Sincere
April 10th, 2007, 05:52 PM
Good Men Hate God
There is a huge problem facing mankind. In the past, I believed that problem to be dying without being regenerated, which is to say, dying without being born again. This incidentally, is a problem indeed, but not the problem of which I speak of. The problem that I am referring to is more abhorrent and the ramifications of it is of great importance. My aim in this article is to expose, as best that I can, the exceeding sinfulness of mankind, in direct correlation to the exceeding holiness of God and to juxtapose these two characteristics in order to expose the problem - namely, good people can't serve God because good people hate God. It's been said that when a spiritually dead person hears the problem of their sins and has their heart opened and exposed for all the evils that lies within it, they becomes angry and deny the truth. However, when a man made spiritually alive hears the truth of his sins, and has his heart exposed for all the evil that lies within him, he becomes more appreciative of God's grace shown forth in the cross of Christ. It is my hopes that you may become more passionate for God and appreciate just how amazing grace really is.
Problem: "You shall have no other gods before me."
We have a Creator. Our Creator God is of infinite worth, infinite pleasure, infinite joy, infinite glory, and is infinitely better than all things we hold to be pleasurable and precious. The most loving thing that God has done for people is to give Himself (since he is infinitely better than all things), for our eternal inheritance (John 17:3). Yet there is a serious problem; we have traded the worth of this infinitely wonderful and glorious God for other gods. This is sin, and it is of the worst kind. I've heard sin explained this way: "The essence of sin is that we love things and do things that show that we do not desire and love God above those things." How precious and glorious is God? How valuable is he? How much does he think he is worth? The first two people on this earth, Adam and Eve, desired something lesser and esteemed it better than God, and was cast out of his presence for it. That is how valuable God is and how much he knows he is worth. His word should be trusted always, even above our own desires. Moreover, God will not share his glory with another, and so for us to disobey him is not only showing lack of trust, but also showing that we desire and esteem something else higher and better than him. As stated above, Adam and Eve ate of one fruit and was cast out of God's presence, how much more forbidden fruits have we eaten? How many gods do we put before our creator God?
Problem Elaborated: "You shall not commit idolatry; for God is a jealous God."
I will refrain from using the word "sinners," since that seems to have lost its saltiness and people have gotten used to saying, "I am a sinner" without understanding the exceeding sinfulness of sin and its infinite offense against a Holy God (Romans7:13). In place of the word "sinners," I will use the word evil. And so, for the rest of the article, the word evil will be used to express what man is apart from Christ. Most cultures today do not make idols of stone and worship it. Some do, but for the most part, modern man has evolved in his idol worshipping. I've heard idolatry explained this way: "The person or thing in which you put most of your time, effort, thought, and money into, is the thing or person you serve. This thing or person, whatever it may be, becomes your god and thus you have become an idolater." How does God feel about idolatry? Note Jesus' words in Mattew 10:37, "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." God is not an idolater, he will put nothing above himself and he will not share his glory with anything or any one else (Isa 48:11). Again, God is infinitely better. This however, is a problem for mankind. To read such words as these in scripture, results in revealing emotions of hate. Naturally, we cannot love a God like this.
The God of scripture goes against everything the god that we have created in our mind would do. The god of our mind, that is to say, the idol we have made and worshipped, resembles more the likeness of Santa Clause, than he does the God of the Bible. One of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, once said the following: "God created man in his own image and man returned the favor." This is the issue with man. The God of the bible is too demanding, too strict, too selfless and too holy. We are the opposite - too self-centered, too selfish, and too evil. How evil is man and how blind is he to his evil? Or stated another way, how holy is God and how numb to his perfection is man? The following anecdote may shed some light on the issue:
There was once a good atheist who was known for his good deeds and selfless acts of kindness. He lived a good life and was loved by all except one man; an enemy of his, who happened to be dying. Now, this enemy because such by no fault of the good man, but instead was jealous of the good atheist' reputation. One day, after hearing of his enemy's situation, the good man found out that there was a special soup that he could make to save his enemy's life; a soup that he [the good man] alone knew how to make. The good man then sells everything he owns, uses the money to buy all the ingredients to make this special soup, and then proceeds to walk through a snow storm to bring his enemy the soup. In the travel, the good man almost dies, but finally made it to his enemy's house. In almost an instant, after drinking the soup, the enemy makes a miraculously recovery and is saved.
