I want to talk today about something I feel can strengthen us in our walk with the heavenly Father and help us to gain a perspective that will enable us to better overcome the things which have a recurring ability, in terms of our walk with Yahweh, to tempt us, to cause us to stumble, to cause us to fall, to cause us to become weakened.

I feel it is really important that we have this particular perspective when it comes to our relationship with the heavenly Father.

Anyway, I want to say, first of all, I am not talking to you as one that has achieved a level I really want to be at. I want to speak to you from a perspective of being your fellow brother, who is looking at the Scriptures with you, learning some things as we go along, and trying to apply them just as anyone else.

And so, what I want to talk about today, and look at in the various Scriptures, is what Yahweh says– that there is something specific He wants us to hate. There is something He wants us to hate, and that thing He wants us to hate is: sin.

Hatred is kind of a negative word. We do not like the word “hatred” too much, but there is something that Yahweh has given us the green light to hate, and that would be sin.

In Scripture, it says:

Romans 12:9 – [Let] love [be] without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.

To love Yahweh, to love our neighbor, is to abhor and hate the things that are evil. They go hand in hand. One goes with the other– because if we love, we will not like the things that bring hatred. And so, we will actually hate hatred, if that makes any sense.

We will actually hate the kind of hatred that causes people to be hurt or causes Yahweh and His plan to be diminished in any way.

The word translated “abhor” in this scripture is “apostugeo.” Thayer’s Lexicon for “abhor”: 655 apostugeo {ap-os-toog-eh’-o} Meaning: 1) to dislike, abhor, have a horror of. Origin: from 575 and the base of 4767; v Usage: AV – abhor 1; 1.

The two words this is coming out of in the Greek (#575 and #4767) have to do with the kind of hatred that is so intense, you want to be separated from it, to have nothing to do with it.

So, the kind of hatred we need to have toward sin and toward what is evil is the kind of hatred that is so intense, we want nothing whatsoever to do with evil and with sin.

In the Tanakh, or the Old Testament, it says:

2 – For he flatters himself in his own eyes, When he finds out his iniquity [and] when he hates.

3 – The words of his mouth [are] wickedness and deceit; He has ceased to be wise [and] to do good.

Psalms 36:4 – He devises wickedness on his bed; He sets himself in a way [that is] not good; He does not abhor evil.

This word translated “abhor” means, in the Hebrew Lexicon, “to reject,” “to despise,” “to refuse.” And it is actually translated “despise” 25 times, “refuse” 9 times, “reject” 19 times, “abhor” 4 times.

BDB Hebrew Lexicon for “abhor”: 03988 ma’ac {maw-as’} Meaning: 1) to reject, despise, refuse 1a) (Qal) 1a1) to reject, refuse 1a2) to despise 1b) (Niphal) to be rejected 2) (Niphal) to flow, run. Origin: a primitive root; TWOT – 1139,1140; Usage: AV – despise 25, refuse 9, reject 19, abhor 4, become loathsome 1, melt away 1, misc. 17; 76.

And so, we get a little bit of an idea of how that word is used in different places.

Now, “to despise” something is a pretty strong word. You know, generally speaking, it is really easy for us to despise evil when the evil is being done to us.

Now, we shouldn’t, but sometimes one is less likely to hate the evil so much if it is being done to a person we do not know. And then, sometimes, we do not so much hate the evil that is being done to Yahweh. And that is a real problem.

But the evil that is done to Yahweh ought to bother us more than anyone else. No one is less deserving of evil being done to them than Yahweh. No one is more deserving of our love than Yahweh to whom we are to love with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our strength.

Who is more worthy of love than Yahweh? Anyone? No, nobody. And so, the scripture says in Psalm 97:10:

Psalms 97:10 – You who love YAHWEH, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.

Now, complicating everything is this principle of learning to hate the evil without necessarily hating the person doing the evil. Making the distinction, Yahweh proved His willingness to fulfill this monumental task of hating the evil while having mercy on and still loving the person performing it when He sent Yahushua to die for the sins of the world.

It should be easier for us than for Yahweh to do this. After all, we have been just as guilty as they are of committing sin. And maybe our sin is a different sin, but it is sin, nonetheless.

But the sin in and of itself we must absolutely hate. And it is not until we have a holy hatred for our sins that we can effectively and completely and fully overcome it. Because the problem is, our flesh just likes it.

And it is not until we hate the evil, it is not until we hate the things that are seeking to destroy our souls, and utterly despise the things that perhaps we are addicted to, that we will fully overcome it. It is not until one hates the cigarettes that he can let go of it. It is not until a person hates the alcohol that he can let go of it.

It is not until someone hates the pornography, hates the anger, hates the contentiousness and the strife and the arguing– hates the things that seek to bind us– that victory can be attainable at the level of which He desires us to attain it.

Now, if our minds are too connected to our flesh, we will not hate the sins as we should, because our flesh loves it. To detach from the flesh, we must connect with Yahweh’s Spirit. And when we connect with Yahweh’s Spirit, we WILL hate the sin.

The flesh wants its rights to do what it wants. And if our minds are too focused on having our rights, rather than fulfilling our responsibilities, we will not hate the sin as we should.

