Howard Davis - The Lie vs The Law of Truth

greetings brethren it's nice to see such a large number of god's people here in portland attending this sabbath we live in a amazing time of revelation of the nature of man the truth of the way things actually run and don't run in our culture in our society and the inevitable conclusion that god's people must have is that living by the word of god is really the only way to be secure to know truth and to feel comfortable with reality because this is a world that has entered a very uncomfortable period where it seems that wherever you turn you're surrounded by lies and liars the truth about our lying world is important for us to understand because we are supposed to be getting ready and need to be getting ready to rule the universe in truth under jesus christ which is really the calling of all of god's people throughout all ages because this world is a world of temporary things that are manipulated to deceive and in the structure of the spirit and the nature of the way humans construct society in conjunction with a evil spirit behind the system the world is very much described in the bible in a unique way in terms of either truth-seeking or foundations are built on truth or falsehood and it is a world of the difference between good and evil the bible from this very beginning described the structure of the world based on either truth or falsehood starting in the book of genesis and we'll get there but we are supposed to understand as god's people the way of truth and believe in it in contrast to a way of lies now unfortunately the united states is probably gripped right now in one of the greatest times of turmoil of trying to understand what is the fact of the recent past and where is this country going is there any truth anywhere and this country was always the beacon the sort of the light of the world for the last two centuries of where at least you can look at a system that is honest in a relative sense to virtually any other system however the foundations are being questioned and with good reason now and so we as god's people have got to remain strong and firm in our concept of what our lives are to be about regardless of what goes on in a world that is moving very quickly to being totally surrounded in doubt and deception so let's take a look at the way the apostle paul described the overall situation the church at the time he was writing was described in ii corinthians you know this scripture quite well but let's take the context corinthians congregation had been established by paul and and he had come back and was writing to them about his sincerity and the truth that he had established before them and then the challenges that were being made about his authentic uh preaching to them and and the fact that there was a paul over the church in a conflict at the time over who really was the bringer of truth into the church so in second corinthians four verse three he said but even if our our gospel is veiled in other words it's not clearly seen to those people at all in the world it is veiled to those who are perishing whose minds the god of this age has blinded who do not believe and the light of the gospel of the glory of christ who is the image of god should shine to them and the problem with the world is that they cannot understand one good news from another because the world is full of marketers of false claims to the good life and the good way to think in even religion and the good christianity it's full of unfortunately liars and the leading liar of all of course was the one that created the first lies that man bought into and he is satan the devil himself so paul told the church members to remember that and that he himself was a representative christ had delayed the foundations of the corinthian church and under christ uh and he said for we do not preach ourselves but christ jesus the lord and ourselves your bond servants for jesus sake for it is the god who commanded light to shine out of darkness in other words truth out of a world of deception and lies and and non-facts who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the person or face because the word face is the same word in greek as person prosper of jesus christ so jesus christ was the one that came to reveal ultimate truth and truth as contrast to lies let's take a look about the fact that this started all the way back in the original uh uh experience of adam and eve with the devil right after god had created the the boundaries of human reality in the beauty of the garden of eden uh the snake sneaks in or slithers in or crawls in or whatever you might say and the origins and nature of lies and deception really can be seen and the nature of the way in which all manipulation against the truth occurs in the dialogue that the snake the serpent had with adam and eve let's take a look however first at the setup genesis 2 we see that god created man and put him in the garden of eden verse 15 to tend and keep it so first there was a man who was placed in an environment and he was instructed to tend and keep it so there was a communication between the creator the creator of all reality and truth and adam out of every tree of the garden you may he if saying he commanded the man out of every tree of the garden you may freely eat so he started to talk about things regarding his philosophy of life i have created everything for you to eat and then he he told them of the tree and you may freely eat of all of these trees but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die so this is a very big concept to a nearly newly created man but he was being instructed that everything that you see that i've created is given to you to use but there is one important distinction of this one tree and that it is a tree of the knowledge of good and evil and you don't want to eat of that one or you will die you will cease to exist now what was interesting is that god was dealing with someone who is very physical and yet was explaining of an extremely important issue that not a deal not only dealt with his physical future but also the broadest uh spiritual implications about his existence in the long run because the knowledge of good and evil is very much a spiritual uh issue it is a spiritual um framework of looking at reality because you have a tree here it had a fruit on it whether it was an apple or whatever i don't think a banana but it had this fruit and he was told not to eat a bit or he would die but it was a tree of knowledge and knowledge is something