He Loves Righteousness and Hates Wickeness

Hebrews 1:8-9 ESV

 

“But of the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,

    the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;

therefore God, your God, has anointed you

    with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.’”

 

The Scepter of Uprightness

 

Jesus Christ is God and he is the Son of God. He is completely sovereign over all that he has made, and he is our creator God, the author and the giver of life, both of physical life and of eternal life to those who trust in him to be Lord and Savior of their lives, by God’s grace through God-given faith in Jesus which dies with Christ to sin and lives to his righteousness.

 

The scepter (emblem, insignia, symbol) of God’s (Jesus’) eternal kingdom is that of uprightness, righteousness, purity, and holiness. He loves righteousness and he hates wickedness. And I want us to dwell on that thought a little while, too. For this is critical that we understand this, for it enters into what we end up believing is the true gospel of Christ.

 

For, when Jesus died on that cross for our sins it was to put our sin to death with him in order that sin might be put to death in our lives so that we would no longer live under its control, so that it would no longer have mastery over our lives. Jesus died to free us from the control of sin and from our slavery to sin so we would now be slaves of him and of his righteousness.

 

And he is leading us to this place of faith in him to where we would now die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness, to where we would no longer live for ourselves but for him who gave his life up for us, and to where we would now honor God with our bodies (our lives) because of what he did for us in shedding his blood to buy us back for God (to redeem us).

 

Infestation of Human “Cockroaches”

 

But, when we take a good hard look into what is commonly being taught as the “gospel” today, it is nothing like the gospel that Jesus died for and that he taught and that his NT apostles taught. It is filled with all kinds of uncleanness and immorality and sensuality and sexual perversion and the lusts of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

 

And it is filled with lies, deceptions, the twisting of truth, manipulations, maliciousness, fakery, and wickedness, which is multiplying by leaps and bounds. And this is being brought to us by human “cockroaches” who are those who have crept into our midst largely unnoticed who are perverting the grace of our God into sensuality and who are denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ (see Jude 1:4).

 

And this is taking place in a large majority of the gatherings of the church today which are representative of the adulterous bride of Christ in bed with sensuality and seductiveness and sexual immorality and self-pleasure. And these gatherings are filled with these human “cockroaches” who are leading the people to a gospel that is driven by flesh and not by God.

 

For the gospel they are teaching makes no requirements for repentance, for obedience to Christ and to his commands, and the honoring of Jesus as Lord (Master) of our lives. For they are teaching a gospel which turns “belief” in Jesus into some mere religious exercise which happens once in their lives and then which they teach guarantees them heaven when they die.

 

But the gospel they are teaching gives free license for their adherents to continue living in deliberate, willful, premeditated sin against the Lord on a habitual and cyclical basis without conscience, and with the false notion that Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins covered it all and forgave all and thus we can continue living like hell on earth while we wait for heaven.

 

But Thanks Be to God

 

What a mockery they make of what Jesus did for us on that cross. “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Co 2:14-15).

 

So, we are to be spreading the truth of the gospel, the one that teaches that we must repent of our sins, that we must die with Christ to sin and live to Christ and to his righteousness, that teaches that we must walk in obedience to his commands and that we must surrender our lives to him, holy and pleasing to him, which is our acceptable worship of him (Rom 12:1-2).

 

And remember that the symbol of God’s eternal kingdom is that of uprightness, righteousness, purity, and holiness. And He loves righteousness and he hates wickedness. So he did not die on that cross so we would be free to continue living in wickedness and in immorality while claiming him as Savior, and heaven as our eternal destiny.

 

But because these human “cockroaches” are everywhere spreading their vermin, and they are teaching a cheap grace gospel that permits their followers to keep on in deliberate sin against the Lord, they have put righteousness and holiness to death. They have put an end to all that is godly, holy, moral, pure, honest, faithful, and good.

 

But we can reject those lies. We can refuse to believe them. And we can stand on the truth of God’s word, and we can walk away from what is unholy and what is wicked, and we can walk in the ways of holiness and righteousness in the power of God and in his strength. We just have to say “No” to ungodliness and fleshly lusts and live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we await our Lord’s return (Tit 2:11-14).

 

We can flee these "cockroach" infested gatherings of what is falsely called "church" where they are spreading these lies, but which may still have some Christians in their midst, but who are probably worldly Christians who are living in spiritual adultery against their Lord. For the Scriptures tell us to flee Babylon, to come out of her midst so we don't share in her sins and in her punishment (Rev 18:4-5).

And we should be spreading the truth of the gospel everywhere possible, on social media, via email, via texting, via phone calls, via in person with people, via blogs and Christian discussion sites and anywhere there is a door open for us to still be able to share the truth, and to oppose the lies, for the salvation of human lives from sin and for them to have eternal life with God.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10]

 

The Lord’s My Shepherd

 

Lyrics by Francis Rous (1579-1659)

Music by Jessie Seymour Irvine (1836-1887)

 

The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want;

  He makes me down to lie

In pastures green; He leadeth me

  The quiet waters by.

 

My soul He doth restore again,

  And me to walk doth make

Within the paths of righteousness,

  E’en for His own name’s sake.

 

Yea, though I walk in death’s dark vale,

  Yet will I fear no ill;

For Thou art with me, and Thy rod

  And staff me comfort still.

 

My table Thou hast furnished

  In presence of my foes;

My head Thou dost with oil anoint,

  And my cup overflows.

 

Goodness and mercy all my life

  Shall surely follow me,

And in God’s house forevermore

  My dwelling-place shall be.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTHr9UcvWko

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