Abomination Part 1

So the title of today's sermon is Abomination. Abomination. Jesus said it. We say it. But do we really know all about it? The Word is first used in the Gospel in the New Testament by Christ. If you'll turn there, Matthew 24, verse 15. Matthew 24, verse 15.

And then, Matthew 24, verse 15. Christ speaking from the Mount of Olives and the Olivet prophecy says in verse 15, Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, whoever does what? Reads. Let him understand. When I read this the other day, I said, do we really understand? Do all of us understand what is spoken of? By the time I'm done with this series, I hope you not only understand it, but can teach it, be able to understand it and know what's going to happen down the road exactly what it is. Can you explain this part of Scripture, the abomination that makes desolate? Well, the same Greek word abomination that is translated abomination is used in Luke 16, if you will turn there with me. Luke 16. Luke 16. As Christ was giving a sermon and he was talking about how you cannot serve God and mammon and money. And then verse 14, he says, Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided him. They were not happy with him. It's one translation, they turned their nose up at him when he said that because he thought they were talking about them. Well, he was. He was. So you can imagine that look on their face as Christ said this. He did not shy away from telling the truth. But then he said, and he said to them, who? Why it was the Pharisees. You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. Amazing how many times God references the heart and how he looks upon our hearts, how he judges us by our hearts. Then he says, For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Abomination in the sight of God. If it's so evil in the sight of God, shouldn't we know what it is? Shouldn't we understand this word? Shouldn't we understand this word? Abomination? It's actually translated from the Greek word Bedelugma. In case you want to know how it's pronounced. Bedelugma. My wife was laughing at me as I was riding with her as she was driving, and I started saying, Bedelugma.

And the word Bedelugma means to detest something, to detest, to despise, to hate and we've all had different things in our lives that we detested, despised, perhaps even hated. But it actually comes from the root word Badeo. Badeo. The root word. Wasn't there a song? Badeo. Badeo. Yeah? That wasn't it. No. Okay. But at least you remember Badeo now. Just because you heard me. One person that can't sing here. Try to sing. But Badeo is that root word. Does anybody know what that means in Greek? To stink. Does anybody know what stink means? Yes? Okay. So now we know the root and base word of abomination. Something is smells. It stinks. As some people say, stinks to high heaven. Well, that may make you understand a little more about this. And this root word, Badeo ugma, is actually spoken of six times in the New Testament, and they're all abominations mentioned six times, and they're all from the same root word. It means stinks. Okay. Now it's interesting in the Old Testament, the Hebrew, there are actually six different words that are translated from the word abomination, or abomination was translated from six different words in there. And they mean, I won't give you all six words because I want you to remember, Badeo, something disgusting, to loathe, something filthy, to be unclean, filth as idolatrous objects, and the last one, to smell really, really bad. That's the word. Yeah, Bruce said rotten. You might think of that, as many of us think about things like that. So what's the worst thing you have ever smelled? Okay, when I asked my wife this a couple weeks ago when I was putting this sermon together, and I said, what's the worst thing you've smelled? And besides me, after working out sometime, she didn't say that, but she wanted to. She actually said, well, at a house in Tennessee, when we had to have the septic tank clean, we lifted up that lid, and she was there and said, man, that would almost gag you. Okay, everybody, anybody who has a septic tank know what that smells like? Well, you know, our inspector over here could tell you that you want it to smell bad. You want it to smell bad, because if it smells bad, it's actually working as a septic tank. I found that out when I was in construction there and was actually adding an addition to home back in Tennessee, and they have passed a new rule or law they were working on at that time, and so the head over code said, Chuck, I'd go ahead and do this, is they actually separate your washer and dryer, cleansing the water to let it not go into the septic tank, because when it goes into the septic tank, it kills the bacteria, and you want the bacteria so that the solids are broken down and the water brings it on through and it goes to the field lines. So they don't really want anything clean going in there. Okay? So I just bring that up because that's what my wife thought. How about you guys? Anything? What's the... what's some pungent smell? Rotten fish. You mean sushi? No.

He said rotten eggs. A dead skunk. You don't mind live ones? I never saw a live one. Okay. Well, my dog found one, and one time and it was alive, and guess what? That dog smelled because it decided it got sprayed. Okay, it takes a long time. Yeah, Jeff? A pup mill.

See, there's your problem. You were in Alabama.

It was okay. Okay. Well, anybody else? Yes. A dead body. A dead... well, I've never smelled a dead body. Well, I have. Well, yes, animals because we used to have them on the farm. Do what? Stinky feet. Okay. I hope you have your shoes on.

