In this sermon, the speaker addresses the topic of hatred for sin. He shares a personal experience of feeling anger towards someone but then being convicted by God to listen and show mercy. The speaker emphasizes the importance of having the love of Jesus in our hearts, rather than just outwardly bringing people to church. He also references the story of David in 2 Samuel 12, where David's anger towards sin is evident. The sermon concludes with a call for individuals to acknowledge their sins and seek forgiveness from God.

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, Post Office Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771, or by calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. Examine us and figure out what's going on. That's okay. You're welcome. God bless you. All we want you to see is Jesus. We want you to meet Him. Praise God. People come here and they hear about God moving and they go, Well, I didn't feel anything. Well, that's not our fault. No, if you go looking for something but Jesus, if you look for anything but Jesus, you're going to be disappointed. If you come just looking for Jesus, you'll be satisfied. Amen. I want to talk to you this afternoon about hatred for sin. Hatred for sin. You'd be surprised where we're going with this. Hatred for sin. Heavenly Father, I'm asking you to minister to hurting, wounded souls this afternoon. Many are hurting and many are wounded and many have a great need for reconciliation. Heavenly Father, come upon me by your Holy Spirit. We have taken your authority over every demon power, every principality and power of darkness. We stand here, Lord, under your anointing. And, Lord, it's the anointing that breaks the yoke. And it's not measured by how loud we are or how soft we are. It is measured by the Spirit taking the Word and registering with our hearts and our minds and our spirits. Register, Holy Ghost, in our spirits and our soul the living Word of God this afternoon. Thank you for your presence all day here. We revel in the manifest presence of Jesus. Lord, I need you. I acknowledge that need and I give myself to you. Sanctify me. We have no merit, we have no claim other than the blood of Jesus that helps us to stand acceptable in your sight. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Let me tell you about a man in the Old Testament who hated sin probably more apparently than any man in the Old Testament. At least it appears that way. This man so hated sin he's willing to kill transgressors. There's a rage in this man against sin. His name is Saul. You remember the story of the Philistines coming against Saul? He's already gone through an episode with Samuel. And the Philistines are coming at him with chariots and they're coming in three different companies. And they're attacking Israel on three different flanks. And they're fleeing. Israel's army is fleeing. Only 600 fighters left. They've all fled to the caves and the dens and the rocks and they're hiding out. Because there's a cowardice in the land. And Saul and his 600 are sitting under a tree wondering what to do. Jonathan and his armor bearer get up and head down to one of the flanks near Michmash. And the Philistines are up on a high ridge. And he exposes himself. He stands. I don't know how he did. He didn't say, hello there Philistine. I don't know how he did it, but he exposed himself to the enemy. And he said, come on up here. Of course they said there's no way he's going to climb up those rocks. Somehow he and his armor bearer climbed those rocks, surprised the Philistines. And within a short time, 20 Philistines were killed in what the Bible calls a half acre battlefield. Half acre. And as soon as this slaughter was accomplished, the Philistines went into a panic. Evidently there was a short passage out of that battlefield and they were all bottled up. And the scripture says they began to fight with one another. And the scripture says they began to beat up on each other. And evidently one of Saul's sentries is up on a hillside. And he hears the sound of battle and hears this commotion. And they look down and there are two men fighting these Philistines. And they're winning the battle and the Philistines are running and killing each other in panic. And Saul says, who's missing? And they do a head count, come back and tell Saul that the only two missing are Jonathan and his armor bearer. Your son is gone. And suddenly Saul joins the battle and begins to chase the Philistines. And out come all of the deserting soldiers, out from the dens and the rocks and the caves. Now that the enemy is running, they've got boldness. And they start fighting the Philistines. And in the heat of the battle, while they're overcoming the Philistines, Saul makes a very rash commandment. He said, curse it as anyone who eats until I'm avenged of my enemies. Don't anyone stop and eat until this battle is finished. A very rash, foolish statement. Of course, Jonathan hadn't heard this command. And he's in a wooded area. And evidently the trees had beehives in them and they were dripping honey down to the ground. And he put his rod into one of the honey wells. And