that comes through communication and reasoning which requires a spiritual framework for thinking and then making choices so he was told to make the right choice here if he wanted to continue to exist and then he said and god said it is not good that man should be alone and i will make him a helper comparable to him so then it further says uh in verse 20 and the lord god caused a deep sleep to fall in adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place then the rib which the lord god had taken from man he made into a woman and he brought her to a man so after he explained to adam the do's and don'ts of his existence he said i'm creating a woman to be just like you in the sense of someone appropriate that can be with you and it says um he made the woman and brought her to the man and adam said this is the bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman for she was taken out of man therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh and they were both naked the man and his wife and they weren't ashamed so what we see here is that the man was going to be accompanied in life by a woman and then they were told they were going to have children and they were going to populate this entire world this great uh place that god had created to eventually be populated all over and we see that described i um to turn my pages by put my finger under this this plastic thing here and back in chapter one it said verse 26 god said let us make man in our image according to our likeness let him have dominion over the fish of the sea and so forth and that said so god created man in his own image in the image he created the hymn male and female he created them and god blessed them so he was creating a being in his own image god's own image with a god-like capacity for understanding knowledge and reasoning and making choices now we see where the issue comes in and the nature of lying and what it does to the human mind and character and future so let's look at chapter three this is the origin and nature of liars and deception the way in which people are coaxed into it manipulated into lying and the consequences whether it's willful or it's completely a deceptive a deceptive thing and a person is either willfully going along with it or deceived we see this is the nature of the um the process as described now this serpent chapter 3 verse 1 was more cunning than any beast of the field which the lord god had made and he said to the woman has god indeed said what shall you shall not eat of every tree of the garden now what we see here is a several ways in which the devil who is a liar in order to accomplish this process of changing the nature of the situation for adam and eve he created an issue that was not before them before an issue about god's authority and even said directly that uh in contradiction to what god had said that what god said was not the case in other words accused by implication to the woman that god had spoken a lie to her and so he's then advocating his proposition to be believed and them to disbelieve what god had told adam and so he says and the woman said to the serpent we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden but out of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden god has said you shall not eat it nor shall you touch it lest you die then the serpent said to the woman you will not surely die so the the liar the deceiver contradicts god for god knows that in the day that you eat of it this is the reasoning your eyes will be opened in other words the way to enlightenment and self-determination is to contradict god and not believe him and you will be like god knowing good and evil so what he was saying is you will be like god in a way that god is god which is impossible by disobedience so on the other hand um this knowing of good and evil did not mean that they would know the same depth of what good and evil is that god knows no at all what he was proposing is a completely alternative reality that no longer would adam and eve be talking to a god that was telling them real things everything would be reversed and they would presume anything god said was a lie and so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food so what happens is he appeals to the physical the what is appearing nice for her natural desires what you might call her lust side he was conditioning her to follow her lusts whatever he could condition says oh that looks good you should have it and was pleasant to the eyes so it was all an appearance that she was buying and a tree desirable to make one why so it appealed to her vanity in other words she didn't yet have vanity that was fully developed but she had an inclination to want to be wise and she would buy a you know a marketing scheme here um you might say he was the quintessential politician you know if you basically do what i i'm telling you you'll get everything you want and this authority over here or this god really wants to keep you from this but i have a better way it'll be your way instead of his way she also gave so she took the fruit and she ate basically appealing to her lusts was enough motivation along with the idea that i can be my own self-determining god um she ate and then she gave it to her husband and it says the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked now it said below that when god had created them they were both naked a man and his wife and they weren't ashamed suddenly they were ashamed now why did that occur their eyes were open to what the fact that they were naked well apparently that made a big difference but what had also occurred is that they had a sense that there was a new reality other than what god you know had said their eyes were open to things that were irrelevant in reality to their happiness because it was a nice place it was nice and warm it was no big deal if they weren't there with clothes on but suddenly they were ashamed and that was the influence of what the devil was uh implying now it says and they heard oh it says uh then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings well what did that really do nothing but they got involved with some activity that had nothing to do with their happiness really it's just they had a rigmarole because now they were redefining what was important in their lives right it had nothing to do with them being warmer or being let's say more loving to one another you know fig leaves can get in the way of things but it says and they heard the sound of the lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day and adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the lord among the trees of the garden so what did they do they saw they saw that they had done what they did and they suddenly were afraid of their god their maker what was their be afraid of before they sinned nothing why would they have to hide themselves from love because their creator created them in love and gave them up infinite potential including eternal life forever and so they they had a new attitude all right they wanted to actually hide themselves and everything that he created that is god created them for they were now rejecting in their psychology so what they actually had developed is a new mind that was no longer living in the realities god created but they'd created their own which is very destructive negative and it winds up being cursed as you'll see here this is all the work of the big liar and so they already had a psychology of lying to themselves and denying the god that made them the whole world has followed this way hasn't it the whole world is followed this way it says then the lord god called to adam and said where are you and he said i heard your voice in the garden and i was afraid because i was naked who told them that they were naked god had never said that that was a problem and that they had to go run and do hide because they were naked because of god first of all to run around and um i think you're going to hide from god who made you because there are few trees and bushes in between you and god is kind of a silly thing when you really understand who god is so they were really on their own in terms of what they thought they were doing and i hid myself and he said who told you that you were naked god knows how to get to the truth and to talk doesn't he he doesn't know how to go straight to the heart of an issue have you eaten of the tree which i commanded you that you should not eat what could they say well it was very interesting what they could say first of all the man jumps out in the conversation says well the woman who you gave to be with me she gave me the tree and i ate he had to get out there right away that there was guilt here but it was the little woman you gave me that was the one at fault now was he the one that god had said donated this tree to before the woman existed yeah so what he did in trying to divert his responsibility for believing the liar and sinning and part of that sin by the way is to say that god is a liar because when you sin you're when we as human beings sin we either ignorantly or we overtly say to god i don't believe you i believe what i'm doing and all men by the way have sinned anybody who says that they don't even have any sin in them at all is a liar we'll get to that part of the scripture which is a very this is a big subject brother it's an important subject because god wants us to live in truth and he he shows us an entire way to live in truth even coming out of a world of lies and also knowing that we have a capacity to do what is wrong ourselves and that has to be cleansed from us on a regular basis and god has provided the way to do that but back down to the example as we pursue it here and then the lord god said to the woman what is this you have done and the woman said the serpent deceived me and i ate well that was true and she admitted what she did and uh because you have done this the lord said to the serpent you are cursed more than all the cattle and you shall eat dust all the days of your life and i will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed and then to the woman he said i will greatly multiply the sorrow and and your conception and in pain you shall bring forth children your desire shall be to your husband and he shall rule over you so they actually now were being cursed in terms of their relationship with one another she was going to perceive him as an oppressor her husband and uh and he was going to rule over her the implication is in not a very nice relationship i like i like to joke can you imagine a bad marriage for a thousand years nearly and it's not funny but that's what they had to live and watch this huge race of people who are killing one another develop under their eyes over a period of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years not a nice picture and it says um then to adam he said because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree which i commanded you saying you shall not even curse it as the ground for your sake and in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life so there there are various curses that are said there but there in other words the consequences and they were basically cut off from the garden of eden and it says it it says here um then the lord god said behold in verse 22 man has become like one of us and it's true that adam and eve did become self-defining beings human beings that were going to have a lifestyle and define for themselves what was good and evil even though it wasn't god's definition they were going to live within a reality they created which was going to be cursed and full of pain and would ultimately lead to death in that life at the end of it but it says to no good and evil they were defining it and god wanted to say this is not going to last forever i'm not going to allow these beings in this way to enter eternal life lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever therefore the lord god sent them out of the garden of eden to till the ground from which he had been taken and then there was a angel there that had a flaming sword which guarded the way to the tree of life so here we see the beginnings of this the the lying culture that really has cursed mankind ever since and out of this out of this whole pre-flood and post-flood uh world that has led to the modern world here in the 21st century uh hear us we'll be in the next week entering um 2021. some of us will shake our heads wow have we lived a long time and experienced life but these things that we learned when we came to the knowledge of the truth of god and the nature of the world have only become more and more clear as time has gone on and we can also see with clarity that god has an alternative and he calls his people out to actually live what god had intended from the very beginning and that is a life that is in his way and in truth it's important for us to know god's word and believe god's revelation about truth and how to stay away from the deceptions in the self-deceptions of lying itself and knowing that we still