Sins of the Spirit Series: Part 14 (Hatred)

Sins of the Spirit Series: Part 14 (Hatred)

Tonight I want to look at the sin of hatred in Matthew chapter 5 and verse number 22. And for every sin as we've seen, for every sin of the spirit there's a contrasting fruit of the Holy Spirit. There's a contrasting blessing that stands in distinct contrast to the sin that we're looking at. So tonight we see in Matthew chapter 5 and let's look back in verse 21 and come into verse 22 where it says, He has heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raka shall be in danger of the counsel. But whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire.

You know, we did, I did preach on the sin of the spirit which would be anger here. And so some of these kind of overlap don't they? We have anger and we have hatred and many things we can say about anger we can certainly say about hatred. One of the things I wanted to point out specifically tonight are just back up for a moment and say is that when we're talking about sins of the spirit, we're talking about those sins which are not necessarily manifested yet in the form of words. Are not manifested yet in the form of actions, deeds that we've done. They are just sins that are in the inner man. They're inside of us and they're going to issue forth out of the heart. That's why the scripture says, you know, keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.

And so even like we talked about this morning, that's why we want to keep a clean conscience before the Lord. Because if you have a defiled conscience, it's going to manifest, isn't it? And certainly before it ever manifests, it's displeasing in the Lord's sight. The Lord is more concerned about, he's concerned about our actions. He gets certainly, he gets the sins of the flesh. But he really wants to nip it in the bud, we might say, in the spirit. He wants to deal with the sin even before we ever get to the point of actually, you know, someone murdering someone or someone committing adultery or someone stealing and someone doing something to another. Cain's murder of Abel began in his heart. It began in the inner man.

So hatred, hatred tonight we see here, and it's more than just a disagreement with someone. You know, you can respectfully disagree with someone without hating them. But hatred ultimately manifests itself in one form or another trying to get rid of that person. Or, you know, in one form or another, look over with me in Matthew chapter 5 verse 30, 43. We're just a little bit further over here in verse 43. What does it say here? It says, ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.

So hatred is really an intense disgust for dislike of disgust for someone. It would lead a person in their spirit and say, you know, I wish I could just get rid of that person. They might not be saying, I would like to murder them, but they just, well, they just don't love that person. They don't love them and they have an intense disgust for that. We should certainly have an intent if we hate anything, we should hate sin, right? And primarily we should hate sin in ourselves because God hates sin. God has an intense abhorrence for sin. It's a, you know, you think about the terrible smell you get when you smell a skunk. And even the idea in the Bible, we see that word, abhor. Abhorring something. We abhor it or that is abhorrent. I don't want to go anywhere near that thing. I don't even want to look at it. I don't want to smell it. I don't want to see it. I don't want to hear it. I have an intense disgust for that. Well, we are told we are not to treat anyone like that.

God hates sin and I know it's a worn out phrase and we could go off the tracks and take this too far, but he does indeed love the souls of men. He does indeed love the souls of men. He doesn't condone sin. In fact, he sent his son to the cross to die for our sins, right? He's so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But God sees this sin in our spirits. He sees the sin of hatred and he hates. I think we can safely say that God hates all sin, but he hates the sin of hatred just as well as any other. He loves us, but he can't stand our sin. He hates it with a perfect hatred.

If you look over with me in Titus chapter 3, Jesus was telling these here in this text. He was saying that whosoever is angry with his brother or whosoever hates. As we just said here, that's not what I want. I want you to hate. I want you to love, even your enemies, right? But in Titus 3, it describes the kind of relationship we had with hatred in our old lives. In Titus 3:3, we're told for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers of variety of different kinds of lusts and pleasures, living in malice. We've seen that word, Evelyn. And in thee, we've seen that one. We were hateful and hating one another. We were hateful and we were hating one another.