Question: Was that a good deed? It's sin (Romans 14:23)! You may then protest and say, "he did a wonderful deed to his fellow man!" But, what about his God? The truth is, we must all come to terms with the fact that the universe does not revolve around man, but God. Man does not give us breath and wake us up in the morning. "In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). We are not here and living by your own doings, we must come to terms with this. Moreover, to deny his existence when everything you have and is able to do is by God's giving and inabling (John 3:27), is wicked. The "good athesist" is a vile human being for this grave sin.
Furthermore, you can be good to men, but if you are not good to God, it does not count. This is why the Bible says that whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it to the glory of God (1Cor 10:31). Anything apart from that is evil. And herein, I believe, lie the crux of the issue: we hold man's feelings above God. We are humanistic by nature as well as idolaters, and God hates it. He is holy, and we are far from it. In fact, we are so far from understanding God's holiness, that apart from Christ, we do not even understand why loving God above all things, whether it is mother or father or husband or wife, is wrong. Naturally, this truth is foolish and offensive to us. Since this is the case, good men will not love God, because good men hate God. He will take their best deeds and likens them to that of a dirty menstration rag (Isa 64:6).
Good men will do wonderful things and be some of the most generous and moral people you will ever meet. They will come from different backgrounds and speak different languages. They will belong to many different religions, but never the right one. They will say, "my god is a god of Love and he would never send anyone to hell." They are right. Their god will never send anyone to hell because their god does not exist; he is a figment of their imagination - an idol. They have suppressed the truth of the true God and created another god, one who they are more comfortable with, and one whom they would rather serve. I once heard a story about a preacher who claimed that aids is a judgement from God. At the end of the sermon, a woman who was angry with the preacher, approached him and said that she didn't agree with his statement. The preacher asked, "miss, what is your proof?" The woman said angrily, "because babies die from aids and therefore aids cannot be a judgement from God." Just then, the preacher asked, "how many babies do you think God killed in the flood?" You see, we cannot love a God like this. It is one thing for God to be love, but when he begins to show his justice, wrath, and his sovereignty, we begin to have problems. This is the God of the Bible - He is not politically correct and his wrath is terrible as his grace is wonderful. Good men cannot love this God, because good men hate God.
Good men want God to stay in his place. They want him to be love and nothing else. Ironically however, their idea of love is twisted and perverted. The "good man's" version of love is likened best to a judge that lets murderers and rapists and child predators go free, for they say... "God is a God of love and therefore must forgive sinners!" They purposely disregaurd the fact that God is holy and just, and that he by no means will let the guilty go unpunished (Exo 34:7). They miss the fact that God's goodness requires justice and wrath be expressed. Truely, if you love goodness, you will hate wickedness. This is God. Yet, man does not love light, but instead the dark. Therefore, he cannot love a God of love because God is light and man's hearts are darkened (Jer 17:9). Any spark of light that men sees is offensive and must be labeled disruptive and intolerant. This is man apart from Christ, we hate God. Before we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, the Bible calls us evil. None of us love God or have kept his commandments. None of us desired God (even though some claim they have). All of us have gone our own ways. All of us have practiced idolatry and traded the infinitely glorious worth of God for other idols. We've gone astray, caring more for sinful men than for God's glory. The great writer, C.S. Lewis, is known for saying that the door of hell is locked from the inside. He is right.