Oil refinery. You could smell it. Okay, I've never smelled that. Bruce?

Blue cheese. Blue cheese. Ah, okay. Yes, sir.

Oh, Chinese food. Wow.

She loves Chinese food. Okay. Mr. Jean?

There's more about... yes. Yes, because it's detestable to God. Well, here's what I looked up on the internet. Found this to be interesting.

Spoiled milk. Okay. Does anybody... everybody smell spoiled milk? Keep a lid on it. I agree. They also brought up cheese, as you said, and so I went and actually drove halfway all over Fort Lauderdale yesterday because no one had it. A type of cheese. No, it's called raclette. It's from Swiss cheese. My wife said it didn't smell that bad, but we'll pass it around. See if you think so. Okay, just don't eat it. You can pass it through there. See how you... see if you think it smells bad. Okay, but they actually said spoiled milk, skunk, whoever said skunk, vomit.

Yes, yes, and feces. So everybody can agree kind of where that goes, and you'll see if you agree with the cheese as you go by. It comes by. Some have actually said, I asked someone else, they said a pig farm. Another said a chicken farm. And someone else said, they said rotten eggs. Yes, so these are things that you know they smell. They stink, as Padeo says, right? They stink. Now, when I was 16 years old, I had a summer job working with my father in construction, and we all worked for a company, and we had a man who was a police officer who worked part-time, as Bill could probably attest to. He worked because he was three days on and then three days off, four days on, four days off back then, so he needed to pick up some extra money. Well, his name was Malcolm Boyd. I remember because he very opinionated, very strong personality, and I thought he was funny because he was always cracking jokes and doing this stuff. Well, we were actually working on this job, and he always said, oh, that makes me sick, or this is whatever. We were working on this job where it was a sliding glass door. Everybody, I have one on my condo. Anybody else have sliding glass doors? Big down here. And so we were putting a new one in, and so in this house, so it took three of us because it was a big door, so when we got it all in, framed in, and so forth, we had to let this little dog out. This was in the 70s. This was mid-70s, and of course, the big thing was that the house was, you remember the old green shag carpet? Yes, remember that? Okay, that's what was in this house, and they had a dog. So you can imagine if you're working down on your hands and knees, you could smell the carpet, you know, smell the dog in the carpet, and it was kind of, it wasn't pungent, but it wasn't something you'd go, that smells good. So what happens when we're finishing the job? You have to adjust the rollers at the bottom. Well, we had set their little dog outside on the on the screen porch as we were doing this job. So I'm standing there cleaning the glass, and Malcolm is down at the bottom, adjusting the screws, the wheels, and all of a sudden the little dog comes over there. He's on the outside of this glass with just the glass to separate, and all of a sudden I looked, and that dog was kind of like, and I thought he was getting sick. Malcolm didn't see it, and he had his face right there, and the dog threw up on the glass on the outside, and he was in a state of shock. It just like, and he just lost it. He just started, and he threw up. So we had the dog throwing up, him throwing up, because he couldn't, he was, you know, and it smelled bad. But I remember because Malcolm was repulsed by what he saw.

Let's go with that point in mind, because God is repulsed easily too, concerning certain things, and that's what this sermon is about. Finding out what God finds repulsive that are an abomination to God. Things that stink, they'll to God. So, to contrast this, a few months ago, I gave a sermon on prayer. You might remember it, and behind me here, I actually cooked some steak while I was giving my sermon, right? So everybody could smell how good it smelled as that beef was cooking, and how the sacrifices that they used to give, when the priest would put them on, and how God would smell that sacrifice, and it smelled good to him. Yes, your daughter like that? Yes, you can bring it to me. She don't like it. She does not like it. Here you go, guys. I know you love cheese.

So, imagine the difference here between when a sacrifice is given like that in the smell, and then compare it to what God says, ah, I'm repulsed. It makes me sick, because that is what an abomination to God means. Sweet smelling, a repulsive odor. Do we understand it? I think trying to give this background, so forth. But should we not all know, everything that repulses our Father and our High Priest, soon coming King, Jesus Christ, because he said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. So what repulses the Father are He detests, so does Jesus Christ. So let's go there. Let's go with me, if you will, if we take this short trip to Leviticus. Leviticus 11, to be exact. Leviticus 11 and verse 11. It says, they shall be an abomination to you. You shall not eat their flesh, but you shall regard their carcasses as an abomination. What's He talking about? Ah, read the verses before. Clean and unclean. He's saying that there's meat to Him. He detests. It's an abomination. And then He lists. He goes up in verse 8 and said, their flesh you shall not eat and their carcasses you shall not touch. They are unclean to you, that pork, that swine. And He knows because He made it, right? So He's saying, here's the stuff to eat, here's the stuff you don't eat, and guess what? The stuff I don't want you to eat, they're an abomination. They stink. They're detestable. Go over to verse 43. Chapter 11, verse 43. You shall not make yourselves, what? Abominable. We shall not make ourselves abominable, detestable, repulsive to God, right? With any of the creeping things that creeps, like a snake. Oh, but it tastes like chicken. No, it smells to God.