he took it to his mouth and was refreshed and his eyes enlightened. He didn't know anything about the battle. And the scripture says very clearly that this commandment was out of order. In fact, Jonathan later said that my father's troubled Israel with this commandment. That night after the battle, the Israelites flew into the spoil. And they were killing animals and eating them and just taking all of the gold and the silver and just loading themselves down. And some people come to Saul the king and said, Saul, you won't believe it, the people are eating the meat with the blood. Now, that was contrary to Jewish law. The Mosaic law, you didn't eat the blood. It was supposed to be killed. The animal was killed on a stone or off the ground and the blood had to be dripped to the ground. And there's an indignation, a rage that hits this king, Saul. You talk about hatred for sin. All that he said was the people are eating with the blood. Now, listen to Saul as he gathers the people together. He said, you have transgressed. You have broken the law of God. And he says, quick. He said, roll a stone unto me this day. And in the Hebrew, it says this very moment. Get a stone here now. We have grieved God. This is transgression. This is outright blatant sin. Quick, roll the biggest stone you can get. And now he says, I want every one of you to line up and bring your cattle and slay it on the stone and let the blood drain and don't eat the meat with the blood. And I can see the people lining up sheepishly, shamefacedly, because they know they've broken the law. And there's King Saul standing there with his orderlies and his captains, and he's just shaking his head. How could they do that? They know the law. How could anybody be so stupid? What kind of people? I can't allow the wrath of God on this nation. They're eating the meat with the blood in it. And he's in a rage against sin in the camp, sin in Israel. He said, God's offended, and we've got to appease Him. I can almost see the picture there of Saul, just totally in unbelief of what was happening. Now, that same night, while the people are still traumatized, and the people are weary, they want to go home. The battle's only half finished. They really didn't do a major mop-up operation whatsoever. They could have destroyed the Philistines, and it was just a partial victory. And Saul says, we're not sleeping tonight. We're going to finish the battle. We're going to fight all night long until I'm avenged of my enemies. And there was a commotion in the camp, and the priest said, let's talk to God first. The Scripture says, and Saul asked counsel of God. So I go down against the Philistines. Will you deliver them into the hand of Israel? But he answered him not a word. And Saul, again, has a rage in him. And Saul says, gather every captain. Gather the whole army and bring them here. And he stands on a stone, no doubt, or on a stump, and he said, somebody has sinned in this camp because God's not talking to us anymore. We're going to get to the bottom of it. Line them up. Line everybody on this line, and I draw a line in the sand. Jonathan, I'll stand on this side. We're going to cast lots. We're going to find out who the sinner is. And the lot fell on Jonathan and Saul. The whole army is excused. And Saul is enraged. He says, so is you. Not thinking for a minute about Saul. What have you done, Jonathan? A rage is in him. So help me. He had told the people, even if it's my son, I'll kill him. You're talking about rage against sin. How about that? I'll kill him. He's going to break the law. He's going to break the commandments. He's dead. He turns to his son. He says, what did you do? And his son looks at him. He said, Father, you're going to kill me for dipping my rod in honey? He said, yeah, you're dead. He commands his officers to take him and go kill his son. And the army had to rescue Jonathan from his father. Here's a picture of an anointed man of God, a servant of the Lord expressing an uncompromising hatred for sin. But there's something tragically wrong with this picture. Saul sees sin in the congregation. He sees sin in his family, in his son. But he doesn't know. And he's totally blind to the fact that God was fingering him. It wasn't his son. It was Saul. Saul was the man, the guiltiest man in the camp. And he's raging against sin all around him, against the congregation, against his son, against everybody but himself. And he should have been mourning for his own son because he had just had an encounter with Samuel. Samuel had rebuked him for rebellion and witchcraft and sin in his heart, impatience. He should have been mourning over his sin. He should have said, if anyone needs judgment, it's me. He should have been weeping. But he still had a rage for the holiness of God, for the unrighteousness of the congregation. He's going to stand as a leader. He's the pastor of the flock. Nobody's going to get by with sin in this house. He wasn't even concerned about sin in his own life. Now, let me tell you what's behind the New Kingdom Dominion Gospel in America. There's a group called Restructionists and Kingdom Dominion. And basically, they