Sermon "The Lie" by Rick Shabi, June 26, 2021

well let's just open let's just open with with some scriptures here turn with me to ii thessalonians we know that every second thessalonians 2 is where i'm going but we know that every every word that god gives us has meaning and sometimes you'll hear me say especially as we've gone through the bible studies there's a sermon it that occurs in every single verse it seems of some of the books of the bible that that can be there and as our our sermon speakers are planning their messages you know it wouldn't be bad to take a verse and just explain it because there's so much one in the passages that we have especially those of prophecy you know can be very interesting and sometimes we read things and we contemplate them but we won't know exactly what they mean until they until god brings them about and then we look back and see what the meaning is such is the case with second thessalonians 2 i'm going to read through the first 11 verses here and not highlight a lot i'm going to come down to one concept in in second thessalonians 2 to talk about today but let's just read through it because it is there are words for our our time the end time 2nd thessalonians 2 verse 1. now brethren concerning the coming of our lord jesus christ and our gathering together to him we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled either by spirit or by word or by letter as if from us as though the day of christ had come so somewhere in paul's time people are saying oh the day of christ is already here the day of the lord is already here and he goes you know you know the truth don't let don't let people lead you astray we know what god says is the pattern he gives us the outline of what prophecy is it's our job to know that and to to be able to uh to look at the times and discern the times that we live in verse three says let no one deceive you by any means for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin or the man of lawlessness it could be translated and the man of lawlessness is revealed the son of perdition who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called god or that is worshipped so that he sits as god in the temple of god showing himself that he is god well clearly that man hasn't appeared yet as we look down the road we can see that that may be in the well will be in the future perhaps we begin to see the rudiments of that as people try to present themselves as god that they can establish laws and they can do what they will and define what people believe don't you remember paul writes that when i was with you i told you these things and now you know what is restraining that he may be revealed in his own time for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work we can all agree to that we even hear the term lawlessness on the news and in our media today the mystery of lawlessness is already at work only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way and don't be confused by the capital h's there in second thessalonians 2 7. so at some point the restraint will be taken away and that man will be revealed and then the lawless nun will one will be revealed verse 8 whom the lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of satan with all power signs and lying wonders and with all the unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved and for this reason that they didn't love the truth that they received and for this reason god will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness well as i said as we go down through those verses there's three four five sermons in those verses and somewhere down the road we may talk about each one of those things individually today i want to focus in on verse 11 the lie the lie those who don't love the truth and recently there was a sermon here on loving the truth and how important it is for you and me to love the truth and to make it part of our being part of our mind part of our heart that we know it and we know the voice of christ and know the way that he is going but what about the lie what does god mean when he says they will believe the lie what is the lie well maybe maybe it's the lie that the false prophet you know here in these verses we've read about lying already we've read about deception we've read about a false prophet that's has marvelous fascinating and lying wonders is that the lies talking about well yeah christ talks about that is going to be so whatever so wondrous i guess what this false prophet can do that even the very elect could be deceived if they don't know god if they don't know the truth it'll be so powerful and so deceiving that even the elect could be deceived that's that's hard to understand because we haven't seen anything like that in our lifetimes so that could be that could be a lie that people will believe but that's in that's in the future let's go back to first john first john 2. when we look at the early new testament church we read of lies that are there and the apostles would talk about the lies that were extant on the earth at that day and we're all aware of some of them at first john 2 and verse 22 john an apostle writes this he says who is a liar but he who denies that jesus is the christ he is antichrist that denies the father and the son well there's a lie the world was full of that lie and jerusalem was full of that lie in the first century there's a whole religion that said jesus christ is not the messiah there's a religion plenty of religions out there today that say jesus christ is not the messiah they deny his name that lie was there in the first century when john wrote this it was a lie you remember the apostles and the disciples when jesus christ he said you will be witnesses to me witnesses to me let the world know that jesus christ is the messiah and yet there was a lie on the earth jesus christ was not the messiah and so you know he says this who's a liar who's a liar but he denies that jesus is the christ is that the lie well it could be a lie because there are plenty of religions on earth