have human nature and we're to put that off and put on god's nature that's the key how do we do that because um you know as paul paul would say in his day of a particular group of people like the creations do you remember what he said about the creations in titus all creations are liars we don't want to be christian but we do have to be aware that paul also quoted david's scripture that we'll look at over here in romans 2 romans 3 actually let's go to romans 3. david made a statement that paul talks about here and frankly we all come out of a culture and unless we were born into a church family which i wasn't but um we have to learn that this is what the nature of mankind is like we have to see that we all have specific problems when it comes to truth romans 3 verse 3. it says will their unbelief make the faithfulness of god without effect the world really doesn't believe israelites don't believe god generally even in the modern world certainly not it doesn't matter whether nobody believes in or is faithful to uh and faithless uh when it comes down to the ultimate reality because it says indeed let god be true but every man a liar and when he was uh saying that he was also quoting from psalm 116 verse 11. david talked about the problem that that all men are liars in the psalms and it gets to be a pretty scary world if you don't believe that there is truth and that you have access and you have fellowship with truth which we have in god's church and it's very important for us to understand we do have truth and we do have a fellowship with the truth and it is very real and is very strong and it sets on it sits on um rests on very strong foundations but here in psalm 116 verse 11 i said in my heart david said when he was surrounded by enemies and then god was was delivering him all men are liars and he said contrasting that god was the one that was going to take him out of the realm of just surrounded by liars and give him the benefits of his salvation what shall i render to the lord for all his benefits toward me i will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the lord and pay my vows to the lord now in the presence of his people and so we do know that god does have a people and they are instructed and live by the truth the problem with uh the human spirit is that without the guidance of god's spirit which he's given to his church it's not possible to really perceive all the truth it's possible to study aspects of the word of god and people in the in the world and particularly the history of the the house of israel in the latter in the latter centuries um and those who have been taught around the world about the bible is that they can come to under certain certain aspects but to his church he gives a beautiful uh flowing stream of constant truth and we can know the difference between truth and lies by living by the word of god the way it is taught in his church and so when we look at the problem of human nature though we have to see there's a difference between the people that are motivated only by the spirit and man and those who are motivated by the spirit of god and we see that in romans eight and discussed and why having the spirit of god is so important and letting god's spirit guide us it says in verse one there's therefore no condemnation to those who are in christ jesus who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit for the law of spirit of life in christ jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do in that it was weak in the flesh god did by sending his own son in his likeness of sinful flesh on account of his sin he condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live according to the spirit the things of the spirit for to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace because the carnal mind is enmity against god it is not subject to the law of god nor indeed can be so then those who are in the flesh cannot please god but you are not in the flesh but in the spirit if indeed the spirit of god dwells in you if christ is in you the body of is dead because of sin but the spirit of life because of righteousness but if the spirit of him who raised up jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised up christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in which dwells in you so it's very important for us to understand god has given us in this in the church his spirit now how does he do that how does he do that and how can we live in the spirit well it's important when we when we live our daily lives to understand that we are connected to the tree of god through the trunk of the tree and that is through jesus christ we are all brethren we we have a fellowship and i'll show you that it's a very powerful fellowship in the truth but it's because we're connected to jesus christ by a calling that god made very specifically to you and to me that puts us in connection with where the truth is uh i want to go to john 14 and explain this very powerful passage that we need to come back to again and again in our lives and understand just how connected we are to truth and why and who is and what is that truth now overall the summary that i want to in this passage we're going to go through quite a passage here about truth versus lies is verse 6. jesus said to them i am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father except for me now god the father is the foundation a relationship with god the father is uh through jesus christ the foundation of having truth but jesus christ came to show god's truth and his fullness as a person what the father is like and because we're connected to them we have fellowship with the truth all the time and besides the person of jesus christ there is his word the law and we'll see how that law is also what defines truth from error and anything contrary to that law jesus said i am the way the truth and the life the law is a way to perceive the truth and experience the life because we live out that way of life in our own lives which is truth and this is the the actual way of eternal life which is that tree of life that was actually available to adam and eve but they chose not that tree but it is a tree of the faith it is a tree of the knowledge of god through jesus christ and receiving his grace throughout life in order to become more and more living the truth and rejecting lies and falsehood even when we ourselves sometimes stumble and fall and i i even think about job have you ever thought what was job's real problem well in his discussion with laihu it was