Please take your seats. Please stand for the call to worship. Our call to worship this morning comes from Psalm 27, 1 through 5. The one thing have I asked of the Lord that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. For He will hide me in His shelter in the day of trouble.
He will conceal me under the cover of His tent. He will lift me high upon a rock. Let's pray. O holy God, Ancient of Days, King of Glory, we come together as one body on this the Lord's day, to be in Your presence, to worship You, to offer our prayers of adoration, to rejoice with You in music and in song, to confess our sins and turn from them, to offer up our tithes and offerings, to hear Your word read and preached, and to receive Your blessings. Purify our hearts, O Lord, that we may abide in Your blessedness. May we pursue holiness, be spiritually earnest, and take every thought captive in order to glorify You this Lord's day. And upon leaving here, may we, as You have required of us, act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our Lord.
We pray these things in Jesus' name, our Lord and Savior. Amen. In a world of shifting sands, we need a rock in the face of the fickleness of our own souls. We need an anchor for the soul.
Christ is that rock. Christ is that anchor for the soul. On Christ, the solid rock we stand, all other ground is sinking sand.
Let's sing to Him this morning. In a world of shifting sands, we need a rock in the face of the fickleness of our own souls. We need an anchor for the soul. Christ is that anchor for the soul. On Christ, the solid rock we stand, all other ground is sinking sand.
Let's sing to Him this morning. When darkness fails His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. On Christ, the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. His hope, His covenant, His blood support me in the well-being flood.
When all around my soul gives way, even it's all my hope and stay. On Christ, the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.
When He shall come with trumpet sound, all may I let Him make me proud. Resting His righteousness alone, all plans to stand before the throne. On Christ, the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.
And you may be seated. You know, it's important in our Christian walk to remind ourselves frequently that God's law is perfect, that we are accountable to that law. He's given it to us for our own instruction, for our own good, and yet we often break that law. We frequently break that law. We think that the sinking sands that we're on is the rock that we're on, and we need to repent of our sin.
We need to run to Christ for mercy. We need to acknowledge that His law is right. His law is good. His law is just and pure and holy, and that we're accountable to that law. This morning, we're going to read the Ten Commandments from Deuteronomy chapter 5.
I'm going to read the first table of the law, then we'll pause for a prayer for mercy that we'll sing together, and then we'll read the second table of the law, and we'll pray that same prayer again for mercy. Hear now the word of the Lord. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your ox, or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who was within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
You shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. Amen. Listen then, believers, to this wonderful promise of assurance from God's Word. Ephesians says, But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
God is a merciful, merciful God. We come this morning to our New Testament reading that continues this rehearsal of the Gospel, proclaiming the good news of forgiveness and salvation through Christ. It's 2 Corinthians 5. We'll read verses 16 through 21.
2 Corinthians 5, beginning at verse 16. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Thanks be to God for His word. Let's stand again as we sing a psalm together. Psalm 32 is a psalm that confesses the mercy of God. He is a merciful and gracious God. Let's think about that mercy as we sing Psalm 32. What blessedness belongs to Him who has been forgiven, for whom transgressions have been cleared, and covered is this sin.
Blessed is the one for whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit is no taint of insincerity. I languish silent in my guilt, my days were filled with groans. Hongzhi, your hand pressed day and night, and he dried up my bones. I said, I then confess to you, not hiding guiltiness. I said, I will be for the Lord, transgressions now confess. Then you released me from my sin, and took its guilt away. And therefore, while you may be found, let all the Godly praise. Will not be harmed by rising fire in you, I hide in peace.
You keep me safe, surrounding me with songs of my release. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for such a wonderful day. Lord, thank you for this congregation. Lord, take these tithes and offerings, and just help them further your kingdom, and I honor you, just so ask them your holy name, amen. A tender to mercy above, the love and mercy I see, nor fear with thy righteousness all, my person and offering to bring.
The terrors of war and of God, with me can have nothing to do. My sin, yours obedience and blood, hide all my transgressions from you. The work which his goodness began, the arm of his strength will complete.
His promise is yes and amen, and never was forfeited yet. Things future and things that are now, Lord, all things below or above, can make it his purpose foreknown, or sever my soul from his love. A God who is rich in mercy, even when we were dead, made us alive together with Christ, by grace we are saved. God lead us to war in heavenly places with Christ.
My name from the plums of his past, eternity will not erase. Impressed on his heart it relates, in parts of indelible grace. As wise will he and shall endure, as sure as the earnest is clear, more happy, but not more secure, the glorified Spirit in men.
