Sins of the Spirit Series: Part 14 (Hatred)

Sins of the Spirit Series: Part 14 (Hatred)

Now 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, As ye have 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 council. 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, a little bit. 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, or 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, not just, He's concerned about our actions. He's certainly against 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. 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 thine neighbor and hate thine 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, so, hatred is really an intense disgust for a dislike of, disgust for someone. It would lead a person in their spirit to 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 intense, 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, you know. Oh! Oh! 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 want, 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, 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 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. He hates. He hates. He hates. He hates. He hates. He hates. He hates. He hates. He hates. He hates. 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, Titus chapter 3, you know, Jesus was telling these here in this text. He was saying that whosoever is angry with his brother or whosoever, whosoever hates, as we just said here, you know, that's not what I want. I don't 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 are told, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers, a variety of different kinds of lusts and pleasures, living in malice. We've seen that word, haven't we? And envy. 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, the works of the flesh, won't he? 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, walk in 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, 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, didn't we, on Wednesday night, as we were talking about, about the blessings we received at Thanksgiving and how 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. Well, 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, 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 them the truth in 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, that's, 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. The people's words and actions toward us never, 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're, yeah, 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. They were just shouting out, you know, 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, he took away the cloak for their sin. He removed that cover and he, he brought in daylight and exposed, exposed the reality of their heart's conditions. They, they had hoped, they would have been, they would have been fine if he had come in and said, you know what, I'm going to emancipate, I'm going to emancipate Judea and Jerusalem. I'm going to emancipate you from Rome. You no longer have to pay your taxes. You'll no longer have to answer the Caesar or, or Herod for that matter. You just, you know, you'll be, you'll be free from Roman oppression and Roman rule. Well, they would have, they would have, they would have put a crown on his head and said, hail 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, he came to save. He came as the lamb of God. He'll come back the next time as the lion, but he's, he came as a lamb.

And, and look over with me in first John three, please. First John chapter three, we notice here in verse 11, we notice here in verse 11, we notice here in verse 11, we notice here in verse 11, we notice here in verse 11, verse John three, verse 11. For this is the message that she heard from the beginning that we should love one another. Not, we mentioned Cain a moment ago, not as Cain who was of that wicked one and slew his brother. Here's a good question. And wherefore, why, why slew he him? Why did he, 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 hate, just as Cain hated Abel and killed him. Don't be surprised if the world hates you and persecutes you. Don't, don't be surprised at that because that's what, that is what drove Cain to kill his brother.

We might say, he was involved in all that. Yes, there's hatred, but there was, there was also, we might say in the jealousy too 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. There was, we might say there was even bitterness in there, in his spirit towards his brother, but, but hatred. He hated, he hated his brother because he saw that Abel, had something he didn't have. Although the Lord came to him and said, you can have it too. You can have the right attitude, but sin, sin is here at the door. It's waiting. And, and, and if you do not respond to me in 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, we should mark that spirit that we see in Cain and avoid it. At all costs, we should identify it and say, Lord, get that, 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, many places in the Bible, it's very clear that the unrighteous will hate the righteous. The unrighteous do hate the righteous because, you know, because the righteous, the righteous are a conviction there. You know, if you're, if you're living for the Lord, you are light and salt. And if you're living for the Lord, you become sort of a conscience and a reminder about to other people of their, their sin. You may, you know, 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, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, 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 they're going to look at you with sort of a hatred in their heart for you because they don't, if they don't want it, but they see you have it, they want, maybe they, they want the benefits of what you have without, without the obedience they want, they want the Lord or they want approval and peace that you have without Website and that's not that. U.S. Times. U.S. without any sacrifice you know and so this is this is going to produce discord and tension it's going to 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 in jesus's 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 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 you as i am not of the world john says over in first 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 the but but since you're not of the world then the world hates you but he says here um it's because they have the word in them it's the word what is the word the word is truth the word is truth and it it makes the difference in our lives a simple thing faith in that word jesus said in luke 21 17 ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake john 15 i'm just mentioning a few here john 15 verse 18 says if um 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 but i have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you

i find it interesting that um 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 they just let it go let it happen because christianity is hated um christianity is is hated by this world

