to divine wisdom.

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If we got control of our tongues and what comes out of our mouths. If we spoke in a straight way and not a crooked way.

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If we actually learn how to tame this thing that's in our mouths because it sets fire and it destroys.

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Sounds familiar, right? Go to the text of the New Testament to James. More on the tongue.

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The crooked speech, the worthless man, the wicked man who seeks to destroy. In James chapter 3, the brother of the

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Lord says in verse 1, Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with a stricter judgment, with strictness.

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For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.

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If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.

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Look at the ships also. Though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder.

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Wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

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How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.

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The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.

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For every kind of beast and bird or reptile and sea creature can be tamed, and has been tamed by mankind.

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But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

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With it, we bless our Lord and Father. And with it, we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.

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From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

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Does a spring pour forth from the same opening, both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives?

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Or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

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And there's James' wisdom literature applying exactly what we see... in what we have from wisdom from above in the book of Proverbs.

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Exactly the same thing. It's our tongues. It's our mouths. And how does God describe the person who has crooked speech?

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How does He describe them? You are worthless. You are worthless, belial, wicked, ungodly.

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What you do with your tongue matters to God. And He's not fooled by our attempts to fool others.

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When we actually have the wrong intentions and we set fire to the church... or we set fire to our families or relationships with our tongues...

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we're not fooling God. And you're going to see in a moment, God promises that He will actually respond.

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And when He responds, it'll be swift and it will be permanent. He is not deluded in the way that we can delude our neighbor with our crooked speech.

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And what does God describe in terms of the person who has that kind of speech? Who is calculated to wound and destroy?

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Describes them as worthless. He describes them as wicked. In verse 13, more is said about the worthless person, belial.

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The one motivated by the father of lies. In verse 13, the text says,

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He winks with his eyes. This is interesting. He winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger.

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You think about a person doing this, it's kind of almost like cartoonish, right? Thinking about a person who's, you know, pointing with his feet and like this.

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It's kind of cartoonish, but the point is that this person is using gestures and body language...

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...to manipulate and cause trouble. In other words, they're doing it with a facade.

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You see, the worthless person, here's the key thing. The worthless person on the outside seems like they're not so worthless.

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Like they're not actually wicked. They're pretending to speak straight, but it's actually with a different intention.

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It's crooked, it's calculated. And they're doing stuff subtly, secretly, winking.

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Hey, take a look at this. Winking, gesturing, using body language. It's all a facade.

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They're pretending to have manners and to care about you.

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Pretending, they're putting on the God face. They're putting on the Christian smile.

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I'll just say bluntly, and I've been in ministry for a long, long time, many, many years.

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I've seen God do absolutely incredible things in people's lives and transform the world. I really have.

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In the body of Christ, there are no better people in the world than God's people. I believe that with all my heart.

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There are no better people in the world than God's people. But I will tell you this, honestly, from the heart.

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Some of the most spiritually deadly people that I have ever come across...

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...and that have even come across our fellowship, had the best smiles. They had the best smiles.

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They could play the game. They could put on the Christian face. They could smile. They could seem very godly.

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And there were times, many of you guys have been here... ...where we've had to exercise church discipline on people.

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And in one particular case, I'm thinking of a person that we love so dearly. Just so bright and so sweet and big smile.

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And we discovered that this person was just wrecking relationships with women. Gossiping, slandering other women almost at every opportunity.

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Every time there was a gathering of women, she was slandering some other woman. She was bringing down this woman's dignity, this woman's dignity.

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And we had to bring all those women together at one point... ...for a private meeting with this woman to confront.

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And when we confronted and there was witnesses and evidence, there were tears. And then as soon as that meeting was over and repentance was feigned...

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...she went on for the next couple of weeks doing exactly the same thing. And what was her story?

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What was her story to the people she was making excuses to? With all the wreckage she left behind in our church body, what was her story?

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Oh, I wasn't... Oh, big smile. Big smile. I wasn't doing those things. You can't prove that.

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Well, we had to sit as pastors with the wreckage. We had to sit with the broken hearts. We had to sit with the evidence and the testimony...

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...of all of the women who were hurt by this woman... ...but you would have never have seen it... ...with her public persona.

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Why? Because the speech was actually crooked. Because there was winking with the eyes and signaling with the feet.

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There was body gesturing. There was the facade of godliness. And again, some of the most spiritually deadly people that I've come across...

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...in my life have the best smiles. They look godly. They act godly.

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And God describes the wicked person, the worthless person... ...who goes about with crooked speech. They use their body language and it says this in verse 14.

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It says, with perverted hearts... ...they devise evil.

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With a perverted heart they devise evil... ...continually sowing discord.

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This person, according to the text, is plotting. They're actually plotting.

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They are planning this. Crooked speech, discord, they plot.

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They have a perverted heart. But here's the problem. This is the problem with the worthless person. Is they don't look so worthless.

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And you might think that you're not a worthless person. You may think that you're not this wicked person...

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...but if you have a perverse heart that devises evil plans... ...against somebody in the body of Christ or out there in the world...

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...then you're worthless. That's how God describes you. You are worthless. If we live a life of that in perpetuity...

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...it can only be described by God as a worthless person. If you have those intentions in your heart to wound...

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...if you have crooked speech, if you don't speak straight... ...that's how God describes it.

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He's giving the definition. This is a worthless person who does these things... ...who has the facade of godliness.