Now, most of you listening to the broadcast today are Americans. Americans like their freedoms. Americans like their rights. We are taught from a young age: “Stand up for your rights.” We enjoy the freedom of choice, but with that freedom of choice comes a responsibility to love what is good and to hate what is evil.

The truth is, a free country that does not love righteousness and hate evil is not free at all, rather it is under the bondage of sin– under the bondage of death. And the same is true for each of us right here as individuals.

We think of ourselves as free men. In a moment of temptation, we see the freedom of choice in front of us. Because of that, we might be more inclined to just take it because we are able to. We feel the freedom to return to the patterns that we have been through before. We forget the consequences. The enemy clouds our minds.

We think we may not suffer a consequence or that Yahweh is somehow obligated to forgive us no matter what. But we shouldn’t be thinking this way, because the reality is, we are bound. We are slaves. In fact, none of us should see ourselves as truly being “free.”

We are set free from sin. In Romans 6:22, it says:

Romans 6:22 – But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of Elohim, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.

A slave, when he is told to do something, doesn’t really think of himself as having a choice. He must do his master’s bidding.

We place ourselves in willing slavery to our Elohim– willing service to our Elohim. And so, we have chosen, rather than becoming a slave of sin, to become a slave of righteousness. Rather than being enslaved, as the children of Israel were to Pharaoh and his armies, we have chosen that Yahweh would be our Master.

But we Americans, we like to think we have freedom. We like to think we have all this freedom, that we are not slaves, that we are not bound. But we are bound if we are servants of the Most High. It is just that we are trained not to like the idea of an authoritative figure telling us what to do.

But if we love Yahweh and we hate evil, we will enjoy learning from Him what we ought to do. We will enjoy learning from Him what He calls evil, what He calls good. And we will enjoy walking in what is love and receiving what He says about what love truly is, because sometimes we have our own ideas of what love is.

Maybe we don’t think that breaking Sabbath is a hateful thing. We might think that murder and rape and violent men are evil things because that affects man. We can relate to that, because if that were to happen to us, we would feel affected.

But are we connected enough to the Spirit of the living Elohim that we learn to despise what He despises being done to Him? Maybe we think, “Oh, He is big enough to take care of Himself.”

Well, certainly, He is. But if He did take care of Himself in that sense, we would all be burning in a lake of fire right now because that is all we deserve. But part of loving Yahweh is loving the things He loves and hating and despising the things that He hates and despises.

Let’s look, again:

Psalms 97:10 – You who love YAHWEH, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.

To love Yahweh is to hate the things that destroy what He is trying to accomplish.

Suppose, for a moment, there was a little boy. He lived along the beach. On the beach, he spent six days working on a very large and elaborate and beautiful sandcastle with a village, making it out of all this sand.

He could hardly wait until he showed his family the finished product. He talked about it every day. He wanted it to be a big surprise. He worked on it from morning until night. He made sure everything was just perfect and every part of the sandcastle was perfect.

And after working long hours all week, he finally came to the day when he was just putting on the finishing touches so he could show his family what he had done.

But as soon as he finished it up, a neighbor boy came over with a baseball bat and proceeded to knock everything down. One by one he knocked it down until everything was nothing but a pile of sand.

Now, how would you feel about what had been done to the little boy? Would you not feel upset by what had been done, the injustice that had occurred? In that case, I would hope, you would certainly hate the evil that had been done.

But if you think about it, this is, in a sense, what has been done to Yahweh. He is no little boy, but He did create a perfect, beautiful world for us to live in. But man has corrupted himself and destroys the work with his hands.

We are the work of His hands. This world is the work of His hands. We are the fruits of the things Yahweh has made. We are the creation that He has made.

Does it bother us when people destroy the works that He has done? When people tear down what He has built, the earth groans.

But like I said earlier, the dynamic changes when the person being harmed has the ability to administer his own justice. And so, the evil that is being done does not get hated so much, because we figure, “Well, Yahweh is big enough to take care of Himself.”

Our desire to restore justice may not be as great because sometimes we just do not hate the evil so much. It does not bother us that the enemy comes along with a baseball bat seeking to destroy what Yahweh is trying to build.

But Yahweh has called us to be the agents of justice for Him on the earth. We are the body of the Messiah because we are called to be His arms, His feet, caring for the ways of Yahweh our Elohim. And Yahweh has charged us with executing righteousness and justice on His behalf on this earth, over which He has given us dominion.

Psalms 149:5 – Let the saints be joyful in glory; Let them sing aloud on their beds.

6 – [Let] the high praises of Elohim [be] in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand,

7 – To execute vengeance on the nations, And punishments on the peoples;

Psalms 149:8 – To bind their kings with chains, And their nobles with fetters of iron;

9 – To execute on them the written judgment — This honor have all His saints. Praise YAHWEH!

Sometimes when I read this scripture, it just sends chills up my spine. Yahweh has charged us with the honor of bringing justice and righteousness. Now, in the days when David was king, this meant physically destroying the wicked nations around them and establishing righteousness in those lands.