The truth of the matter is, men hate God and do not want to be with God. All men in their unregenerated state want to go to Heaven. None in their right mind would rather go to hell. However, all unregenerated men desire a Godless heaven. They would rather be there and have all the things they desire, e.g., all their family and friends there, infinite wealth, infinite health and pleasure, etc., but no God. They are content and very happy without their creator and his rules. There are men of this sort that do many good and wonderful deeds apart from Christ. But again, apart from Christ, their good works are still evil and worthless before God. And so, my thesis remains: Good men hate God. This is us, this is all of us, apart from Christ. We go to church on Sundays making it the biggest day of idolatry, because we sing songs and pray to a god that we have made up in our mind; a god who looks like a "nice grand father" and not the Almighty and Sovereign Yahweh of the Bible. And so to you, you who have been given eyes to see and a heart to believe, have you been trusting in your good works to keep you in God's graces? If so, you must repent. Repent from your good works and see that apart from Christ, they are worthless and evil. We all must come to understand that God is the only being truly free - free to do whatever he pleases (Dan 4:35). Take note, however, God is a good God! In fact, he is so good, some of us wicked and evil men have been saved to prove once for all eternity, just how good this God is.
God is not obligated to love anyone or to show mercy on anyone. In fact, if God saved no one, he would be justified in doing so (Pro 17:15). The fact that you see Christ and that you cherish and love him, is an act of grace; so much so that I cannot express in words. God has given you (you who hated him and were no better than Adolf Hitler in his eyes because of the evil within your heart), the ability to see Christ for who he is. You have been given a glimpse of the glory of God in Christ and have tasted and come to know his sweetness. You now esteem him above everything - as it ought to be. You are saved by grace, and not of yourself, lest you may have reason to boast (Eph 2:8-9). You did not choose God, God chose you and predestined you that you would believe the gospel, whereby you may be saved (Eph 1:11-12). Have you not realized that others esteem the gospel to be foolishness and a stumbling block? Do you suppose yourself wiser and better than them for believing? You are not. It is by grace and not of yourself, that you understand the gospel and trust in Christ (1Cor 1:24). It is by grace that you see, at least in some degree, your need for a Savior. It is by grace that you have come to understand that your good deeds apart from Christ is worthless before God. It is by Grace that you have been saved. Stand in awe and weep and worship! The man known as the "prince of preachers," Charles Spurgeon, once said the following:
"If you were to put a bucket of slop side by side to a plate of delicious food, which would a pig choose? The pig would choose the bucket of slop, because it is in his nature to do so. But, if you could somehow change that pig's nature and change him into a man, he would take his face out of the bucket of slop and be disgusted. He would look around and notice other pigs eating out of their buckets of slop and be embarrassed when he saw what he was."
This is your conversion story, Christian. You have been given eyes to see what you were and it wasn't a pig. It was worse. Something reminiscent of a ravenous dog but of the most vile and putrefying among all other creators. Praise God for his amazing grace. Learn to love God above all other things and everyone else. Understand that this is what you were created for. Realize that God is doing the most loving thing anyone can do. He who is infinitely beautiful and infinitely wonderful and infinitely sublime, and infinitely glorious, has given himself for your eternal inheritance. Therefore, Christian, you ought to strive hard after being fully satisfied in God, and aim to know his excellencies over all other joys and pleasures, that God may get the glory and you the indescribable joys, which is after all, the best of both possible worlds. This is what you were created for, brothers and sisters (Isa 43:6-7). Saturate yourself in this truth and submerge yourself into the Bible that you may know more of God. Be for God that you may learn to love your fellow brother perfectly and glorify God. Confess your sins before God and recognize that apart from Christ, there is truly no one good, but one, and that is God. Do not be like these so-called "good" men who live imperfect lives trying to please a perfect God. They cannot. We cannot.
Praise God for coming in the flesh and living a perfect life in thought, word, and deeds, and for dying as the perfect sacrifice offering for sin. Remember, God is holy and cannot allow guilty men to go free. God's justice requires judgement and wrath; someone had to suffer and die to satisfy that wrath. See your bleeding Savior and aim to understand, as best you can, the agony he suffered on your behalf. I am convinced that this is the only way to fight and have victory over sin. The father crushed the Son, for you who were evil (Isa 53:10). Because of Jesus, we are not like the good men of this world. Their religious figures came that they may make bad men good. Jesus came that he may make dead men live. And so he has, for all of you in Christ have been resurrected and are now therefore, new creations in Christ. You who were dead to God can now live. You are going to Heaven not because of anything you did, but on the merit of the only good and perfect man to ever live, namely Jesus the Christ.