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They keep the outside looking good... ...but there is a secret plot going on. They're devising, they're scheming, they're plotting to injure, to wound.

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God help us. The word here for discord in the book of Proverbs...

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...actually this word is used 18 times throughout the Old Testament. 18 times.

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15. 15 of those times is right here. Book of Proverbs, discord.

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You can read in Proverbs 15, 18, 17, 14... ...there's a couple, 18, 19, 21, 9 and 19...

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...22, 10, 23, 29, 25, 24, 27, 15, 28, 25 and 29, 22.

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It's throughout. And there's different variations of it. It's the kind of person who's a contentious person, right?

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It's the wife who is constantly contentious, constantly fighting... ...and the text will say things like...

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...it's better to go live out in the desert on the top of the roof... ...than with a contentious wife, someone who's causing discord.

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And it says it about the drunk man... ...who can't control himself, who's causing discord. But this is something that God actually speaks quite a bit on...

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...in Scripture in terms of discord. But this person, the worthless person is a person who is devising evil.

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They are plotting. They have a perverted heart. And the end of all their activity is that they sow discord.

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They sow discord. They break the unity. They disrupt all the peace.

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God is a God of peace. That's the way He made the world. It's a fallen world, yes...

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...but He's still the God of peace. That hasn't changed. And so God hates these things.

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He considers it worthless and wicked and evil and vile... ...to create discord, to plot and to speak in a crooked way, not straight...

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...to be deceptive. Now, notice the end here of the worthless person, verse 15.

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It says, therefore... Listen. Therefore, because of all of this...

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...because of all of it... ...because of the facade, because of the manipulation...

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...because of the plotting, because of the crooked speech, it says this. Therefore, calamity will come upon him suddenly.

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In a moment, he will be broken beyond healing.

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See, that, I think, is pretty much all of our problem... ...in

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terms of, like, living in a practice of sin or perpetual sin, in some sense...

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...is we don't actually think the judgment of God is going to fall. Right? Like, we push it off into the future, like,

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I'll deal with that later. Like, I'll get what I want to do now. I will satisfy my lust.

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I will injure. I will wound. I will hurt. I won't think about the consequences because I'm going to push that off into the future...

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...into the distant future, and the word of God here in his book of wisdom... ...is that when this judgment falls, it's going to fall suddenly.

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And when it falls, it is going to be complete. It's going to be total. It's going to be comprehensive.

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There's no way to recover. It's beyond healing. I believe that's what is being described here as ultimate judgment.

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Final judgment. It's the kind of thing that we see in the New Testament. Those fearful words.

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Go to Luke. Gospel according to Luke, chapter 12.

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In the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 12, starting in verse 13. Now, this is kind of a different story about rich fool.

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It's just the word of Jesus here, I think, should be something we reflect on. It is terrifying.

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In this parable, in verse 13 of chapter 12, it says... Someone in the crowd said to him,

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Teacher... ...tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?

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And he said to them, Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness...

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...for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told them a parable saying,

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The land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, What shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops.

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And he said, I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grain and all my goods.

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And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry.

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And here's the terrifying words. They are terrifying. But God said to him,

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Fool, this night your soul is required of you.

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That kind of stunning response from God. This night, judgment has come now.

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And the word to the worthless person, the wicked man, the one who has crooked speech... ...the one who plots and devises this evil against neighbor...

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...the one who uses the facade of the Christian life and godliness. God says that when that judgment comes, it's going to come suddenly.

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And it will be beyond repair. You will not be healed. It's going to be permanent. It's the kind of words that we read in the

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New Testament from the Lord Jesus. We need to think about them. In Matthew 7 .23.

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And then will I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

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It's the kind of word we see from Jesus in Mark 9 .42 -50 about hell. It's better for you to cast it, to pluck out your eye.

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It's better for you to... All these things are... You can get rid of those things...

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...but you do not want your body and soul burned in hell forever. Jesus is teaching there.

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What you need to be concerned with is your eternal state. Jesus teaches. So what's the word to God's people from his wisdom here for all of us?

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I don't want to be a worthless person. I hate that. To have your photo placed there in the text.

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Yeah, that's me. Worthless. Crooked speech. A person who's plotting evil.

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The person who keeps the facade of a Christian life and godliness. But actually has this other intention.

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Like this hidden pursuit to wound and to destroy. This person who actually is causing discord.

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The word here is stop being an ungodly troublemaker. Stop causing discord.

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Don't be the worthless person who causes discord. We should hate that in our midst.

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The kind of disunity and disruption of peace and discord... ...that's described here by the worthless person.

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It's not to say, listen... It's not to say, this is important... ...that there isn't a time, a righteous time and a good time...

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...and a commanded time in scripture for us to have disunity.

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You can see it in the New Testament. You can see it with Jesus... ...and the covenant -breaking leadership of Jerusalem.

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Clear disunity, clear demarcation... ...and a line between Jesus and His message and what

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He's doing... ...and what they were saying and what they were doing. Wisdom embodied. Jesus confronts theological error.

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He confronts their man -made traditions. He says, you're voiding the word of God for the sake of your tradition. Jesus doesn't pull...

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He doesn't pull any punches when it comes to actually fighting for the truth... ...and standing for righteousness.

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And that's the distinction. When there is disunity, it needs to be disunity... ...that

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we actually are obeying God in... ...because there's a breaking of scripture. There's a breaking of principle.