But we also have a Kingdom. It is not of the present world. Yahushua is the King. He will administer justice and righteousness. He will destroy the wicked with the breath of His lips.

Isaiah 11:1 – There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

2 – The Spirit of YAHWEH shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of YAHWEH.

3 – His delight [is] in the fear of YAHWEH, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;

Isaiah 11:4 – But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.

That is the future. Now, until this happens, we operate in the Spirit.

Ephesians 6:10 – Finally, my brethren, be strong in Yahweh and in the power of His might.

11 – Put on the whole armor of Elohim, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

12 – For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual [hosts] of wickedness in the heavenly [places].

This is our battle.

Ephesians 6:13 – Therefore take up the whole armor of Elohim, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

14 – Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

15 – and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

The good news of peace.

Ephesians 6:16 – above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

17 – And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of Elohim;

That is the sword.

Ephesians 6:18 – praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints–

And so, with these things in mind, let’s look at this scripture, again:

Psalms 149:5 – Let the saints be joyful in glory; Let them sing aloud on their beds.

6 – [Let] the high praises of Elohim [be] in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand,

7 – To execute vengeance on the nations, And punishments on the peoples;

Psalms 149:8 – To bind their kings with chains, And their nobles with fetters of iron;

9 – To execute on them the written judgment — This honor have all His saints. Praise YAHWEH!

The Word of Elohim is our sword, and we have the power to bind the enemy and his participants and his principalities. And we defeat him with the two-edged sword that is living and powerful and sharp.

Hebrews 4:12 – For the word of Elohim [is] living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

This is exactly what Yahushua did when He was faced with temptation. He drew the sword out of its sheath.

Matthew 4:3 – Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, If You are the Son of Elohim, command that these stones become bread.

4 – But He answered and said, It is written, `Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of Elohim.’

It was all about the Word. The enemy had tried to attack and cause Yahushua to question His identity as the Son of Elohim. That is usually where he tries to attack. That is what he is after– take away your identity in Messiah, cause you to feel defeated, cause you to put yourself under the condemnation of the Law.

But Yahushua drew the two-edged sword of Yahweh’s Spirit, His Law, and used that against him. Three times it happened, until the devil finally went away.

Scripture says:

James 4:7 – Therefore submit to Elohim. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

The problem is, temptation causes the flesh to yearn for the sin rather than hating the sin. But we must start with the foundation of hating the sin before we will care enough to rid ourselves of it, before we will care enough to be about our Father’s business in ridding this world of it.

And until we hate the sin, we will not take up arms and fight against it.

2Corinthians 10:3 – For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

4 – For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal but mighty in Elohim for pulling down strongholds,

5 – casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Elohim, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Messiah,

2Corinthians 10:6 – and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

Our mentality should be that the thoughts that argue against the knowledge and wisdom of Yahweh are intruders. They are intruders. They are trying to steal your soul. They are trying to kill you. They are trying to destroy you.

And so, this intruder coming into your mind, you take him captive. Spiritually, you grab ahold of them. You shove them into a box and you toss them out to the garbage, because you cannot stand those thoughts. You hate them.

And we cause those thoughts within our mind to be subject to the obedience of the Messiah, because we hate the things that are against Him. Because we love Him so much, it bothers us when things come against Him. That is our war. That is the fight. Our mind is the battleground.

But we live in Laodicean Land. We are lukewarm and it is hot. And cold is lukewarm.

Yahushua told those in Laodicea:

Revelation 3:15 – I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.

16 – So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.

And we sit at ease in Tzion, in our little climate-controlled homes, where our needs are met.

Yahushua said in a parable:

Luke 12:16 – Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.

This is the process of how riches cause us to not be hot and on fire for Yahweh.

Luke 12:17 – And he thought within himself, saying, `What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’

18 – So he said, `I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.

Luke 12:19 – `And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, [and] be merry.’

20 – But Elohim said to him, `Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’

21 – So [is] he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward Elohim.

All the rich man had to do was take his ease; eat, drink and be merry. That is all he had to do– store up his riches, get an early retirement program, sit back, kick back and relax.

He had no spiritual retirement program. He had not stored up any treasures in the age to come. He had no riches toward Elohim. He was content with the temporal wealth that is only found in this age.

In short, his lack of love for Yahweh and lack of hatred for the sin that was in the world caused him to just kind of insulate himself from the evil with his riches. He thought he was set up– had his pension plan in his mind– and he was going to spend the rest of his time in Laodicean culture having need of nothing.

But Yahweh called him a fool, because:

James 4:14 – whereas you do not know what [will happen] tomorrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

So are we going to sit back like someone who is in the army reserves– “Now, call me up when You need me”? Or are we going to realize that Yahweh has already called us to active duty? He has already sent us into the battlefield. Are we going to be insubordinate? That is the question.

And don’t think for a moment that complaining about the evil in the world on your Facebook account is going to be enough. We are called to do something about it. Complaining is not enough. Pointing it out is not enough. “Be warmed and be filled” is not enough.

Did you ever notice that it is a hatred for evil that inspires men to action? A mother whose son was killed by a drunk driver, what does she do? She joins MADD– Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. Goes on a rampage to fight against those drunken men who killed her son.