We are debtors to mercy alone. Amen. Once again we have the awesome privilege of hearing God's word. A word that is living, it's active, and so as we listen to it and receive it by faith, and submit our minds and hearts and lives to it, it transforms us.
It doesn't leave us the same, but it conforms us to the very image of Christ. So with this hope in our hearts this morning, let's now hear the word of the Lord. We'll be reading from Proverbs chapter 6 verses 1 through 19.
Proverbs 6 verses 1 through 19. My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger, if you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth, then do this, my son, and save yourself. For you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, hasten and plead urgently with your neighbor.
Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber. Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler. Go to the ant, O sluggard, consider her ways and be wise.
Without having any chief officer or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man. A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eye, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord. Therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly.
In a moment he will be broken beyond healing. There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him. 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 breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among the brothers. The word of the Lord, thanks be to God.
Let's pray. Lord, your law is perfect, reviving the soul. Your testimony is sure, making wise the simple. Your precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. Your commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of you, Lord, is clean, enduring forever. Your rules are true and righteous altogether, more to be desired than gold and sweeter than honey. By your word we are warned, and in keeping your word there is great reward. So, Lord, please help us to meditate rightly on your word now. And may our lips affirm and our lives obey all that you say, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Well, they say it's the little foxes that spoil the vine, not the big foxes, not the obvious foxes, but rather the ones that go unnoticed. The greatest deterrent to living a wise, virtuous life is likely not going to be those big, heinous sins. It's going to be the small, respectable sins. Or it's not even going to be sinful things at all.
It's going to be things that might be morally acceptable in some situations, but harmful in other situations. The most likely impediment to wisdom is doing those things that are good, but not best. Foolishness doesn't generally creep into a person's life announcing devastation and destruction. It creeps in as a harmless compromise here, a moment of weakness there.
It isn't the crazy ax murderer. No, it's death by a thousand paper cuts. A wise person, on the other hand, is the person who has learned which nuances matter, which subtleties are important, which hills to die on, which hills to absorb. The wise person is the person who has learned discretion, and discretion is a game of inches, not miles. Our text today contains three warnings. Warnings about certain pitfalls that on the face of it seem harmless, especially quite destructive. The first pitfall has to do with our giving to others. Giving to others sounds so generous.
It sounds so virtuous. And to be sure, we ought to be cheerful givers, but a cheerful giver also needs to learn how to be a wise giver because there is a sort of giving that destroys rather than builds. The second pitfall has to do with working and rest.
Rest is a good thing, isn't it? Scripture even commands us to be still and know that God is God. It invites us to come to Christ and find rest for our souls. But there is a virtuous way to rest and a sinful way to rest, and we need the wisdom to know the difference. The third pitfall has to do with full-blown wickedness that masquerades as something innocent, even playful, a harmless little fox that looks so cute and furry, but one that will destroy the vine completely if it isn't caught and dealt with swiftly. So let's spend a few moments this morning thinking about each of these pitfalls so that we'll be aware of them and so that we'll be better able to avoid falling into them to our own demise and destruction. The first pitfall is found in verses 1 through 5, and we might call it the pitfall of doing more than one's means allow.
Doing more than one's means allow. Verse 1 says, My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have given your pledge for a stranger... What does it mean to put up security or to give a pledge? The old King James word for it is surety.
If you have become surety for a stranger. These are financial terms that have to do with guaranteeing payment of a loan. The term we typically would use today would probably be the word co-sign. When you co-sign on a loan, you are promising that if the borrower defaults on their loan, you will pay the balance of the loan. You are the guarantee to the bank that this loan will be paid no matter what. In the case of the son in verse 1, the father is cautioning him against making unwise promises to pay off someone else's loan. Sometimes we are tempted to make promises that we should not make. Maybe it's unwise because we don't have the resources to follow through with the promise. Maybe it's unwise because the circumstances could change and make it such that it isn't easy or legal or right to do what we've promised. But nonetheless, when we make promises, good or bad promises, we're stuck, we're bound to our word.
And when it goes badly, we are, verse 2, ensnared by our words. Although Proverbs 6 is speaking directly about financial pledges, I think we can rightly apply it in principle to much more than just financial promises. Our promises can bind us to all sorts of obligations, can't they?