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There's a breaking of wisdom. There's something that's clearly commanded by God. So we have to have disunity like, for example... ...the

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disunity caused in Corinthians... ...where the apostle Paul talks about... ...you guys think you're being so gracious to this guy...

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...who's living in sexual immorality. Even the pagans know you're not supposed to do that. Here's what you have to do.

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When you gather together, you cast this person out. Why? It's not to destroy his soul.

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Paul's hope there is what? So that his soul would be saved. You see, it's out of love for this person.

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Not to hurt. Not to put him under your boot. Not to make them feel just terrible about themselves as a person...

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...so I can feel good about myself. What's the point of that disunity? It's commanded by God because God's clear in his word.

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But the worthless person doesn't have that mind. The disunity they're creating is a disunity...

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...that actually is motivated by haughtiness. I'm better. I want people to see me as better.

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I want to be the one that's right. I want to be the one that's vindicated in the arguments. I want everyone to see me as the one who wins the prize.

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I want the trophy. And so the worthless person causes all this discord and division...

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...that actually God hates. He hates that division. I think much can be said about this in terms of...

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...church splits that occur. You ever been a part of a church split?

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It's a heartbreaking situation. It's horrible. Before we planted

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Apologia Church... ...we were a part of a church that sort of collapsed. Not because of us or anything.

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It was because of sin in the camp. It was actually a pastor's wife who was incessantly gossiping...

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...and wouldn't stop gossiping about other women. So prideful. I'll just speak straight here.

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So prideful. Just wanting to be the focus of attention. Wanting others to see her as the most important...

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...is really what it came down to. And the elders of the church confronted it. And the elders of the church said, get this right.

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Repent of this. We'll give you some space and some time to do it. It didn't happen. It only got worse. And so they eventually said to the pastor, you need to step down.

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You need to step down because this is incessant gossip... ...and it's hurting other women and those sorts of things.

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And so that church went through just a hard time... ...where they were just thriving and doing well. And it went from,

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I don't know, 800 to 1 ,000 people on a Sunday... ...to it squished back down to like 200 people maybe. All because of what?

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Pride. Pride. Pride. Wanting to be the center of attention. Wanting to be seen as the best.

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Wanting to be seen as the person who's right. Wanting to be seen as a leader. Right?

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Putting everyone else under the foot. And how many church splits could be saved...

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...if we would just walk according to God's wisdom... ...and we would despise this in ourselves? We despise this sort of a thing...

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...where we're looking to take other people down. Right? You ever have a conflict with somebody in the church? In the body?

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You ever find yourself just wanting to get people on your team? Wanting to take down that person's dignity?

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Wanting to make sure everyone sees them as the bad guy? Wanting to see them as wrong and you as right?

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And so working, plotting, scheming... ...in conversations to make that person look bad.

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Make them look wrong. There is the worthless person. There is the person sowing discord.

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There is the woman and the man with a perverse heart... ...who is plotting and scheming and trying desperately to harm.

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And God says, that judgment's going to come... ...and it's going to be sudden and it will be without repair.

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You won't be healed from it. That's the word. Next. In verse 16.

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Here it is. Famous. Famous, right? Famous text. A lot of people know this one.

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I'd say it's probably one of the most famous texts... ...from the book of Proverbs. There are six things that the

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Lord hates. Seven that are an abomination to him. Six things that the Lord hates. Seven that are an abomination to him.

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And you admit, right? You go to a text like this and you ask the question... ...why the six and then, oh, it's seven.

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And the reason is, is this is actually a Hebrew idiom. It's a Hebrew idiom. It's like saying, there's a few things that God hates.

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Here's a list of a few of those things. It's just an idiom. It's actually used in a number of ways in the Old Testament.

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It'll be used in different ways. And like there's two and three, six and seven. It's just an idiom.

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It's basically saying, here's a list of some of the things that God hates. Some of the things that God hates.

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Now, as you open up a text like this... ...in modern evangelism...

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...if you're preaching this over the bar stool... ...at

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many mega churches... ...people would start getting very uncomfortable. I'm sorry? Say that again?

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Who hates? Not God. God doesn't hate. God is a God of what?

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Every evangelical knows that verse. Right? They know two verses, John 3, 16, and that God is love.

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Right? That's it. I know those two verses, and God is love. The idea that God, the

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Holy One... ...the one who gave his son on the cross for sinners... ...would hate anything is something that is repulsive...

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...to the modern evangelical. My God doesn't hate anything. He's perfect. He does not hate.

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And it just goes to show the ignorance about the character of God. And it goes to show the ignorance of our

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Bibles. God does hate. And when he hates, he doesn't hate like you and I.

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He doesn't hate with an imperfect hatred or a morally... ...an

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immoral hatred. God doesn't hate like us. His isn't incomplete. It's not insufficient.

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It is a full, comprehensive, perfect, holy hatred. And scripture does teach that God hates.

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He does hate. In scripture, we see in Psalm 5 -5...

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...the text of God's word says... ...the boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers.

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You hate all evildoers. This psalm is a song of worship. Right? I mean...

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I... This morning, I was checking my messages...

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...and I looked at something and a local megachurch popped up. Their live stream.

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And so I was like, oh, it looks like a Coldplay concert. What's going on here? So I clicked on it.

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And I'm telling you, like, just the crazy... I mean, you could have gotten like a seizure from the lights...

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...and the, you know, all the crazy stuff. And it was like... It was just like going crazy.

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And I was thinking to myself as I'm watching it... ...I'm like, this thing is like very... First of all, kudos to you.