Those who experience fatherlessness may join the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Organization to be there for somebody else, because “my dad was not there for me.” Those who are abused as children become counselors, therapists.

Coming face to face with evil causes us to want to do something about it. When it affects us the most, we realize the depth of it, the horror of it, and we are moved to action.

But, you know, as Yahweh’s people, we are all called to do something about the evil in the world. There are no armchair believers sitting back watching the show. There are no retired believers in the Kingdom. There is no cheerleading squad. We are all in the war.

There are no spectators. Yahweh has not called us to be spectators. We are in it, and it is our hatred for the evil going on that will call us to action.

Now, we should not be motivated by any bitterness. That is a deception by the enemy. Rather, we should be motivated by a love for Yahweh, a love for our fellow man, a hatred for the evil within us and in this world.

And that will cause us to be passionate rather than complacent. We will move with intensity rather than being lethargic. We will care rather than being kind of blasi about things. We will move with action instead of deceiving ourselves, thinking we are moving with words.

A major reason that David was called a man after Yahweh’s own heart was because of his hatred for what was evil.

Look at Psalm 101. It says:

2 – I will behave wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when will You come to me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.

3 – I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me.

Psalms 101:4 – A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness.

David really hated the evil. He could not stand to have it sitting there in front of him– especially when he was in his own house. He would take action. He would cause a perverse heart to depart from his presence. This man after Yahweh’s own heart did not want to see it sitting in front of him without doing something about it.

You know, if we really hate the evil, we are not going to enjoy a movie or a TV program that glorifies it. If we hate evil, we are not going to be entertained by the things that Yahweh hates. How can we enjoy what Yahweh hates and still call ourselves His children?

If we hate evil, we are going to be aware of the tendencies of those sins clinging to us. And so, we will not sit and watch it. We will not like to watch it. If we hate the evil, we are going to look at that, and go, “YUCK!” because of what it is harming, because of whom it is harming. We care about people and we see the harm it is doing.

If we hate evil, we are not going to sit in our house and set these wicked things before our eyes– on the Internet, and movies, and TV programs, and books and magazines, and other forms of media. If we hate the evil, we will reject it.

We will be like David, and say, “A perverse heart, depart from me! I don’t need to know about that. I don’t need to know.” And so, we need to be sensitive to the times when, maybe, our heart is kind of arguing with the spirit of Yahweh within us.

Maybe we can’t find that exact scripture about it, but we know something we are doing or seeing or participating in– there is something there that is foreign to His Spirit. And it is not until we find it later, “Oh, wow, I did not realize it was that bad.” But if we are sensitive to the evil, it is a whole lot easier to recognize it when it exists.

Satan is a snake. He is a snake in the grass. You don’t even know he is there until he is under your feet nipping at you.

Let us not be desensitized to the evil as Satan would desire us to be. Let us be sensitive to what is going on in the spiritual realm, to what is happening to our hearts, as we see the things that we see and hear the things that we hear.

You know, the TV programmers (and I say “programmers” because that is exactly what they are), they know if they shove these things in your face that are shocking and vile and sinful long enough, it will slowly disarm you. Their goal is that you will not hate the sin. That is their goal.

They do not want you to hate what they are doing. They want you to accept it. And their goal is that they can slowly train you to sympathize with it, and maybe even embrace it yourself, because they do not want you talking against them.

They do not want to hear the light. They are wanting that darkness. And the darker they can make the world, the more comfortable they are going to be.

And so, when it comes to being influenced to marginalize rather than hate sin, it is not a stretch to say the media is probably enemy #1. There are unclean spirits flying out of that TV and computer screen injecting thoughts into your mind that are fundamentally at war with the One you are supposed to be loving.

Have you ever been with a person for an extended period of time and notice certain things about the way they talk? Maybe they swear a lot, use profanities, and it is not long before those words start to influence the way we act. Maybe those profanities will come out of our mouth in a moment of being upset.

Words are spirit, Words are spirit, and the word “spirit” means “breath.” It is the same word for both. With the breath we form words. And so, what spirits are you listening to? What spirits are we listening to?

Yahushua says:

John 6:63 – It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and [they] are life.

Life-giving words. Words that feed rather than destroy. That is what we want. That is the influence we are looking for.

So, we have to be aware of this, that words are spirit. And the words and spirit that come from the hearts of Hollywood men and women are often intentional efforts to marginalize the sin they are doing and not show you any consequences.

So if you are looking for the kinds of things that you can think about and meditate on and watch and see, Philippians 4:8 is a pretty good guideline.

And if it is not according to that, you do not need to be thinking about it. You do not need to be entertained by it.

Now, it is true that the Scriptures themselves contain stories where people do commit sins, but with the intent of showing the consequences of that. Its intent is to teach us to not like the sin.

Hollywood, on the other hand, uses their stories to glorify the sinner, marginalize the sin, and maybe even demonize those who stand against them.

I can tell you a story. When I first moved out to the Ozarks, I began working at home, and there were times I would not go to town for maybe two weeks. I know it sounds a little bit like I am a hermit, but there were times I actually would not leave the house and the property for two weeks.

