Hating God, Part 28

One reason that we must consider the reality that all human beings are divided into two kinds (those that love God and those that hate Him) is that we must be careful or those that love God will be greatly influenced by those that hate God. When those that hate God in reality water down the truth to be more acceptable to themselves and others, the problem is not that believers stop loving God, but are deceived into a false standard. If the professing Church has swallowed a false idea of what love is so that people that hate God actually think they love Him, then it is also possible to deceive other about what humility really is as well. So we have love replaced with politeness and niceness and humility is replaced with the idea that it is prideful to assert something as true. In reality humility is the emptiness of self and then the faith that is there receives grace from God. If God reveals Himself to humble souls, it is no longer humility to say that we may not know and assert certain things. It is but nothing but vile pride not to assert truth. It is not love to be polite and externally nice when we must stand for the truth of God and the true good of eternal souls. Those that hate God will not like what is said and will be what moderns think of as offended, but it is not really hate. Those that hate God are offended by the truth and call it unloving and rude.

We must think very carefully through things like this or we will accept in the name of Christ what is in reality directly opposed to Him. Exodus 20:5 warns us of the dangers of idolatry: “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me.” James 4:4 warns us of the dangers of being friends with the world: You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” When the world is brought into the professing Church in the name of Christ, idolatry is sure to follow. When worldly ideas using biblical words and concepts are brought into the professing Church, being friends with the world is sure to follow. What will follow both of those things, then, is that many within the professing Church will be at enmity with God.

In 2 Chronicles 18 we have the story of Jehoshaphat becoming allied with Ahab against Syria. Jehoshaphat was King of Judah and Ahab was King of Israel. It would perhaps have appeared natural to them to be allies since they were, after all, the ones that God had brought out of Egypt and gave the land. They were the twelve tribes of Israel. But remember that Israel had sold itself to idols when it left Judah. The words to King Jehoshaphat in II Chronicles 19:2 are stunning: “Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD and so bring wrath on yourself from the LORD? Jehoshaphat was a good leader compared to many and made many reforms. Yet he was soundly rebuked for helping the wicked and loving those who hated the LORD. He brought wrath on himself for what he did.

Deuteronomy 7:10 says that the LORD “repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.” God does judge each sin now, but also in eternity if a person does not have Christ. Romans 1:18-32 tells us that God judges sin now. It is correct that a believer that has Christ will not suffer torment in hell for sin. However, the true believer should be moved by love for God and others to flee from sin. When God comes in judgment on the professing Church it does not mean that true believers will be unscathed. God does discipline His children when they are in sin and it is sin when they are joined with those that hate God. This is simply the character of God in both Testaments.

Colossians 1:21 describes what a believer formerly was. They “were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds.” That has to do with religious unbelievers as well. That would include Arminian and Reformed unbelievers as well. That includes both legalistic and liberal religious people. People that are religious can also be alienated from God and hostile to the truth of God. Religious people that do not truly know God are engaged in vile and wicked deeds even in their acts and works of righteousness (Isa 64:6). When believers are deceived and are mixed in with those that hate God, this brings the judgment of God upon all though it is in differing ways. The professing Church is under the judgment of God in our day. Some of it is because believers have been deceived and are mixing in with unbelievers in professing churches. If we wish to be a friend of the world, even though it calls itself a church, we are at enmity with God. It may be that we love those that hate the LORD. Whatever the case, we need to be on our faces seeking wisdom from the LORD to deliver us from those that hate Him and are yet very religious and perhaps orthodox. We need to be delivered from the world’s idea of love and humility that we may be truly humble and truly love from the love that flows from God.

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