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Very well produced, great cinematography. But I got to a point, I'm like 30 seconds in... ...and

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I'm like, this looks like an absolute rock concert. But then it dawned on me that all these crazy shots going around...

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...the singers and this cool shot behind the drums... ...like, you know, up close and like...

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He's like smiling at the camera, you know, sort of a thing. I was thinking to myself, the whole time this is going on during worship...

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...like, everyone's trying to worship... ...and you've got camera guys running around, people with microphones...

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...and all of this stuff, and it... I don't even know where I was going with that. Sorry, blue...

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Here's where I was going with it. Sorry. I'm getting there, Pastor James. Here's my point.

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They're singing songs and it's all about, like, uplifting... ...and it's all this, like, lights and showing, this is awesome.

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And we think, like, oh, okay, yeah. I mean, we should be celebrating and worshiping God. And I have a problem with the cameramen distracting like that.

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I think that's kind of weird. But, like, could you sing in that service, that psalm?

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Because it's meant to be sung as worship. This is supposed to be something about God's love.

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This is supposed to be something about God's character... ...and His holiness that causes God's people to worship

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Him. That He hates all evildoers.

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He hates them. I think most of the time in our lives, if we're honest...

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...when we hate, we hate with an immoral hatred. It's truly sin.

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We have to repent of it. It's like murdering somebody in our hearts. Yeah. But there are other times, even as sinners...

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...where I think we do hate with a righteous hatred. Think about your response to the two gay men that adopted boys...

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...and then did things to their bodies and then sex trafficked them. Do you hate that?

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Is that repulsive to you? Do you loathe that? That's a righteous kind of hatred.

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That's a good hatred, right? That's an appropriate response. I must, as God's image bearer, hate that...

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...with a perfect hatred, the kind of hatred that He has for it. But the text says He hates all evildoers.

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Psalm 5 .5. Or the popular one. We could do this for a long time. But the popular one, we know it because we're good

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Calvinists. Romans 9 .13. Even as it is written, Jacob I have loved, but what?

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You know you're in a Reformed church and everyone's like, I got that one. I've seen the late flowers debate. Romans 9 .13.

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Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. That is quoting God. He says, I loved him and I hated him.

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And Dr. Bonson, when he spoke on this, brought this up. What a mess we create as Christians at times...

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...when we think we need to protect God's reputation. We're like, oh no, no. He just means he loved

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Esau a little less. Right? Like, he loved Jacob, but he just... ...he loved

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Esau a little bit less. Now, that's not what the text says. It says he loved Jacob, he hated

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Esau. And never forget, whatever you think. And again, Bonson brings this up. Whatever you think about the love less situation...

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...and all the ways you try to minimize the damage of the text. Esau went to hell. So it sounds like hatred to me.

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He chose to give grace to one and judgment to the other. Jacob I have loved,

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Esau I have hated. So, let's talk for a moment... ...because I know that can be something that causes people to fall off a cliff.

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You get unbalanced, right? Here's the problem, is that we think God is like us with his hatred.

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So that's the first thing we need to get out of our heads. And we see that God hates things or hates people. We need to stop thinking about God through our sinful eyes.

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And see it according to his righteousness. When he hates, he hates with a perfect and holy hatred.

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But here's the thing. God isn't just one attribute. We think, oh, God is love. That's all he is.

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No, God is perfect in all of his attributes, in all of his way. His character is perfect.

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And so God's hatred, listen, is perfect. It is whole. It's complete.

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It's not lacking. It isn't minimized. But that's one lane, his hatred.

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The other lane is this. God's grace. God's grace is also perfect.

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It is also whole. It is also complete. It is also not lacking.

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It also is never minimized. So the question is this. It's not a question of whether God has grace and mercy and love.

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And also hatred. He does perfectly in all of his attributes. Perfectly.

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The question is this. Which one are you under? Because he does hate.

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The question is, which one are you under? Are you under his holy and righteous opposition to sin and evil?

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Are you under God's hatred? Or are you under his grace? There's only one way to be under that grace.

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There's only one space where that grace is for sinful human beings. And that's in Jesus Christ.

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You and I can't deny God's hatred when he says, that he does because we want to preserve his love and grace.

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He has them limitlessly and perfectly in all of his attributes. The question is not whether he hates.

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Is he gracious or does he have hate? The question is, which one are you under? Are you under his holy hatred and righteous opposition to sin and evil?

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Or are you under his grace? And as Dr. Bonson said this, I think it was a perfect way to say it, that you need to find your self hiding in the shadow of his son.

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If you hear that God hates, and that bothers you, because it should, then you need to find yourself hiding in the shadow of his son.

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And the only way there is through faith, because God hates this evil. So God says he hates these things.

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They're an abomination. One word on abomination. Very important. It's used of sexual sin in Leviticus 20 .13.

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That's the favorite verse for most evangelicals when we're sparring or we're fighting for the faith. When it comes to the modern stuff going on around us with sexual sin and sexual ethical claims.

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Is we tend to go, Leviticus 20 .13. Right? Male lies with a male.

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Woman with a woman. They have committed an abomination. The word there, abomination, is used of sexual sin.

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It's also used in this very book. In Proverbs 20 .23. God abominates, he says, it's an abomination when you are partial in judgment.