When I say “leave the property,” I don’t mean not go visit brethren. I did not mean not go to a Sabbath meeting, which we had there. But the only people I was surrounding myself with were believers and my family– and that was it.

Then I went to Springfield. Not a real big town, about 100,000 people, but big enough. And it was like culture shock. You know, you look around, and you are being bombarded with “Buy this.” “Buy this.” And the people have this look on them. They are dead while they are alive.

The depression, the oppression, that culture is seeking to put on believers is incredible. And it is not until you are away from it for a while that you even realize just how oppressive it is.

And so, I have realized through that experience that the more in tune we are with the pure things– with the things that are lovely and just and noble and praiseworthy– the more disgusting and unjust and unlovely and ugly the sin around us is going to be.

And so, the more likely it is that we want no part of that and the more likely it is we are going to see it as Yahweh sees it, who always dwells in holiness.

Now, please, don’t get me wrong. We are not called to be hermits. We are not called to be separating ourselves completely from the world. I am not necessarily advocating that. We have to be in the world, but we do not have to be of the world. We have to be in the world, but we do not have to be stained by it.

James 1:27 – Pure and undefiled religion before Elohim and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, [and] to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Pure and undefiled religion– service. You are out and about doing stuff, but also, keeping yourself “unspotted” (that word means “unstained”) from the world.

But if we are trying to be “buddy, buddy” with the world, this is what Scripture also has to say:

James 4:4 – Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with Elohim? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of Elohim.

And so, how on earth do we manage to be in the world, but not of the world? Two things: 1) Filling our minds with the Word of Yahweh 2) Entering into fellowship with Yahweh’s people in some fashion.

Psalm 119, verse 104, says:

Psalms 119:104 – Through Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.

Because the precepts are giving me understanding about things, understanding about life, I hate the things that are false. I find myself just disliking the false and sinful ways of the world more and more as I gain understanding from Your precepts. That is Psalm 119:104.

Psalms 119:162 – I rejoice at Your word As one who finds great treasure.

163 – I hate and abhor lying, [But] I love Your law.

The more we love His Law, the more we will hate and abhor the things that come from the lying spirit of the enemy. And so, filling our hearts with His Word will teach us how to interpret the things going on in the world today.

Our meditation on Yahweh’s Word and His truth will cause us to hate the things that are false, the things that are hurtful, the things that are sinful. And so, what are we going to meditate?

Psalms 1:1 – Blessed [is] the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

2 – But his delight [is] in the law of YAHWEH, And in His law he meditates day and night.

3 – He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.

Yahweh’s Word will expose every lie, will expose the wickedness going on around us, will impart in us His Spirit so we will not like it.

When we are around fellowship with other believers, we are in contact with people who will encourage us, build us up, edify us, teach us, strengthen us, bear the load with us and be an example to us. It will help us realize, it is not a lonely road.

And the more we meditate on the Word of Yahweh, the more we are going to have our eyes opened to what is really going on in the spiritual realm and the more we will want to do something about the evil that is both within us and in the world today. And so, in the midst of all the evil that is around us, it is our meditation day and night.

It doesn’t mean you always have your nose in the Bible and all you do is read it. It means you are always thinking about it. You are meditating about it. You are thinking about the Scriptures– the words of Yahweh.

When we bathe ourselves and immerse ourselves in His Word, we are bathing and immersing ourselves in His Spirit, which is life. And we will find the sinful thoughts, therefore, to be the foreigner that it is, the intruder that it is, that needs to be taken captive and cast out.

And Yahweh says we will prosper in whatever we do. Because even if there is drought, a tree planted by the river is going to get all the water it needs. And that is what we need to be, brothers and sisters, well fed trees.

That is one of the advantages of keeping the Sabbath day. Our souls get pummeled by the world during the work week. We have a day where we can just sit back, relax. Not only physically, but meditate spiritually on His Word, regroup, refocus and be restored.

Do you ever wonder why Christians who encounter this “conversion experience” sometimes do not follow through? A lot of times they don’t. I have read articles written by evangelists lamenting this fact: those who get saved don’t stay saved.

But what if they were taught to observe the Sabbath? They would be able to have one day a week where they could just take a break from the worldly things and just focus on the spiritual, to go on that mountain like Yahushua went on that mountain– to pray, to hear His Father’s Word.

I mean, not just two hours in church every week, but a full day that Yahweh set apart for rest– spiritually, physically. A rest from your enemies.

As I look back on the last twenty-five years of my life, I can tell you, if it wasn’t for Shabbat, if it wasn’t for Sabbath, I don’t know if I would have made it.

During times of weakness, Yahweh’s day would just bring me back to the rivers of water so that I could drink, back to the place where I could remember: Yahweh is Elohim. He is still on the throne, no matter what life’s circumstances might be. Regain His perspective on the world. Step back, look at the big picture. See His perspective on life, on sin.

And the more I affirm myself with that perspective, the more I will find sin to be as abhorrent and as awful as it really is. And the more I find the sin to be the enemy rather than the friend, the more I realize the temporary nature of this world and the eternal promises from following Yahweh and the Messiah.