want to bring back the law, the Mosaic law, and all the law, the Abrahamic law, eye for eye and tooth for tooth. And what it is, it's a rage against the corporate sins of America. They say America is disintegrating. America is absolutely rotting to its core. And the only way we're going to bring it back to sanity is to go back to the law. And they want to bring the law back. And they want death penalty for every rapist. They want death penalty for anyone who murders. They want death penalty for all kinds of major crimes. They want 40 stripes on the back for incest. And they want to bring back corporal punishment for everything to try to drive out this kind of sin that's in America today. There's a rage in these people. Their key leaders talk about bringing back the disciplines of the Mosaic law. They want to stone every abortionist. In fact, they want to stone any girl that's had an abortion. You ought to read some of the legal writings of the Reconstructionists. And my, you talk about a rage against sin. You can't read anything like it. It sounds like Moses has been resurrected from the dead. The only problem with one of their major leaders took such an exception to some of my writings, especially a book, a prophetic book, set the trumpet to your mouth. And he got so enraged at my book. You should read the letters he wrote to me. I don't think he was a Christian. It was the most venomous stuff I've ever seen. Here's a man who wrote book after book on this, raging against sin in America. And that man smokes and drinks. And he rages at me, and he rages at the church for its sins. It's the Saul syndrome. Hatred for the sins of society, sins of the church, sins of others. In the midst of all this hard, hard-hitting so-called rage against sin, nothing is talked about personal grief for their own sins. Even the most righteous among us have a tendency to hate the sins of others while being blind to our own. Take David, for example. Here's a holy man, a man after God's own heart. David said, I hate every false way. He said, you that love the Lord hate evil. Now that's good. Thank God. Except for a prophet named Nathan, who comes to David after he had killed Uriah, her husband, while Bathsheba, the scripture says, mourned for her husband. I don't think, that poor woman, I don't think she had any idea that her secret lover planned the death of her husband. Nathan the prophet comes to David. I want you to follow me carefully. And he says, David, I need to talk to you. He said, there's a man in the kingdom, and he's very wealthy, and he has a lot of sheep. And someone came to visit him, and he was hungry, and he was going to feed him. And rather than send the servants out to get one of his sheep, he said, his neighbor had one little lamb. It was the family pet. And that little lamb would eat and sleep with the family. And it was a pet. They loved it. And this man, this rich man, rather than go and get one of his own lambs to kill, goes over and steals that little lamb that's a pet. Kills it and feeds it to his neighbor. David said, so help me, he's dead. He'll die. Now folks, the scripture David said, and he will pay, he has to pay four lambs. How does a dead man pay for four lambs if he's dead? Well, the original says, he's worthy of death. And David said, he's going to make restitution with four other lambs. He thought it was a real story, it was just a parable. The rage in David. I'll kill you. Oh, how David hated sin. That's found in 2 Samuel 12, 1 through 6. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. By the way, folks, David set the restitution, didn't he? He set the judgment, he said four lambs. And he paid those four lambs. The baby and three sons. Absalom, Ammon, and Adonijah. Sometimes we pay the very judgments we think on others. Now, let's see how unconfessed sin in a child of God produces an unrighteous, unholy indignation against sin and others. If you have hidden sin, you'll have often an indignation for sin against others. Because hidden sin begets a religious spirit. Oh, we got people that have that religious spirit. So pious, so holy, walk around with their nose up. Hiding sin. But oh, they can see sin all around them. Years ago, in one of our repentance conferences, a preacher's wife came to us. She said, my husband is rather well known in the holiness circle and churches as a holiness preacher. This man thunders against make-up on women and going to movies and dress and all of this. He's a star, a so-called star in the holiness movement. She said, he's a phony. He's hooked on pornography. Boy, could he thunder against the way a woman should dress, the length of her skirt and make-up on her face and earrings. He would preach against everything, every legalistic thing there was, trying to cover a vicious hidden sin in his own life. Jesus said, why do you behold the mote or the speck that's in your brother's eye, but you consider not the beam that's in your own eye? How wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull the mote out of your eye, and behold, a beam is in your own eye. You hypocrite, first cast out the beam of your own eye, then you shall see clarity to cast out the mote of your brother's eye. In Romans 2.21, thou which teacheth another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest, a man should not steal. Do you steal? You say a man should not commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? Now, folks, I believe that righteous people have a godly hatred for sin. There's no question. We've got to cry out against sin and against compromise. But David had that. Listen to me. Later on, after David's repentance, he said, Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee? And am I not greed with those that rise up against You? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them as my enemies. But the reason David can say, he's really expressing God's hatred for sin because that came out of repentance, search, broken heart. He'd already examined his own heart and dealt with sin because he said in the next verse, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me. You have no right to judge sin in the church until you have first judged it in your own heart and in your own life. Don't go to somebody with the word until the word comes to yourself. I tell you, if you come to me with the word and you say, God's revealed something to me about you, Brother Dave, you better be ready. Because it'll boomerang right, not from me, but the Holy Ghost, boomerang right back in your face. The Lord said, if you're going to say that to anybody, make sure it comes out of a pure vessel that you have already examined your own heart and you have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. We are so unlike the Lord, inventing our hatred for sin in others. We're so unlike Jesus. We want judgment and God wants mercy. We want to call fire down from heaven on the transgressors and God wants to reconcile them. I could have never been a prophet of reconciliation to King Manasseh. He'd filled Jerusalem with blood from one end to the other. He had offered thousands of babies to the belly of Moloch. And if God had sent me to this man because the Bible said he repented, and God said, go encourage him and go reconcile him, if I stood before that man, I would thunder at him. I said, you bloody man. All I could hear would be the screams of the babies. All I could think about was what this man had done to society. I couldn't have it in me to forgive this man. But see, I wouldn't have known anything about his sleepless nights and hearing those cries of the babies into the wee hours and the haunting cry. I couldn't know of tears that he shed in secret. I couldn't know of the prayers that he prayed. I couldn't know of any of that. But God does. And God had mercy on that man. Now, Nathan the prophet shows us how the true measure of God's wrath against sin and how he deals with fallen, sinning saints. Those who have fallen into sin. Let me show you how God deals with that. Nathan knew David had sinned. He knew it. See, ten months went by before Nathan came. Ten months from the time this affair till God sent Nathan. Ten months goes by. I believe in those ten months. And folks, I want to be like Nathan. And I want to show you how God has really dealt with me on this. And he's still dealing with me. Dealing with me so deeply, it's just cutting to the core of my soul. He knew David was involved in murder and lies and cover-up and deception. But this prophet loved David. You see, folks, you can't talk to people about their sins unless you love them. Unless you truly, truly have a heart of love, you can't talk to them about sin. And he was not anxious to expose David. He really wanted to save him. Nathan didn't go around to David's court and to his servants and said, Hey, look, our leader is in trouble. He's got a woman trying to seduce him. We'd better pray for him. Folks, that's nothing but garbage gossip. We have people all the time go around and say, Hey, we've got to pray for so-and-so because he's in trouble or she's in trouble. I've got such a burden, we've got to pray. That's plain stinking gossip. And it's vicious and it's horrible because it's covered up with this piety of concern and compassion. We'd better pray. No, I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of anybody who does that. I wouldn't want to be in their shoes. It's not concern. Nathan didn't carry it anywhere but to God. He knew all about it. And I believe Nathan spent months praying for David. He hated David's sin. He knew that God doesn't wink at sin. And that sin has its consequences. He knew David's living a lie. He knew David disregarded the name of the Lord. He'd made the enemies of God to mock and to rejoice. But I want to show you something. God made the first move. God made the first move of reconciliation. Because, you see, here's a man who's hurting. Here's a man in great grief. Because, you see, when we sin we have a tendency to hide from God. Because we feel unworthy. We feel we'll never measure up to His measurements. That we'll never be able to please Him. So we have a tendency to hide just like Adam and Eve did when they sinned. And, by the way, God made the first move to them also. Because He missed their fellowship and He said, Why