Obligations of time, obligations of service, obligations of responsibility, and so on. Now in our day and age, the tendency often, unfortunately, is to not think twice about breaking our promises. If we pledge to do something and then circumstances change, well, we just break our promise and think nothing of it. But virtue, righteousness, doesn't allow for the breaking of a promise just because the fulfilling of that promise ended up being more difficult or more inconvenient than we had originally thought it would be. Psalm 15 4 asks the question, who is holy? Who is blameless?
Who is righteous enough to enter God's presence? And one of the litmus tests for blamelessness, or godliness, is honesty in speech, particularly when one's speech requires unanticipated personal sacrifice. Here's how Psalm 15 puts it. Who shall dwell on God's holy hill, he who swears to his own hurt and does not change, does not go back on his promise. If we make a promise and it ends up being more than we had bargained for, the righteous thing to do is to keep the promise anyway.
Now what is it about this pitfall that makes it such a subtle danger? I think it's the fact that we often make rash promises out of good intentions. And so the promise, the pledge, feels like generosity. It feels like the helpful, virtuous thing to do. I mean, who doesn't want to help their neighbor in need? And sure, it is virtuous and good to help our neighbors. We ought to be cheerful helpers and givers.
We ought to be quick to absorb the hardships of others and seek to alleviate those hardships to the extent to which we are able. But the question of giving and generosity is more complicated than merely asking whether someone needs help. There are other questions that ought to be asked, questions that perhaps don't feel as virtuous or generous. We should ask, would my assistance actually help or hinder? Is this person's trouble or need an actual need? Or maybe is it a consequence of their sin or their foolishness or their crime such that my helping might undermine God's greater purposes in his or her life? We should also ask, do I have the means of meeting this need?
Would my offering assistance to this person cause me to have to shirk my responsibilities to someone else, perhaps someone to whom I bear greater responsibility? These are not questions that come from a stingy heart. They're questions that come from a responsible heart, a wise heart, and even a generous heart that is seeking to maximize the good that comes from giving. Nowhere does God promise to underwrite everything we want Him to underwrite. So there is no principle of virtue that demands that we promise to underwrite the needs and wants of others simply on the basis of their needs and wants. And so while cheerful giving is something we ought to strive for, we need to understand that prodigal, wasteful giving is not virtuous. Presumptuous spending, even for the benefit of others, is not admirable. It's foolish. It's dishonest. It's enslaving. And it prevents a person from fulfilling their actual responsibilities.
So that's why this is such a subtle pitfall. It looks like a virtue when in actuality it's a vice. What then is the instruction? Verse 3, then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, hasten, plead urgently with your neighbor. In other words, beg the lender, the bank, the enforcer of the pledge, to have mercy and forgive the loan. Notice it doesn't say break your promise.
It says beg earnestly for forgiveness. Just because a promise was foolish doesn't mean you have the freedom to break the promise. Now, if you've promised something that is immoral, you should not fulfill that promise. There may still be consequences for breaking your word, but you shouldn't stubbornly follow through with a promise that results in something immoral. But just because a promise has become difficult to fulfill or inconvenient or tedious or undesirable does not alleviate a person's obligation.
If they are to get out of the obligation, they need the permission, the consent of the person they made the promise to. And this is of such urgent importance that Solomon says, verse 4, give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber until you've resolved this matter. Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler. And I find it interesting that right on the heels of warnings about rebellion against parents and committing adultery, Solomon's very next warning is about using wisdom and discretion in what you commit yourself to. Wise promise-making would probably not be on our top ten list of wisdom pro tips, would it? Breaking promises would probably not be on our top ten list of heinous sins, and yet Solomon gives it a priority and an urgency that would indicate to us this is a very serious matter with significant ramifications.
Part of the reason why it is such a serious matter, I believe, is because it's a destructive vice that often feels like a virtue. The lesson to be learned is this. Don't make promises you cannot keep. Don't make promises you ought not keep. Don't make promises you will regret having to keep because in the end you will pay a very heavy, heavy price.
Now, before we move on to the next pitfall, let me just point out something that struck me as amazingly beautiful in my studying this past week. The Lord, who warns us not to foolishly become surety for strangers, has Himself become surety for us. Hebrews 7 says that God, desiring to save sinners to the uttermost, made a pledge, put up security to cover the debt, the sin that deserved judgment, and that surety was His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 7, 22 says the Lord is the guarantor, and it's the same word, surety, the pledge, the promise of a better covenant.