today as i said that don't teach the jesus christ as the messiah jesus christ is not even part of some of the religions but even in america where jesus christ is the religion they don't do what we'll get to here in verse 21 in a minute but there's a whole lot of people who would agree with us jesus christ is the messiah he's the savior so is that the lie today well it's the lie for some but not the lie certainly part of the lie if we go up to verse 21 we see john further explaining what a lie can be he says i haven't written to you because you don't know the truth you and i know the truth i haven't written to you because you don't know the truth but because you know it and that no lie is of the truth if it's the truth there's no lie there's no error in it anything that mixes a little bit little error just a little error with the truth is no longer the truth truth is pure truth truth comes from the bible the word of god if there's anything as part of any belief or that's being preached that isn't in the bible it's no longer truth it's a lie by definition and so we have a whole lot of people that will tell you jesus christ is the messiah jesus christ is the savior but then they teach things that aren't in the bible they don't teach the things that jesus christ taught they don't teach the things that the bible says they teach something different is that the lie yeah that's part of the lie i don't know if it's the only lie but those who are deceived will believe the lie let's go back and look at at second peter ii peter 3. and verse 3. breaking into the thought here peter writes know this first scoffers will come in the last days walking according to their own lusts scoffers making fun minimizing the word of god saying it doesn't really matter according to their own lusts the things that they want to do and saying well where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation i'll tell you not many people believe really that jesus christ is returning to this earth many people will tell you the bible says that but most churches don't even teach that is that the lie is that the lie that jesus christ isn't returning to earth and that there's something else different than what the bible says yeah that's part of the lie you can come to many churches that will say jesus christ is the messiah but plenty plenty on earth will day will say really do you think he's going to return well if we love the truth and if we know the truth we know he will return we absolutely know it otherwise we can throw the bible out the window the bible is truth and god is truth and what he says will happen will happen well we could go down the list of many things and say is that the lie everything that we've talked about so far we could say yes that's a lie but god says they will believe the lie is the lie a bigger encompassing thing than just one element it appears that at the end of the time people will believe the lie whatever that is or whatever that may be composed of you know strikes me as we go through the book of acts how much lying is part of satan's way of attacking the church you know we talked about stephen recently and how how this group of jews who could not who could not counter stephen's proof from the bible that jesus is the messiah what they did they didn't want to believe it so what they did was lie they lied about him they began to just spread false rumors about him to discredit him in that way well we can't prove we can't prove that he's wrong but we simply don't want to believe jesus is the messiah so we'll lie about him and the lie grew and eventually stephen is brought before the council stephen is stoned to death in a fit of anger by some of the things that he said lying is one of the things that satan uses they lied to about jesus christ jesus christ said if they did it to me they'll do it to you one of the things that satan does to attack the truth is lie it makes sense right god is truth satan is why how do you attract the truth you deceive you deceive people let's go to john 8 44 and get a definition of exactly who satan is you know we already read that the working of the of the lawless one is of satan in john 8 and verse 44 christ gives us a very clear and a very distinct definition of who satan is as he's dealing with the pharisees and responding to them and talking to them who were going to lie about jesus christ in order to have him arrested and scourged and crucified and killed use that tactic to to cancel the message that he had as jesus christ is speaking in verse 42 of john 80 says this he says if god were your father you would love me for i proceeded forth and came from god i haven't come of myself but he sent me why don't you understand my speech you're not able to understand or listen to my word you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do he was a murderer from the beginning he does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him well that's quite a telling statement there is no truth in him satan may use some truth mixed with error to take us away from what the truth is something that appeals to us something that appeals to our own ideas or whatever it is he may use some truth but he never uses it to lead to truth he always uses truth to deceive and to lead people away and christ says there is no truth in him there is no truth in him when he speaks a lie he speaks from his own resources for he's a liar he's the father of it so whenever we read that satan something is of satan we know it's a lie it's a lie because there is no truth in him when the bible speaks of the false prophet at the end of the of the age when it talks about the beast's power and it says the power comes from satan you know there is no truth in it it's a lie when the false prophet does the lying wonders as paul says in second thessalonians it's a lie and those who know the truth and love the truth will understand that and won't be deceived by it those who don't love the truth will believe the lie the lie well deception is a word the bible uses a few different words that