To God be the Praise Forever,
Sincere
There is a huge problem facing mankind. In the past, I believed that problem to be dying without being regenerated, which is to say, dying without being born again. This incidentally, is a problem indeed, but not the problem of which I speak of. The problem that I am referring to is more abhorrent and the ramifications of it is of great importance. My aim in this article is to expose, as best that I can, the exceeding sinfulness of mankind, in direct correlation to the exceeding holiness of God and to juxtapose these two characteristics in order to expose the problem - namely, good people can't serve God because good people hate God. It's been said that when a spiritually dead person hears the problem of their sins and has their heart opened and exposed for all the evils that lies within it, they becomes angry and deny the truth. However, when a man made spiritually alive hears the truth of his sins, and has his heart exposed for all the evil that lies within him, he becomes more appreciative of God's grace shown forth in the cross of Christ. It is my hopes that you may become more passionate for God and appreciate just how amazing grace really is.
Problem: "You shall have no other gods before me."
We have a Creator. Our Creator God is of infinite worth, infinite pleasure, infinite joy, infinite glory, and is infinitely better than all things we hold to be pleasurable and precious. The most loving thing that God has done for people is to give Himself (since he is infinitely better than all things), for our eternal inheritance (John 17:3). Yet there is a serious problem; we have traded the worth of this infinitely wonderful and glorious God for other gods. This is sin, and it is of the worst kind. I've heard sin explained this way: "The essence of sin is that we love things and do things that show that we do not desire and love God above those things." How precious and glorious is God? How valuable is he? How much does he think he is worth? The first two people on this earth, Adam and Eve, desired something lesser and esteemed it better than God, and was cast out of his presence for it. That is how valuable God is and how much he knows he is worth. His word should be trusted always, even above our own desires. Moreover, God will not share his glory with another, and so for us to disobey him is not only showing lack of trust, but also showing that we desire and esteem something else higher and better than him. As stated above, Adam and Eve ate of one fruit and was cast out of God's presence, how much more forbidden fruits have we eaten? How many gods do we put before our creator God?
Problem Elaborated: "You shall not commit idolatry; for God is a jealous God."
I will refrain from using the word "sinners," since that seems to have lost its saltiness and people have gotten used to saying, "I am a sinner" without understanding the exceeding sinfulness of sin and its infinite offense against a Holy God (Romans7:13). In place of the word "sinners," I will use the word evil. And so, for the rest of the article, the word evil will be used to express what man is apart from Christ. Most cultures today do not make idols of stone and worship it. Some do, but for the most part, modern man has evolved in his idol worshipping. I've heard idolatry explained this way: "The person or thing in which you put most of your time, effort, thought, and money into, is the thing or person you serve. This thing or person, whatever it may be, becomes your god and thus you have become an idolater." How does God feel about idolatry? Note Jesus' words in Mattew 10:37, "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." God is not an idolater, he will put nothing above himself and he will not share his glory with anything or any one else (Isa 48:11). Again, God is infinitely better. This however, is a problem for mankind. To read such words as these in scripture, results in revealing emotions of hate. Naturally, we cannot love a God like this.
The God of scripture goes against everything the god that we have created in our mind would do. The god of our mind, that is to say, the idol we have made and worshipped, resembles more the likeness of Santa Clause, than he does the God of the Bible. One of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, once said the following: "God created man in his own image and man returned the favor." This is the issue with man. The God of the bible is too demanding, too strict, too selfless and too holy. We are the opposite - too self-centered, too selfish, and too evil. How evil is man and how blind is he to his evil? Or stated another way, how holy is God and how numb to his perfection is man? The following anecdote may shed some light on the issue:
There was once a good atheist who was known for his good deeds and selfless acts of kindness. He lived a good life and was loved by all except one man; an enemy of his, who happened to be dying. Now, this enemy because such by no fault of the good man, but instead was jealous of the good atheist' reputation. One day, after hearing of his enemy's situation, the good man found out that there was a special soup that he could make to save his enemy's life; a soup that he [the good man] alone knew how to make. The good man then sells everything he owns, uses the money to buy all the ingredients to make this special soup, and then proceeds to walk through a snow storm to bring his enemy the soup. In the travel, the good man almost dies, but finally made it to his enemy's house. In almost an instant, after drinking the soup, the enemy makes a miraculously recovery and is saved.