And with the fellowship on that day that comes, you know, ideally, something locally, but if nothing else is available, that is why I do a broadcast. At least, online, or maybe telephone, or something, I can connect with other believers who have Yahweh’s perspective, be strengthened and encouraged along this pathway of life.

But, you know? If most of our friends are mostly those who do not fear Elohim, those who do not have a true and genuine relationship with the Father, we are going to have a hard time seeing sin for what it really is, you know?

Because you look at your buddy, and say, “You know, you are my friend. You don’t really love Yahweh…” But he is just a nice guy. Overall, he is a nice guy.

Now, excuse me a minute, but how can someone who disregards and offends the One who put him on this earth be a nice guy? Maybe he is nice to you. Maybe he would give you the shirt off his back in times of trouble, but is he really nice? Is he nice to Yahweh? Do we love Yahweh enough to say, “That man is very offensive to Yahweh”?

I know it is a tough one. I don’t mean to sound judgmental or harsh, but the question is: How does Yahweh view your “nice guy” friend? As His buddy or His enemy?

In Scripture, it tells us:

1Corinthians 15:33 – Do not be deceived: Evil company corrupts good habits.

And that is part of the problem. We have friends, we have relatives, we have people around us– we tend to look at the people through the eyes of our culture rather than through the eyes of the living Elohim.

If we are not careful, we will be affected by their conduct and we will not be bothered by the sin that is being committed to the extent that we will be partaking of it ourselves.

Proverbs 13:20 – He who walks with wise [men] will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no Elohim.” And that is one reason we need to keep our children from the public schools. They are vulnerable, especially when they are by themselves. You know, Yahushua always sent his disciples out two-by-two, right?

That is not even to mention the indoctrination that they are going to get while they are there from the teachers and the textbooks and the desensitivity training they will get to the evil around them. But that is another subject for another day.

But what we are looking at here is what might be considered to be somewhat of a paradox, because on the one hand we hate the sin (we have to hate the sin), but on the other hand, we have to view the unsaved sinner as Yahweh’s enemy and then not hate him in the process.

How do we keep ourselves unspotted, undefiled, from the world and hate the sin, but not hate the one committing it to the extent that we mistreat them? The clear answer is: To mistreat the one who is committing a sin is a sin in and of itself and ought to be something we also hate.

We must keep ourselves undefiled and unspotted from the world, but not so separate that we fail to go out and save others from it.

Scripture does say:

1Corinthians 5:9 – I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people.

10 – Yet [I] certainly [did] not [mean] with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

So, there is a place for rubbing shoulders with sinners.

Yahushua visited the sinners. He wasn’t afraid to hang out with them from time to time. The sick are the ones needing a physician, right? But, you know, His normal daily fellowship was that He was with His disciples. And He would often go off by Himself to some mountain to pray and reconnect with the Father.

His mission was to destroy the works of the devil without being stained by it. And that is our mission. So, we have to be aware of whether the Spirit that is within us is influencing them or the spirit that is within them is influencing us, because we cannot turn the world upside-down if we are being turned upside-down ourselves by the world.

We cannot be lights to the world if we are content to sit in darkness from time to time. We have to hate the darkness, hate the evil, hate the lies, hate the sin, hate the way the world is today and seek to establish justice.

Amos 5:14 – Seek good and not evil, That you may live; So YAHWEH Elohim of hosts will be with you, As you have spoken.

That is what He wants. Then He will give you grace. Our goal is to establish righteousness and justice in the gate of our homes, in the gates of the cities we live in, the communities around us and in the world today.

We are fishermen. There are two ways of fishing. There is the evangelistic method– take the net out and bring in the fish. And there is also “the rod and the reel” method. As Yahushua said, take the hook, cast it into the water, and you wait. And you have the bait sitting there.

Generally speaking, those we are closest to, the bait method is best. Be the light. Share the love. Let them ask questions. Occasionally, as the Spirit leads, speak.

Those whom we are not close to, the evangelistic and the more forward method is necessary– the net, and bringing them in that way.

But through it all, we show love and compassion and kindness to the unbelievers around us, because that is how they are going to recognize the Messiah. To do anything other than that is sin in and of itself because that is not how Yahweh is. After all, most of us were just like them at one time. So, show kindness and mercy.

Titus 3:3 – For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.

4 – But when the kindness and the love of Elohim our Savior toward man appeared,

5 – not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,

So, no matter where He takes us in the Spirit, no matter how regenerated we become, no matter how far we go, we always remember: When we are talking to the unbeliever, the way in which we can turn them to righteousness is not through our anger and rage, not through our distain for who they are, but through love, through compassion, through kindness.

Through patience and through self-control. Now, for this reason, just the fact that we do not like the sin, just for the reason that we do not like it… and it is okay to communicate that– “I am sorry, I just don’t do that. That is not me. That is not who I am.”

They are going to get upset that you are not with them, that you are not enjoying what they enjoy, that you are not laughing at what they laugh at, that you do not treasure what they treasure… and for that reason, there are going to be some people that cannot stand to be around you.

2Corinthians 2:14 – Now thanks [be] to Elohim who always leads us in triumph in Messiah, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.