Now, if God, back in the book of Hebrews, is telling us not to make promises that we won't want to keep or that we can't keep or that will cause us to end up neglecting the very people that we are responsible for, and if in Hebrews says Jesus Christ is surety for sinners who come to Him by faith, then, brothers and sisters, this means that God has promised salvation through His Son because He wants to keep the promise that He's made because He's able to keep the promise that He's made and that He is wanting to benefit those who come to Him in faith. The beneficiaries of that promise belong to Him. We truly owed a debt that we could not possibly pay. God promised to pay that debt, and indeed He has. Jesus Christ has paid our debt in full.
God keeps His promises, and so should we. Well, the second pitfall in our text is found in verses 6 through 11, and we might call it the pitfall of doing less than one's obligations require, doing less than one's obligations require. And again, this is a subtle pitfall. It's not obvious.
It's not an obviously heinous thing. In fact, like foolish promise-making, it's easy to excuse ourselves into doing less than we should under the pretense of resting or enjoying life or being content or any number of labels that we might resort to, but the Bible calls it laziness, being the sluggard. Now, we're going to meet this character, the sluggard, many times throughout the book of Proverbs. What is a sluggard? Derek Kidner has written a very helpful commentary on the book of Proverbs, and he has some insightful things to say about the sluggard. I'm going to paraphrase his comments in order to help us get an idea of who the sluggard is and what he is like. First, Kidner says the sluggard is one who will not begin things, won't begin things. Verse 9, how long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? When someone asks him how much longer before you get going, well, that's too definite a question for him.
He doesn't know how much longer because all he wants to do is chill out and rest. Notice the recurring word little in verse 10. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands.
Not much, just a little. Kidner says he does not commit himself to an outright refusal, but deceives himself by the smallness of his surrenders. So by inches and minutes, his opportunity slips away. The sluggard will not begin things. Secondly, the sluggard will not finish things. In the rare event that he starts something, he loses interest quickly and hardly gets anything done. We'll see through the course of the book of Proverbs, the sluggard will go and hunt and kill game, but he doesn't bother cooking what he caught. Or he'll prepare a meal and start to eat it, but he gets tired of bringing his arm up to his face and so he won't finish the meal. He doesn't finish what he begins.
Thirdly, the sluggard will not face things. He makes excuses to avoid difficult commitments. The most amusing sluggardly excuse, in my opinion, is Proverbs 22, 13. He says, there is a lion outside, and I shall be killed in the streets.
The challenges are too difficult, and the risks are too great. I'm better off just staying in my cabin, taking naps, chilling out, because who wants to be eaten by a lion that might be roaming the streets? It makes a habit of doing the easy thing of making the soft choice of always giving himself the benefit of the doubt to justify his wishes. And in the end, the sluggard's life slowly, almost imperceptibly unravels. Kidner says, the sluggard is an ordinary man who has made too many excuses, too many refusals, too many postponements, and it has all been as imperceptible and as pleasant as falling asleep.
Laziness, then, is a pitfall because it feels like virtuous rest when, in actuality, it's slowly stealing away your life. And look at Solomon's solution, verse 6. Go to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways and be wise. You know, man is created in the very image of God, and yet he's so degenerate that he needs to learn wisdom from insects. And what specifically should the sluggard learn from the ant? Verse 7, he should learn initiative. The non-sluggard doesn't need a supervisor breathing down his neck telling him what to do next.
Why? Because he already knows what to do next and is motivated to start doing it without having to be told, like the ant. Also, the sluggard ought to learn forethought, and the importance of planning ahead. Verse 8, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.
She makes hay while the sun shines. The non-sluggard doesn't sit around waiting for the last minute, but rather labors during the optimum minute. And once again, I think we have to admit that being negligent, being lazy, stalling for time is probably not on our top ten worst sins list. And yet for Solomon, it is a matter of great urgency because it is a matter that impoverishes and steals and destroys. We sleep and slumber and make excuses to limit our commitment and zeal, but our Lord was no sluggard.
In the Gospels, we see Christ laboring tirelessly for his own. In Matthew 8, for example, we see Jesus calling people to follow him, and they, like the sluggard, say, sure, I'll follow, but first let me go bury my dead. Let me go prepare my field. Let me go marry my wife.
They make excuses and end up not following. They sound like the sluggard in Proverbs 6. Oh, I can't do that right now. There's a lion in the streets, and he'll come eat me. Or, no, I can't go right now.