indicate or that in will that indicate what lying is deception is certainly one of those words we've already read that a few times in 2nd thessalonians 2 in other words we know that if we're deceived we believed a lie eve right back to the beginning of time right he believed the lie god told her the truth he set it out for her he set the example and told her and adam if you eat to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will die satan came along and what did he say you won't surely die you won't surely die and they found out the fir the hard way they surely did die they surely did die they lined up the hard way what murder is when their first two sons one killed the other because lying in satan's way never leads to good it never leads to life it always leads to death that's what satan's about he is the father of murder what is murder death that's what his mission is he's not the father of truth he's the father of a lie and his entire purpose is to mislead the people of god and to lead people away from god and anything of satan that's the purpose behind it those who don't love the truth will believe the lie let me read definition of decep deception the definition of a lie is that is the intent to deceive it is not always a spoken word that is a lie for a life lived excuse me for a life lived under false pretenses is also a lie and they go on to say error mixed with truth is also a lie sorts of lies out there let's turn to second corinthians second corinthians 11. now we can see some of the words in the bible that describe satan who's the father of the lie in whom there is no truth and we can kind of see the way that he behaves the way that he presents himself and as we see that in others we understand well that's not of god that's not the way god is or god's truth is ii corinthians 11 13. for such are false apostles deceitful workers these are people who aren't telling the truth these are not true apostles these are so self-proclaimed apostles who are there to deceive you for such are false apostles deceitful workers who transform themselves into apostles of christ they speak high lofty words make it sound like truth but what it is is a lie it's a lie it's not of god transforming themselves into apostles of christ and no wonder satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light so therefore it is no great thing if his ministers transform themselves into ministers of righteousness whose end will be according to their works that's exactly what satan did right in the beginning right he transformed himself into this wonderful creature that approached eve he didn't come out you know looking like the pictures of devils that that people that you may see depicted today he was this serpent that apparently was very attractive and appealing to eve he was very charming and as it says in genesis 3 1 he was very cunning remember that word when you see the word cunning you don't see the word cunning of an association with jesus christ you don't see the word cunning in association with the truth you see the word cunning where satan's involved and where lack of truth or lie is involved he transformed himself into someone who oh you can believe me believe me i've got the truth and look what he did look what eve did she fell for it she didn't love the truth she fell for the lie she fell for the lie in her life life defined that so we can look at whenever we see the word cunning whenever we see the word transforming themselves into an angel of light we would look and say that's not of god there's purity there's truth there's sincerity in the truth of god no reason to act it out it comes from the heart it comes from within not something a show that we we put on we go back to the beginning of the chapter chapter 11 verse 3. it says here i fear paul writing to the corinthian church i fear lest somehow as the serpent deceived eve by his craftiness so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in christ he was crafty he kind of spun the words in just the right way to make them appeal to her i you see the word craftiness you don't see that associated with jesus christ he wasn't crafty the truth isn't crafty things of satan are crafty their intent is to deceive and to lead away from the truth go back to the old testament daniel daniel 8 in a prophecy for the end times as we will see we see a word and what this man of lawlessness what will mark him and words that used to describe him pick it up in verse 23 of daniel 8. it says in the latter time of their kingdom when the transgressors have reached their fullness it tells you the time we're living in when the transgressors have reached their fullness sin lawlessness is upon the earth when the transgressors have reached their fullness a king shall arise having fierce features who understands sinister schemes his power will be mighty but not by his own power it'll be by satan's power he shall destroy fearfully and he shall prosper and thrive he shall destroy the mighty and also the holy people it's always the intent destroy the truth of god destroy the holy people of god destroy jesus christ destroy stephen destroy anyone who preaches the truth that's what the mission of satan is verse 25 through his cunning there we have that word again through his cunning he shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule clever words crafty words trickery in the words making himself appear to be something he's not making the lie appear to be the truth he shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule and he shall exalt himself in his heart he shall destroy many in their prosperity he shall even rise against the prince of princes but he shall be broken without human means we already read in ii thessalonians 2 that christ will be the one and in revelation we read it as well that will break the power of this coming power that will rule the earth so we see these words we see these words that are there throughout you know the bible let's go forward to this now to the book of acts and we see that the church of god is