But Galatians 5:20, Paul will number hatred among the works of the flesh, wanting. He says that hatred is one of those works and it's very clear, not only in Galatians, but multiple places certainly in the Pauline epistles that the works of the flesh put them off, put them away and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. And walking the Spirit, put on the new man, we see in many places. So we're to put off hatred, we're to put off hatred. And instead as Matthew 5, we just read in verse 44, it said, instead of hating even our enemies, let's go ahead and go to the extreme here, our enemies, if you have enemies, maybe they hate you. Well, instead of hating them, it told us there in verse 44, we're to bless those that curse us. Bless them. We just saw that word blessed that we own Wednesday night. As we were talking about the blessings we received at Thanksgiving and how blessed to bless has the idea of to kneel even to kneel. But when we use it in the form of speech, we bless the name of the Lord. But when we're kneeling before the Lord, but when we're blessing one another, what are we doing? We're speaking, well, we're speaking God's words and God's truth to one another. We're blessing. Well, the only way we can bless someone else is to tell them what God wants for them.

That's what Paul was doing. That's how he got hated. Like we saw this morning, he was hated by the Jews because he just told him the truth and love and he was trying to bless them with his words. We're to do good to those that hate us. They might do you wrong, but don't do them wrong in return. We are to pray for those who despitefully use us. They take advantage of you. Well, pray for them. Pray for them. Don't respond in kind. Boy, we could just close up the Bible and just go home right there because that's a sermon in itself. Bless, do good and pray, right? For those that don't treat you the same way.

If we can apply that to our lives this week, certainly we should love one another as brethren, shouldn't we? We should love one another as brethren. But people's words and actions toward us never justify us hating them. I think about what Jesus said in his very, as he was drawing his last breaths, he said, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Father, they think they hate me. They hate me. They're hurling these words at me. They're saying crucify him, even though they were caught up in the mood and the spirit that was being set by the religious leaders shouting out, raising up false witnesses against him and all of this. Crucify him, crucify him, Jesus understood the reason for their hatred. And why was that? The reason they hated him, it really ultimately came down to the fact that he took away the cloak for their sin. He removed that cover and he brought in daylight and exposed the reality of their hearts, conditions.

They had hoped they would have been fine if he had come in and said, you know what? I'm going to emancipate Judea and Jerusalem. I'm going to emancipate you from Rome and no longer have to pay your taxes. You'll no longer have to answer to Caesar or Herod for that matter. You'll be free from Roman oppression and Roman rule. Well, they would have put a crown on his head and said, hey old king of the Jews, not putting on a cross, they put him on a throne. And would have said that. But no, he came for a different reason. He came to save. He came as the Lamb of God. He'll come back the next time as the lion, but he came as the Lamb.

Look over with me in 1 John 3, please. We notice here in verse 11, 1 John 3, verse 11. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning that we should love one another. Not, we mentioned Cain. I want to go not as Cain who was of that wicked one and slew his brother. Here's a good question and why did he kill his brother? What was the motivation? What was it? Well, because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous, marvel not my brethren if the world hates you. Well, there's the reason right there. He just as Cain hated Abel and killed him, don't be surprised if the world hates you and persecutes you. Don't be surprised at that because that's what drove Cain to kill his brother.

We might say involved in all that. Yes, there's hatred. But there was also, we might say in the Angelic II of his brother, these things are not. They can all coexist and they kind of tag team on one another. One leads to the other and the other. We might say there was even bitterness in there in his spirit towards his brother. But hatred, he hated his brother because he saw that Abel had something. He didn't have all the Lord came to him and said, you can have it too. You can have the right attitude but sin is here at the door. It's waiting and if you do not respond to me, and obedience, then there's going to be bad things to come. Well, we're told here that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain. We should mark that spirit that we see in Cain and avoid it at all costs. We should identify it and say, Lord, get any of that out of me. Get any of that hatred out of me and help me as you've always made clear what you want for us to do to love my brother, to love the brethren.

