Welcome And Today’s Passage

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Alright, welcome back. How y'all doing?

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Okay, today it's gonna be interesting. We're gonna look at things that God says he hates and what the wisest man in the world says he hates. So let's start off in verse twelve.

The Liar And The Backstabber

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A worthless person, a wicked man is the one who walks with a false mouth. He who winks with his eyes, who signals with his hands, who points with his fingers, who with perversity in his heart devises evil continually, one who spreads strife. Therefore, his calamity will come suddenly, instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing. Now a false mouth is just a way of saying someone's a liar. And we know what perversity in his heart means. We've been through that on how everything they think is evil and do evil continually. Remember, evil isn't just the first thoughts about hurting men and women like Hitler did, but evil is when you have in your heart the desire to keep others down just to lift yourself up. And the part that says signals with his feet, it really means shuffling around. But those things what they are really trying to say in today's terms, it is like giving someone a look across the room, like we know what they are saying and wanting to do, but we're going in the opposite direction. You know, subtle sub subtle gestures, that means something hidden, sarcastic or even deceptive is like deceptive body language, nonverbal communications, you know, the rolling of the eyes, having a hidden agenda. These are people that are trying to go around your back. Now think about this. Solomon says that poverty would come upon a person slowly, but the person who goes around backstabbing, spreading strife, i. e. acting like he's the smartest one in the room while at the same time putting others down. Solomon says here that their calamity will come suddenly. So have you lived long enough to notice this? How people that behave this way, their destruction comes suddenly. When they're secretive behind the scenes and all their lies come to light, all of a sudden their reputation is ruined, and all their plans are struck down. And then these same people usually go around blaming somebody else, blaming others, making excuses for their behavior. Such men and women keep an eye out for and try to stay away from them.

Honesty That Builds Real Peace

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And I like to share a little bit and add into this that look, we're all trying to have inner peace and financial security. But for some reason we have these thoughts that we all can't do it together. Even though on the surface we pretend to, we pretend to get along, but we have an internal war every day to get one step ahead of the next person, that believe that in this world to make it, we gotta make ourselves smarter and better than the next guy. And what it does is that it puts a wall around us and pressure upon us, that we've got to keep living up to a fantasy, a standard our minds have created for us. And one thing I have learned in my lifetime and that I've shared with my friends and family is that if you're open and honest and don't care what others think, and in certain situations you let others know when you're struggling, not in a whiny way like you see all over Facebook, but I'm talking about just being honest. It gives you freedom, and it'll even give you closer friends. Look, we're all in the same boat and feeling the same pressure. But the people that are spreading lies, causing strife, hiding in the shadows, trying to get ahead by putting others down, Solomon is saying that that person is so lost and evil that their calamity will come quickly, and there will be no one there to help them.

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Now

The Seven Things God Hates

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let's continue on to verse sixteen.

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Now we're going to hear what God is saying that He hates. Starting in verse sixteen it says, There are six things which the Lord hates. Yes, seven, which are an abomination to him. Now after we go through these seven, I want you to listen to him because I'm gonna have a question for you afterwards. All right, let's continue. God's number one thing he says he hates, first thing that comes to his mind is haughty eyes, then a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers. Now,

Rethinking Who God Is

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before I expand on this and make it more into day's language, here's my question for you. What is your view about God? Or what do you think about God? Do you think he's someone that is a do as I say and not as I do person? Because what it seemed that way from what we are taught in some pulpits or even out in the world? I mean you hear it all the time. You hear things like Oh, God put this on you to teach you something, or you better watch out, he's gonna get ya. Or you hear somebody's in a car crash, and some spiritual person says, Oh, that was just the Lord saving him from something in the future. Do you see how that is all a straight lie from the pit of hell? But look what God says here that hands that shed innocent blood he hates. Now if he hates that, why would he do it to us? And why do we think God has a heart that devises wicked plans if he hates people who do? Why would he have a plan for us that are not good when the scripture perfectly says for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future? Now we just read how God hates feet that run rapidly to do evil, so why do we think he wants to put evil and hard pressures on us? I mean I've expanded on that word evil quite a few times. Do you think he wants to put you in slavery when Jesus specifically said that his burden is light? So I'm saying this to bring it to light. So we can see a little more clearly. God is perfect and good, and the Bible says God cannot lie. So then why would you ever think that when bad things happen it was God's plan? It's our ignorance and the lie of the devil which has blinded us until now. In expanding on this even more, the very first statement God makes is that he hates haughty eyes. Haughty eyes are the way people look at you when they think they're better than you, when they're full of pride, when they look you up and down with disdain. They don't have to say anything. You can just tell that they don't think of you as an equal or as highly as they think of themselves. But we are made to believe that God looks at us like that. We are all under the microscope. This is what you hear preached a lot that God is out to get you, that you better behave or bad things are going to happen to you. It's like God's eye is always watching you, just waiting for you to trip up so he can get ya. But the very first thing that God says that he absolutely hates is people that act that way. So why do you think he's that way? Why would you think our Creator is like that when he humbled himself and came in the form of something he created, i. e. you and me, and then let us literally beat him and kill him on a cross, so that in his eyes everything is good between us, that he harbors no ill against us. He put all of that on Jesus so you and I could be at peace with him. It doesn't make sense. That's why I like listening to pastors that preach on the grace of God. The world hates people teaching this, saying it sounds like a free ride, but it's more than that. It's a relationship built on forgiveness and trust. And that's what I really want you to get to know is to get to know God. To learn how to sit back and just learn to chat with him so you can get to know him and realize that he's for you. He knows how far we got to go because it says we're created in his image, and we're nowhere near able to have that all authority and power he has to create universes, planets, bugs, microscopic things. His knowledge is so way above ours, but he says as he is, so are we in this world. So we got a long way to go. And it starts by hearing him, trusting what he says, and going about it every day step by step. Okay, now Solomon just told us the things that he hates as the wisest man in the world, and God has just told us everything that he hates.