very clear what his problem was he didn't really understand that he couldn't say he was more righteous than god because to think that you're more righteous than god and you um that god is somehow mean and unjust unfair is a lie isn't it and so job had to learn a very hard lesson which some of us have to learn that at all times our father is going to take care of us and sometimes we have some hard lessons to learn but the truth is he is love and he is always going to bring us through there always is a happy ending with god always and the world is going to have to learn that and there's a lot of living and experience between us and the time the world has completely learned that maybe it's only a few years away but it's still quite a bit written isn't there of learning that lesson so let's start in verse 1 of chapter 14 let not your heart be troubled do you believe in god you believe in me so belief is very important belief is a choice in what you have faith in and what you think is the basis of your reality and if you believe in god you believe he is the basis for your ultimate reality reality everything is is tied up into that belief in my father's house are many mansions if it were not so i would have told you i go to prepare a place for you so we have a forward-looking faith it isn't just about what's around us now and the evil and the liars and the difficulties of today it is much bigger than that and i go and prepare a place for you i will come again and receive it to myself and where i am there may be also you may be also and where i go you know and the way you know thomas said to him lord we don't know the way where you were going and how can we know the way and jesus said i am the way the truth and the life no one can come to the father except through me if you had known me you would have known my father also from now on you know him and have seen him so this is why it's so important that you know your bible and i know my bible because we actually get to know the father and the son through his word right through really perceiving jesus christ through his word in our own lives and believing it philip said to him show us the father and it is sufficient for us and jesus said to him have i been with you so long and yet you don't have not known me philip he who has seen me has seen the father so how can you say show us the father do you not believe that i am in the father and the father in me and words that i speak to you i don't speak on my own authority but the father who dwells in me does the works believe me that i am in the father and the father in me or else believe me for the sake of the works himself so they were being taught that everything about god the father i've been demonstrating if you see the way i am you will know the father you see me you see the father in all the intents of the heart and the the power and the glory of the father so we'll jump and further a little bit more about liars and and how to perceive ourselves even when we sin and most assuredly i say to you verse 12 he who believes in me the works that i do he will also do and greater works than these he will do because i go to my father and whatever you ask in my name i will do that the father may be glorified in the son if you ask anything in my name i will do it so what he's saying is a dynamic relationship between you and me will be will be lived out in the way you ask for things the way in which you communicate the way in which you pray and i will manifest the my powers of the father and myself in your life and you shall do things and you'll see his power and so that's very important for us to realize we can't make it by ourselves we have to have the power of the father and the son in our lives in the church it says and if you love me keep my commandments now this is very very important and i will pray the father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever the spirit of truth not the spirit of lying the spirit of truth which the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him but you know it for he dwells with you and will be in you i will not leave you orphans i will come to you in other words god's spirit is what makes us children not orphans god hasn't gone off and left his children to do their own thing he is an active father and he will be directly involved in your life in my life in helping us always live by truth and not wise so it's very important um when we realize a little while longer in the world will see me no more but you will see me and how is that well it's very interesting you'll be able to see his church he will have a church and that church will be based on truth not lies now i was i was watching uh yesterday mayor giuliani who made a big deal about christmas hasn't gone away and the most important thing even with all the political stuff going on is for americans to realize the greatest event in human history celebrated by christmas and that is jesus christ came into the world to show us and it's very much it's very it was a very profound statement and yet poor mr giuliani doesn't understand jesus didn't come on christmas and they have all these christmas carols and everything else he says the important thing is to us realize that we live in a country that can really understand jesus christ well that's true but we can't define him by traditional lies and misrepresentation right and this is part of the problem the world doesn't really know what jesus christ is like because it can't know him without his law and his particular future what it must be like for people who are very sincere to see the it's as it were the nation crumbling before their eyes the things they believed in the justice system of the united states crumbling before their eyes the system in which people have their own representatives chosen whatever and i'm not going to get involved the politics of lying on whatever political side there may or may not be but the point is people are watching their faith in a system that's gone on 250 years be dissolved what is the reality for them what is the reality for you and me if for instance the government is transformed and the united states is no longer independent of as a nation and it's somehow just dissolved into a world order that could happen you know that where is your faith and where is my faith well it has to be in these secure things that god has made very clear to his church and the words that we're talking about are those things because jesus christ is the head of the church and he is our leader and that's very