Question: Was that a good deed? It's sin (Romans 14:23)! You may then protest and say, "he did a wonderful deed to his fellow man!" But, what about his God? The truth is, we must all come to terms with the fact that the universe does not revolve around man, but God. Man does not give us breath and wake us up in the morning. "In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). We are not here and living by your own doings, we must come to terms with this. Moreover, to deny his existence when everything you have and is able to do is by God's giving and inabling (John 3:27), is wicked. The "good athesist" is a vile human being for this grave sin.
Furthermore, you can be good to men, but if you are not good to God, it does not count. This is why the Bible says that whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it to the glory of God (1Cor 10:31). Anything apart from that is evil. And herein, I believe, lie the crux of the issue: we hold man's feelings above God. We are humanistic by nature as well as idolaters, and God hates it. He is holy, and we are far from it. In fact, we are so far from understanding God's holiness, that apart from Christ, we do not even understand why loving God above all things, whether it is mother or father or husband or wife, is wrong. Naturally, this truth is foolish and offensive to us. Since this is the case, good men will not love God, because good men hate God. He will take their best deeds and likens them to that of a dirty menstration rag (Isa 64:6).
Good men will do wonderful things and be some of the most generous and moral people you will ever meet. They will come from different backgrounds and speak different languages. They will belong to many different religions, but never the right one. They will say, "my god is a god of Love and he would never send anyone to hell." They are right. Their god will never send anyone to hell because their god does not exist; he is a figment of their imagination - an idol. They have suppressed the truth of the true God and created another god, one who they are more comfortable with, and one whom they would rather serve. I once heard a story about a preacher who claimed that aids is a judgement from God. At the end of the sermon, a woman who was angry with the preacher, approached him and said that she didn't agree with his statement. The preacher asked, "miss, what is your proof?" The woman said angrily, "because babies die from aids and therefore aids cannot be a judgement from God." Just then, the preacher asked, "how many babies do you think God killed in the flood?" You see, we cannot love a God like this. It is one thing for God to be love, but when he begins to show his justice, wrath, and his sovereignty, we begin to have problems. This is the God of the Bible - He is not politically correct and his wrath is terrible as his grace is wonderful. Good men cannot love this God, because good men hate God.
Good men want God to stay in his place. They want him to be love and nothing else. Ironically however, their idea of love is twisted and perverted. The "good man's" version of love is likened best to a judge that lets murderers and rapists and child predators go free, for they say... "God is a God of love and therefore must forgive sinners!" They purposely disregaurd the fact that God is holy and just, and that he by no means will let the guilty go unpunished (Exo 34:7). They miss the fact that God's goodness requires justice and wrath be expressed. Truely, if you love goodness, you will hate wickedness. This is God. Yet, man does not love light, but instead the dark. Therefore, he cannot love a God of love because God is light and man's hearts are darkened (Jer 17:9). Any spark of light that men sees is offensive and must be labeled disruptive and intolerant. This is man apart from Christ, we hate God. Before we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, the Bible calls us evil. None of us love God or have kept his commandments. None of us desired God (even though some claim they have). All of us have gone our own ways. All of us have practiced idolatry and traded the infinitely glorious worth of God for other idols. We've gone astray, caring more for sinful men than for God's glory. The great writer, C.S. Lewis, is known for saying that the door of hell is locked from the inside. He is right.