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When you use unequal weights and measures. When you use unequal weights and measures and partiality in judgment,

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God says, that's an abomination. Same word he used for the sexual sin, abomination. When you judge people with partiality, when you play favorites, when you weight the scales, you are not practicing judgment like God, and you're in his image, and you ought to.

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And so God says, it's an abomination to show partiality in judgment. And God says, it's an abomination in Proverbs 17 .15

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to acquit the guilty. And to condemn the righteous.

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To acquit the guilty and to condemn the righteous. So we all know what that feels like, right? Like you're in a courtroom setting.

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And you have a person who is truly innocent that was condemned. I watched this, oh, it was just heart breaking.

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Just, I had tears in my eyes this week. I saw this little mini documentary about a young black man in New York City in the 90s.

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He was framed for something. He didn't have anything to do with anything. He was totally not guilty, provably not guilty.

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But they were really working to try to get more arrests because of a lot of crime that was happening in the 90s.

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And so this one corrupt New York police officer gets this young boy, this young black man.

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And he has him basically charged with a crime. And he goes to jail for a long time.

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I think it was 20 years. And after a lot of fighting and working with the courts, it finally comes out that he absolutely was not guilty.

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And it was that moment where he was in the court. He was at the judge's stand and the judge was crying.

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The judge was holding his hands and just apologizing and saying, I'm so sorry. She's in tears and he's bawling his eyes out.

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It was so moving. And we feel the weight of that. You condemn the righteous.

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You can't condemn a righteous man or a righteous woman. And God says it's an abomination to condemn a righteous person.

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And it is equally an abomination, equally an abomination to acquit the guilty. To say to somebody who is actually guilty, you're not guilty.

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And now you can see our passion that we have today in the area of abortion. When we have those leading this fight saying the woman who kills her child in the womb is herself a victim.

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Why do we resist that as Christians? Because it denies the gospel and it actually is an abomination in God's eyes.

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He hates that kind of judgments. You're telling her she's not guilty. You're acquitting her when she actually needs

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Christ. She actually needs the gospel. You think you're doing her favors? You think you're being so pleasant and so nice and so loving to her by removing from her the only way to peace?

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Acquitting the guilty is also something that God calls an abomination. He says it's loathsome, detestable.

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It's actually, if you can dig this up and discover more, used of even excrement. You see, we tend to think, here's the deal, okay, ready?

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Grab it. We tend to think, we tend to think of the big ticket items as the abominations.

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So, you can think about all the perversity happening and all the parades happening around us. See the photos and just be repulsed by it.

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And you can say, oh, goodness gracious, that's an abomination. The kind of destruction people are doing to their own bodies and their souls by participating in that.

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When God has something so much more beautiful and so much better. And you can look at that and you can say,

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I loathe that. I detest that. God does. That's an abomination.

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We tend to think of the big ticket items as abomination. God says, these things, this list of things, these things,

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I abominate them. I loathe them the same way you detest certain sexual perversions.

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And what kind of things does God detest and loathe? It says, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breeds out lies, and one who sows discord among his brothers.

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I'm going to leap ahead. That one, that last one, one who sows discord among brothers.

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He loathes it. He detests it. He abominates it. And we play fast and loose with it.

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We play so fast and loose with discord within the

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Christian body. And God loathes it, detests it. He says, it's an abomination.

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In the same list of sexual perversions, God detests it like that.

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God help us. God help us to feel the same way. Haughty eyes.

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Proverbs 16, verse 5. Same book.

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It says, again, everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the

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Lord. Be assured, he will not go unpunished. There it is again. He hates it.

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He abominates it. I promise judgment. God will judge the haughty. He will judge the prideful.

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And he says the person who is arrogant of heart, the person who is haughty, is an abomination to the Lord. He is an abomination.

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There it is again, consistently across the board. This is how God feels about human pride and the haughtiness.

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He feels that way. He will not leave it unpunished. Is it in me?

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Is it in you? Do you see yourself as better? Do you try to lift yourself above others?

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Do you try to find ways to be the most popular, to be the most important? Do you find ways to bring other people's dignity down?

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To make them stay underneath you, to feel lower than you? Do you think you know more? Are you better than the others?

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The word also is, God abominates and hates a lying tongue.

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A lying tongue. Remember in Revelation 21, 18, when it speaks of those who aren't able to be in the kingdom of God, it's liars who have no part in God's kingdom.

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It's liars who were cast into the lake of fire in Scripture. Liars not allowed in, liars cast into the lake of fire.

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And here's why. Ready? God isn't like that. God cannot lie.

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This last couple of days I was in Mississippi. God's blessed our church in so many ways with ministry and being able to reach people and to build the church up and to fight for the lives of the pre -born.

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I was in Mississippi and I got a moment, I got a moment that was so, I'm so grateful for.

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I preached four times. This is my sixth or seventh time preaching in the last couple of days. So pray for me.

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But I got to preach four times on the grace of God and the assurance that we have in salvation. It was so nice not to have to talk about abortion again.

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It was so nice. And I said that to him. I said, this is great. I'm like, I'm really going to enjoy this. We just get to delight in God's promises over His grace and our salvation.

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Just seeing the tears in God's people's eyes. I mean, people breaking down. And I'm just,

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I'm cheating. I'm literally just reading John 6. I'm so cheating.

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I really am. I feel like that sometimes. I'm like, this is not fair. Because I'm literally just reading the words of the

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Lord. I mean, this doesn't take much skill at all. But the hope, listen, the thing that I kept getting across and I'm going to get across to us and to me all the time is that, look, the hope that we have in our salvation today, tomorrow, and for forever is in this foundation.

