September 4, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
HATRED, NOT LOVE FOR SIN IS CENTRAL TO THE PLAN OF SALVATION
“But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne of God is forever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom. Thou has loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore Thy God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.”
Heb. 1: 8,9, Authorized Version.
God the Father addresses His only-begotten Son as GOD! And the Son like the Father, as in like father like son, LOVES righteousness and HATES iniquity (sin, the transgression of the law).
“Because of their SIN, God had to exclude Adam and Eve from the home He had prepared for them. It must have been with great sorrow of heart that the two left the place where they had first met, which held such blessed memories for them.”
“But it must have been with immeasurably greater sorrow that God commanded them to leave. He had created them. He loves them. He had planned for them a future.”
“But they had DISOBEYED Him. They had CHOSEN another master. They had eaten of the FORBIDDEN fruit. ‘And now,’ said God, ‘lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever….He drove out the man.’ Gen. 3: 22-24.
“God did not leave Adam in a condition of despair. He not only promised that the Lamb ‘slain from the foundation from the world,’ should die for him, thus providing OBJECTIVE SALVATION, but He also promised to help him RESIST SIN by giving him the capacity for HATRED of it!
“I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed,’ God said. Gen. 3:15. An interpretation of this text, without doing violence to it, would read: ‘I will put hatred for evil in your heart.’”
“This hatred is VITAL to our salvation. Humanly considered, AS LONG as love for sin [instead of righteousness], no man is SAFE. He may resist evil, but if in his heart there is LOVE for it and a HANKERING after it, he is not on safe ground.”
“Of Christ it is said, ‘Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity.’ Heb. 1:9. It is important to LEARN to hate evil. The FIRST PROMISE IN THE BIBLE IS FOR HATRED FOR SIN.”
“Only as the INIQUITY OF SIN becomes real to us, only as we learn to hate evil, are we safe. Christ not merely loved righteousness; He hated iniquity. This hatred is FUNDAMENTAL in [genuine] Christianity. And God has promised to put THIS HATRED for sin into our hearts.” Andreasen, The Sanctuary Service, pp.18, 19.
Of all the things and blessings we have been incessantly asking God in our prayers, for all these years, have we ever asked God for HIS PROMISE to put hatred of sin in our hearts? Perhaps not and this should explain why we don’t believe Jesus’ command, “Overcome even as I overcame.”
Its high time to examine our hearts and re-evaluate our priorities. Bless all, NMF.