The truth of the matter is, men hate God and do not want to be with God. All men in their unregenerated state want to go to Heaven. None in their right mind would rather go to hell. However, all unregenerated men desire a Godless heaven. They would rather be there and have all the things they desire, e.g., all their family and friends there, infinite wealth, infinite health and pleasure, etc., but no God. They are content and very happy without their creator and his rules. There are men of this sort that do many good and wonderful deeds apart from Christ. But again, apart from Christ, their good works are still evil and worthless before God. And so, my thesis remains: Good men hate God. This is us, this is all of us, apart from Christ. We go to church on Sundays making it the biggest day of idolatry, because we sing songs and pray to a god that we have made up in our mind; a god who looks like a "nice grand father" and not the Almighty and Sovereign Yahweh of the Bible. And so to you, you who have been given eyes to see and a heart to believe, have you been trusting in your good works to keep you in God's graces? If so, you must repent. Repent from your good works and see that apart from Christ, they are worthless and evil. We all must come to understand that God is the only being truly free - free to do whatever he pleases (Dan 4:35). Take note, however, God is a good God! In fact, he is so good, some of us wicked and evil men have been saved to prove once for all eternity, just how good this God is.
God is not obligated to love anyone or to show mercy on anyone. In fact, if God saved no one, he would be justified in doing so (Pro 17:15). The fact that you see Christ and that you cherish and love him, is an act of grace; so much so that I cannot express in words. God has given you (you who hated him and were no better than Adolf Hitler in his eyes because of the evil within your heart), the ability to see Christ for who he is. You have been given a glimpse of the glory of God in Christ and have tasted and come to know his sweetness. You now esteem him above everything - as it ought to be. You are saved by grace, and not of yourself, lest you may have reason to boast (Eph 2:8-9). You did not choose God, God chose you and predestined you that you would believe the gospel, whereby you may be saved (Eph 1:11-12). Have you not realized that others esteem the gospel to be foolishness and a stumbling block? Do you suppose yourself wiser and better than them for believing? You are not. It is by grace and not of yourself, that you understand the gospel and trust in Christ (1Cor 1:24). It is by grace that you see, at least in some degree, your need for a Savior. It is by grace that you have come to understand that your good deeds apart from Christ is worthless before God. It is by Grace that you have been saved. Stand in awe and weep and worship! The man known as the "prince of preachers," Charles Spurgeon, once said the following:
"If you were to put a bucket of slop side by side to a plate of delicious food, which would a pig choose? The pig would choose the bucket of slop, because it is in his nature to do so. But, if you could somehow change that pig's nature and change him into a man, he would take his face out of the bucket of slop and be disgusted. He would look around and notice other pigs eating out of their buckets of slop and be embarrassed when he saw what he was."
This is your conversion story, Christian. You have been given eyes to see what you were and it wasn't a pig. It was worse. Something reminiscent of a ravenous dog but of the most vile and putrefying among all other creators. Praise God for his amazing grace. Learn to love God above all other things and everyone else. Understand that this is what you were created for. Realize that God is doing the most loving thing anyone can do. He who is infinitely beautiful and infinitely wonderful and infinitely sublime, and infinitely glorious, has given himself for your eternal inheritance. Therefore, Christian, you ought to strive hard after being fully satisfied in God, and aim to know his excellencies over all other joys and pleasures, that God may get the glory and you the indescribable joys, which is after all, the best of both possible worlds. This is what you were created for, brothers and sisters (Isa 43:6-7). Saturate yourself in this truth and submerge yourself into the Bible that you may know more of God. Be for God that you may learn to love your fellow brother perfectly and glorify God. Confess your sins before God and recognize that apart from Christ, there is truly no one good, but one, and that is God. Do not be like these so-called "good" men who live imperfect lives trying to please a perfect God. They cannot. We cannot.
Praise God for coming in the flesh and living a perfect life in thought, word, and deeds, and for dying as the perfect sacrifice offering for sin. Remember, God is holy and cannot allow guilty men to go free. God's justice requires judgement and wrath; someone had to suffer and die to satisfy that wrath. See your bleeding Savior and aim to understand, as best you can, the agony he suffered on your behalf. I am convinced that this is the only way to fight and have victory over sin. The father crushed the Son, for you who were evil (Isa 53:10). Because of Jesus, we are not like the good men of this world. Their religious figures came that they may make bad men good. Jesus came that he may make dead men live. And so he has, for all of you in Christ have been resurrected and are now therefore, new creations in Christ. You who were dead to God can now live. You are going to Heaven not because of anything you did, but on the merit of the only good and perfect man to ever live, namely Jesus the Christ.
To God be the Praise Forever,
Sincere