It says, nor shall you make yourselves unclean with them, lest you be defiled by them. For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore sanctify, meaning what? Being set apart. Holy. You're going to be sanctified. Set apart. Set yourselves apart, and you shall be holy for I am holy. So God is actually equating this thing that's abominable to Him between holy and unholy. Pretty strong words.

Neither shall you defile yourself with the creeping things that creeps on the earth. For I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy for I am holy. So He's relating the sanctification and being holy to Him even by what you eat. This is the law of the beast and the birds and every living creature that moves in the waters and every creature that creeps on the earth to distinguish between the clean and the unclean between the animal that you may be eaten and the animal which may not be eaten.

Has anybody read any stories? I'm sure you've heard them. Have you done any research on the abominable snowman? Have everybody heard of the abominable snowman? Some call him Yeti, right? In this country called Bigfoot. What? Sasquatch. Okay. Yes. The reason when I studied this to find out about the abominable snowman, because some people have thought they saw one or they had interaction with them, especially in Nepal, especially in some of those countries, and the reason they called it abominable was because they would know it's around because it stinks. They would have this smell and they would think, oh, it's around, it's around. It's interesting that just this week on Google News, they brought it out that they did some DNA tests on some samples and find out it's some type of bear. It's a cross between a polar bear and a grizzly bear is what they think. That's what I read this week, but I can't believe everything on Google, can you? You better not. Right? So, abominable snowman, it's because of how they smell, is what they call it. How do you smell? Yeah. You smell pretty good? Yeah. William's checking himself out. Okay, I'm glad you didn't ask him me to do that for you. Let's go to Deuteronomy 22. Deuteronomy 22. Interesting here, as we're talking about abominations, well, here we found out what? We just found out about food, what we eat, what we don't eat, what we shouldn't eat, and you can become abominable. But here we have a thing in chapter 22 and verse 5. It says, a woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment. For all who do so are, what, an abomination in the sight of God. Oh, wait a minute. You mean God's not into allowing us to cross dress? I can't try on one of my wife's dresses, besides I'm too big to get in her dress. He said it'd be a sight to see, yes. But does that mean, because I heard in the past, wait a minute, a woman shouldn't wear pants because a man wears pants?

There's men's pants and women's pants and so forth like this, but it's saying God's not pleased with misdoubt fire. Remember the movie? Robin Williams dressed up as a woman, take care of kids, even though it was supposed to be for a good reason. Tootsie. You remember it was a show, Tootsie and then Destin Hoffman or something? Okay. Can you see that it's, yeah, well, I remember Flip Wilson when I was a kid. Yeah, Geraldine. He dressed up. Everybody remember Flip Wilson dressing up as Geraldine? Now, we thought it was funny. God doesn't think it's funny. Okay, it's an abomination. Big Mama, yeah, Perry, Tyler Perry, the 500 million dollar man. He's made a lot of money off dressing up as a woman, hasn't he? God doesn't think it's funny. He says, Brevin, that's not funny. That's an abomination. That should smell to you. And some people say that doesn't pass the smell test, right? It doesn't with God as we, you know, look at these things. So clearly, you can see when I, well, yesterday, I went to get that cheese. I went to get that cheese I was in Boca. Well, it ran all over Fort Lauderdale and they didn't have any and had all, drive back two miles from my house in Boca and they had that, okay? But when I was checking, I was behind this and I thought I was behind this woman. Come find out it wasn't a woman. It was transgender because when the woman gave her back her chain, she goes, Thank you. I'm like, I got a dress on, you know? And I'm looking and I'm looking, you know, then I look at the legs and the hands and their man hands, you know? It's like, and so this thing came in my mind. That's what God's trying to get us to define because now they say, well, it's okay. L-B-G-T-Q-A, whatever, you know, you shouldn't judge. It's all good. They're just good people. God says, no, that's an abomination. You don't create any round of degrees. Nope. Nope. That's true. Let's go over Deuteronomy 23. Deuteronomy 23.

Deuteronomy 23 and verse 17. It says, There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel, or a perverted one of the sons of Israel. You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the Lord, your God, for any vowed offering, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God. I read that and read that and go, well, you know, what's he really saying? Because if he says it's abomination, I need to understand that scripture. Does anybody have a new living translation?