important that we have a clear sense of that so uh looking down through we see that jesus christ says i will reveal in your life the things that you need and i'll be with you and that i will answer your prayers now in hebrews 5 5 we actually see starting in verse 12 what god expects his people to do in regard to being thoroughly capable of understanding his will and the truth how are we doing time-wise hebrews 5 spiritual maturity is really what this passage is about for though by this time you ought to be teachers of what truth right of truth he was saying to these brethren the hebrews in jerusalem you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of god and you've come to need milk and not solid food for everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the world of righteousness for he is a babe but solid food belongs to those who are of full age in other words mature and this is what we want to be those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil we are supposed to be able to sort the truth out from the falsehood from the truth from the lies and know the process of thinking truth and within ourselves know how to stop ourselves from losing it as a word losing that perception of truth and that love of the truth it's so important we have to love truth and then the the falsehoods follow fall aside and we have to maintain that very very closely satan is the father of lies at every level john 8 said that so let's go back there because it's quite quite clear but christ wanted to define this for the for the church the jews at the time that were thinking about how are they going to get rid of this great personality that come on the scene constantly were organizing themselves in their political and religious environment in a way to entrap christ through some deceptive means in other words they would use deception or lies about their own motives because they didn't want to appear like they were opposing what who could be the christ they wanted to create little little games to trip him up through deception they would never talk about their motives he knew exactly what their motives were because he knew their source of inspiration and who was ultimately driving that spirit that they were engaged in and he said in verse 37 i know that you are abraham's descendants but you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you i speak what i have seen with my father and you do what you have seen with your father now this really got them mad they answered and said to him abraham is our father and jesus said him if you were abraham's children you would do the works of abraham but now you seek to kill me a man who has told you the truth which i heard from god abraham did not do this you do the deeds of your father then they said to him we are not from fornication so what did they say they slandered him because the word was out that he was mary's son and that mary was just impregnated by somebody else other than joseph because they didn't know we have our one father god and jesus said if god were your father you would love me for i proceeded forth and came from god not that i have come of myself but he sent me why do you not understand my speech because you are not able to listen to my word you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do now what did they desire they wanted to kill him right he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him but because i tell you the truth you do not believe me right so we see that he is a liar when he speaks a lie he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it because i tell you you do not believe me which of you convicts me of sin and if i tell you the truth why do you not believe me he who is of god hears god's word therefore you do not hear because you are not of god and so whatever the deception manipulation the white lie the the entrapment to deceive all the source of this culture global culture of lying and deception comes from the devil it does and to some extent god holds the devil responsible for it all and that's why jesus christ didn't condemn pontius pilate while pontius pilate was condemning him to die he ultimately didn't condemn the mob that said kill him kill him you know crucify him crucify him instead what did he do on the cross on this stake he said father forgive them for they don't know what they're doing the world basically is deceived it doesn't understand so in in fact so many people in the world are sincere in doing what they believe that they believe they're doing good and jesus christ even said some will kill you saying they are doing god's service and they actually will think that of course jesus christ had christ had experienced that himself but that of course is just how bad lying is you know there's that proverb all my life i've heard this proverb how can you tell a politician is lying if his lips are moving right you might say unfortunately in the justice system the department of justice believe it or not are all live lawyers do you understand you have to be trained [Music] in manipulating statutory law and process trained in manipulating that's why you go to law school now some some of the laws are just but for instance the us constitution says that any man that is going to be tried prosecuted accused of a crime has to be judged by a jury of peers that isn't what happened 99.9 go to a prosecutor who says if you take this other thing which is a lie it's called plea bargaining then you can get out of a certain amount of the time will make it easier for you if you agree to this crime well that isn't what i did it doesn't matter we're giving you a better deal and one thing that you're bypassing is the jury by trial of peers oh so i can't have a child oh yeah you can if you object but you're still gonna if you lose then you're gonna have 20 more years or 10 more years or whatever this is an unjust incredibly unjust system but from top to bottom judges down to the local level it is driven by lawyers and they're all connected to a process this is no longer a nice place the justice system is manipulated completely by professional lawyers and that whole section of prophecies about the end of time in jeremiah isaiah and ezekiel and others are about the unjust justice system in the house of israel which will be a primary reason why god's wrath is upon the nation because there is no truth in it there isn't justice and so it's very important that we as brethren understand why we have got to be dedicated toward the kingdom of god see the kingdom is an entirely