Please remain standing in honor of God's word. We're continuing on through the book of Proverbs, and this morning we'll look at one proverb, which is found in Proverbs 29, verse 27. Proverbs 29, verse 27. This is God's inspired, inerrant, authoritative word. An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous, but the one whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as your word goes forth this morning, we pray that we'll be empowered by the Holy Spirit and help us, your people, to not merely listen to the word and so deceive ourselves, but help us to do what it says. For it is in the doing that we are blessed. And we ask these things confidently because we ask them in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. In R.C. Sproul's classic book, The Holiness of God, he tells the story of one of the leading golfers on the professional tour who was invited to play in a foursome with Gerald Ford, then President of the United States, Jack Nicklaus, and Billy Graham. The golfer was especially in awe of playing with Ford and Billy Graham. He had played frequently with Nicklaus before. After the round of golf was finished, one of the other pros came up to the golfer and asked, hey, what was it like playing with the president and Billy Graham? The pro unleashed a torrent of cursing and in a disgusted manner said, I don't need Billy Graham stuffing religion down my throat. With that, he turned on his heel and stormed off, heading towards the practice tee. His friend followed the angry pro to the practice tee. The pro took out his driver and started to beat out balls in fury. His neck was crimson, and it looked like steam was coming from his ears. His friend said nothing. He sat on a bench and watched. After a few minutes, the anger of the pro was spent. He settled down. Then his friend said quietly, was Billy a little rough on you out there? The pro heaved an embarrassed sigh and said, no. He didn't even mention religion, I just had a bad round. Sproul comments, astonishing. Billy Graham had said not a word about God, Jesus, or religion, yet the pro had stormed away after the game, accusing Billy of trying to ram religion down his throat. How do we explain this? It's really not difficult. Billy Graham is so associated, identified with religion, so associated with the things of God that his very presence is enough to smother the wicked man. Holiness provokes hatred, and the greater the holiness, the greater the hostility toward it. It is this hatred, or abomination, That's the word that Solomon uses towards the righteous or upright that Proverbs 29, 27 mentions. But the abomination also moves in the other direction. An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous. Our goal this morning is to understand this mutual abomination or enmity. and how we as Christians should respond to it. I have a number of points, and you have an outline provided for you, so maybe it's helpful. There's six points, so quite a few of them. The first one is the origin of the enmity. Where did this enmity come from? When did it begin? And the answer is found in Genesis 3.15. After the fall, God confronts the serpent, the devil, and this is what he says. I will put enmity between you and the woman, we'll come back to that a little later, and between your offspring and her offspring. So here we have the introduction of enmity. In the second part of the curse on the serpent, God places perpetual enmity between the offspring of Satan and the offspring of the woman. In other words, Satan has those who follow him. The woman and the godly seed have those who follow God. And there will be enmity between them. There will be hostility between them. And it will be fierce. Commenting on the amity of Genesis 3.15, Charles Bridges writes, here is the oldest, the most rooted, the most universal quarrel in the world. It was the first fruit of the fall. It has continued ever since, and it will last to the end of the world. That brings us to our second point, which is really just stressing the implication of the first point, and that is, the inescapability of the enmity. The inescapability of the enmity. In other words, there is no neutrality. There is no middle ground. You cannot be Switzerland in this war and decide that you're not going to get involved. Either you are on God's side or you are on Satan's side. Whose side are you on? This morning as you sit there right now, you are on one side or the other. Now sometimes this makes us uncomfortable. I remember a Christian saying one time, why does there have to be an us versus a them? Well, there is an us versus a them because God has placed enmity between the two sides. And this is what Jesus said in Luke 11 23. Whoever is not with me is against me and whoever does not gather with me scatters. Jesus also said you're either with me or you're against me. It is one side or the other and again there's no neutrality there is no middle ground. Now, because of these two opposing sides, the Apostle Paul provides us with a warning in 2 Corinthians 6, 14 and following. He says, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. And then he explains why with several questions. And these questions, of course, are designed to get us to think. He says, for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord. Now, this passage is not saying that you can't have any associations whatsoever with unbelievers. But it is letting us know that partnership, true fellowship with unbelievers is not possible. We cannot have that kind of intimate relationship with unbelievers. C.S. Lewis said on one occasion that friendship is about something. That's pretty simple. That's straightforward. It could be about your love for the Chicago White Sox and how together you're mourning your White Sox because they've now lost 10 games in a row. And you can have a friendship with unbelievers about the Sox. One time, Pastor Doug Wilson and the former atheist Christopher Hitchens were in a debate. I say former atheist because Christopher Hitchens has passed away, and no longer is he claiming to be an atheist. But anyways, they were talking about their mutual love for the author, P.J. Woodhouse. And they were quoting from Woodhouse all the phrases that they liked because they were quite humorous. But what they did not share in common was their mutual love for Jesus Christ and the salvation that they have through faith in Christ. That cannot take place. That only happens among Christians, which is one reason why I hope you love to gather together every Lord's Day, because we not only share our love of eating or different recipes that we'll be enjoying later, but we share our love for Jesus Christ. And even if we're different in so many ways, what unites us is our love in Christ. And that brings us together and it