This is a sermon excerpt.
“For thou [art] not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing [lies or falsehood–CD]: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man” (Psalm 5:4-6).
This is the second sermon in a series entitled “What God Hates.” This is the first sermon that specifically goes into what the Bible says God hates. Today, the Lord willing, we’ll be going over the awesome and sobering truth that God hates certain people. This is a subject that is sure to rouse anger among most professing Christians. They would consider it blasphemy to say that the God of love hates some people. But as we saw last week, God hates because God is love. God loves Himself, and all who are wicked God hates. As we see in verse 5, God hates all workers of iniquity. The word translated “iniquity” means evil, wickedness, nothingness, or vanity. So God hates the workers of wickedness. Now some false religionists say, “God loves the sinner, but He hates the sin.” But look at what the second part of verse 5 says. Does it say, “You hate all iniquity? “No, it doesn’t say that, although that is true. It says, “You hate all WORKERS of iniquity.” Who or what are WORKERS? Are they plants? Are they emotions? Are they rocks? Are they concepts? No — these WORKERS are PEOPLE. They are HUMAN BEINGS. God hates HUMAN BEINGS who work iniquity. So we need to see right from the outset that God is a HATER of WICKED PEOPLE. He doesn’t just hate the wickedness and love the people; He hates the people.
In verses 5 and 6, God gives us a description of the people He hates and what some particular acts of iniquity are. In the first part of verse 5, God talks about BOASTERS as those who are wicked. Again, we see that God doesn’t just say that He hates boasting and loves the person boasting. God hates boastERS. So what is a boaster? The Hebrew word comes from “ha-LAL”, which means “to shine” or “to glory.” A boaster is a “shiner,”or “one who makes a show.” He is a “glorier,” or one who glories in himself. He is one who boasts in his own strength. He boasts of his own righteousness as forming some or all of the ground of his salvation. He boasts of his reforming and abstaining and obeying as that which recommends him to God. He glories in his own works as that which make the difference between him and the unsaved.
Do you want to know how to find out what a person glories in? You just have to find out what he thinks makes the ultimate difference between heaven and hell [or between salvation and damnation–CD] .
Now if you go up to a religionist who calls himself a Christian and ask him what makes the ultimate difference between heaven and hell, what’s he going to say? Of course, he’s going to say, “Jesus Christ.” But this is just a deceptive cloak. What you really need to ask him is if Jesus Christ died for everyone without exception. If he says “yes,” then you KNOW wherein he glories. He believes that Jesus Christ died for those in heaven and those in hell. Thus, he believes that it is NOT the work of Jesus Christ ALONE that makes the ultimate difference between heaven and hell; instead, he believes that it is the work of the SINNER that makes the ultimate difference between heaven and hell. Thus, he boasts in, he glories in,the work of the SINNER. And since he thinks he’s saved, he is glorying in HIS OWN WORKS as what makes him to differ between himself and other sinners. He believes that it is his FAITH or his REPENTANCE or his PERSEVERANCE or his GOOD DEEDS that make the difference. He is a boaster, and God hates him. Let me make it very clear:
GOD HATES all who believe that Jesus Christ died for everyone without exception. In contrast to those who boast in or glory in themselves, true Christians are ones who boast in or glory in the cross of Christ.
Let’s turn to Galatians 6:14:
“But may it never be for me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).
The CROSS OF CHRIST is the only thing we glory in! We glory in the cross because we KNOW that it is what makes the ONLY difference between heaven and hell, [between salvation and damnation–CD]! We KNOW that the cross of Christ demands and ensures the salvation of EVERY SINGLE PERSON WITHOUT EXCEPTION for whom Christ died! We know that ALL those for whom Christ died on the cross WILL BE SAVED. We know that the cross of Christ is the ONLY ground of our salvation! Thus, we glory in the cross.
Agrammatos 