Series: Summer of Proverbs

Title:  Seven Sins the Lord Hates

Recap: overview of wisdom, grace and truth, His hand vs our plan, money, soft answer,

If you are a parent out there, then you must know from experience that there are certain things that your kids do that requires one level of correction, but then there are things that they do which require a whole new level of correction.  There are just some things you just do not do.

As we read these few verses in proverbs, let us keep this in mind. God is holy and sin whether big or small cannot stand in His presence.  But there are some sins mentioned in this passage that God absolutely hates and one is even considered an abomination. 

Proverbs 6:16-19

¹⁶ There are six things that the Lord hates,
    seven that are an abomination to him:
¹⁷ haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
    and hands that shed innocent blood,
¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked plans,
    feet that make haste to run to evil,
¹⁹ a false witness who breathes out lies,
    and one who sows discord among brothers.

1. Haughty Eyes (A prideful look)

Haughty- Proud look (Kjv), be raised, uplifted:

This one is mentioned first as the Lord hates a prideful look. In fact, this is what got Lucifer kicked out of heaven.  Before he was Satan the deceiver, he was lucifer “the brilliant one," "son of the morning"

Isaiah 14:12-15

¹²“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! ¹³ You said in your heart,  ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; ¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;  I will make myself like the Most High.’ ¹⁵ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.

Lucifer thought he would make himself equal to God, rather we find that God humbled him.

Charles Spurgeon- "Before destruction the heart of man is haughty;" pride is as surely the sign of destruction as the change of mercury in the weather-glass is the sign of rain, and far more infallibly so than that. "Before honor is humility," even as before the summer, sweet birds return to sing in our land. Everything hath its prelude. The prelude of destruction is pride, and of honor, humility.  Human pride is constantly confronted in the Bible. 

Daniel 4:30-31

³⁰ “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?”³¹ While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, ³² and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field.

King Nebuchadnezzar had exalted himself above God by declaring that everything he had was his own doing, but the Lord humbled him immediately.  The Lord made him to eat grass like an ox and gave him claws and feathers like a bird.  Because the Lord hates pride. 

Jesus also addresses it on several occasions here is one example. The parable of the wedding feast.

Luke 14:11

¹¹ For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Pride sits at the heart of man and it leads to destruction. Pride exalts it head and seeks to honor itself; but it is of all things most despised. What is there in man that we should glory? Consider what you would be or even have if it had not been for Divine grace.

2. Lying Tongue

If you have kids, then you have experienced a lying tongue.  For example, If something in the house breaks then of course everyone will deny it.  No one did it, it just magically slammed itself onto the floor and shattered itself in a million pieces.  Perhaps the vase was suicidal.  For me as a father, the consequence for lying is more than it would be for breaking some vase.  In fact, it burns me up when all the evidence points to a certain kid, yet that kid denies it. 

Our natural inclination is to lie and to pass the blame onto someone else. 

I believe the reason the Lord hates a lying tongue, is because it is the opposite of who he is.  He is truth, and there are no lies in and of Himself. He only speaks truth.  Whereas, Satan is the father of lies and all that comes out of his mouth are lies.

John 8:44

⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

So, if a person were to speak a lie, then he/she speaks under the influence of satan.  God hates it because that person chose to yield themselves to and speak lies rather than truth.

Proverbs 12:22

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.

In 2022 many people are blinded by the lies they see on social media or even in the news.  So much propaganda is being pushed that it is hard to know what truth is.  

The Lord stands opposed to those who persuade simple minded individuals with lies.

The Lord stands opposed to anyone who would speak outside the laws of God, attempting to make what is right to seem wrong, and what is wrong to seem right.

The truth says God created the earth and He created you male or female.  Furthermore, He created you for a purpose.  A lying tongue would say that instead of being created earth is a result of a cosmic accident,

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
          male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

• NASA- Earth formed when gravity pulled swirling gas and dust in to become the third planet from the Sun.
• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History - that you evolved from apes over a period of 6 million years ago,
• Yale school of Medicine- internal sense of gender can be female or male, some people identify as nonbinary neither female nor male.
• An online article

“From an evolutionary perspective, the purpose of human life (and most animals) is to survive long enough to reproduce and ensure the propagation of the species.”