provides not just friendship, but actually true koinonia, true fellowship. Our third point is the reason for the antithesis or enmity. And this is simple, but it's often overlooked. And it's the reason, or excuse me, the reason for this mutual enmity is simply how the other side lives Let's look at the proverb again. An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous, but the one whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked. So the righteous man looks at the sinful lifestyle of the wicked, and he finds it abominable. And in return, the wicked man looks at the holy lifestyle of the righteous man, and he finds it Abominable. The great divide that separates believers from unbelievers is God and His law. I think that's important. It's God and it is specifically His law. The Christian says with the psalmist in Psalm 119, 97, oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. The non-Christian essentially says, oh, how I despise your law. I don't want to have anything to do with it all the day long. This is what we read in Psalm 2, which describes those opposed to the law of God. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. They're raging because they don't want to have anything to do with the law of God. For them, it's like chains that have them bound. And they want to escape the law of God so that they can live as they please. And if they could, they would rewrite the law of God. And in fact, Ted Turner did take it upon himself to actually rewrite the Ten Commandments, because as he said on one occasion, commands are out. So in his vast wisdom, he decided to replace the inspired Ten Commandments of God with his own ten voluntary initiatives, which are kind of interesting. I won't read all of them for you, but number three says, I promise to have no more than two children, or no more than my nation suggests, which is quite interesting and hypocritical because he himself had five children. My wife and I have five children. We've told many people it's a good start. So I don't know why he was opposed to that. But he sought, in all seriousness, to toss out the Ten Commandments because they struck him as outdated, particularly the one banning adultery. Quote, people have had a lot of fun breaking that one. I know I did. So we need to do away with these restrictive, binding commandments. One time he walked into the CNN newsroom on Ash Wednesday. and spotting several staffers with smudges on their foreheads blurted out, what are you, a bunch of Jesus freaks? You ought to be working for Fox. He also said famously, Christianity is a religion for losers, which is interesting because in his second voluntary initiative, he said, I promise to treat all persons everywhere with dignity, respect, and friendliness. Perhaps it doesn't apply to everybody. But what's bringing about these two sides is division over the law of God. And this brings us to the fourth point, the fierceness of the enmity. The fierceness of the enmity. Did you notice the word that Solomon uses? The unjust man is an abomination to the righteous, but one whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked. That is a strong word, and Solomon chose that word on purpose to remind us of just how fierce these two sides are towards each other. 2 Timothy 3.12, Paul said, Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. So if you live godly, you can expect, you can count on, to some degree or another, being persecuted. That's how fierce this battle is between the two sides. Remember Sproul's comment? The greater the holiness, the greater the hostility. And this hostility started right away. If you were to read right after The Curse on the Serpent and continue to the next chapter in Genesis 4, you would see that Cain killed his brother Abel. And why did he kill him? We're told, 1 John 3, 12 and 13 says, we should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one, and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil, and his brothers were righteous. And then he gives this application for us. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. Cain killed Abel simply because his brother was righteous. He couldn't stand it. So he actually killed his own brother. And John says, you do not be surprised if the world hates you. And of course, Jesus said that. In John 15, beginning at verse 18, Jesus said, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. And then in verse 25, Jesus said, but the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled They hated me without cause. Isn't that interesting? They hated me. Why? Without cause. There was no justifiable reason for hating Jesus Christ. He never sinned against God. He never sinned against another person. And yet, they hated him. Think of this golfer. who was not happy with Billy Graham when he had not said a single word about God, Jesus, or religion, but there was this hostility toward his religion. You know, sometimes we hear it said, if only Christians were more like Jesus, the world would like us. If Christians were more like Jesus, Here's the truth, we would be more hated. They would treat us like Jesus was treated. How was Jesus treated? He was executed. Charles Bridges, gladly would the wicked were it not, or excuse me, were it not their enmity restrained, root them out of the face of the earth as they never rested till they had nailed the son of God to the tree. This is that strong poison of the serpent seed, the murderous spirit of their father, the devil. It is a fierce enmity. This brings us to our fifth point, the dangers in the enmity. The dangers in the enmity. Some of you will remember Rodney King's famous statement in the midst of the South Central Los Angeles riots. People, I just want to say, can't we all get along? Can't we all get along? Do you remember when that was famously said? Why can't we all get along? Because we have these two sides that are opposed to each other. But I think that sentiment resonates because we all want to get along. I mean, if we could have it our way, wouldn't we want to live in a world where everybody gets along? That is not going to happen until we get to glory. In heaven, we will all get along. But until that time, there will constantly be friction. So what are some of the dangers? There are many. Let me give you a couple. The one danger for Christians, because of this conflict, the danger will be for us to be quiet about our countercultural convictions, to be quiet about what the Bible says about gender, abortion, sexuality, marriage. or perhaps to compromise our convictions and become chameleons and just blend in with the culture so that we don't have to experience the inevitable friction that would result. That's one of the dangers. Here's another danger. If we're not careful, we can turn into angry people who