I've got to take a quick nap, a little sleep, a little slumber, then I'll come. But Jesus says, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head, nowhere to sleep, nowhere to slumber, and so he marches onward, never shying away from the work of redemption until it costs him his very life. He is no sluggard, but is the perfect model of the diligent, hardworking man, laboring until the job is complete, and we should do the same. Well, the third and final pitfall is the pitfall of doing that which God hates. We see it in verses 12 through 19. Verses 12 through 15 describe the worthless person, the wicked man, but, again, the description gives the initial impression that what this worthless person is doing is really not all that bad. He's just winking and pointing and signaling, so what's the big deal? Whatever this body language means, and it seems to be describing ways of avoiding normal conventions of communication in order to be secretive and tricky and wicked, whatever this body language means, we know it's something immoral because of verse 14. With perverted heart, he devises evil and is continually sowing discord. He's using these casual body signals to tear people apart, to disrupt friendships and relationships. With a wink-wink here and a wink-wink there, he's making evil schemes and sowing discord.
It may not look like perversion, but it most certainly is perverse, and it breaks the confidence and the loyalty that exists between people, sowing seeds of discord. The last two verses, then, verses 16 through 19, describe the perverseness of this worthless person's heart by equating the characteristics of his heart with things that God hates. And just a side note, verse 16 says very explicitly that there are certain things which God hates. Our world likes to make the claim that God is love. And certainly God is love. Scripture says that He's love. But when the Bible says God is love, it doesn't mean that He loves everything. No, it means that He gives love its essence.
He gives love its meaning. Whatever God is, that's what love is. God can have a righteous hatred for certain things and still be the defining essence of love. In fact, if God hates certain things and God is love, then we must hate those same things if we want to be loving.
What are these seven things that God hates, then? Verse 16, haughty eyes. Haughty eyes. This is pride that comes through a person's countenance. God hates that countenance because the heart that is producing a haughty countenance is a heart that is exalting itself above God. It's idolatrous.
The thing we've been noticing in our text this morning is the fact that some really awful vices sometimes masquerade as seemingly innocent things. Sometimes even appear to be virtues. Your face has the potential to be an offense to your Creator if you use it to display idolatrous pride.
Have you ever thought about the importance, the virtue of guarding your face from haughtiness? God would have us put pride to death because if we don't, we incur the righteous hatred of the Lord, and not just pride on our face, pride ultimately in our heart. God will not share His glory with another. Next, Solomon identifies a lying tongue as the object of God's hatred. God is the God of truth.
He has given us tongues with which to speak, and we ought to use our mouths then to always speak truth. Hands that shed innocent blood is listed next. God hates murder. We ought not to use our hands as servants of our unrighteous anger.
Then right in the middle of this list of seven is the real heart of the matter, which is the heart, a heart that devises, that schemes and implements premeditated wicked plans. God hates it. Feet that make haste to run to evil. Feet that make haste to run to evil. You know, it's one thing to ease imperceptibly into sin, like the sluggard who just wants to hit the snooze button one more time, or the foolish promise maker who with every good intention pledges too much, but it's a whole different level of wickedness to sprint towards evil, to run toward evil. There's intentionality in that and zeal, and Scripture says God hates it. The last two items mentioned in this list have to do with that which is particularly destructive to relationships between people. A false witness is supposed to be speaking the truth on behalf of someone under trial, but instead he incriminates the innocent, or he acquits the guilty.
He's lying under oath. And then the last item repeats what was said earlier in verse 14, one who sows discord among brothers. God hates the sowing of, the promoting of discord. So when we engage in actions and attitudes and words and even facial expressions that break up godly, healthy relationships between people, we are engaging in that which God hates and God will judge. Who among us has not committed in one form or another every single one of these seven abominations before God? Again, these are probably sins that are not on our top ten list, and yet Scripture says these are things that God mildly disapproves of? No. These are things that God would rather us not do?
No. Scripture says these are things that God hates. We're really good at downplaying the seriousness of our sin, of excusing away its offensiveness before a holy God, but people, God hates sin and we are sinners.
That puts us in a predicament, doesn't it? We either have to continue downplaying our sin and say things like, oh, God will overlook that broken promise. He knows that I meant well. Or God wants me to enjoy life.
He won't care if I shirk my duties a little bit here and there to get a little extra me time, a little extra down time, a little sleep, a little slumber. Oh, God will understand, wink, wink, if I sow a few wild oats now and then. It's not like it's the end of the world. And after all, God is love. We have to downplay the sinfulness of sin and its offense to God, or we have to admit that our haughty eyes and our lying tongues and our wicked hearts and all the rest deserve the ire and judgment of a God who is so holy that he cannot look upon sin. And that is a frightening, frightening prospect for us to realize that even my most G-rated sins deserve the wrath of God. Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?