You do? Read that verse. It says, No reason to like whether men or women may become a temple prostitute. When you are bringing an offering to fulfill a vow, you must not bring to the house of the Lord your God any offering from the earnings of a prostitute, whether man or woman, for both are detestable to the Lord your God. But he understand that now? He didn't want that. He didn't want them to be like the rest of them that had temple prostitutes that would bring money in.

You'd think, whoa, why? Yes, very correct. He referred them as a dog. Yes, as male prostitutes were actually called that. So you can see that's an abomination. He didn't want the money. He didn't want that to become any part of this worship of him. Let's go over to Deuteronomy 25. Deuteronomy 25. 25 and verse 13.

He said, You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light. You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. You shall have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord your God has given you, for all who do such things and all who behave unrighteously are an abomination to God. So my wife is an abomination to God because she has two different sets of measures. No? Well, what's it talking about then?

Well, they used to have different ways to shoot people when they would tell me stuff. They'd lay it down differently and measure it. And measuring because they would trade just kind of like this was not around back then that actually showed a measure. So if you went to trade or to deal or to buy or sell, you would come in and say, well, I need this much grain. I need a pound of grain. And they say, oh, this is a pound. Well, he's saying, what if you just carved the top of this off just a little bit and saved you 10 percent?

Hmm. Or if you had those weights. You've seen it, weights where they would put something on it and you would have a just weight of one pound on this and then you could load up something on the other side and when it got to be one pound, it would be balanced, right? So God said he wanted to make sure that if you're doing this and weighing that you have perfect weights because you're trying to be like him.

That means if you sell somebody something for you sell 50 pounds, you don't give 49.9. Right? Because of who you are, because of holy and unholy. If God does anything, what does he want us to do? Give more. Absolutely. He wants us to go above and beyond. Because why? Why? Yes, and he can give it back. He said, you can't outgive me. He said, try me. Didn't he? Yeah, well, wait a minute. Let me hold back. And so what he wants because of the unrighteousness, he wants that to enter our brains to where we don't even think that way.

That we wouldn't even think about cheating anybody out of anything. Isn't that amazing? Amazing. You know, the word abomination in English actually comes from an old French word meaning repugnant, meaning disgusting, meaning horror, actually. And it's interesting the very first time that the word abomination is used in the Bible.

It's actually in...where? Anybody know? Very good. That was an educated guess, right? Okay, good. It's easy to start, well, where would it first be? How about Genesis? With all those chapters, it's got to be in there somewhere. So you are correct! Okay? But it actually took place 42-43 chapters in when it had to do with Joseph.

Anybody know? Well, Joseph was what? You're shaking your head, you know, because he was...Egypt, when he was going to bring his family in, because they were, what? Sheep herders! They were...and that was, as it said, an abomination to the people of Israel. I mean, people of Egypt, right? And he didn't want them because they shaved their hair, head, hair, everything.

They came very close...and the sheep herders, they would have beards, they would have, you know, just big cloaks and everything, and they did what? Smell! Right! Absolutely! You're in the desert, you're doing this stuff, and you're watering, you're around these sheep and goats, you're going to smell like a goat! Sheep, right? And so he was saying, that's why when he first came up and was going to have his brothers, and they didn't know him, he sat at a different table, because it was an abomination for them to, what?

Eat with a shepherd, eat with those type people, okay? Because they smelled! Have you ever tried to eat something in a barn of manure? Okay. When I was a kid, I had to work on a farm, and our neighbor hired me to clean out his barn. Okay? I was desperate. I needed those converse tennis shoes, and my dad wouldn't buy them, and so I had to go clean this barn. So he had to clean and clean it. Well, my mother said, well, how long is it going to take? I said, a couple of days. So she fixed me this lunch to eat, sack lunch, carry over there.

So by noon, I'm sweating, and I'm just covered in this stuff, and all of a sudden, I say, I gotta take a break. So I'm sitting down, and go over there, and start eating. Oh, it tasted like what I was around. You know, I'm sitting there eating this. It's like, oh! So I had to get up and leave the barn, get it off my shoes, and then it tasted like real food. And you think about it.