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God cannot lie. He can't lie. And He promised eternal life to all who have faith in Jesus. And He'll never lose you.

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He'll never forsake you. You are not condemned. He'll never bring any charge against you. And do you know why that's hope?

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Because it can never change and it won't be broken. He will never lie. And that's why

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God detests a lying tongue. Because God cannot lie. You are made to reflect

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His glory and His image. You are not supposed to lie. In God's world,

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He detests it. He loathes it. Because God's not like that and He never will be. How comfortable am

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I, are you, with the little lies, the little deceptions, or the overt lies?

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No big deal. No big deal. This doesn't really offend God too much. It's just a little thing.

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No, He says He loathes it. It's an abomination. It's something that God hates.

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It won't be in His presence. Get that. In the eternal state, there will never be lying.

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All lies will be excommunicated. It will be taken out of God's kingdom.

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It'll be removed. It'll be placed in a lake of fire. God says a lying tongue,

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He abominates. He also says that He hates. He abominates the hands that shed innocent blood.

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Hands that shed innocent blood. You know, there's a million.

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I was praying. I was like, Lord, how do I get this across? And what should I say that's going to have an impact in all of our hearts and minds and change me?

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I'm going to tell you, reading this annihilated me this week. Pouring over it and meditating upon it.

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So I'm praying, Lord, how do I get this across? And I almost thought, like, I don't even have to prepare for that because there's so many examples.

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It's like, there's no end to it. But even over the last two years, when all this COVID craziness was happening, and they were like,

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I almost forget. Did you forget how nuts it was the last two years? You see pictures, old pictures. You're like, whoa, that was weird, right?

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That actually happened. There were tanks outside of Arizona mills one night. Tanks, because there was a curfew, because there was going to be riots in Arizona.

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And it was just a bunch of spoiled, rich white kids running in Scottsdale, like, yeah, let's smash a window at Apple Store.

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It was just dumb. But here, it was mild, right?

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There was just a bunch of buffoons and fools running around Scottsdale Fashion Square, right?

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And Arizona freaked out, shut down, like, bring in the National Guard and the tanks at Arizona Mills Mall.

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It was just so weird. I went out anyways. But there were places where this evil in people's hearts was on full display.

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Did you see the videos? You know what I'm talking about? Where word got out there's going to be looting. There's going to be stealing tonight in our town.

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And people came out in mass. In crowds, they came out, right? Under the cover of darkness, coming in to destroy people's businesses.

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And then you saw the violence. It's like people just lost control of their ability to pretend any longer that their heart wasn't wicked, that they really wanted their neighbor's stuff, that they really wanted to hurt people.

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And so you saw people just randomly walking up to other image bearers of God and punching them, striking them, hitting them with bats, destroying their things, taking away people's fathers from them permanently, dead, gone, a total stranger for no reason, walking up to a random woman, walking across the street, and punching her in the back of the head.

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People who are quick to just shed innocent blood. Our culture is filled with it.

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It's filled with it. I remember being at the Supreme Court for the Dobbs case stuff.

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We had an amicus brief filed in that case. And so we were at the Supreme Court. And I can tell you,

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I was looking for parking. So the team was there. And I'm trying to find parking at the

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Supreme Court. The Supreme Court's right there. And I've stopped at a stoplight. I'm trying to find parking at DC, which is impossible.

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It's impossible. And while I'm there, my window is rolled down. A man walks up to my window. And he starts just cursing at me, telling me he's going to put a bullet in my head.

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Just a stranger yelling at me, saying he's going to put a bullet in my head. He's going to kill me. And so I looked at him, light turned green.

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I said, welcome back to DC. It's my home. I was like, you know, I was raised there. You kind of learn to sort of accept that the kind of violence and the bloodshed and the willingness to shed blood, it's all around us.

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And here's the thing, we can see that like people, you know, making haste to run to evil and shedding innocent blood.

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And you could give all the examples of all the riots and everyone going out to shed blood. But did you notice something in Romans chapter 3?

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Go there. Romans chapter 3. When Paul pulls together the verses to show the universal indictment on human sin,

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Jew and Gentile alike, Jew and Greek, everybody in the world is all under sin. They're all condemned. He says in verse 10,

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None is righteous, no, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. That's me. That's you outside of Jesus.

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All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave.

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They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of ass is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

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Their feet are swift to shed blood. That verse is used by the

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Apostle Paul in his explanation of the good news that this is a description of all of humanity.

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Here's the point. There's more than one way to shed blood. There's more than one way to kill somebody.

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In your heart, in your minds. You see, we tend to think of that actual physical shedding of blood.

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And by the way, when I was... I went from being cursed at and threatened with death to we walked up on the lawn of the

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Supreme Court and we watched women... We watched women swallowing abortion pills.

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Swallowing abortion pills, delighting in their ability to execute their own child.

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Swallowing pills to kill their own child. There is madness in our hearts. Madness in our hearts.

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And God says He hates and abominates. He loathes the hands that shed innocent blood.

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He hates those who devise wicked plans. Those who scheme and plot against others.

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He hates the feet that make haste to run to evil. The one who breeds out lies and sows discord.

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Bonson... I love his series on Proverbs, by the way. Make sure you pick it up. He says, you can sort of like fill out here what's contained.

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There are sins of attitude, here. Sins of thought. Sins of speech.

