Are you following Jesus? #9

So we seen yesterday how much God hates sin! So if God hates sin does that mean He hates sinners. Now read all of what I am going to say before you jump to any conclusions because it is not a simple yes or no answer! So here we go:



Yes God hates sinners! Ouch! How can I say that???? Look at these verses:



Psalm 5:5-6

5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.6 You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.



Did you see God hates evildoers? A evil doer is a sinner correct?

God will destroys liars....lying is a sin right?

The Lord abhors bloodthirsty and liars. These are sin right? A synonym for abhor is hate! Are you getting the picture yet?



Now here is the rest of the story, God hates sinners but He also loves His creation created in His image:





John 3:16

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."



So here is how I look at this. There is no doubt God loves man, but when we are in sin He can look at us, we are wicked and He hates wickedness for He is Holy and Righteous. The only way we can be reconciled to Him is by being covered in the shed blood of Jesus. Once we are covered in that blood by following Jesus Christ with our lives then we can be in God's presence. The sacrifice has been made by Jesus which shows how much God loves us by sending His Son to die for us....sinners which He can not stand! Whew....what love.



This is not even close to explain the love/hate of God towards sinners like us but it may help you understand a little more. Remember back to dating in high school? One day you love them, the next day you hate them because they hurt you, then you love them again, ect. haha! Only God is not wishy washy like that. He can not tolerate sin, but when that sin has been covered by the blood of Jesus nothing can separate us from His great love!





Romans 8:35-39

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.



Do you see in verse 39 where the love of God is? In Christ Jesus not in our sin! For in Jesus we are covered!



So once again we can see as we follow Jesus, sin is a very serious thing before God....He hates it. We must take care of our sin through the blood of Christ! The world laughs at sin and thinks its funny and can be played with, do not fall into that trap!



I hope I got the point across this morning!



Are you following or doing your own thing?



Tom