In the beginning, God spoke, and the worlds were formed. He created man out of the dust of the earth, and breathed into him the breath of life, and man became a living soul. God spoke. God breathed. †
And after that, He looked on everything that He had made, and He said that it was good. Man, in the garden, experienced all of the good things that God had made. He had an experiential knowledge of that which is good.
But then came the Question, the Test, the Deception...the Ultimate Foolish Question:
"Yea, hath God said?" Genesis 3:1
By God's Word, the worlds were formed. Yet Satan asked, "Yea, hath God said?" When man fell in the garden, he took Satan's word over God's Word, the destroyer's word over the Creator's Word.
Satan has thrown down the gauntlet, asking, "Yea hath God said? Did God really say?" And we need to look at God's Word and say, "Yes, God has said, and here's what He has said," from His Word. And today, we're going to look at two sets of opposites and how they interact.
Love and hate, good and evil.
Two pairs of opposites. And yet, Satan, the confuser, the deceiver, the father of all lies, would have us to put even things as basic as love and good at opposition with one another.
This ought not to be. Out of God's goodness comes His love for us. Goodness could be expressed as a term that represents both His love and His holiness, but so frequently, we miss out on the holiness part. We say God can't be both holy and loving. Because we don't like to face the consequences of sin, of allying ourselves with the destroyer.
Love versus good is a false dichotomy, a false division brought about by our own unrighteousness.
I want to change up the illustration a little bit. We're going to put good and evil, and love and hate, across from each other, like so.
And why do we do this? Because I want to bring out the unity of these principles rather than the false dichotomies that have been presented by the deceiver.
Love of good, hate of good, hate of evil, love of evil.
What do you love or hate?
Do you have a love of that which is good and a hatred of that which is evil? Or is there a love of some things that are evil, that are wicked? And... Do we hate that which is good, that which makes us feel guilty—makes us feel ashamed? And so we say, "Nah, I don't want any parts of that," because it makes us feel bad by comparison.
Truly, to the many who claim Jesus and say, "Well, Jesus was all love"...
...does Jesus love sin?
If you were in the presence of Jesus, would you feel a little bit ashamed of evil doing? Would you be compelled to become more like Christ? Or would you turn and go the other way? That is what hatred of good can look like.
But there's another way to look at this.
On the vertical axis, we can see the love of good and hatred of evil as being an expression of God's justice. On Judgment Day, that is the axis along which Final Judgment is passed. On the other hand, injustice often embraces many things that God speaks against.
And, yes, there are people who are unjustly accused. They do good, but they are hated for it. And even processed as such in a "justice" system that has been corrupted by those who love something other than that which is good, by those who hate something other than that which is evil.
God's justice and human injustice do clash.
And injustice is a consequence of sin.
If you would not only experience, but share justice... then live in alliance with God's holiness. And, of course, we need the power of Christ in our lives to do so. Otherwise, you get quickly off track.
"The heart is desperately wicked. Who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9
And that does come out in this battle between justice and injustice.
This battle...how shall I say it, without coming across as being melodramatic... This is not an exaggeration when it comes to love of good versus love of evil: Hatred of evil versus hatred of good is a clash between Heaven and Hell.
And that battle takes place in our choices.
These are choices of consequence. And these choices are made here and now on Earth.
But, we don't stay here forever.
Ultimately, we go to Paradise or Perdition. There are ultimate consequences of our choice. The "in between" is but a temporary condition.
We have a choice before we die and not after. There is no "purgatory." The closest thing we have to a "purgatory" is the chance and the choice that we have now...that God has given us this day of grace.
What is the benefit of this day of grace? It is not that we ought to pursue love of ungodliness, or hatred of that which makes us feel guilty for indulging in that ungodliness.
It is rather to turn towards Heaven, turn to God, and turn away from those steps that lead to hell.† This is what spiritual warfare is made of. Choice is the battlefield of spiritual warfare. It is that real.
Spiritual warfare is waged on the battlefield of our choices. And it is God's power versus Satan's power. Which do we choose to align ourselves with?
Love of good, hate of good, hate of evil, love of evil? What do you love or hate? People like to paint this as a gray area, but it's not.
People say,
"Where is the God of judgment?" Malachi 2:17
Where is that ultimate justice said to be coming? They erase the consequences of Hell, the reality of Hell, when God's hatred of that which is evil is poured out on the eternally unrepentant.
They corrupt Heaven with their love of evil. And they say, anybody can go there, effectively destroying what is Heaven.
No, Heaven is where God dwells. "Sin Can Never Enter There." †
And this one life on Earth becomes a place of revelry.
"Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die." 1 Corinthians 15:32
It is a very foolish mindset to have, because the consequences are real.
"Where is the promise of his coming?" 2 Peter 3:4
"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" Hebrews 9:27
We have one life on Earth to choose between Heaven and Hell, between Paradise and Perdition.
What has God said regarding all of these things?
We're going to look at passage that is frequently kept to a singular verse. And it covers all of this area that we've been discussing. That passage starts with John 3:16, but it goes on to include some of the most important "missing context" in the Bible.
What is God's offer? This is where we usually dwell.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already." John 3
This is our natural condition, our natural state.
"He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
God's only Son.
"And this is the condemnation..."
This is where God is coming from. This is why God is judging the world.