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Sins of action. And sins of influence. So, attitude, thought, speech, actions, influence.

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So now the self -assessment. God hates these things.

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We ought to hate them as well. His spirit within us should be causing us right now to be having grief over where we've fallen here.

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Asking for forgiveness. God, wash me. God, cleanse me. We need to be doing an internal look at ourselves.

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An internal critique. A self -assessment. How can we avoid being the things that God abominates and loathes and hates?

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And I think we should ask those questions. Do we find ourselves involving ourselves in things that have nothing to do with us?

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We had a message not long ago about this subject. The subject of gossip and slander. You know, gossip being that sort of like little swipes at a person.

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Not making accusations. Get that. Gossip is tricky. Because gossip isn't...

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It's not actually accusing. It's little swipes. It's just little words trying to take down that person's character...

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...their dignity, their reputation. It's just little things, right? It's not an overt accusation. It's just trying to take them down a peg.

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And you do it in private conversation with others. And then there's slander. And scripture warns us in the book of Proverbs...

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...don't involve yourself in somebody else's quarrel. Use just standards, right?

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Like one person's case sounds true... ...until another one comes to examine them. I tried to put before us as a church body...

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...look, if we're ever in a conversation in a group setting... ...and someone says, hey, did you hear such and such?

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You should say, by the hand, let's go talk to him right now. That'll end a lot of gossip like that in our midst.

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Won't it? Yes? Right? Or the person that says... ...you know, I heard everybody talking about this thing and this person...

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...and everyone keeps giving me this stuff telling me about her... ...and all the things that she did or he did.

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You know, I believe this. If you're a person that's on the receiving end of gossip constantly... ...I

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believe it says more about you than it does about them. Because if you're constantly hearing gossip and slander...

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...it means people know that you have a reputation for liking it. If people believe they can take gossip and slander to you...

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...then that means they've identified maybe a sin that you respect. You can do this with this person.

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Let us be the kind of people God help us... ...the kind of people where nobody wants to bring gossip or slander to us...

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...because we won't receive it. Amen? So God says in his word, he hates those who sow discord.

01:00:05

And so, we need to not involve ourselves in things that have nothing to do with us. We need to put to death gossip and meddling among us.

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We need to put to death the subtle swipes... ...that take down people's character and reputation.

01:00:19

God help us. God hates the person who's always in conflict.

01:00:25

Disrupting peace. Always looking to argue over inconsequential things.

01:00:34

Over inconsequential things. This is peppered throughout the New Testament. The epistles to the churches. It's all over.

01:00:40

Like avoiding division. Maintaining unity. Staying one. Outdoing each other with honor.

01:00:46

Forgiving one another. Not gossiping. It's everywhere. But Paul says something in Romans chapter 16 that I think is potent...

01:00:53

...and I think it should challenge all of us... ...in terms of how we should deal with these things. In Romans chapter 16 verse 17...

01:01:00

...the apostle Paul says this. So he's saying these people that are causing discord...

01:01:24

...they're just serving their own bellies. They're just trying to satisfy themselves. And Paul says this about those people in the church.

01:01:31

Ready? How do you deal with it? What does God say? Person that's like this. This is in perpetuity. That's what they're like.

01:01:37

They serve themselves. He says mark them and have nothing to do with them. Why? Because God hates that.

01:01:45

He abominates it. He loathes it. We shouldn't be the kind of people that are always in inconsequential conflict.

01:01:54

Arguing over things that are petty or don't really matter. God resists the proud.

01:02:02

But what? He gives grace to the humble. He hates haughtiness and arrogant hearts.

01:02:11

But he gives grace to the humble. God help us to be a humble people.

01:02:16

And to put to death arrogance and haughtiness within us. Always trying to be right. Always trying to be the winner.

01:02:22

Always trying to be seen as more important. More valuable. More to be respected. God resists the proud.

01:02:28

Gives grace to the humble. Haughtiness we need to put to death in the reformed camp. It's so strange.

01:02:35

It's such an odd thing. That the biblical theology about grace.

01:02:44

What it says about how we don't deserve God. And how it was his choice and it has nothing to do with us.

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And he set his love upon us. It's so strange that a person who believes all of that.

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That it's all to God's glory and boasting only in him. Could live a life of pride and haughtiness.

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It's strange, isn't it? Like it's the one place it doesn't belong. Because we believe all the glory and credit goes to God.

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And we've got nothing to do with it. He granted me the repentance. He granted me the faith. He opened the eyes of the blind.

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He raised a dead person. It's all to his glory and praise. How could we fit haughtiness into a camp like that?

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We need to put it to death in our circles. And ask the question, look, how did you discover these truths?

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Were you always there? Did you get it like that? Or did it take you some time for God to actually kill your pride?

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And show you just how sinful you really were? So that you can understand the doctrines of grace. How long did it take?

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Did it take some time? Maybe I'm a dummy. It took me some time. It took me some time and some work.

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And it took me some repentance. And it took me worshipping and saying, oh my goodness. You're better than I thought you were.

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And your grace is bigger than I thought it was. We should put to death that haughtiness. That often times people accuse us rightly of.

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Within the reformed community. The haughtiness even in the abolitionist camp. This is something you see often in the abolitionist camp.

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People trying to end abortion. You'll see haughtiness like, hey scripture is really clear on this. And it is.

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Scripture is clear on the nature of the child in the womb. Scripture is clear about God's standards of justice.

