The people of the world do exactly what the Bible said they would do and have “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever (Romans 1:25)!” Read Romans chapter one in entirety and you will find reason to tremble with fear for where our nation is headed. The people have commonly become “futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts (are) darkened (Romans 1:21).” One needs only to open up the science curriculum of every public school and you will witness the doctrine of a people who “claiming to be wise, (have become) fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles (Romans 1:23).” They do “not see fit to acknowledge God (Romans 1:28)” and rather give glory to some cosmic explosion, primordial soup, and millions and millions of years of mutations. This is not glorious. If it didn’t make such a shipwreck of people’s souls I would be inclined to laugh, but instead I groan and shake my head in dismay. This inglorious foolishness I do not wish to expound upon but rather the Glory of my Creator.
Psalm 139:13-14 “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother`s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
Yet, the multitudes are not praising Him for creating them, and the Bible explains what is going on and why.
Isaiah 29:15-16 “Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, `Who sees us? Who knows us?’ You turn things upside down! Shall the potter (God) be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, ‘He did not make me’; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding.’”
This is why the world, and possibly you, reject and hate the true God as Creator: because if He has created you than He also has the rights to you, to command of you and do with you as He sees fit. You are accountable to Him as your Creator, and this you detest. He sees all your deeds and knows your every thought, and this unbearable truth makes it much more comfortable for you to push the true and living God as far out of your sphere as possible, even so far if necessary that He no longer exists.
And this ties into the next reason that when left to ourselves we will hate Him, because:
He is our King and Sovereign Lord.
The Lord is King over the earth and over our own lives, orchestrating all things to fulfill His own purposes. Psalm 135:6 “Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the deeps.” But we want no King over us, we want to be in control of our own lives as we see fit. We are like those who say “That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart (Jeremiah 18:12).”
We can read the beautiful truth of God’s sovereign control over our lives back in Psalm 139:16-17 “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” This truth should result in praise, awe, and gratitude towards our God, yet the opposite is evoked in the lives of many. Rather than worship, man wants to be free from the one who has claim on their lives, just as the Lord expressed in these sad scriptures “Why then do my people say, ‘We are free, we will come no more to you’? Can a virgin forget her ornaments or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number (Jeremiah 2:32)” and they reject the loving kindness and tender care of the Lord.
He is Perfect and Requires Perfect Obedience
Matthew 5:20, 48 “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven… You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
James 1:10-11 “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.”
All sin is a direct offense against the God who has given us His law, written on our hearts to abide by. He has given His laws in love, and for our good, but none of us have kept the law. “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one (Romans 1:11-12).”
We must be perfect to enter heaven because our Holy and Righteous God dwells there, and He will not dwell with even a trace of wickedness. The standard by which man must lives is not his own, but rather His God’s. Man can live in whatever way feels right to him, but in the end His life will fall far short of the glory of God. God has no tolerance for lying, stealing, blasphemous words, adulterous eyes and hearts, selfish ambitions, jealous strife, the dishonouring of parents, and the “if it feels good do it” lifestyle. He has no pleasure even in deeds that appear outwardly good, but are done without faith and primarily for man’s honour.
Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please him.”
Romans 14:23 “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”
1Corinthians 10:31 “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
He is Angry at Sinners and Just to Punish
It is much easier for me to say only “He is angry at sin.” But it is not that God is only angry at sin as if it were some force out there in the world, or some unfortunate thing that happens to us. Sin is in us, deep down in our hearts. We are not only a victim to it, but an active and willing participator in it, oftentimes enjoying it and deeming it as necessary a part of life as eating or drinking. We are sinners. He is angry at us.
The world would have you and I painted up as poor victims of sin, who only do wrong things because of wrongs done to us, who only slander because of our own insecurities, and are driven to be drunkards by dire circumstances. There might be some truth to this, yet this way of thinking makes man only a victim and never the perpetrator. Does sin kill and hurt man? More than he even knows. But the one ultimately hurt and offended by our sin is God, and this man does by His own free will. This man does, and finds reason to justify himself.
He is angry at sinners and this is a solemn fact. This is a truth that causes man to shake his fist at God and at once defend his own goodness and worthiness of God’s approval. Man has a detrimentally high view of himself, and this need be shattered in order to understand why God is so angry with sinners that Jesus said: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28).”
Man would believe that he has no reason to fear god, and why should he if god is nothing less than a benevolent Santa Clause figure up in the sky, allowing man everywhere to have his own way and all the advantages of heaven with it. Yet I pray that this weak perception of god would be breaking down in your mind, and that the glorious, all powerful, perfect and just God of all Creation would manifest Himself to you as He is- to be loved, to be lived for, and to be feared. Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
God is a just judge, and a day is coming when all will be left “naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account (Hebrews 4:13).” “He will render to each one according to his works…for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness there will be wrath and fury (Romans 1:6,8).”
And as John the apostle testified: “I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away; And no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done…And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-12,15).”
And so here is the truth that men so hate and fear, that “the wages of sin is death… (Romans 6:23)” and this coming death impending, inescapable, and impossible for man to avoid if not for the following words: “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