Basically, saying that there is no purpose in living. You simply live, die and that’s it.

• Other lies that are pushed on us

You must look a certain way to have value, you must drive a certain car to be successful, you must have a certain amount in your bank account to be happy, you must have this many likes on social media to be somebody. 

These are all lies.  None of these things can add or take way from the fact that we are already valued by God.  That He has bestowed the greatest value on our lives by sending His Son to die on the cross for our sins.

A lying tongue attempts to pervert and redefine what God has already established.  Satan lied to Adam and Eve, he continues to lie today. The Lord hates it.

3. Hands that shed innocent blood (More and more we hear of tragedies)

This year,

May 24^th           Uvalde, Texas                            22 killed 17 injured

June 4^th             Philadelphia, Pennsylvania         3 killed 11 injured

June 10^th           Chattanooga, Tennessee            2 killed  12 injured

July 4^th              Highland Park, Illinois                 8 killed 29 injured

35 murder trials scheduled for trial this year in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes.

Let us not forget the most recent Houma victim two-year-old Ezekiel Harry.    He is believed to have been killed by his mother and her boyfriend and then thrown into a dumpster. 

Know with certainty that The Lord hates hands that shed innocent blood. 

You might say, oh I would never murder anyone, but the Lord would say

Matthew 5:21-22

²¹ “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ ²² But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; 

The Lord would say that the penalty is the same for both the murderer and the one who keeps anger in his heart.  Because ultimately, they both have the same dark heart and the Lord hates it.

4. A heart that devises wicked plans

Acts 5:1-2

¹ But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, ² and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet.

The couple had conspired together on how they would lie and cheat the Holy Spirit.  They made plans to do evil and the Lord judged them immediately for it.  They both dropped dead at the feet of the apostles.

(Personal example)

5. Feet that make haste to run to evil

Sin is devised in the heart, but the feet carry out what the heart devises.

Eagerness on behalf of the sinner to involve his or herself in things that bring harm and pain to either themselvesor others whether in word or deed.

So for a moment, let’s think about our social media posting.  Are you quick to post something without thinking how it could hurt other people?  The second greatest commandment is:

Matthew 22:39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 

So when we post something that potentially destroys another person, in order to make us look good, or so that we are the first to report it and get a 1000 likes, then we are not walking in love and are making haste to do that which is evil.

Or what about gossip, perhaps you heard this about so and so, and are quick to spread gossip about that person without even knowing all the facts.  Without any regard to how your words will damage that person, your feet are swift to do evil.  Meaning you are quick to act on the evil intentions of your wicked heart. 

6. A false witness who breathes out lies

As we read last week in Matthew, false witnesses came forward and lied to the council to put Jesus to death.   That’s what a false witness does. This person knows the truth however convinces its audience with lies to make an innocent person seem guilty while making the guilty seem innocent for their own advantage.  This is damaging to the reputation of another person. 

The Lord takes hates this sin. 

7. One who sows discord among brothers

Discard- strife, contention

This seventh sin is believed to be the abomination mentioned in verse 16

¹⁶ There are six things that the Lord hates,
    seven that are an abomination to him:

As a pastor I can see why this is hated by our Lord and is an abomination to Him.  Because there is nothing worse than when “brothers” “sisters” those who are supposed to be in the family of God sow discard among themselves.  Discord causes division when the Lord has called us to unity.

It is a vice of satan to turn brothers and sisters against each other.  

We already are at war with satan, we need not to be at war with ourselves.  Young people we need not put each other down and make fun of each other.  As believers we are family, members of one body.  We are connected through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Trust me when I say, that when I hear of discord among this church, that I pray for it to cease, or that if it does not cease that God will remove that person (s) from here.  He does and He has.

I hate discord, but even more, the Lord hates it when we sow discord among each other.

Perhaps you have been guilty of one of more of these sins which the Lord hates, there is good news for you today.  You can receive forgiveness for your sins.  Jesus came to pay the price even for those highly offensive things that you have done toward the Lord.  Because though your sin might be against another person, it really is against the Lord.  The Blood of the Lamb can make you whole today.