This is where the Egyptians looked at it like, mmm, and so it goes back to smell. Well, as we wrap this up today, one of the most known scriptures about abomination in the Bible we will cover before, because this is actually part one. We won't cover part two next week. We'll cover part two the week after that, and part three the week after that, as we come back around to the abomination and desolation that I want to talk to. But I thought it was very important that we understand exactly how God views an abomination, and hopefully we can develop that ourselves so that we begin to look at it that way. So, if you will, go with me to Proverbs 6. Proverbs 6, right? You probably know. Many of you said this. Proverbs 6, verse 16, he said, there are six things the Lord hates, right? And then he said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no. There's seven. That are, what? An abomination. An abomination. And as I've said before, if God had tasted Brussels sprouts, he would have said eight, okay? And I started to bring one of those and cook it just so you could see. But I'm afraid I might get sick, okay? So, it says, yes, seven are abomination to him. First, a proud look. What does that mean? A proud look. Arrogant. The opposite of humble. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the meek, for they shall what? Here at the aragant. Oh, no, the proud's going to take it away from him. No. So, God, it's an abomination. It makes him sick. It stinks when he sees somebody going, oh, look at me. Right? Or perhaps you see a bodybuilder. Oh, yes.

You know, that, you know, you're pathetic. You know? So, he didn't want to see a proud, a proud look, but then he said a lying tongue. What does it mean, a lying tongue? Somebody that can't tell the truth. You've met people, they just as easy a lie as tell the truth. You know, it's not like we all lie. We all have told a lie, probably knowingly or unknowingly, yesterday, maybe even today. Right? But this is a person who just lies, and we've all met them or worked with them. We might have married one, you know? I mean, that's just this thing. That's what we have to look at, and God despises it. Or let's say maybe they married one. So, a lying tongue is an abomination. He hates it. He says, hands are shed innocent blood. We've done that by the tune of a million a year, don't we? Haven't we? 30 or 40 million, for instance, since Roe versus Wade, and could be 60 million.

Hitler stalling, running these people together, killing man, woman, and child, innocent. And God hates it. And then he says, a heart that devises wicked plans. What would that be?

Can I say amen? I mean, they're all looking for themselves, aren't they? Wicked plan. It actually says a heart. It goes back to what? The heart. It's in your heart to cheat somebody. It's in your heart to do something wicked. They think of an angle.

Hijack a car.

Take something. Do something. Destroy something. But it's in the heart. It's not like, oh boy, I made a mistake. It's like, oh no, I'm going to do this. That's what he hates. That's why he wants to re-do that, and feet that are swift and running to evil. Haven't you met those people? Yeah, every day. You do. Yes, I have in prison. You know, and you hear these stories, and they're in there for the eighth time because they just, they can't let it go. They can't keep a real job. They got to go steal something. Do something. And see, God says, don't be that way. Not my people. Don't be that way. A false witness who speaks lies. What's the difference between that and a lying tongue?

Yes, by testifying falsely. Oh, yes, I saw him do it when he didn't or she didn't do it. Yes, they did. Yes, very much a character assassination. Yes, a false witness who speaks lies. And one who sows discord among the brethren. Or you can even say one who sows discord in a family, okay? That just tries to keep the family stirred up all the time. God hates it, and he hates it in church. You know, somebody, well, yes, I look at this and I'm doing this. Yeah, but, you know, I know what God says, but... sowing discord among the brethren. So we see through these seven things, we see the mind of God. How about our minds? Does it help us now to see that we don't need to be this way? That they discuss God, that they make God want to vomit. He abhors these things. And shouldn't we? He talks about another place in chapter 8 of Proverbs that wickedness is an abomination. Where does wickedness come from? Here you have wickedness, you have righteousness. Wickedness, righteousness. Wickedness, righteousness. Father of lies, yes, because Satan puts it in. He wants you to be wicked. God wants you to be righteous. And it starts... whoever gets to your heart first, that's what you're going to be, isn't it? So he says even that's an abomination. And he also mentions again in Proverbs about a false balance. It's so important that we have integrity. It's so important. And now, let's close. Let's close with me if you'll go to Proverbs 28. Proverbs 28 and verse 9. Proverbs 28 and verse 9, I'll read from the New King James. No one... get that? No one...

It's not what it says, is it? No. It says, one who turns away his ear from hearing the law... sermonette... even his prayer is an abomination. Even his prayer is an abomination. So when you hear all this, you know, you see people and they're going, oh, I hope that you'll pray for this person. Oh, yes, and I'll pray for you. And yet they live like an abomination. Everything about them, there's nothing godly about them. And then they're saying, oh, yes, yes, oh, God. Yes, God bless us all. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you, too. You see what he's saying? He says it's an abomination. You say all this stuff, but it's not real. It's not true. You don't even obey me. I'm the... I'm your teacher.

Brethren, abomination. You understand it?

Can you smell it? Can you discern it? Most of all, brethren, can you teach it? Can you teach it?