I like that!

2Corinthians 2:15 – For we are to Elohim the fragrance of Messiah among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

16 – To the one [we are] the aroma of death [leading] to death, and to the other the aroma of life [leading] to life. And who [is] sufficient for these things?

And so, to some people, we are just going to be this aroma of death, a stench. They do not like it. To other people, they like what we are about.

There is a percentage of people, in fact, who are just going to absolutely hate you, and you haven’t even necessarily done anything wrong. Because Yahushua said:

John 15:18 – If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before [it hated] you.

19 – If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

It goes with the territory. It just goes with the territory.

Do not feel guilty as though you have done something wrong, unless you have. If you are just living your life, making choices out of your own conscience so that they are not offensive to the Father, there are some people who are going to hate you just because of the choices that you make. And when they do, count yourself as blessed… because:

Luke 6:22 – Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you, And revile [you], and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake.

23 – Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward [is] great in heaven, For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.

Leap for joy! It is a reason for rejoicing.

Imagine that! Wow! I get to suffer for Messiah? Not everybody gets that blessing. Wow! HalleluYah! Jump for joy!

Another scripture says:

Proverbs 29:27 – An unjust man [is] an abomination to the righteous, And [he who is] upright in the way [is] an abomination to the wicked.

Look, we are abominations to each other. And there are some unbelievers who are just downright hostile to the ways of Elohim, and they will never repent. No matter what you do, no matter what you say, some of them have passed the point of no return.

They have committed blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and there is no way possible for them to be redeemed. Not possible.

David talks about them. He says:

Psalms 139:21 – Do I not hate them, O YAHWEH, who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?

22 – I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.

Now, that sounds so foreign to our New Testament teachings, we might think. But there are some people who have gone to this level. They are passed the point of no return. They cannot be regenerated. And most of the time we do not even know who they are, but we have to recognize their existence.

David, by the Spirit of the living Elohim, recognized who they were. Only Yahweh can reveal it. But there are people in this world who are like that.

2Peter 2:12 – But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption,

Just made to be destroyed.

Now, we have to be careful, because Yahweh has been known to save some really, really, awful sinners and completely turn their lives around. But there is one thing that we always, always, always have to be aware of and show a hatred for, and that is the enemy of sin that is seeking to rise up against us and the enemy of sin that is within.

Romans 7:14 – For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.

15 – For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.

16 – If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that [it is] good.

Romans 7:17 – But now, [it is] no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

18 – For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but [how] to perform what is good I do not find.

19 – For the good that I will [to do], I do not do; but the evil I will not [to do], that I practice.

Romans 7:20 – Now if I do what I will not [to do], it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

21 – I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

22 – For I delight in the law of Elohim according to the inward man.

Romans 7:23 – But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

24 – O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Who will? There is only One who can.

Romans 7:25 – I thank Elohim — through Yahushua Messiah our Master! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of Elohim, but with the flesh the law of sin.

It is the law of sin I serve.

This law of sin is that you have this desire to do right, but then this evil thing is within you drawing you to the evil.

Romans 8:1 – [There is] therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Messiah Yahushua, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

If we are walking according to the Spirit, there is no condemnation in Messiah. So Yahushua is the One who delivers us from that law of sin so that we might be spiritual.

The Law is spiritual. Yahweh’s Law is spiritual. The law of sin is this law within our members seeking to bring us into bondage to the flesh.

But we have to hate that sin first before we can recognize the need to be delivered from it, whatever that particular sin might be. The problem is our flesh just loves the things that are evil and feeds on it.

So, what beast do you feed? What sin has got a hold of you? You have to hate it, yet with not being bitter at yourself to the extent you lose your identity in Messiah.

Yes, just as you hate the sin committed by another person, you have to hate the sin, also, that you find is overcoming you for some reason. You have to hate that sin with a passion, but, just as you do not hate that other person committing the sin, you cannot hate yourself.

If you hate yourself– and that is what you have grabbed ahold of, is hating yourself– you cannot even love your neighbor, because you are supposed to love your neighbor as yourself. If you do not have a love for yourself because Yahweh is the One who made you, you do not have a reference point of how to love your neighbor.

If we begin to hate ourselves, we will not see ourselves as being loved by Yahweh, and we may end up believing another good news, another gospel, another evangel that is not from Yahweh. And this other gospel, or good news, teaches Yahushua only died for those who are good enough to be saved.

This other gospel, or good news, teaches that there are some sins Yahushua’s blood just was not pure enough to cover, not pure enough to erase that mark. This other gospel, or good news, teaches that Yahushua is waiting for you to completely stop sinning, and then He will accept you. FALSE GOOD NEWS!

This false gospel, or good news, teaches Yahushua is too weak to overcome a certain sin or a certain addiction that you are bound by– He really doesn’t heal the broken hearts or bind up the wounds.

Have you ever heard it said, “True freedom is not the ability to live the way you want; true freedom is having the power to live like you ought”? That is freedom. And the true good news gives you that freedom. But it all starts with a hatred for the sin that is seeking to destroy your soul and a desire to be delivered from it.

