“A worthless person, a wicked man,
goes about with crooked speech,
winks with his eyes, signals with his feet,
points with his finger,
with perverted heart devises evil,
continually sowing discord;
therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;
in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.” (Proverbs 6:12-15 ESV)
Who is a worthless person? A person who thinks only of himself and his own self-pleasure and who does not give thought to God and to his will for his life, and who does not consider the true needs of others, but who sins deliberately and habitually against God, and against other humans, and without conscience, compassion, remorse, and repentance. Nor does he walk in obedience to the Lord. For his life is centered around selfish desire.
And who are the wicked? They are not only the ungodly who do not believe in Jesus Christ but they are any and all who give lip service only to God while they go on living in deliberate and habitual sin. Thus, many professers of Christ are among the wicked because they live wicked lives for self-pleasure and not godly lives for the glory of God. And many of them sin in secret and thus they tell lies to cover up for their sins.
But this lying is not always after the fact. Many times the wicked will plot out evil in advance and so they will create lies in advance as their cover stories to try to hide what they are doing and to try to mislead others into thinking that they are doing something good, and not something evil. And so they will trick and manipulate and devise all kinds of cover stories for their evil deeds. For their hearts are perverted as are their behaviors.
And those who do this in practice can get very good at lying and deceiving and manipulating and getting people to believe their lies, even to the point of getting them to hate others who they should not hate, and in getting them to receive and accept others who they ought not to accept. For they are very good at twisting the truth to their advantage and to make others look bad just because what they are doing is godly and not evil.
But God will have a day of judgment for them if they do not repent of their evil, and if they do not turn away from wickedness and now turn to the Lord Jesus to follow him in obedience and in godly living. And it should grieve us who are following Jesus Christ with our lives to see so many professing Christians today living a lie, for they are those who are engaged in willful defiance against the Lord, who are habitually sinning against the Lord and against other humans without conscience and without true repentance.
“There are six things that the Lord hates,
seven that 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 one who sows discord among brothers.” (Proverbs 6:16-19 ESV)
If we are true servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, not only should we love what God loves, but we should hate what he hates. So we should hate arrogance. We should hate a selfish attitude that says, “I don’t need God, for I can do this myself.” We should hate all attitudes and actions and words that are presented as superior and as mocking to God and to his word or that present this idea that they can go it alone and they don’t need God.
Lies, oh how I hate lies! I hate deception and nondenial denials and manipulation and misimpressions and subliminal messages, etc., all of which are intended to deceive, to trick, and to manipulate other humans. I hate those lies which are intended to cover up evil and to try to trick others into believing the lies and to ignoring the truth. I especially hate those lies which get people to reject the truth of the gospel and to follow the lies, instead.
And I hate murder. I hate war and the abuse and misuse of other humans for other people’s own advantage and for their nefarious purposes. And often this is in combination with lies and deception, getting people to buy into the lie that we have to murder hundreds of thousands of people in other nations just to protect the people in our own nation. So much of what is being done in the name of “protection” has nothing to do with that at all.
For there are many greedy and wicked people in this world who care nothing at all for human life, other than for their own, who will kill, rape, destroy, obliterate, falsify information about, steal from, and do to whatever their wicked hearts desire without conscience in order to fulfill their own evil plans for humanity and for the purpose of conquering people and nations and governments in order to bring us all into a one world order (Revelation 13).
And I hate all of that, for all of this is pure selfishness and it is pure evil and it cares nothing for those who get hurt in the process. And included in this are those within the gatherings of the church who are lying to the people and who are sowing discord because they are convincing so many to believe the lies and to reject the truth. For their purpose is to turn the hearts of people away from true faith to follow after the lies, instead.
And all of this, every bit of it, is about pure selfish desire which cares nothing about God nor about other humans. And it is driven by hate and resentment and bitterness and greed and envy and the like. And sadly this is where we are in this world of ours with so many going the way of the flesh and not the way of God. And according to the Scriptures, it is only going to get much worse, not better, not until Jesus returns for his faithful ones.
So, what is the encouragement here for us today? Well, we should not be like them, and we should not be those who are giving our loyalty, devotion, and support to those who are doing this evil against God and against other humans, sometimes in the name of God. So we need to be people of discernment who are listening to the Lord and who are following him and his word (New Covenant) in the proper context and who are obeying him.
And we need to be those who have been crucified with Christ in death to sin and who are living to God and to his righteousness, in the power of God, and who are not living in deliberate and habitual sin against our Lord. We must be those who are walking in fellowship with our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands (New Covenant) because we love him, and because we desire him above all else, and because we want to do what pleases him.
[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
As the Deer
By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1
As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You
You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70
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