directly affected by this and it's incumbent on all of us to know the truth the whole truth not to devise our own way of salvation to devise our own way of walking with god but to let him lead our course and direct our paths acts 20 and let's pick it up in verse well let's pick it up in verse 30. paul here is talking to the church's ephesus he's about to leave leave the church after having been there three years he knows what's going to happen he's understand he understands the the traits of satan he understands the devices of satan and what's going to come to the upon the church after he leaves right verse 30 says from among yourselves that means people sitting right among you church of ephesus even from among the church of god people who say they know the truth god who god has called who god has opened their minds who have been baptized who have received the holy spirit also from among yourselves men will rise up they will speak perverse things better translation of perverse perverse is certainly a lie but misleading things is a better translation of that greek word misleading things are lies designed to have you follow a dove their way than god from among yourselves men will rise up speaking misleading things why to draw away the disciples after themselves bottom line to draw the disciples away from god that's always the mission the lie is there the lie can be appealing if we don't know the truth if we don't love the truth a lie whatever that lie is can lead us away and sadly over the years we've seen people who have believed the lie whether it's a lie of their own deceiving in their own mind where they've deceived themselves or believed some little cunning doctrine or looked at something on the internet and said wow that really looks good that appeals to me i want to believe that and i don't want to even hear about what the truth of the bible says well all those things all those things are lies right ii peter 3 16 you can write that down in your notes that's where peter talks about people will twist the scriptures of paul some of the things in paul you have to just kind of sit and you have to think about it you have to meditate on it you have to pull it apart to see what is paul saying and yet we have all religions a lot of religions out there who have twisted the words of paul to say something they're not or that paul never preached it's a lie it's cunning it's crafty it's designed to deceive it's designed to lead people away from the truth beware of that jesus christ said beware of that the bible tells us paul says that in ii thessalonians to that church and we say it to god's church today beware beware of the lie know the truth in ephesians 4 ephesians 4 as god is working with us and he puts us in a body where he grows us and teaches us and matures us into beings that can be born as spirit beings into the family of god at the time of the first resurrection he says this about what part of our education and maturation process as we are here in the in the developmental change while we're still in these physical human bodies awaiting for the time that jesus christ returns and we're born as spirit beings in ephesians 4 and let's pick it up in verse 12 cutting into the middle of the statement here's why god puts us in a church here's why we need each other here's why we have to be part of a body he says i've given you all this this is the way i've set the church up for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry that's service that's what we've all been called to for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry for the edifying that's building up for the building up of the body of christ till we all come to the unity of the faith all of one accord like we read over and over again in the book of acts all of one accord until we come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of god to a perfect man sometimes people take issue with the word perfect it means spiritually mature but make no mistake what god is working in you and me he intends to bring us to perfection it won't happen in this physical life but we do we do need to be working on that and as he allows us and as his holy spirit leads us we are to be coming closer and closer to the picture of that of jesus christ that he wants us to become we won't become perfect in this lifetime but that is the goal that he has set for all of us we develop in that as we're here in this in this time so we all come to the unity of the follow the faith the knowledge of the son of god to a perfect man and there it is to the measure of the stature of the fullness of christ what was jesus christ he was perfect he only believed the truth he only spoke the truth and what verse 14 that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine doctrine is in the bible what we believe is in the bible and only in the bible we don't add to it we don't take away from it we do it exactly what god says and preach exactly what god says when we worry about every wind of doctrine if there's different spins on doctrine it's not the truth we have to all know what the doctrine of god is carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men do we have to trick people into believing the truth no but by the trickery of men that we would no longer be carried away by that in the cunning craftiness there's the two words together in the candy craftiness of deceitful plotting if we know the truth if we're grounded in the truth if it's in our heart if we love it we're not going to be susceptible to these things but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head christ and then you can you know what the rest of the verse says there that's very meaningful as well what god wants us to do is to be aware of the truth but to also be aware of the lie and not to fall prey to the lie and all those words that we talked about i could go on for another 10 minutes on other things that are the lie you can read through proverbs you see slander is a lie gossiping and talking wrong about each other is not not the truth it's a lie flattery is a lie it tells us that in proverbs it's not designed it's not sincere it's not truth it's designed for another purpose flattery slander all those things that aren't the truth because the bible is full of those things to warn us and to let us know believe the truth don't get fooled by this and that and whatever it is be aware of being what's being said be aware of the spirit that's behind it so when the time comes and satan ramps up the intent to deceive when that was no longer restrained that we can stand right through it all and stand for the truth so is there just one lie just one particular lie now there is one lie though there is one lie but it's multifaceted we've talked a lot about what is going on in religion today and we've talked a lot about the bible and we know from the bible that there are things that are being taught around the world that are apart from the bible we know that seven people seven billion people on earth only one billion people will claim that jesus christ is my messiah there's 6 billion who have already been deceived satan's done a really good job of the 1 billion people who would say jesus christ is a messiah there's just a handful there's just a handful that do things the way jesus christ said just a handful doesn't even measure on the on the the measuring stick right so we know a whole lot of those are deceived because they believe that what they're doing is obeying jesus christ they are not if it's not what jesus christ taught we are not following we are not following god turn with me to john 14. john 14 and verse we've seen jesus christ say that satan there's no truth in him he is a liar there is no truth in him we're told in john 14 that jesus christ is truth jesus in his last message to the disciples before he was arrested that night after that last passover he was on earth he said this i am the way i am the truth i am the way i am the truth there's no truth in satan there's no lie in jesus christ and we know the way because god has reserved it for us i am the truth jesus christ said believe me don't be deceived don't go off on other cycles saying well this is what jesus christ meant if you know the bible and if you're led by the holy spirit you will know exactly what the bible says don't let others deceive you and don't deceive yourself it's a message that christ gave over and over i am the truth jesus christ said in hebrews sex and verse 17. we've been as we went through the book of hebrews we noted this verse along with the many other things in the book of hebrews in verse 17 of hebrews 6 god says a remarkable thing when we when we put it into the context that we're talking about today in verse 17 he says thus god determining to show more abundantly to the ears of promise that's you and me when we've been called when we repent when we turn to god when we're baptized when we have hands laid on us when we receive the holy spirit and we're led by that thus god determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability that's the unchangeability the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable or unchangeable things in which it is impossible for god to lie don't you wish it was impossible for you and me to not lie or yeah impossible for us to lie it's impossible for god to lie it's not part of his nature at all he's not the father of the lie satan is the father of lies it's impossible for god to lie when he says it it's absolute truth take it to the bank or whatever kind of surety you want to mark on it it will happen he tells us that in isaiah 45 55 45 and chapter 55 when my word goes out it will not come back empty what i say my word will stand god cannot lie and if we ever find a lie in the bible in this truth then we can throw it away and i challenge anyone if you've seen or think you see a lie in the bible you bring it to me and we'll sit down and we'll talk about it there is no lie in the truth of god there is no lie in god there is no truth in satan the way to eternal life is through truth not through half-truths not through 90 truths but 100 percent truth you know the word devil that's translated devil in the bible has an interesting definition if you will when you look it up in in strong's here's what it says about devil devil you know satan we know means adversary he's also called the devil it says it means devil means to slander accuse or defame properly it's a slanderer a false accuser unjustly criticizing to hurt or malign and condemn to sever our relationship well that's what the devil does what's his purpose i want to separate you from god you say you're following god my purpose is and my reason for being that satan has chosen is to sever your relationship with god and he will do it by any means necessary or any means that we allow him to make it necessary you know we talked about many things compromise compromise or putting our own definition on a clear law of god is a lie as well you know god is very clear as i mentioned yesterday on my letter of what his laws are and he tells us our job is to diligently carefully and earnestly obey him know the truth follow it keep it intently don't allow yourself the luxury of compromise there's no compromise in god it's his way and only his way that's the way to eternal life now god tells you and me what does he desire psalm 51 verse 6 david said what i desire or what you desire is truth in the inward part that in us is truth and god knows and god dwells no lie he is truth what he wants in us and what he expects from us and what his holy spirit will lead us to is to have truth in the inward part that truth will become us you know we've all lied we've all lied no one no one can sit there we all lie probably even more than we realize in our daily conversation because it's so ingrained in us and we still have carnal minds that have to be purified and all those things have to be expunged from the way we live and when it comes to our attention that we've lied deliberately or if we've exaggerated something and if we're not being careful with what we say to try to present ourselves in a different way than it really is we have to watch that and repent before god and and tell him we too desire truth in the inward parts we want to be true just like god is true we want the lie and the capacity to lie to depart from us if we're going to be measured to the stature of the fullness of jesus christ in whom there is no lie that's what we need to be working toward as well so we have this contrast satan in whom there is no truth god and jesus christ in whom there is no lie we're told in the bible that the whole world the world you and i live in that we work in that we go to school in that we shop in that we have neighbors that we live next door to and in the world and everyone else that we do family members who are in the world and not in the church the bible tells us the whole world is under the sway of satan the whole world second corinthians 4 4 tells us that satan is the god of this age he is revelation 12 9 tells us satan deceives the whole world you know when god makes statements he doesn't mean it like you and i might use the word whole or always and whatever he means the whole world is under the sway of satan he means the whole world is deceived there is no lie in god it is truth and if the whole world is under the sway of satan what does that tell us about the world it tells us there's a lot of lies the world itself is a lie let's turn to second timothy ii timothy 3 and verse 13. again speaking of the end times you can see in verse 1 there in second timothy 3 as paul is writing timothy says no this first in the last days perilous times will come and he goes through and he lists all these traits that will be there at the end time if we're honest with ourselves we can look down that list and say every single one of them we can see in the world around us today but drop down to verse 13. verse 13 it says evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived that means as time goes on the world will go deeper and deeper into a lie the world will go further and further away from god the lies will increase more and more and more evil men and imposters those false apostles prophets whatever that want to make themselves look like they are lights to the world that they have this wonderful idea of where the world can be they'll grow worse and worse and as we look at the world around us today we see a world that defines that verse if we're honest with ourselves when we look back two years the world we live in today is certainly further and further away from god than it was two years ago if we look at the world around us what we see is a situation that pontius pilate found himself in back when jesus christ was brought before him and the jews were screaming crucify him crucify him they brought him forth on the basis of lies pontius pilate believed them they are the jews after all but then he talked to jesus christ and he thought well i don't see any fault in him i don't see any fault in him so who's telling the truth and so he wrote that timeless or utter those timeless words what is truth what is truth now we've you know we can talk about the religions of the world that seven billion people subscribe to in one way or the other even if they deny the existence of a god or worship whatever they worship what about society in general today if we're looking at the world today we might all be asking what is truth look at the things that we've been through in the last year as someone had said two years ago masks will be an issue among people it'll be an issue in the church and we look at masks and i'm not going to say one way or the other about them there's a group of people that says you know what they're absolutely the right thing to do and they have studies that can prove that those are the thing to do on the other hand there's another group of people who say no basques don't work and they're armed with studies who say they don't work they all look credible on the face of it the question is where's truth where's truth can't find it there's two two sides pontius pilate asked what's truth we will ask what's truth what is it that we you know that's one thing we could talk about vaccines right the world is all about vaccines these days the push is on for vaccines there's a group of people who say oh the vaccine is great it's safe and effective everyone should have it and the pressure is on everyone should have it and they're armed with all these experts who say it's safe it's effective on the other hand we have another group who says no it's not safe it's never been tried before look at all these things and there's experts even people who are part of it who say no it's not safe no it's not effective it needed more trials we need to see what happens a year or two down the road because we don't know enough there's never been anything like this before what group do you believe the ones who say it's safe and effective or the ones who say it's not safe and effective where's truth because they're both armed with studies we can look at opinion polls remember when opinion polls meant something and you could look at a gallup poll and it would kind of give you a vision or an idea of where the population actually stood on an issue the last couple of elections have shown us you can throw the opinion polls right out because when paul can say this but then someone else has another poll that says this it's all designed to be what they want you to believe what they want to lead you into where's the truth not going to find it in the world hopelessly divided never the twain shall meet we know religion right we know religion you can't go to the protestants you can't go to the methodist you can't go to the jews you can't go to the muslims you can't go to the buddhists you can't go to the hindus and find truth they all have differing things they can't all be true it's a gift when god leads you to the truth we can look at our educational system you know most of us want to believe what our teachers are teaching our children is truth all of a sudden we have a world filled with well what are our children being taught what is history what is the truth what are they being taught is that what you want being being taught where's the truth it looks to me that when we look at the world today there's nothing but one big lie out there and if we trust in the world we're trusting in the wrong thing the only truth that you and i will find ever is from god and the bible that has to be our what leads us in this time if we believe the world and ever put our trust in it i dare say we're believing a lie and i dare say from here on out as second timothy 3 13 says those lies will become worse and worse more and more evil what is truth truth is jesus christ truth is god the father truth is the bible that jesus christ says is the word of truth that the scripture is unbreakable truth is the only thing that will result when it's in us that will lead to eternal life no half truths everyone in time will understand come to know the truth in god's own order as he says our job is to know the truth live by the truth and cling to the truth can be turning to micah micah seven you know the ninth commandment that god gave is thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor false witness is certainly a lie one of them that we haven't mentioned certainly one that we saw used against jesus christ used against stephen will be used against god's people in the future you can imagine what those lies will be as we we think ahead on them micah 7 and verse 5. says don't trust in a friend it's almost kind of dark reading that isn't that isn't it don't trust in a friend don't put your confidence in a companion guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your bosom samson learned the hard way you know to he should have guarded the doors of his mouth from delilah we need to be people who can discern what is being done and what we're being told and why that we don't believe the lie whatever it is or no matter how little it is but to put our trust in the only place we can put our trust verse 6 for son dishonors father daughter rises against her mother daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law a man's enemies are the men of his own household you know what lies do well we read it they separate they separate people that's why satan uses them we have all these sides we have all these divisions lies never unite people lies always result in division truth always results in unity one accord one belief one god one spirit where there's division where people are separated lies are there and it's up to us to ask god uncover those let there be truth in our inward part let us not believe the lie even the lies that we might tell ourselves about how good we are or how right this way is or what we're doing we need god's spirit to give us that discernment you know mike as he writes here and he says these things about look at this vision this is the same words that jesus christ said in matthew 24 he said in the end time what's going to happen family members will turn you in they're going to lie about you they're going to do the things that they do because the world is going to be against truth it's satan's world it's against truth therefore what's the answer i will look to the eternal i will wait for the god of my salvation he will hear me the only place we can look is to god and to wait for him and to trust in the words he says i will protect you i will shield you i will guide you through this i will be your help i will be your stay i will be your rock i will be your salvation boy there's that little word wait there's that little word wait among other little words we've talked about that we're going to learn we need to wait for god we need to wait for god that's where truth is jeremiah 17. jeremiah 17 and verse 5 he writes thus says the eternal jeremiah 17 5 cursed curse is the man who trusts in man so can you trust in the government today can you trust in education the educational system today can you trust medicine today all sorts of different things out there anything under the book everything in the book you can read about cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength whose heart departs from the eternal those are words to contemplate as we make our choices make our decisions as we choose truth and as we choose truth in the inward part cursed is a man who trusts in man for he shall be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see when good comes but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness in the salt land which is not inhabited on the other hand verse 7 blessed is the man who trusts in god who puts his trust and faith and reliance on him and in him and learns that and takes the opportunities in this life to build that trust to build that reliance to turn from reliance on man to trust in god blessed is the man who trusts in the eternal whose hope is in the lord he will be like a tree planted by the waters which spreads out its roots by the river and will not fear when he comes now fear is another one of those tactics of satan another one that comes by lies you can stoke you can stoke fear by the things that you say and we see that around us today and will not fear when heat comes but its leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought nor will it cease from yielding fruit and of course then the very familiar verse in verse 9 our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked same thing that god says in romans 8 7 the way we overcome lies and that deceitful heart god's spirit living in us us letting it lead us denying self choosing truth even when truth hurts and isn't the thing we want to do but always realizing we choose god's way first and practicing truth practicing truth truth and our commitment to it will unite us wise will divide us let's never let lies or the deceit of satan ever divide or separate us from god or each other you

Channel: United Church of God Orlando

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Length: 55min 42sec (3342 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 26 2021