Well, the unrighteous in many places in the Bible is very clear that the unrighteous will hate the righteous. The unrighteous do hate the righteous because the righteous are a conviction. If you're living for the Lord, you are light and salt. If you're living for the Lord, you become a conscience and a reminder about to other people of their sin. Hopefully none of us have the spirit of holier than thou. I'm better than you kind of thing, no. We don't want to come across that way, but I don't care how humble you might be about it. At some point, if people reject the truth, you share with them. They're going to look at you with a hatred in their heart for you because they don't want it, but they see you have it. They want the benefits of what you have without the obedience. They want the Lord or they want approval and peace that you have without any sacrifice. This is going to produce discord and tension. It's going to produce hatred.

In fact, the Lord already told us in many places, look at John 17. We won't look at all of them, but I want to look at some key ones in John 17, verse 14, where we are told something very important. Jesus is prayer to his Father here in the High Priestly Prayer in John 17. Verse 14, he says this, I have given them those the Father had given to him. I have given them thy word. Well, remember, he said that they had believed his word, right? I have given them thy word and the world have hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. John says over in verse John that if you were of the world, I think it was over there anyway, if you were of the world, the world would love his own, right? But since you're not of the world, then the world hates you. But he says here, it's because they have the word in them. It's the word. What is the word? The word is truth. And it makes the difference in our lives. It's a simple faith in that word.

Jesus said in Luke 21:17, you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. John 15, I'm just mentioning a few years. John 15, verse 18 says, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you, if you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you. I find it interesting that when convenient to do so, the governments of the world turn a blind eye to persecution of Christians. When they're not held to accountability, they just let it go. But it happened because Christianity is hated. Christianity is hated by this world.

But I think about how all of this is disgusting and it should be disgusting. The sin of hatred when we see it in others should be disgusting to us, but we should also hate it in ourselves. If there's any hatred in our lives, we should ask the Lord to remove that hatred from us. Look in 1 John 2, verse 9. It's told to us here in 1 John 2 and verse 9, He that sayeth He is in the light and hateth His brother is in darkness even until now. You know, if we can say what we've already, if the Lord said what He said about our enemies, you know, pray for them, do good to them. And what was the other one to bless with our work, bless them, bless and do good and pray for them. If we should do that for enemies, we most certainly should do that.

We might say, I mean, you know, maybe there's somebody that just, they give you a hard time or something. Like, you know, have you ever said of anyone, you know, I just, I can't stand that person or something like that. You know, well, even if that's your honest thought, then just bless them. Don't, you know, maybe they don't even realize how they come across to you, bless them, do good to them. And you know, if you go to, if you go to that brother about something, make sure you cast the beam out of your own eye before you deal with a mote in the brother's eye and always speak truth and love to them. Don't, don't, you know, go with humility, don't go with pride, but always, and even when we're speaking truth, we must never speak truth with hatred. In our heart said, you can't, that's of the flesh, that's of the flesh. If you speak truth to most somebody down instead of to build them up, and that's not pleasing to the Lord. It should always be, our words should be with the intent to bless, not to harm, not to hurt.

So he that sayeth, he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness. 1 John 2:9 here says is in darkness, even until now. Don't deceive yourself and say, I'm in the light, but I hate my brother and know. You can't have it both ways as what John is saying here, but in verse 10 he says, he that loveth his brother abideth in the light, verse 10, and there is not occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Have you noticed? You know, love is associated with light in the scriptures. Hatred is associated with darkness. Obviously it is here. We even talk about walking in the spirit is basically synonymous with walking in the light, isn't it? Walking in the spirit, walking in the light. But when we look at the works of the flesh, darkness, flesh, darkness. We see that because it is that which characterizes our old life before Christ.

But now in Christ, where the children of light, aren't we, walketh as children of light? Walketh as children of obedience or not as the children of disobedience. So John is saying here in chapter 2, verses 10 and 11, he's saying, don't hate your brethren. Walketh in the light instead of don't treat your brethren like you used to treat everyone. Treat them as the Lord has treated you. The Lord doesn't even hate the ones who hung him on the cross. The Lord doesn't hate them. And didn't we, if we really think about it, even if we weren't there, we're responsible for him hanging on that cross anyway. When I surveyed the wondrous cross on which the Lord of glory died, you know, my riches gained, I count the loss and pour contempt on all my pride. He died like the hymn writer said, for such a, well, the original wording was such a worm as I, such a worm. Well, my sin made me truly abhorrent and yet Jesus suffered and died for me on the cross.