"That light has come into the world, and men loved darkness,"
they ran and hid,
"rather than light because their deeds were evil,"
a guilty conscience that was not repented of.
"For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved."
Elsewhere, other passages which we'll get into when we get into the video on the hatred of good... Part of the reason that the world hates Jesus is because He reproved the world of sin. They don't come to the light lest their deeds should be reproved.
The sinner avoids being washed from his sin.
"The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." 2 Peter 2:22
How repulsive...
What ought we to do about it?
"But he that doeth truth..."
Oh, but you're a sinner. How does that work? Aren't you a hypocrite? If you turn from darkness to light?
By the power of God, it is not hypocrisy. It is redemption. It is a turning from the ways of death and a turning to the ways of life, a turning from the kingdom of Hell, turning to the kingdom of Heaven. Turning from Satan to God. When we turn, when we repent and confess our sins, and God forgives us of our sins, He puts on us the righteousness of Christ.
Then we continue in well doing, rather than evil doing.
"But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be manifest, that they are wrought in God."
It's not our own glory. That is not the purpose of good, of sanctified, of holy, works.
The purpose is to give honor and glory to God, Who has given us the power through the resurrection of His Son to do good, not filthy rags, actual good.
Not only is this righteousness imputed on to us, but it is empowered within us to do what is
"that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Romans 12:2
"The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9
What ought we to do? If we confess our sins to God,
"He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." 1 John 1:9
"Who can forgive but God?" Mark 2:7-12
Well, Jesus was God. He could forgive. And we also are called to forgive others,† but it is not the same as if God forgave us.
Only God can save us from our sins. We can say,
"Lord, lay not this sin to their charge," Acts 7:59-60
and so on. But that is directed to God. We can pray to God. Others can pray to God. Sin is dealt with by God, not by us.
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
"Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." 2 Corinthians 5:17
And that's what I was talking about before.
"Old things are passed away."
Evil works, those "filthy rags" that we called good works, those are passed away.
"Behold, all things are become new."
We are doing what God has called us to do. We're doing the works of our Father, which is in Heaven, His will
"done on earth as it is in Heaven" Matthew 6:9-10
through the church, through the Christian, through Christians working together to honor and glorify God above all.†
"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." 2 Corinthians 5:20
And I want that for you. And we are in Christ's stead, continuing to preach this Gospel. Christ died for our sins, for everyone who is born again. We bear witness to the transforming power of Jesus Christ in lives of those who've gone before us, and in our own lives.
And so, we walk as He walked.
"Follow me," Jesus said. Matthew 16:24
"Follow me as I follow Christ," Paul said. 1 Corinthians 11:1
And if we are not following Christ, why should we be followed? But follow Christ, so that those who follow you will be led to Christ, and nothing less.
"Be ye reconciled to God."
So yeah, we all have choices to make. Where are we setting our affection?
On things above? Do we have a love of good?
On things of the Earth? Meddling around with evil, and hating things that we ought not? Hating things that we ought to celebrate? Are we under the judgment of God?
We have a choice, one life on Earth, between Paradise and Perdition, Heaven and Hell.
Love and good, and evil and hate.
How do you reckon with those terms?
Do we call this all a gray area? How do we find clarity? We find clarity by looking at God's Word.
And what I'm planning to do here is to go through each of these elements, hatred of good, hatred of evil, love of evil, love of good, and to describe from the Scripture, what God has to say about each of these conditions.
Love and hate, good and evil, those are words that have been redefined. Many times people will, for example, redefine what it means to be a lover of that which is good, by saying, "Well, evil isn't actually evil." And, so they bring their love of evil. And somehow dodge that record in Scripture that sin does not enter Heaven.†
There's more we can get into, and as we look at this diagram... Yeah, there will be further videos. But, what does Scripture say? How does Scripture define all of these terms? And these relationships between these terms?
Satan would like to have us divided between what is loving and what is holy, what is good. Dividing what is good into two camps, the loving and the holy, as if they were separate. That is wrongly dividing the Word of Truth.
What we need is, What has God said?
Look it up in His Word, and answer the Devil, and answer the uninformed. "Yea hath God said?" Yea, God has said. And here's what He has said.
So that's all for this week. Hopefully we'll get into some more discussion. There's a veritable tree that can be developed from this, but we'll see how far that goes. There are some cliches as far as the left hand side or the right hand side of that diagram, as far as name-calling that goes on in our world today, as well as yesterday.
And we'll possibly explore how some of those relate. But for now...
Continue on in the love of God and do justly.†
"God is not willing that any should perish" 2 Peter 3:9
as far as hatred of evil is concerned. So why should we be? And yet right and wrong do need to be divided between. And, if we love what is good, and we hate that which is evil, and we call those who do evil to be reconciled to God, then truly we are ambassadors for Christ.
So encourage, edify each other, exhort,† rebuke where necessary.† Because the difference between right and wrong, between good and evil, between God and Satan, has eternal consequence. And I want you to go to Heaven. And I hope that you want your fellow man to go to Heaven. How shall we call them there, if we're not speaking the truth in love? If we do not have a love of the truth?
If we are trying to divide the attributes of God, rather than unite them, we are not leading people to Heaven, we are leading them into confusion. God is not the author of confusion.† Satan is. So let's follow the character of God, and let's be clear, and crisp, and clean about what God has said.
"Yea hath God said?"
Yea, God has said.
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