are you hiding? As if to say, Why are you trying to destroy our communion? And God was missing David. God missed that fellowship, that intimacy that He had in David's hiding because of guilt and fear and condemnation. And I'll tell you what. When you sin, when you feel God and you have a repentant heart, you run back to Him and restore that fellowship because that's precious to Him. If it's not as precious to you, it's more precious to Him. And I'll tell you something. God missed this man. The Lord missed him. And He waited and waited and waited. And He said, If David's not coming to Me, I'm going to him. And He sent Nathan. Now, folks, let me tell you, I used to preach this. Oh, I used to preach this. Folks, I've got a tape I don't want to listen to anymore because halfway in it I want to shut it off. Because it's the wrong spirit. Because there's a rage in me against sin and that that is not tempered with the mercy of God. I used to say, Here came this prophet. And there's David sitting on his throne thinking he's getting away with it. And he's sporting around with Bathsheba. And here comes this mighty man of God, full of holy zeal. And he marches in and he tells this story and he says, David, you are the man. You have transgressed God. You brought shame on Him. Shame on you. Repent. It's not the way it was. No, because God had already told him he was forgiven. Told the prophet to go to him with the message of reconciliation. Because when you tell him what I tell you, he's going to think he's going to die on the spot. You've got to tell him he's forgiven, he's not going to die. You're going to tell him also that I'm going to go with him through everything that's coming. I see Nathan, quietly, with a broken heart and tears in his eyes, telling a story about the little lamb. And he's hoping David will get the message. He's hoping David will bow his head and say he's talking about me. He listens as David rages. He says he still doesn't get the point. And I see Nathan get up and walk toward a window with his heart broken. And he turns sadly. He says, David, you're the man. You have grieved Him. I feel Nathan's grief as he talks to his friend David. The enemies of God are rejoicing at what you did. And David, I'm sorry to tell you, but this short's not going to leave your home. There are consequences to your sin. Because God wanted David to know the terror of his sin. Paul talks about knowing the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Because God doesn't wink at sin. God wants every one of us to know that you sin against the light and there are consequences. And David, suddenly everything gets pent up inside of him. Everything comes out. And I see David falling on his friend the prophet Nathan. He says, Nathan, I've sinned against God. It wasn't the prophet screaming, it was David. You read the 51st Psalm. You know what you're going to find out? Read it again. You're going to find David praying out his fears that he'd live for ten months. Because he'd seen what happened to Saul. That's why he says, oh God, don't take your Holy Spirit from me. For ten months he'd lived with the fear that God had taken the Holy Spirit from him. He's praying, oh God, renew a right spirit in me. Because he'd seen an evil spirit from the Lord come upon Saul. You hear him say, oh God, renew a right spirit in me. And you hear this crying, David. He'd lived it. He's venting his fears. He's getting it all out. Side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two. You're sitting in your agony. You think God gets any pleasure seeing you writhing in pain and agony and guilt and fear because you failed him. You think God sits by saying, let him suffer a little more. Let her suffer a little more. And when she really feels the pain, then I'll come rushing in. No, he waits. He's been waiting for you to come back to him and to his love and be restored. And when you don't come back, he'll send somebody to you. He'll send a prophet. He'll send somebody, not to rebuke you, but to bring you to reconciliation with his own heart. Cast me not away from your presence, oh God. Because for ten months he'd been feeling cast away. He can't pray. He's lost his joy. And Nathan knows why he won't go out and fight. He's afraid an arrow is going to hit him. He's going to stand before God in his unforgiving state. In his unrepentant state. I believe he was repentant that whole time. But he's afraid some arrow is going to hit him. He's lost his zeal. He's lost everything. Because that's what sin does. It takes your zeal. It takes your fight out of you. And it leaves you fearing all the time. Nathan knew that. I've sinned against the Lord. Nathan says, David, I've got good news for you. He's forgiven you. David said, how do I stand before holy God? He says, David, you're not going to die. You're going to live. He's plenteous in mercy. That's what the scripture says. Ready to forgive. I don't understand the mercy and grace of God. It's beyond me. Because David comforts Bathsheba. They have another child. And God names him. His name is Solomon. And the Bible says, and God loved him. How do you figure that out? God loved