different framework of living and perceiving and so we can't be caught up in trying to create justice in this system we have to do within our sphere of life the right things sincerely with god and honestly and when we get on the wrong side of things we have to repent before our god and he he gives us an opportunity to be cleansed and get back on track and that's such an important uh reason for us to understand and appreciate what life is like with god in his church the church is along with the law of god is such a tremendous opportunity for us to live in truth define our lives by truth and uh have the future bright and the power of god in our lives let's take a look at first timothy 3 15. very well-known scripture here these things i write to you verse 14 though i hope to come to you shortly but if i'm delayed i write to you that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of god which is the church of the living god that's what we are the pillar and ground of the truth see you're not alone you are in a fellowship and the church itself is the pillar and ground of the truth not just you as an individual and this is something that we should really appreciate and we should love the fact that we can be built in truth and grounded in truth instead of falsehoods in life the fact that we can come on the sabbath day and not speak our own things and hear our own attitudes and you know but we can come and we can hear the word of god explained and that we can gain strength of in the truth is such a blessing all of the holy days contain truth about the purpose of man the nature of the teaching so that husbands and wives can understand that we can actually sense and taste it says of the powers of the world to come by understanding love and watching love in action which is true in the church these are wonderful things and so the church itself is a pillar and ground of truth and is contrary to lies and lying it's a great blessing let's take a look at john 17 where jesus christ said that we should be as one and we are as one and sanctified to be a certain kind of a people starting here in verse 11. now i am no longer in the world jesus christ is praying to the father just before his crucifixion but these are in the world and i come to you holy father keep through your name those whom you have given me that they may be one as we are while i was with them in the world i kept them in your name those whom you gave me i have kept and none of them is lost except for the son of perdition that and so we are the one people united with god as one and then it says he said this i do not pray verse 15 that you should take them out of the world we can't be taken out of the world a world of deception of lies and the techniques of the devil at various levels of society he didn't want us completely taken out he actually wants us to represent the truth and the original faith among the people of the world as a light in a dark world but then you should keep them from the evil ones so god's truth will keep us from satan he really will if we're exercising and doing what god says to do they are not of the world that is the church as i am not of the world sanctifier set them apart make them holy by your truth your word is truth and as you have sent me into the world i also sent them into the world and for their sakes i sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth so this is us who jesus christ was talking about and it's it's a wonderful thing to be a part of the body of truth in matthew 16. this is not going to go away the church will exist matthew 16 and you can count on him jesus answered and said to them in verse 17 blessed are you simon jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you that he was the christ but my father who is in heaven and i also say to you this that you are peter this little on this but on this peter the rock himself christ i will build my church and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it and i will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven so that's the church the keys of the kingdom of heaven are the truth that's how to enter the kingdom of god by living by and believing the truth of the kingdom of god and who's in charge and the fellowship with the holy spirit and having the fruits of that spirit in our lives now it's it's also true that he's given us the great gift of his law of truth and when you understand god's law of truth because the law is truth just like jesus christ is truth the church is the pillar and ground of truth the law itself expresses not deception but the truth of what is good and what is evil and how we ought to live is powerful and so in psalm 119 which is about god's law oh how love i they'll always sing the song and we see this powerful truth it says in verse 33 teach me o lord the way of your statutes and i will keep them to the end give me understanding and i shall keep your law and indeed i will observe it with my whole heart make me walk in the path of your commandments for i delight in it incline my heart to your testimonies and not to covetousness which we'll jump off to in a minute turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things false things lying things and revive me in your way establish your word to your servant who is devoted to fearing you and then in verse 142. your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness and your law is true so god's law makes it possible for us brethren to really understand how to live a life that is it's free it deflects it so it creates a protection around us that makes falsehood lies jump off as they they don't penetrate when we have god's law you know in our hearts let's just look at see how this actually works in in a you know passage that you know a million times but reason with with the these statements in the law of god in exodus 20. let's go from the back to the front you shall not covet your neighbor's house coveting is the desire for something that god doesn't want you to have no matter what it is so he talks about don't cover your neighbor's house his wife his manservant or you know and he is donkey his whatever right but covetousness is a problem of human nature which the devil tapped into in that first question to eve oh did god say oh well you know he knows and you need to understand you're depriving yourself something oh am i god said don't eat that but he's depriving you of something that will make you wise and is that going to be good he elicited covetousness right that's what he got her going on every