Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Guest (Male): The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals presents the timeless teaching of Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: In Romans 12:9, we come to hate what is evil. People are frequently afraid to admit that hatred is a Christian virtue. Careful search of the concordance will reveal that God hates all evildoers, workers of iniquity. He hates the man who loves violence. He hates pride, arrogance, the way of evil, perverted speech. He hates divorce, Malachi tells us. He hates the false oath. He hates covetousness.

In the light of all these great declarations of God's hatred, how it behooves us to walk before Him humbly and with a great desire that He should search our hearts, sound our thoughts, and see if there is any wicked way in us. He commands us here to abhor that which is evil and to cleave to that which is good. As we learn to hate evil, we shall become more like God, for we shall allow the Lord Jesus Christ to animate us. His life becomes our life. His love becomes our love, and His hate becomes our hate. May the Lord teach us to hate the things that He hates and to love what He loves.

Guest (Male): Over a half-century ago, the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, then pastor of 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, saw the need to spread God's word beyond the hearing of his local congregation. He started the radio outreach which has become known as Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. The application of God's word as taught by Dr. Barnhouse is as relevant today as when he first taught over the radio airwaves decades ago.

The message we'll be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled The Hatred of God. The Bible declares that God is love and stresses the preeminence of love in the Christian life. Love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and an indispensable virtue in the life of every believer. But do you realize that hatred is just as much an attribute of God and just as much a Christian virtue as love is?

God's perfect character demands a holy hatred of every manifestation of sin and evil. And if we are to reflect the character of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must hate that which is evil and which stands opposed to His holiness and righteousness. The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is Romans chapter 12 and verse 9. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled The Hatred of God.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come to You, our Father and our God, and in the Holy Spirit. When we are discouraged and tried, we must come to You, for there is no other source of comfort and strength. Help us to be yielded in our hearts to Your will so that we do not run ahead of You nor lag behind. We pray for all who are in special need. You know the need and You love us even more than we love ourselves. So meet us, we pray, and give us what You see to be our greatest need. We ask it all in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

In Romans 12:9, we come to abhor that which is evil. The Revised Standard Version is much better than the older translation. It gives us the Greek with earthy literalness: hate what is evil. Perhaps the translators wanted to water down the strength of the divine utterance. People are frequently afraid to admit that hatred is a Christian virtue. See, the problem is one of direction. The hatred must be there, but it must be directed against all that is evil and not directed in any wise against individuals.

Love is to be without hypocrisy as we saw in our last study. Hatred is to be directed against evil. We must not forget that one of the biblical proofs of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ is that He knew how to hate. In the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we have a tissue of quotations from the Old Testament brought together by the Holy Spirit in order to marshal the evidence of Christ's Godhead. He is not to be classified with the angels. He is none other than the Lord Jehovah of hosts, second person of the Godhead.

And among these quotations shines the one from the 45th Psalm: "Thy throne, oh God, is forever and ever. Thy righteous scepter is the scepter of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore God, Thy God, has anointed Thee with the oil of gladness beyond Thy comrades." Now, thank God that our Lord Jesus Christ has left us with the example of His hatred. How He loathed sham, pretense, hypocrisy. How He tore the masks from the faces of the Pharisees and revealed what they really were.

They hated Him, for by His penetrating questions, He exposed their artifice and deceit, their guile and trickery. And just by standing near them, He showed them up. Just as snow falling beside the whitest linen makes it seem yellow and stained. The Lord Jesus was and is God, and the Bible is everywhere marked by God's hatred of all that is evil. When our text, therefore, commands us to hate that which is evil, it is telling us that we are to be like our Savior and our God.

Let us consider some of the passages where the word hate is used in connection with God. The passage that leaps first to the mind is that in the Proverbs where we are told in Proverbs 6: "There are six things which the Lord Jehovah hates, seven which 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 a man who sows discord among brethren."

Now, surely if God hates these things, we are to hate them also. Let's look at them. The first is haughty eyes, or as the older translation has it, a proud look. If the mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart, it is safe to say that the eyes are the windows of the soul. It was the man who did not even dare to lift his eyes to heaven who went down to his house a justified man, rather than the haughty Pharisee. The publican was repentant and asked the Lord to deal with him on the basis of the blood sacrifice, and not on the basis of any pride or human achievement. No man can look on God until he has first been cleansed by the flowing grace that makes it possible for him to know his sins forgiven.

God hates the proud look, and so must we hate it. First in ourselves, and then in others while still loving them. The second thing that God hates is a lying tongue. This is understandable because Christ taught us that lying comes from Satan himself. Our Lord said to those who opposed Him, as we read in John 8:44, "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and has nothing to do with the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

Definitely, then, a person who has become a child of God will cease the practices of his first nature and talk in the likeness of his new parentage. We have become children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. We are, therefore, the children of Him whose very name is the truth. We must hate lying lips, first of all our own, and then hate lies in whatever form we find them while we love the truth and seek to overcome error with the bold proclamation of the truth.