him. Joab's up at Rabbah, the city of Rabbah. And he says, David, come up. David gets his fight back. He goes up and wins a great battle. And he comes home with a new crown on his head and with great honor. And God has restored him completely. And not only that, let me tell you something. Oh, he paid a price. He paid a price. The baby died. The baby died. The first baby that he had, the child he had to Bathsheba died. Ammon died. But when you hear, you read about the death of Ammon, the scripture says, and David was comforted. And you hear it over and over again, David was comforted. You see, when you're repentant, when you're broken before the Lord, even though you're going through the consequences of your sin, the Holy Ghost comes and comforts you and sees you through every step. Hallelujah. So that you're able to bear it. That's the mercy and the goodness of God beyond my comprehension. Now, before I close, there's just a few questions I want to ask you. How do you hate sin? And with what kind of voice do you hate it? And is it tempered with mercy? Are you as tough on yourself as you are on others? For he shall have judgment without mercy that hath shown no mercy. And mercy rejoices against judgment. Mercy says, I don't want to see judgment, I want to see reconciliation. And if you've had no mercy, the Bible said you'd be shown no mercy. Scripture said, you've seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and full of tender mercy. Yes, I know Jesus called the Pharisees vipers and snakes. I know John the Baptist called Herod a fox. I know Jesus took the cat in a tail, he took a whip and drove the Pharisees out of the temple with a holy rage. I know Paul publicly rebuked sorcerers, and he stood and called sin, and he named sinners by name, even in the church. And yes, there are prophets who cry aloud, and spare not and tear down the strongholds of the enemy. But folks, we're talking about those who don't have repentant hearts. We're talking about those with a Pharisee attitude, who have a pride in them. But when there is a repentant spirit, I don't care what you've done, how you've failed God. If you have a repentant, broken spirit, the Lord will come to you, and he will reconcile you because he sees a brokenness, a repentant. This one, when I look to him, has a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And that's the difference. With this, I close. God help me, God help you, and help us all to recognize when somebody's repentant in heart, and God help us to forgive as God does. God tenderize our spirits, that we can hate all evil, and yet see God's mercy among those who are repentant and broken before him. Folks, this is a short message, and I don't think I was preaching as much to you as I am to myself. Some of you are sitting here this morning, this afternoon, and you don't have fellowship with Jesus. It's been broken, because you keep failing. Folks, I'm not speaking from a condition of failure. The Lord's been gracious and kept me. Like I say, I walk in his righteousness. I've not arrived, but he's kept me by his power. But there's some of you here this afternoon, you need his loving arms around you again. You need the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and I'm your Nathan, and God sent me to you today. I'm not going to talk about that bony finger anymore, like I have for years. I want to talk about that merciful prophet, and every prophet in this book who wept as they preached. And God give this church that kind of mercy. Give you mercy when you see somebody coming in here off the streets dressed wild. And don't go up and say, God's displeased with the way you're dressed. Go out and get something decent and come back. Just put your arms around them. If they smell, put your arms around them. Reach out in mercy. Somebody came to me the other day and began to unburden her heart to me, and I was feeling, saying, how could you do such a thing? And I was feeling anger in me, and God said, settle down. Just listen. We don't listen. We get this, what we think is holy rage and indignation rise up in us. We're quick to judge. Lord said, just listen to the man, and I kept listening. And suddenly, when I heard the whole story, my heart began to melt. And the mercy of Jesus came into my heart, and I realized I could have cut that man off, and probably I could have hurt him, and he may have ended up in hell. Because I didn't have the love of Jesus. God, give us that love. You can go out in the streets and bring them in here, but if we don't have that love in here, what good is it? We could drive them out. God, melt our hearts. And if you're here carrying a burden up in the balcony, here on the main floor, you said, Brother Dave, I've really failed God. He's coming to you right now and says, come, if your heart's broken, if you say, I've grieved the Lord, I've sinned against Him. If you can say like David, I've sinned against the Lord, not trying to hide it. I don't believe David tried to hide it. I think he was so relieved after Nathan came. Nathan didn't come to expose, and he came to heal him. Stand to your feet, please. This is the conclusion of the tape.