Yahushua can do it. Yahushua can cleanse you, no matter what it is. And how does He deliver you?

Romans 6:11 – Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to Elohim in Messiah Yahushua our Master.

If you consider yourself to be dead to that sin, if that is your mentality, that is receiving the good news of Yahushua the Messiah, because we are crucified with Messiah. It is no longer we who live. It is Messiah living in us. And so, when that sin comes knocking on the door, I am dead to that. It is not me. It is just not me.

Romans 6:12 – Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

13 – And do not present your members [as] instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to Elohim as being alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness to Elohim.

That is Messiah living in you.

Romans 6:14 – For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

If you were under the Law, you would be condemned and that sin would have dominion over you to condemn you and destroy you. But if you were under grace (that means Yahweh has forgiven you and you have received Yahushua Ha Mashiach), then the sin will not have dominion. It does not have power over you. It doesn’t. Do you believe that?

Do you believe that you are dead to it? The extent with which you believe that truth is the extent with which you will overcome it. And that is the good news. That is what it is. So it is by faith in that that we can overcome.

The good news is that we have some sin somewhere that He wants us to overcome, but no matter how awful it might be, He gives you the power to overcome it and has the power to cleanse you from it.

1John 1:8 – If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If you walk around claiming to be sinless, you are deceiving yourself. The truth is not in you.

1John 1:9 – If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That is a promise. He is faithful. He is just. Do not say He is unfaithful. Do not say He is unjust. He will cleanse you.

Confess it. Turn away from it. We are not in slavery to it. We are servants of the Most High. And He is the only One that we are ultimately bound to.

Can we learn to hate the sin enough to turn away from it and seek to be completely free from it? Can we learn to hate the sin enough to want to help free others from the bondage that it is? Can we learn to hate the sin enough to get off our easy chairs and be agents to rid this world of it?

Can we learn to hate the sin enough that we hurt when another member of the body of Messiah is hurt because of it? Can we learn to hate the sin enough so that we will see it as Yahweh sees it?

Are we too connected to our flesh for it to bother us or are we connected to the Spirit of Yahweh so much it HURTS US to see a person speaking against Yahweh or doing the things He finds offensive? Is our relationship with Messiah and the heavenly Father deep enough that it really bothers us when we see someone doing things that really bother Him?

Is our relationship with Messiah and Yahweh deep and connected to the point that we cry out for freedom from the things that we are doing that are grievous to Him? And that is really, really the bottom line question that I have for myself and for all of us today.

If our relationship with Yahweh is not where it needs to be, that can change. We can start listening to Him more by reading what He has to say to us, by hearing His voice. The more we get to know Him, the more we are going to love who He is and what He is about.

The more we listen to Him, the more we will see the world as He sees the world, the more we will see sin as He sees the sin. Sin and evil are just manifestations of hatred– nothing more, nothing less.

Yahweh’s commandments are His instructions on how to love. Sin is simply the violation of those rules on how to love. Yahweh IS love. And He is all about love. Sin is not love. It is never about love.

There is not a sin that one would commit that is not a manifestation of hatred toward Yahweh or man. And on two Great Commands, to love Yahweh and your neighbor, hang all the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 22:40).

And so, as we learn more of Yahweh and His ways of love in His Word, we will find out how easy it is to love Him. We will find out how easy it is to love the One who has been so loving and merciful to us. The more we get to know Him, the easier it is to love Him and what He is about.

And so, my brothers and sisters, my call today to hate sin is really a call to love Yahweh and man. If we love Yahweh and man, we will hate the things that seek to harm man and destroy the works of our Creator.

And so, the Psalm says: “You who love Yahweh, hate evil! (Psalm 97:10a). It cannot be any other way. It just cannot.

Heavenly Father, Yahweh, in Yahushua’s name we ask that You would grant us Your heart to understand the world and what is going on today as You see it. Help us to love as You love, and to hate the evil as You hate the evil, both within our hearts and within the hearts of others.

Oh, Yahweh, we ask that You would purify Your Bride, that You would give us Your perspective on everything that is going on today. In times of temptation, remind us of Your Word, that we might have a two-edged sword in our hand and a spirit of rejoicing to slay the enemy, and say, “No, I am dead to that. It has no power over me.”

The sword– that is where power is found. Abba, remind us of Your Word in those times. We want to glorify You. We want to proclaim Your Name and Your Word to all nations.

Let us unite together as warriors for You, defeating the enemy wherever we see him, taking back ground for You that the enemy seeks to steal, bringing the souls who are in bondage to slavery in the fear of death and corruption into a relationship with You– with life, love, hope and peace.

In Your Son, Yahushua Ha Mashiach’s name, let it be so, Father. For Yours truly is the Kingdom and power and glory forever. And it is Your Kingdom we seek to establish by our deeds, by our thoughts. In Yahushua’s name, Amein.

And so, my brothers and sisters, I hope that you are challenged today as I have been challenged. Let us draw near to Yahweh and put the world behind us. Put His Word before us. And even if no one else goes with us, we still follow His ways of love.

And as you do that, may Yahweh bless you, and may Yahweh have mercy on us all.