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And how you actually have to put this to death. And so what you would see early on is people who grabbed hold of those truths.

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And they started swinging them like an axe. At God's people with no patience. No willingness to just be patient and work through it.

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Because sometimes it takes time for God's word to settle in us. And to change our hearts and to change our minds. We need to be a gracious people.

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Listen, you guys know, brothers and sisters. You know, you're pastors. You know we are not calling you. Don't take this this way.

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I'm not calling you to not be bold in your proclamation of the truth. I'm not calling you to not use a serrated edge when it's necessary.

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We have to do that to be faithful to God. Jesus uses a serrated edge. Paul uses a serrated edge.

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But they reserve that for the right time. My life cannot be a perpetual serrated edge.

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And a cutting down of others. God help us. God help us.

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Wives, are you haughty in your marriage? Are you proud?

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Do you simply refuse to submit to your husband? Because of his past failures? Or your own assessments that he's inadequate?

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That he couldn't know? Let's be honest. In terms of our conflict in marriage.

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With a lot of times wives refusing to submit to husbands. It's just pride. You won't submit because face it.

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You know better. You are better. And you want to win. Pride.

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Pride. Let me just say it to my sisters in Christ here. Who are lovely wives.

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God hates that. He hates it. When a wife won't submit to her husband out of sheer arrogance and pride.

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You just want to win. Or husbands.

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The pride that you have. In being unwilling to be helped by your wife.

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Thinking that you're right. Simply because you're a man. Simply because you're the leader.

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Swinging your authority in your home like an axe. Because let's face it.

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You couldn't be wrong. You're above correction. Shame on you. Shame on the men who are so prideful.

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That they make their children feel small and horrible. They make their wives afraid to respond to them.

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Your wife cannot speak to you. Your wife cannot correct you. Your wife cannot even be the helpmate that God made her to be.

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Because you are so arrogant. You think you're the man. And everyone must just follow your lead.

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You couldn't possibly be corrected. Repent. In a hurry. Because his judgment comes quickly.

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And when it comes it will be sudden. And it will be permanent. Repent of your arrogance, husbands.

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God hates that. Children. Refusing to submit to the simple things.

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Because you want to win. You're constantly arguing. Debating.

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And sowing discord in the family. Because you're right. Because you're right. And everyone else is wrong.

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That's pride. And God detests it. He loathes it. You know

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God's commands. His authority, however, isn't as important as protecting your authority and your pride.

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God hates that. Is your life filled with evil plans against others? Is your pattern of life a life of discord and contentious behavior?

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Are you marked by creating disunity within the body of Christ? Over issues that are not core, principled and clearly defined?

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Do you breathe out lies? Are you comfortable with being a false witness against your neighbor?

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Do you hide your malice? Do you hide your malice against others with a

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Christian smile filled with rotten teeth? Are you filled with such an inflated view of yourself...

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...that you look down from your haughty balcony upon God's beloved people? You actually believe that you're more valuable, more important...

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...and to be viewed as above them? Do you quietly plot and scheme to practice your secret sins?

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Do you run to do evil as soon as your wife or your husband's back is turned?

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Are you confident and comfortable in building networks within Christ's church...

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...in order to take people down or have your way? Again, this isn't saying that there aren't divinely commanded times...

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...where we have to confront sins, excommunicate people from the body... ...and uphold God's standards.

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We're commanded to do those things. But how? But how? It isn't for personal gain.

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It isn't to assault my brother and to make him hurt. It's to win him to the truth. It's for his soul.

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So when we consider all of these things... ...and even confronting sin in our midst, we have to ask the question...

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...have you examined yourself? Is there a log swinging out of your eye... ...making

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everyone duck while you search for a speck? You see, when we're confronting sin...

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...truly confronting it biblically and with justice in God's house... ...it isn't an instance of discord.

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It's a grief -filled, tear -pouring pursuit... ...of someone that you put your love upon.

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Think about what Jesus says in his high priestly prayer in John 17, 21. I'll just say it quickly. He prayed that we,

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God's people, would be one... ...as he and the Father are one. We would be one as he and the

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Father are one. I honestly... I want to understand that more. I know

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I don't fully comprehend it. I know that it is beautiful and it's a prayer the Father is going to answer. But I want to understand it better.

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But when I hear Jesus saying that to the Father... ...let them be one as we are one... ...I

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want to ask the question to myself... ...how sweet and unified is the fellowship between the Father and the

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Son? How sweet. How connected.

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How intimate. How perfect. How unified. Brothers and sisters...

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...my hope is... ...that when we examine the Word of God in a section like this...

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...we wouldn't just be able to identify the thing that's out there like that... ...but that we would put these things to death...

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...in us. In our midst. That we would elevate these...

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...some of these... ...that we think are respectable sins... ...to the status that God actually identifies them with.

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Detestable. Abomination. Discord. Haughtiness. Devising wicked plans.

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Being a worthless man. God help us. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you'd bless,

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Lord, the proclamation of your Word... ...that went out today for your glory and kingdom. Use us as your people to be light to the world.

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Heal us. Even now, as we come to the table in a moment here, Lord... ...work in our hearts. Bring confession.

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Bring repentance. Bring joy in our salvation. Lord, we love you and we're so grateful that God...

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...even with your perfect wrath and hatred for sin... ...you've set your grace, mercy and love upon your people.

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We don't deserve that. We acknowledge that. And thank you for this table we're about to come to... ...that reminds us of that grace.