hate their enemies. That's the other side. We can turn into angry people and we can hate our enemies. And we are not to do that. Charles Bridges, once again, the enmity of the just is against the sins, not the persons of the wicked. Oh, do they love their souls and pray for them. How gladly would they win them to Christ and salvation. Sometimes we talk about loving the sinner and hating the sin. And you have to be careful because it is sinners, not just the sin, that God will judge. Yet at the same time, I do think that that is a helpful distinction. We are to find their behavior, their sin, abominable. But at the same time, we are to love sinners. This is what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 43. He said, You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. So God himself finds certain behaviors abominable. We've seen those previously in the book of Proverbs. Yet at the same time, God loves his enemies. And the one example that Jesus gives in the Sermon on the Mount is that he sends them sun, he sends them rain so that they can have crops, so that they can have food, so that they can provide for themselves and their families. So God can hate their sin, and yet at one level, he can love them and provide for them. And we're specifically commanded to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us. So if we could put these two dangers together, I would say what we are called to do as Christians is to speak the truth in love. So we are not to be quiet about our convictions, we are to speak our convictions. And we are not to turn into angry people, but we are to love them. So we are to speak the truth in love. And then a final point, the end of the enmity between God and man. What could bring that enmity to an end? It will require the sovereign work of God. It will require the sovereign work of God. Returning to Genesis 3.15, where we have the introduction of the enmity, the first part was God saying to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman. Now that is very significant, perhaps more significant than we think. Previously, there was not enmity between Satan and the woman. You know why? They were on the same side. Basically, Adam and Eve, when they sinned, they left God's side and they went over to the devil's side. And now God intervenes and he says, I'm going to put enmity between you. You're not going to be on the same side anymore. According to John MacArthur, in essence, God says to the devil, you are not going to have the woman. So he curses him and makes the woman his enemy, when previously she was an ally. John MacArthur goes on to say, you have here the first indication of an altered nature. So if there is going to be enmity between the woman and the serpent, the woman and Satan, it is going to come as a result of the change of their hearts. God is going to provide the forgiveness necessary and the transformation that changes them from lovers of Satan, as it were, and enemies of God, to lovers of God and haters of Satan. I think that's significant. God is intervening in this situation. He goes on to say that here we have the great doctrine of regeneration, new birth, transformation, conversion, doctrines of forgiveness, expressions of grace. Amazingly, the gospel with all of its saving purposes finds its entrance into the Bible in a curse on Satan. The gospel is first given, not in a promise to man, but in his judgment on Satan. So that's significant. God sovereignly intervenes, changes Adam and Eve so that now they are no longer on Satan's side, they are now on God's side. And I think that's a great insight by John MacArthur. A lot takes place for that enmity enter into so God is sovereign but man is also responsible and he uses our actions our behavior to change the lives of other people in Romans 12 beginning of verse 20 we read to the contrary if your enemy is hungry feed him If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by doing so, you will heat burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. So in a world of hostility and friction and warness, as Christians, we overcome evil with good. by loving our enemies and even showing them love in tangible ways so that they can see that our lives have been changed. And such behavior towards our enemies will be surprising to them, shocking to them. They will wonder how we can behave in such a manner. And then 1 Peter 2.12. keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak evil against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." So when we're spoken evil against, were to continue to live righteous lives, good lives, loving lives, and the hope is that, as a result, unbelievers will glorify God. And if they glorify God, what does that mean? That means that their lives were changed. They saw our light. They saw our changed life, our love, even towards enemies. God used that. And as a result, they were changed, and they now give glory to God. So God uses our behavior to have an impact on other people. So we have to be careful how we respond in this fierce battle that we're a part of. Now, if you are on God's side this morning, it is the time to thank and praise Thank God that he has changed you. Because apart from his intervention, you would still be on Satan's side. You would still be hostile to the law of God. You would still be living in rebellion. So if he and his mercy and his grace has opened your eyes and changed your nature, thank him and praise him. You did not do that on your own. That is the work of God. And it is not 90% the work of God, 10% your work. It's not even 99% the work of God. God did most of it. God did all of it. 100%, which is why he gets all the glory. And then you responded. If you have not turned to God, If you have not put your faith in Christ, then I would encourage you, as Paul said, be reconciled to God. Be reconciled to God. You do not have to leave here this morning opposed to God. You do not have to leave here this morning against Christ. You can be on the Lord's side. If you will look to God for forgiveness and put your faith in him, you will be forgiven. It's one of the reasons why we love John 3, 16, because it's the gospel in a nutshell. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. And it's my prayer that each and every one of you would put your faith in Christ so that you would not perish, but have everlasting life. Let's close in prayer. Father, again, we thank you for your word. We thank you for those passages that we find sobering. We thank you for the great promises of your word of forgiveness and redemption. in Jesus Christ. And I do pray for all of us that we will turn to Jesus Christ. And Father, how thankful we are that you are a patient, a merciful, a gracious God. And it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.