The third thing that God hates is hands that shed innocent blood. At first sight, it might seem that we could pass over this with only slight mention, for it seems so obvious that murder is a gross sin and that we should hate any thought of it. But it is possible for us to have false ideas of murder in the national realm. A dead Egyptian lying in a street of Port Said is as much a victim of outrage as a dead Hungarian lying in a street of Budapest. No attempt to rationalize can get us out of the dilemma. God hates such violence, and we must hate it too. And while we hate these things, we must pray for the men who have perpetrated such evil deeds and ask God to bring them to personal repentance and the nations to national repentance.

The fourth object of God's hatred is a heart that devises wicked plans. The older translation reads: "a heart that devises wicked imaginations." God wants us to use our imaginations to think of good things. What can we do to help others? How can we live so that our heart and mind will be occupied with God? There are people who spend their time figuring out ways to trick others, who plan evil, who devise ways to defraud the simple. There are people who spend their time figuring out ways whereby they can gain power even in a church, to run a committee, to dominate a denomination. God hates such thoughts. We must see to it that our own imaginations are turned towards God. Paul spoke in Second Corinthians 10:5 of casting down imaginations and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

In the fifth place, God says that He hates feet that make haste to run to evil. This seems to have the implication of hatred of those who direct their steps to the evil that others are perpetrating and who join in that which has been begun by others. God hates those who cooperate with evildoers. So we are to hate all evil courses of action. The false witness who breathes out lies is the sixth category that brings the special hatred of God into play. That a man should stand before a judge and bear false witness is an abominable thing.

A lying tongue is bad enough, but to lie in a court of justice is a special abomination. Perjury, fraud, malice are certainly involved in such false witness. Perhaps the motive may be greed or revenge, but whatever it may be, it brings down the hatred of God. And we who are His redeemed must be like Him in His hatreds. The last of this group demands close scrutiny. God says that He hates a man who sows discord among brethren. What motive would cause a person to turn one man against another? Perhaps he wishes to profit by the enmity which he stirs up. Honest lawyers castigate the member of the bar who creates litigation for his own profit. God hates such action.

Perhaps a nation is willing to set party against party so that each can be kept in subjection. It was Machiavelli who quoted the ancient political maxim: divide and rule. God hates such action. Let us apply this, however, within the church of Jesus Christ, for here men have caused the worst divisions. If we are honest with the New Testament, we must admit that God does not want men to be separated from each other, but that the desirable way of life is that we should love one another. For men to be at variance is a bad testimony. Christ said that the world would know that we were His disciples when it saw that we loved one another.

In His great prayer in John 17, the night before He died, our Lord asked the Heavenly Father that we might be one, even as the Godhead is one, and concluded by saying that such oneness would prove to the world that the Son had been sent by the Father and that the Father has loved us, the ungodly, even as He loves the Lord Jesus Christ. This amazing wonder of the gospel is possible only as we press towards a continuing oneness. Any attempt to break that oneness is, therefore, a most hateful thing.

Leaving this list of God's hatreds in the Book of the Proverbs, let us look further into the word of God to see what other things He has recorded as objects of His abhorrence. Several passages speak of God's hatred for false religion. He sets up His own standards of what may or may not be permitted in religion and shows great hatred against any variance from that which He has planned and proclaimed. There are those who think that one religion is as good as another, but that, of course, is not true. For there is truth, and that is of God. And then there is the opposite of truth, and that cannot be of God.

This is why, when a Christian speaks of freedom of religion, he means the right of every man to go to hell in his own way or to go to heaven in God's way. And this difference must ever be determined by the word of God. Listen to God describe the practices of the religions that surrounded His ancient people. "Take heed," we read in the Book of Deuteronomy, "take heed that you be not ensnared to follow the other nation and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, 'how did these nations serve their gods that I also may do likewise?' You shall not do so to the Lord your God, for every abominable thing which the Lord hates, they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it."

And we must not think that God's religious hatreds are confined to the abominations of the devil worshipers who would offer their own children as sacrifices. There are hatreds within the bounds of liturgy which God describes in no small detail. We know, for example, that in the Bible, one of the Ten Commandments is against images. God states again and again that He wants no religious statues or images. This is just as much a commandment as the others of the commandments. Through Moses He says: "Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God, neither shalt thou set up any image which the Lord thy God hates." Deuteronomy 16:21 and 22.

We can be sure that God hates any statue of any kind in a church service. Oh, it's too easy for the simple-minded to transfer their worship from the God who may be symbolized in the statue to the statue itself. That this is true can be seen by any thinking person who notes that in some phases of religious worship, there are various statues to the same being and that one statue has more vogue or fashion than another. In the Psalms, God has David sing: "Thou hatest those who pay regard to vain idols." Through the prophet Isaiah, God voiced one of His greatest hatreds in connection with false religion.

