We can neither stand in awe of God's word, nor rejoice at it, unless we abhor all contrary ways

Posted : 12 Sep, 2013 02:21 AM

Psalm 119:163 I hate and abhor lying: but Your law do I love.





We can neither stand in awe of God's word, nor rejoice at it,

unless we abhor all contrary ways. And here lies the spiritual

conflict. For so opposed are our natural affections to the

character and will of God, that we love what God hates, and

we hate what God loves. Our new principle and bias,

however, as directly falls in with the dictates of God's law, as

before we have revolted from it. Lying is now hated and

abhorred as contrary to "a God of truth;" and the law is now

loved, as the reflection of His image, and the manifestation of

His will. David had before prayed to have "lying ways removed

from him," and a love for the law of God imparted. His utter

detestation shows, that these ways had been removed, and a

renewed inclination to the law granted to him. To have avoided lying, and to have practiced the law, might

have been sufficient for the regulation of his outward conduct.

But his was the religion of the heart-not meant only to control

his actions; but to renew his habits, motions, tempers, and

taste. He would not therefore only refrain from lying, or

manifest a disinclination to it-he must hate and abhor it as hell

itself. Nor was external conformity, or approval of the law, his

standard: he must love it. If sin was counted common,

fashionable, venial, profitable, or pleasant; if contempt was

cast upon the law of God-this stopped him not. Every sin,

though only a hair's breadth deviation from the rule, was in his

eyes hateful, defiling, damning. He would "resist unto blood,

striving against it." Every act, desire, and habit of conformity,

with whatever shame it might be attended, was his delight.

Such, Christian, should be our standard. Lord! humble us in

the daily sense of deviation and defect. Give to us larger

desires, growing conformity to Your perfect rule.

Well had it been for Eve and for her children, had she turned

from the tempter's lie with this strong determination. But-"You

shall not surely die"- has from that fatal moment been a most

effectual instrument in captivating unwary souls. So plausible

is it in itself, so agreeable to our natural inclinations, that it is

readily cherished, even where the first contact with temptation

assures the wretched victims, that its "deceit is falsehood."

But they do not hate and abhor it: they do not flee from it, as a

concern for the honor of God and their own safety would lead

them; and therefore justly are they "given up to believe it" as

the fruit of their delusion, and the punishment of their

unfaithfulness. Oh! if we are ever tempted by the flattery and

allurements of the world, let us only mark the opposition of

their standard, taste, maxims, and pursuits to the truth of God,

and we shall turn away with hatred and abhorrence.

The "overseers of the purchased flock" of Christ-yes, all "who

earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" will anxiously watch any deterioration of doctrine or

principle-any deviation from the simplicity of the Gospel, and

brand it as a lie. "I have not written unto you"- said the

venerable Apostle, "because you know not the truth; but

because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a

liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?" How does

the great Apostle teach us to look at the adulteration of the

doctrine of grace before referred to-a system not of faith, but

of fear-not of joy, but of slavish awe-not of confidence, but of

doubt- palsying the springs of life: withering, blighting, chilling

the glow of love; "entangling again the free-born children of

God in a yoke of bondage!" The champion of the faith would

not tolerate it for a moment. And he bids his people hate and

abhor it, even though from an angel's mouth, as the beguiling

lie of the great "corrupter" of the church. Equally would he

have us abhor the licentious abuse of the gospel flowing from

the same source-"Shall we continue in sin, that grace may

abound? God forbid!"

After all, however, this verse must include an abhorrence of

the literal sin of lying in all its forms. A lie is so gross a sin,

that we might be disposed to spiritualize this expression,

rather than to analyze some of the plausible shapes, in which

the sin may be detected in our own profession. Exaggeration,

a false gloss, a slight deviation (hardly perceptible) from the

straight line, excuses made to one another, which we dare not

make to God, want of accuracy in relating what we hear-all

these are forms of lying to be shunned, hated and abhorred

by the man, who is really "walking in the light, and having

fellowship with God," as much as the more palpable

falsehoods, with which the world abounds, which it excuses,

and even boasts of.

Believer! would you have your hatred and abhorrence of every

kind of lying yet further deepened? Would you summon every

passion of the soul- "indignation, vehement desire, zeal, revenge"-against it? Then learn to abhor it, not only as your

enemy, but as God's. Pray that the arrow of conviction may be

dipped in the blood of Christ; and then, however deep and

painful be the wound, it cannot be mortal. Mortal indeed it will

be to the sin, but healing to the soul. Pray that your hatred of

sin may flow from a sense of reconciliation; for never will it be

so perfect, as when you feel yourself sheltered from its

everlasting curse. To lie before your Savior as His redeemed

sinner, and to wash His feet with your tears of contrition, will

be your highest and happiest privilege on this side heaven. In

this spirit and daily posture you will most clearly manifest the

inseparable connection of hatred of lying ways with a love for

the law of God.



by

Charles Bridges

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