Church, Jesus will. Jesus will deliver you from this body of death. Jesus will deliver me and you and anyone who comes to him in faith. He will deliver us from sins, the big ones, the small ones. Christ has become those things which God hates so that we might become those whom God loves and approves and blesses.
For our sake, God made Christ, who knew no sin, to become sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. If you are in Christ, brother or sister, stay away from the sins warned about in Proverbs 6. Run the other way. They are pitfalls that will entrap and enslave and destroy.
Don't do them. If you are not in Christ but still in your sin, you cannot help but fall into these pitfalls that are warned against in Proverbs 6. You are still enslaved to your sin nature, to the desires and the passions of your heart. You cannot change your heart.
You can only obey your heart, and that heart is a cruel and relentless taskmaster. But I'm here today to tell you that Christ can change your heart and recreate it into what he intends it to be. Christ can deliver you from your own foolishness and laziness and broken promises.
Christ can take a worthless, wicked person and make them holy and good. And then all of us together will be a gathering of souls not who receive God's hatred, but who receive God's favor and his approval and his fatherly smile of acceptance. My son, hear my voice and live. Let's pray. Father, You are so merciful to us that You would provide a way of escape to the very ones who have schemed against You and broken Your good and righteous law and dared to lift our haughty eyes and our self-sufficient hearts to You. You have offered mercy to us. Now help us all to find that mercy. Help us to discover that grace which will help us in our time of need. Oh, how we need Your mercy and grace. Thank You that it's ours for the taking in Christ. In whose name I pray.
Amen. Let's stand together and once again sing the Gospel, the good news that salvation can be found in Christ alone. . Strichen, smitten and afflicted see Him dying on the tree Tis the Christ by man rejected Yes, my soul, tis He, tis He Tis the long expected prophet David's son, yet David's Lord By His Son, God now has spoken Tis the true and faithful Word Tell me, who hear Him groaning Was there ever grief like His Friends through fear, His cause disowning Foes insulting His distress Many hands were raised to wound Him None would interpose to save But the deepest stroke that pierced Him Was the stroke that justice gave He who think of sin but lightly Nor suppose the evil great Here may view its nature rightly Here its guilt may estimate Park the sacrifice appointed See who bears the awful load Tis the Word, the Lord's anointed Son of Man and Son of God Here we have a firm foundation Here the refuge of the lost Christ the Rock of our salvation Is the name for which we boast Lamb of God, for sinners wounded Sacrifice to cancel guilt None shall ever be confounded Who on Him their hope have built Amen. Thank you so much for being here with us this morning to worship. I encourage you to come back tonight at six o'clock as we worship again together. Brother Corey Wing, he preached a couple of weeks ago. He'll be with us again tonight to preach God's Word and we'll enjoy some time of fellowship and singing.
Dan, you have a... Okay, come on up here then. And then also let me just quickly mention this Wednesday, midweek service. If you've not made that part of your weekly rhythm, I would encourage you to just come and touch base with God's people halfway between Sabbaths. And we spend time in prayer together. We study the Word together. We enjoy each other's company and get to know each other. So that's... this is the first Wednesday, so we'll have a meal at six o'clock followed by our discipleship ladies in the fellowship hall, men down in the conference room.
The kids will be here in the hallway at seven o'clock. So I encourage you to be a part of that. I just wanted to share some really great news with you. So today I found out that through a letter from First Presbyterian Church in Stanley, which you know is pastored by Jay Krestar, one of our former ruling elders, we received a letter of a transfer of membership to their church, Ethan Krestar. And in that letter, it told us that he had examined his profession of faith from before and found it wanting. And after examination of membership into that church, he has made a profession of faith and has been brought to new life.
And I wanted to share that with you because that's really great news. For those of you who have been praying for our covenant children, continue to pray. For those of you who have not, start because we have covenant children here that we don't want to take for granted. So please pray for them and watch the work of God in our midst.
Amen. Thank you, Dan, for sharing that wonderful testimony. God is faithful to our covenant children. God is faithful to sinners who come to Him in faith. God saves sinners. Praise be to Him. As we close, would you receive the Lord's benediction from Colossians? Brothers and sisters, for in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross. And all God's people said, amen.