We read in the first chapter of Isaiah, "When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you this trampling of My courts? Bring no more vain offerings, incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, My soul hates. They have become a burden to Me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread forth your hands, I will hide My eyes from you, even though you make many prayers, I will not listen."

God's people knew what they should do, but they maintained the form of religion without the virtues of spiritual living. God hates formal religion which comes from hypocritical hearts. A more exact translation of this passage in Isaiah 1 would be: "When you come to present offerings, your incense stinks. I cannot stand to see iniquity associated with solemn assembly." When we apply this to our day, we see that God loathes the religion that allows people to dress up in new clothes for Easter and think more of their personal appearance than of the condition of their souls. We must be dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before His throne.

It is not that God does not want us to hold solemn assemblies, but He does not want them in a life of disobedience. Incense is the symbol of worship, and any form of will-worship is a stench in the nostrils of God since it is not offered in spirit and in truth. How solemn to hear God say that He hates various things in connection with our religious worship. How we should search our hearts and lives. That a holy God should hate something shows the innate unholiness of that thing. Let us illustrate this with a quotation from the prophet Amos. Again, God is speaking about religious worship. Amos 5: "I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Take away from me the noise of your religious songs."

The final line in the Isaiah passage reads: "They are at My expense and I'm tired of supporting them." After all, God furnishes everything we have, and if we offer anything to Him, it's but a small percentage of what He has given. The offering from the heart is acceptable to Him. And when it is only a formal gesture, there is no joy in the heart of God as He looks upon the service. He made the world and all that's in it. The cattle on a thousand hills are His. And if a man takes an ox or a sheep and kills it as though that were all God wanted, it would mean that God was no different from the pagan gods who were placated by a flood of blood. As a father becomes tired of furnishing money to a son who squanders it in orgies, so God is tired of furnishing materials for sacrifices from alien hearts. He hates it.

We must bring our study to a close. But careful search of the concordance will reveal that God hates all evildoers, workers of iniquity. He hates the man who loves violence. He hates pride, arrogance, the way of evil, perverted speech. He hates divorce, Malachi tells us. He hates the false oath. He hates covetousness. In the light of all these great declarations of God's hatred, how it behooves us to walk before Him humbly and with a great desire that He should search our hearts, sound our thoughts, and see if there is any wicked way in us.

He commands us here to abhor that which is evil and to cleave to that which is good. As we learn to hate evil, we shall become more like God, for we shall allow the Lord Jesus Christ to animate us. His life becomes our life. His love becomes our love, and His hate becomes our hate. May the Lord teach us to hate the things that He hates and to love what He loves. And our God and Father, we ask Thee that Thou shalt give us all humility that we may take our place before Thee and acknowledge Thee and be willing to submit our wills to Thine and walk in Thy way. And all this we ask in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus. Amen.

Guest (Male): If we are to truly follow the Lord Jesus Christ, we must hate that which is evil in the world around us as well as in our own hearts. We then can be a positive influence for Christ in our sin-ravaged world. We hope you have benefited from today's message entitled The Hatred of God. You may listen to additional Bible teaching by Dr. Barnhouse online. Visit us at alliancenet.org. An audio copy of today's message is also available by calling us toll-free: 1-800-488-1888. Today's message again is entitled The Hatred of God, or simply request message number R12-20.

We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled The Bible Under Attack. Believers embrace the Holy Scriptures as the very word of God. But for years, the reliability and trustworthiness of the Bible has been challenged by the enemies of the gospel. This free five-chapter booklet powerfully reaffirms the inerrancy, infallibility, and authority of God's living word. Ask for your free copy of The Bible Under Attack when you call or write.

Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is a radio ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We exist to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Drawing upon the insight and wisdom of Reformation theologians from decades and even centuries gone by, we seek to provide contemporary Christian teaching which will equip believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place. The Alliance also produces the radio broadcast The Bible Study Hour, featuring the teachings of the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice, and Every Last Word, featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Philip Graham Ryken.

For a full list of radio stations carrying our programs, visit us online at alliancenet.org. Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible comes to you through the generous gifts of listeners like you. If you have benefited from the broadcast and would like it to continue, please consider a donation to help us stay on the air. For more information or to make a contribution to further our work, contact us by calling toll-free 1-800-488-1888. Again, that's 1-800-488-1888. Write to us at Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Box 2000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. Visit us online at alliancenet.org. Be sure to ask for a free resource catalog featuring books, audio teachings, commentaries, booklets, videos, and a wealth of other materials from outstanding reformed teachers and theologians, including Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, Dr. James Montgomery Boice, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, and Dr. Philip Graham Ryken. Thanks for being with us today. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.