one of these commandments is a no or a yes in the way to the kingdom of god in the way of defining truth for you in your way of life these commandments are truth about reality that we're supposed to live forever and so what's interesting is you find that the one right beyond the tenth commandment you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor what happens immediately after you act out some act of covetousness you lie about it you lie you will actually say i mean the tendency is i didn't do that i you know you know better you know so you go hide yourself or whatever eve did you tend to want to do the same thing right why and then often you wind up in your company you're really stealing something from somebody else that that really belongs to them or you're stealing something from yourself that you have by virtue of being a virtuous person that you won't have you are not really acting like a son of god then or a daughter of god right these are all connected these commandments to righteousness and truth or falsehood and it says of course you shall not not have committed adultery if you want to commit adultery even christ said in its myriad forms you are certainly coveting you're lying to yourself about what you should be doing stealing somebody else's whatever right and you go all the way back and you wind up with idolatry having some idol and some other god before the true god so it's important that we live out the purity of god's law and there's a great promise in doing so the whole last book of the the great long epistle it's longer than his other ones at the very end of the first and second and third john is about this integrity that you have in jesus christ and the fact that we do sin from time to time but we can be cleansed of all of that and get up and continue our way with god and he will perfect us let's go in closing to that wonderful chapter one of first and we've got book close off in the book of revelation revelation um no excuse me first down verse one that which we have was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life the life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the father and was manifested to us jesus christ was with him and the other disciples that which we have seen and heard and declared to you that you may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the father and with the son jesus christ and these things we write to you that your joy may be full this is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that god is light in other words the only truth and in him there's no darkness at all so there's no falsehood at all in god if we say that we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness and our way of life is all darkness we lie now his is the source of lying among us as brethren if we're living fundamentally a lie and walking in darkness then we're liars and if there's any part of us that is a lie god wants it cleaned up but if we say we have no sin we've got to lie too because as long as we're human we're in this process of becoming perfected and it says we lie and do not practice the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of jesus christ his son cleanses us from all sin it doesn't mean you're not going to have sin but you're going to deal with it and confess it as it says here and then ask through jesus christ to be forgiven and move on if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves in other words lying to ourselves right do you think you're already perfect sorry you're not in fact you should be constantly looking to god but in his grace never be discouraged never give up because he will be perfecting you in the truth and the truth is not in us if we deceive ourselves and say we don't have any sin if we confess our sins this is the key he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and the word is not in us don't make god a liar right so this is this is the process actually as we as human beings that still fail have our failings and our sins can be perfected until the day comes when we're in the kingdom of god my little children these things i write to you not that you may sin or so that you may not sin and if anyone sins we have an advocate with the father jesus christ the righteous and he himself is the propitiation of our sins and not ours only but also the whole world and now we know him this this comes all the way back to god's law by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments and he who says i know him and does not keep his commandments as a liar and the truth is not in him but whoever keeps his word truly the love of god is perfected in him by this we know that we are in him he who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walks so we want to be like jesus christ in every way it's very important now at the end of the whole story of the bible is a chilling remark actually it's a chilling condemnation revelation 22 just so god impressed on all of his people of the churches until the return of christ he said in verse 14 blessed are those who do his commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city but outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie we don't want to be there we don't want to be there but if we do his commandments as we've heard we can be assured for this great great time brethren the great time is coming and we need to be aware of that here we are at the very dark part of the year christmas is gone we're gonna have new year's we're gonna have turmoil in january who knows what this country is facing in terms of what's possible and it can be quite disturbing if you look at big moments in history they typically were not anticipated and they were just can be disastrous or you know god can continue to let things be in a relatively stable way we'll we'll see we need to have this country in our prayers but let's let's take a look at this fantastic reality this is the truth in chapter 11 of revelation verse 15. then the seventh angel sounded and there were loud voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our lord and of his christ who is truth and who will bring a government and a way of life forever and ever established in truth and he shall reign forever and ever and so it's worth this struggle against falsehood and to live god's way because we are going to see soon the kingdom of god you

Channel: United Church of God Portland

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Length: 78min 41sec (4721 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 27 2020