but i i think about how all of this is disgusting and it's it should be disgusting the sin of hatred when we see it and others should be disgusting to us but we should also hate it and ourselves if there's any hatred in our lives we should ask the lord to remove that that hatred from us look in first john 2 first john 2 verse 9 it's uh told to us here in first john chapter 2 and verse number 9 he that saith 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 our enemies you know pray for them do good to them um you know and and uh what was the other one to um bless with our work bless them bless and do good and pray for them if 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 they you know they you have you ever said of anyone you know i just i can't stand that person or something like that you know well even 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're gonna if you go to um if you go to that brother about something make sure you cast the the beam out of your own eye before you deal with a moat in the brother's eye and always speak truth and love to them don't don't um you know go go with humility don't go with pride but but always and even even when we're speaking truth we must never speak truth with hatred in our hearts that you can't those that's that's of the flesh that's of the flesh if you speak truth to mow somebody down instead of to build them up then that's that's not pleasing to the lord uh it should always be our words should be with the intent to bless not to harm not to hurt uh so he that saith he's in saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in is in darkness first john 2 9 here says is in darkness even until now don't deceive yourself and say that you're not in the light and you're not in the i'm in the light but i hate my brethren no no you can't you can't have it both ways is 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 none 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 hath 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 it's synonymous with walking in the light isn't it walking in the spirit walking in the light but when we look at the works the flesh darkness flesh darkness we see that that because it it it is the it is that which characterize our old life before christ but now in christ we're the children of light aren't we walk as children of light walking as children of obedience or not not not as the children of disobedience so john is saying here in in chapter 2 verses 10 and 11 he's saying don't hate your brethren walk in the light instead of don't don't don't treat your brethren like you you don't treat your brethren like you you don't treat your brethren like you you don't treat your brethren like you you don't treat everyone treat them as the lord has treated you the lord doesn't 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 gain i count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride he he 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 and and even even my enemies

but look in first john three with me first john chapter 3 verse 11 it says here first john chapter 3 verse 11 for this is the message that ye have heard or that ye heard from the beginning that we should love one another well and we already i'm sorry i'm repeating this passage that we already looked at um i 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 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 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 towards my brethren towards those that are without and am am am i doing it maybe i'm not coming out and saying you know i want to kill you kind of thing but but is it is it motivated at all by by hatred and 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 scripture tells me continually 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 if you it's not just get rid of it it's not just get rid of it it's not just get rid of it it's not just 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 first peter chapter 4 verse 8 first 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 sins this is not talking about covering up sin and 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 um we know that in first peter chapter one look there in verse number two we have the fervent charity verse 22 first peter chapter 1 verse 22 it says here in verse number 22 seeing you have purified your souls in 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 your 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 you you have to keep working at it don't you you don't you don't just say well we you know we we have been married we are married we'll always be married no you you have to love one another you have to you have to to grow in your love you know because we're living in a world that fights against marriage the devil wants to destroy marriages he won't he's doing everything he can um to sow discord uh in in marriages and certainly among churches he loves to do it i i saw something on the what was it the fighting crime page today it says there was a fist fight at a church or something like that there's always some he's always he's working especially hard among brethren isn't he but but we see that we we are to love we're to see to it that we love one another with a pure heart fervently

look in first thessalonians chapter three i want to see just a couple more here first thessalonians chapter three the lord always does this doesn't he tells he not only he doesn't just leave us with don't do that get rid of that don't have that but instead have this be filled with this uh 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 and the lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another and toward all men even as we do toward you you the lord make you to increase and abound in love this is this is something we have to be what's the word intentional about we can't just it doesn't happen by osmosis by accident you don't you don't grow in your christian walk you don't grow in your 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 you know 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 1 you know what let brotherly love continue let it let it continue may it continue may it abound may may it increase may grow because you know just 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 you look back but he he wasn't we we have gardens that we need to keep right we have we have the garden of our own life but of our marriage you know we have um to be watchful for the encroachment of that which is wrong but also to dress and and and tend to that which is good and and you know if you've got a plant i mean you you 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 you need to fertilize it you need to tend it you need to um you know maybe till it up and aerate the soil whatever you need to do water 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 not hatred but 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've i think of probably everybody's heard of that i have a lot of people who have haven't really heard much about them in recent times but that westboro baptist church and they um 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 but it's not our responsibility to go around and just you know everything they said was god hates hates hates what what about god loves it doesn't mean that we that we you know maybe they should say god hates sin but he he loves you and wants doesn't want you to die to 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 eternally i mean god's going to deal with that but as long as we give the truth to people we're going to deal with their souls eternally i mean god's going to deal and in love may we just commit the rest of the word

and if someone is wronged you don't how easy it is to say right do you ever you ever feel like retaliating do you ever feel like getting back at someone i know in the flesh we would do that wouldn't we and we have done it at times no doubt we've all maybe we we responded with words to somebody when they said something to us i you know uh and may the lord forgive us for doing that and i'm going to do that in the 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 lest you be wearied and faint in your minds don't don't don't look 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 beat and all that he didn't swing back no he once again he responded with love and forgiveness for their souls

may god help us may god help us not to be hateful and hating like we were in our old in our old 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 is the hymn say is the love of god showing in you i think it is uh can 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 lord that 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 is full of hatred but 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 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 it 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 heart and love our neighbor as ourselves we pray in jesus name amen