So what great thing is it for me to follow him in loving certainly my brethren and even my enemies. But looking first, 1 John 3 with me, 1 John chapter 3 verse 11. He says here, 1 John chapter 3, verse 11, for this is the message that you have heard or that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another. Well, and we already, I'm sorry, I'm repeating the passages that we already looked at. I've, I've, I've doubled up. But anyway, the point of it was, if we're in the light, let's walk in the light. Let's love one another. Let's, you know, we want, if there is any impurity in our water, we want to get the impurity out, right? If there's any impurity in there, we want to clean out that toxin or we want to clean out that poison in our water. We don't want to be drinking that. And in our Christian lives, we need to, we need to say, Lord, like the psalmist did, search me, try me, see if there be any wicked way in me. Is there any hatred in my heart? You know, what is the motive? What is the motive even in my words that I speak? And in the actions that I, that I take towards my brethren, towards those that are without, am I doing it? Maybe I'm not coming out saying, you know, I want to kill you kind of thing, but, but is it, is it motivated all by, by hatred in what I'm saying and what I'm doing?

Instead of hatred, I need to not only say, I don't want to have any hatred, but I need to, as a scripture tells me, have fervent charity among yourselves, right? Fervent charity will cover, it'll cover a multitude of sins. It's kind of like a displacement, we might say, if you, it's not just get rid of the bad stuff, but be filled with the spirit, right? Be filled with the spirit and, and you're not, and walk in the spirit, you're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh, if you're doing what God wants you to do, serving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and then you will love your neighbor as yourself, right? And so, we see that above all things, look, look in 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 8, 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 8, it says, over here, in verse number 8, above all things. Yeah, we just, I just quoted it, didn't I? Have fervent charity among yourselves for charity, shall cover the multitude of things, and the multitude of sins. This is not talking about covering up sin and hiding it, no, it's, it's just kind of like, we don't, we don't have, the sins that we would have committed don't even come up and don't become an issue because we have the fervent charity there, among ourselves.

We know that in 1 Peter chapter 1, look at there in verse 22, 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 22, it says here in verse number 22, seeing you have purified your souls, you know, obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned, unhypocritical, love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. Make it a point in your life to love one another with a pure heart fervently. If you, I mean, I think I'm talking to mainly married people here tonight or either you've been married in your marriage, you have to keep working at it, don't you? You don't, you don't just say, well, you know, we have been married, we are married, we'll always be married. No, you have to love one another, you have to, you have to grow and you're love, you know, because we're living in a world that fights against marriage, the devil wants to destroy marriages, he's doing everything he can, to sow discord in marriages, and certainly among churches, he loves to do it. I saw something on the fighting crampage that they said there was a fist fight in a church or something like that. He's always, he's working especially hard among brethren, isn't he?

But we see that we, we are told love would a see to it that we love one another with a pure heart fervently. We can first Thessalonians chapter three. I don't want to see just a couple more here. First Thessalonians chapter three. The Lord always does this, doesn't he? He doesn't just lead us with, don't do that. Get rid of that. Don't have that, but instead have this, be filled with this. Pursue this. Well, in this case, it's this contrast, this contrast, this distinction between hatred and love. First Thessalonians chapter three and verse number 12. And it's here in verse 12. He says in the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another and toward all men, even as we do toward you. The Lord make you to increase and abound in love.

This is something we have to be, what's the word, intentional about? We can't just, it doesn't happen by us, those who are just by accident. You don't grow in your Christian walk. You don't grow in your love for your spouse. You don't grow in your love for the brethren by just saying, well, I guess it'll just happen. No, we have to be earnest and fervent about this. We must, this is something that you must strive after. Pray for. Ask the Lord to help you with because we can't do it in our own strength. Even in Hebrews 13, one, you know what, let brotherly love continue. Let it continue. May it continue. May it abound. May it increase. May it grow.

Because, you know, it's like Adam and Eve in the garden. The serpent was able to come in and say what he said and do what he did. Seems like Adam wasn't dressing and keeping the garden like he should have. He should have been, you know, it's easy for us to say that. He looked back, but he wasn't. We have gardens that we need to keep, right? We have the garden of our own life, but of our marriage, you know, we have to be watchful for the encroachment of that which is wrong, but also to dress and tend to that, which is good. And, you know, if you've got a plant, I mean, you know, if you have a plant and you don't take care of that plant, it's probably just going to kind of wilt on you. You need to fertilize. You need to tend it. You need to, you know, maybe till it up and aerate the soil, whatever you need to do, and you need to be a lot of it. And take care of it.

So in the same way, we need to, we need to commit ourselves to brotherly love. Intentionally, love one another. How, how this week can I show love to the brethren? How can I show love and not hatred, but love, even to people that I come in contact with. How can I demonstrate the love of Christ to those that I work with, those that I rub shoulders with, those that I, my neighbors, how can I, how can I do that? Well, of all people, we should not be hateful people, should we? We should not be hateful. You see examples, I think of, probably everybody's heard of that. I haven't really heard much about them in recent times, but that Westboro Baptist Church, and they, they were known for going around and picketing with these signs, you know, God hates this and God hates that. And, well, He does hate sin, and He does hate that, but it's not our responsibility to go around and just, you know, everything they said was God hates, what about God loves? It doesn't mean that we, that we, you know, maybe they should say God hates sin, but He loves you, and wants you to die and go to hell. You know, it's almost like they wanted people to die and go to hell. That's not what God wants. God wants people to be saved.

And so, our responsibility, yes, is to give the message, but may we not offend anyone even with our spirit and our approach in the way that we do it. God's going to deal with their souls, turn away. I mean, God's going to deal with that, but as long as we give the truth to people and in love, may we just commit the rest of the world. And if someone is wrong with you, don't, how easy it is to say, right? Do you ever feel like we're tallying? Do you ever feel like getting back at someone? I know in the flesh, we would do that with me, and we have done it at times. No doubt. We've all, maybe we responded with words to somebody when they said something to us. You know, and may the Lord forgive us for doing that, but may we not, may we not do that? May we consider the example looking unto Jesus who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. Blessed be weary to thank your minds. Don't, don't, don't, don't just get your eyes on man, look unto Jesus, consider his example. He didn't hate, he didn't, when he was reviled, he reviled not again, when he was, when he was hit and beaten all that, he didn't swing back. No, he, once again, he responded with love and forgiveness for their souls.

May God help us, not to be hateful and hating, like we were in our own lives, but to love the souls of men as our Lord loves, as he loves us, and to show that even this week in a very practical way as we rub shoulders with people. May they see, what does the hymn say, is the love of God showing in you, I think it is, can the others, can others see Jesus in you? May that be true in our lives, that they'd be able to see the Lord in us.

Let's pray. Father, I preach these words tonight to my own heart. I need it, Lord. I need your love to fill my heart and to control my motives, and to the Lord that any and all, any and all works of the flesh would be put aside and that the love of Christ would be seen in me. Lord, we are never immune or we're never without need of this in our lives, because we're living in a world that is full of hatred, but we must look away unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Help us. Help us to demonstrate. Help us to show forth this, not hatred, but this love because of the one who loves us with that perfect and everlasting love. We thank you for that, Lord, tonight, and we thank you that even though you could have just abhorred us and hated us and just banished us from your heaven eternally that you didn't do that, Lord, and that you all extended that offer to us that we might be reconciled. Bless us now as we conclude this service. May we consider this sin of the Spirit and put it away in any form or fashion that we see in our lives and help us with clean conscience, with good conscience as we saw this morning to serve you. Love you with all our hearts, and love our neighbor as ourselves. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.