Family Wisdom And Godly Guidance

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Now Solomon goes back in and gives us some basic foundational truths starting in verse twenty. My son, observe the commandments of your father, and do not forsake the teachings of your mother. Find them continually on your heart, tie them around your neck. When you walk about they will guide you, and when you sleep they will watch over you, and when you awake they will talk to you. For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching is a light, and reproofs for discipline are the ways of life. Now let's talk about this. God does not lie, nor does he make mistakes, but man does. Now look at what Solomon is telling us. He was telling us to obey and observe the commandments of our father and our mother, that they will guide us and teach us, and what he's going to get into is that it will keep you and I from an adulterous woman. Now we mentioned how he was a product of such a situation, and he knew the hardships of being raised, but it didn't change what he did. I mean, even though he had hundreds of wives and hundreds and hundreds of concubines, God still told him certain women not to mess with, but he still would. So what I'm saying here is that we might be upset with our parents because they tell us to behave a certain way, but they don't behave that way. We don't need to judge them and say, well, if you can get away with it, what's wrong with me doing it? Because inside they know what they're doing, they wish they didn't. So they're trying to save you from being in the torment that they're in. So when you hear comments like do as I say and not as I do, when we look at it like, well, that's pretty weak to be honest. That's just us being human. We're not perfect. We know how we should be, but we don't behave that way. So Solomon is telling us again and again, and even in the next chapter he's going to tell us again, don't go committing adultery. And yet he is sleeping around with everything. And then you could see at the end of his life on how it destroyed him. So I'm saying this just to offer us all grace and not to put those who are teaching or trying to teach us on a high pedestal that they need to behave what they are teaching. The teaching is correct, but we as humans we're weak.

Discipline And Staying Humble

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Now do you remember in yesterday's podcast when we dug deep into the word diligence and is something you have to learn and grow in? Well, on the main spiritual tool for this character of diligence is you grow in it through the word discipline. Remember, diligence is the effort of moving forward. Discipline is correction. So discipline is not a case of you just trying harder. No. Solomon here says that it is the way of life, and what he is saying is even though he was the wisest man in the world, we still need to receive correction. So what does that look like in today's world? Let's say you're a father or a mother or a business owner. You have certain authority over a certain group or a certain field of influence. So don't go around acting all knowing. It is wise to look at people who are more successful than you, but it's also wise to hear people that you don't think are as successful, because they may say see things you don't. You need to listen to them and not be haughty as we've learned earlier, and then let that into your heart. All those corrections and inputs, learn from them, and then lay them before the Lord and say, Lord, what do I do with this? Which way should I choose? I love how Solomon said that this is the way of life. It's easy to take directions when you're learning something new, like let's say you want to learn to sail or surf or learn to fly a plane. You really don't know what you're doing, so you listen to your instructor because you trust them. But then when you get good at it, you don't listen as much anymore because you think you're the expert, and that's when you fail. So Solomon is saying by the Spirit of God, that the way of life is not to be a know it all. So stay humble, listen to the input of people around you, bring it before the Lord, and then you make the decision from there.

Adultery’s Aftermath And Ruin

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After this Solomon teaches us, and he gets really kind of heavy here, in verse twenty four he says To keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress, do not desire her beauty in your heart, nor let her eye catch you with her eyelids, for on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread. An adulteress hunts for the precious life. Can a man take fire into his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can a man walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched? So is the one who goes into his neighbor's wife. Whoever touches her will not go unpunished. Men do not despise a thief if he stills to satisfy himself when he is hungry, but when he has found out he must repay sevenfold. He must give all the substance of his house. The one who kits a molt who commits adultery with the woman is lacking sense. He would destroy himself who does it. Wounds and disgrace he will find, and his reproach will not be blotted out, for jealousy enrages the man, and he will not spare in the day of vengeance, he will not accept any ransom, nor will he be content, though you give him many gifts. You know, we need a rent of clue. I remind you of the scripture where Jesus says it's not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of him. What I'm getting at here is that if you go to another man's house and sleep with their wife, in an instant the Bible says your reputation and all you worked for will be up in smoke. You will have to work for the rest of your life to pay for that act. Like the way hot members burn you immediately. And the same is true here. You will actually become a slave to another person. And Solomon knows this first hand and is telling us don't do it. It will destroy you. Look, my friends, there are many crazy things you can do in this life, but if I could just give you one don't, it would be this. Now it's not a situation where this act will send you to hell, but your life will be hell on this earth. I observed this over and over again. Phew. That was a tough one to get through. And we're gonna have to go through it again next week. Poor Solomon. It sounds like he wishes he would have listened to his father or mother, because he just doesn't let this teaching die. Well

Closing And Book Recommendation

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that wraps it for another week.

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Thank you for joining me, and I look forward to seeing what the Lord shows us next week.

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Before we close, I just want to mention that if today's teaching resonated with you and you'd like to go deeper in learning how to recognize God's voice in everyday life, I've written a book called God, Why Won't You Talk to Me, written by Edward L. Carpenter. It's available on Amazon and it's very practical, no hype and no theory, just real everyday tools to help you understand how God speaks and how to respond with clarity and peace. Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible.