"Speaking Truth in Love" - Pastor Doug Batchelor

what a welcome any visitors that we may have here today and we're glad that - you're visiting our church normally does not look like this up front we've been in going through a series dealing with the ten commandments we thought that was a worthy subject for us to study together because these are the words that God spoke with his own voice he rode with his own finger they constitute the essence of his covenant by which we are saved Old Covenant written on stone new covenant same law but it's written on the heart through love and so we've found it so edifying to talk about these commandments I've been blessed just in studying to prepare these messages for you well I've been blessed I've been convicted - because I found that the law is it's very broad it's very comprehensive and what it covers and some things we think that well you know that's not really covered by the law you realize each of those Commandments is genius in how far-reaching they are and what what the those ten words of the Decalogue what they cover it's just amazing to me and today we are on commandment number nine which you find on the second table of the law and it's in Exodus 20:16 short covers a lot though you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor so the message today is of course the Ten Commandments number nine speaking the truth in love speaking the truth in love now we might be wondering well not supposed to bear false testimony against your neighbor well who's your neighbor Jesus answers that question and the parable of the Good Samaritan everybody who's in need is your neighbor and so really this is a commandment that's telling us to tell the truth you see the Bible is pretty clear Jesus is the truth Christ is the embodiment of the truth and as Christians we want to follow Christ so we want the truth ingrained in our lives and in all that we say and all that we share but more specifically this first commandment is dealing with something that we think of as perjury perjury is of course when you bear false witness while under oath to tell the truth now people go to court and they might bear false witness when it comes to a traffic citation or they might bear false witness when you know it comes to shoplifting or something and we're living in the age of Court TV and it seems like we're surrounded with visual images of people who are sitting in either the the bench of the defendant or the witness and the there's so much of that these days but what's really sad is perjury false testimony has become extremely commonplace you'll see video recordings of confessions and then when they finally get into the box they saw a lot was under pressure it's not true but then all the evidence comes in it shows that they're just lying and it seems to come so easy why is that you know we're living in a time that's unique in that this is a culture that is saturated with media we're surrounded with television programs everything from commercials to daytime drama to the movies and DVDs is filled with acting and you know what acting is my mother was an actress and she used to tell me Doug in order to be a good actor or actress you need to be a good liar and it was almost commended and encouraged and there have even in educators in our country positions of leadership and education that say we shouldn't take it too seriously when these young minds begin to conjure up deception that shows creativity and it's almost encouraged and when so many of the program is where the actors are then lying in the script and people laugh and they think it's cunning it's clever it's funny and I can go all the way back now the programming that I grew up on was pretty tame and mild compared to what's out there today I mean but everything from bewitched to Gilligan's Island there was all kinds of lying and deception that we thought was cute and you'd hear the laugh track you know the laugh track is they have pre-recorded people laughing during these sitcoms and they play the button and whenever someone told a little lie or they gave some deception they played a laugh track and you were made to think this is just funny but does God see lying is funny we've been programmed just wink and you can lie with a wink you know we have been so saturated with deception and untruth that I think we're living in a culture that it's very difficult for people to understand what is the truth what is the truth you know ultimately Christ was condemned because Pilate said what is truth who was it Mark Twain that said the reason that people hold the truth in such high regard as they have such little opportunity to get used to it the reason people hold the truth in such high regard as they have such little opportunity to become familiar with it there's so little of it of real truth that it's highly esteemed but people don't really speak it well in the Bible times bearing false testimony wasn't just like somebody getting away with shoplifting or a traffic citation bearing false testimony you realize the first four actually more than that first seven commandments maybe even eight depending on the nature of it the penalty was death and so if somebody gave false testimony it could cost another person their life by the way our false test the money cost Jesus his life lion is still deadly notice Deuteronomy 17 6 whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses he'll not be put to death on the testimony of one witness you would want those witnesses to be giving honest accurate testimony now notice if you were going to bear testimony against someone and the penalty was death who do you think threw the first stone when Jesus made that statement in John chapter 8 he was quoting back to the time of Moses where when someone gave testimony and someone else was found guilty they didn't have 10 years of appeals on death row they drugged him outside the camp and they found some rocks and they were executed the hands of the witnesses will be first against them to put them to death and afterward the hands of all the people so you will put away the evil from among you Deuteronomy 19 now what happened if you were a false witness in a case if you perjured yourself if Deuteronomy 19 verse 16 if you're taking notes if a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing then both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord and the priests and the judges who serve in those days and the judges shall make a careful inquiry there'll be an investigation and a deed if the witness is a false witness who has testified falsely against his brother then you will do to him as he thought to have done to his brother so you'll put away the evil from among you and those who remain will hear in fear and thereafter they'll not commit any such evil among you as to bear false testimony against your neighbor your eye will not pity life for life eye for eye tooth for tooth hand for hand foot for foot and now words if someone was bearing false witness against his neighbor in the sentence the penalty for that crime was death the false witness was executed if someone was bearing false witness and it was a fine for $50 you took $50 away from the false witness if it was and having your hand chopped off for stealing not that the Israelites did that they got their hand chopped off if they said all they there are the ones who knocked out so and so's tooth but it wasn't you the false witnesses tooth got knocked out or I poked out or whatever it was in other words you would apply to the false witness whatever his testimony would have caused to be the penalty against the other party so if they really you know what happens now with DNA DNA's created a whole new science of evidence in criminal studies they have found many people who were in prison 10 15 25 years in one case for crimes because they still had the evidence they checked they found out this man was not guilty of this rape he was accused of it was an impossibility that DNA did not match he had always said he was guilty and they said well how did he get condemned well there was a witness and they go back to the witness and they confront them with the evidence and they say well I thought it maybe was them I thought it looked like Sam I don't remember it's kind of fuzzy now and they don't do anything to the false witness they kind of shrug but if if false witnesses ended up getting the penalty that they're accusing the other person of being guilty of I think people would be a lot more careful with their testimony in Bible times that was what the penalty said proverbs 19 5 a false witness will not go unpunished and he who speaks lies will not escape a person might think well I got away with it but you never do a false witness will be punished if not in this life and usually in this life it catches up with them even if others don't know God has a way of even the score without the courts ever finding out they're got even the score you never ever get away with anything did you know that you may as well live holy lives because I can tell you now you don't get away with anything your sin will surely find you out whatever it is you better confess and repent of it because everything is going to get evened up God will see to that the Bible says the truth will set you free and if the truth sets you free then it stands a reason lying will bind you a man is holding with the cords of their sins and you know how when you tell one lie you got it in tell another and another to try and cover your tracks and it just gets worse and worse lying will imprison you the truth will liberate you now it's not just people say well you know it doesn't really say in the Ten Commandments don't lie it just says don't bear false witness against your neighbor well you can read plenty of other places in the Bible it says do not lie and so that was certainly part of that commandment lying is a sin now we need to make a distinction if a person says something that isn't true it isn't always a lie what did I hear the pastor say that if a person says something that isn't true it isn't always a lie if they're just ignorant they didn't know there are sometimes statements I have made where I thought it was the truth I later found out I had bad evidence that's not a lie you understand what I'm saying some people just are ignorant of the facts and you've all met folks that said something and they may have been very sincere but they just didn't know all the facts and they weren't lying they were too speaking an untruth or misinformed or they misspoke whatever term you want lying is to present false information with the intention of deceiving or getting elected to public office I threw that in but we know there is a connection sin first entered the world through a lie the devil said to Eve Genesis 3:4 you will not surely die God's not giving you all the facts he spoke a lie for the purpose of deceiving and it worked and he ought to know what he's talking about because Jesus said the devil is the founder of lies John 8:44 he said you're of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want you will do when he speaks a lie he speaks from his own resources he's got a patent on it for he is a liar and the father of it and so just so we're not confused Jesus is the truth he's the embodiment of the truth the devil is the embodiment of a lie does that mean the devil can never tell the truth no yes in that he will commingle truth with his lies but when you mix truth with lies what do you have you have lies everything the devil says even when he mingles truth with lies ultimately for deception which makes it a lie but that's when lie is it the most dangerous and the FBI you know they study these things and the central intelligence they do it for interviews for in it for interrogations and they say that the most convincing liars and the hardest to spot are the ones that will tell the truth in so many other areas but the lie in one spot so when you check their story you know bad Liars tell lies about things they shouldn't lie about they're easily caught I shouldn't say bad Liars who's all Liars are bad unskilled liars police can easily catch them pull someone over why were you speeding I'm on the way to the hospital because my wife's having a baby which hospital uh the big one what's your wife's name of a highway patrolman are trained to ask a few simple questions if a person has a good reason for speeding they can ask a few simple questions and usually find out right away if they're telling the truth I was speeding on on my way back from the funeral now I didn't tell the officer that I had an excuse for speeding what I told him was I said can you have mercy on me I said I've had a rough day I had to drive a long way one of my dear friends died yeah I've got to get back for some responsibilities I'm sorry they said what was your friend's name Bob how old was he 45 how did he die and he started to grill me with all these questions about my friend in his funeral to see if I was making up a story cuz he did he thought look if you are coming from a funeral I don't want to make your day any worse and he said I'm just like you know I just come from a funeral he let me go but he was checking my story and what really makes it dangerous is when you can mix a lot of truth with the lies they're hard to spot the devil is a master at that there's a lot of how many different Christian churches are there out there how many different denominations do they all have different elements of truth they got oh they've got yeah some of them have a lot of true things but the amix in there's some a few dangerous doctrines mixed in there that makes it especially lethal and in the last days will those who are persecuting Christians think that they're serving God yeah cuz they'll have truth mixed in with the air proverbs 6 verse 16 these six things the Lord hates you know that list of seven things yes seven are an abomination unto Him now notice in the list of things that God especially hates it says here a proud look a lying tongue hands that shed innocent blood a heart that devises wicked plans feet that are Swift to running to evil a false witness who speaks lies and he who sews discord among brethren three out of the seven are connected with deception in line of the things that God hates he doesn't just dislike intensely he hates it he wants us to be a people who are telling the truth you know if Christians are not identified as the people who are honest I heard a man was sharing that he was buying something he's gonna buy a vehicle and he pulled out a check and the man selling the vehicle said I need a I need a cashier's check I can't take a personal check and the man buying the vehicle said well I'm a pastor he said I live locally he said that's all the more reason all the more reason I need cash said I've not had good experience with you Christians I've been cheated many times I've been lied to said that's all the more reason so the pad rahat pastor had to drop what he was doing and go find an ATM and try and get the money out and came back he said I'm sorry but that's just the way it is so when it says that believers should not bear false testimony does that just mean that we're not to tell lies or does that also mean with our lives aren't we bearing testimony with our lives as well living truth for Jesus proverbs 12 19 the truthful lips shall be established forever see this commandment is not just saying don't lie it's a promise that lying make your life short honesty make your life long see you see that truthful lips will be established forever but a lying tongue is but for a moment turn with me to further illustrate this to Psalm 15 this is a great Psalm you could probably memorize this short Psalm 15 you got your Bibles I don't put all these on the screen because I I started doing that for a while I thought you're gonna get lazy I want you to use your Bibles who may abide in your tabernacle who may dwell in your holy hill who's gonna live in God's holy Hill who's gonna be dwelling with God in heaven he who walks uprightly who works righteousness notices notice and speaks the truth in his heart if you're gonna have honesty in your words where does it start out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks got him an honest heart if you can have a truthful tongue speaks the truth in Hart who does not backbite with his tongue there's two things that have to do with truth nor does evil to his neighbor he does not take up a reproach against his friend a reproach is verbal it's not accusing in whose eyes a vile person is despised but he honors those who fear the Lord who swears to his own hurt and does not change he makes a vow when he keeps it he keeps what he speaks with his lips who does not put out his money to usury who does not take a bribe against the innocent he that does these things will never be moved who will last forever he that speaks the truth we got to be honest about being honest God wants his people to be a people who are can be trusted you have integrity proverbs 19 22 what is desired in a man is kindness and a poor man is better than a liar if you have to choose between being rich and deceptive and poor but honest what's better but some people have traded their integrity for money and you know this just a lot of pressure even in little things I remember you know kids even though I grew up with really almost no religious training I mean I went to a Catholic school where I remember learning the Beatitudes and and I had heard the Ten Commandments going to Jewish synagogue and and but I remember standing in the feeder more than one time with my mother and there are different prices for the children and she'd lie about our ages now is easier with my brother because he had cystic fibrosis he was short and so my brother was like 16 years old and she was still telling people he was 11 so she could save a few dollars and I just I always thought this is wrong even though I had no real moral compunctions I just knew this was wrong there's a lot of little ways where we fudge and lie and bend the truth and modify things and just tell half-truths to try and get some advantage proverbs 12:22 lying lips are an abomination to the Lord those are things that God hates but those that deal truthfully are his delight now look at the contrast there in one it's viewed as an abomination with God try to find I challenge you I bet you can't do it try to find some word in the Bible that God uses its stronger to express his dissatisfaction than abomination now that means it is a stench in the nostrils of God but truthfulness is a delight the Lord loves truth he looks for truth in the inner parts of our hearts but even among Christians some people are bilingual they can tell the truth and they can also tell lies and they can switch back and forth and it's strange how some people in many areas they're honest in their lives but then in some areas they figure a little deception is okay we call it exaggeration it's the true it's just embellished a little bit evangelists are often accused of that you know like fishermen how big was it it was this big Ananias and Sapphira were church members that sold some property and gave the money to the church what I just said is true they sold some property gave the money to the church that's true and God killed him why because they exaggerated how much they gave they gave some of it they wanted to make people think it was more than it really was isn't that what exaggeration is saying things come on I you know I hope no one will think that there's any connection between this sermon on honesty and Father's Day I just just the way the star is lined up but I know a lot of men that have sat around the campfire and each one tries to top the other story and every time we tell it it gets better and better now you're even smiling now as I say that you know exactly see what I mean I can make it just you know a few more adjectives gets bigger and bigger a pastor who baptized me yeah he called me on that a couple times his number other done you're not given to exaggeration are you and he said you know and he said it in a very smiling friendly way says exaggeration and in lying they're very close matter of fact they're the same thing and so well sometimes I think we show you both these are honest people but you know they tell stories and they just they're a little more embellished and God wants us to be honest do you know the reason they have something called a lie detector is because you physiologically have a reaction when you lie but you can be trained not to normally if you're a healthy rate regular person unless your psychopathic a liar you will have a physiological reaction to line because it is unnatural God did not make us to speak a lie he designed us to speak the truth and when we lie there's a physiological reaction now people can be trained the CIA and even some military branches they can train a person to take a lie detector test and just go right through it and they know what the detector is looking for they know what they need to think about so that they don't have those reactions and they can look like they're telling the truth but most of the time those tests are pretty accurate because we're not wired by God to lie we learn to be liars and problem is we learn it very young and parents and I'm guilty of this sometimes we do not call our children to be strict about accuracy with the facts and because we do not hold them to the facts and they say oh man there were twenty people at the door and we know they're actually three and we say no how many were there I like 20 people well how many we're three and if you don't call them a little things like that and I know you might seem think that's fanatical it gets easier and easier to exaggerate and you know exaggerate drifts I'm starving are you really starving I'm just very hungry well let's say you're very hungry have you ever starved no have you ever gone a day without eating no you're not starving you know what I'm talking about and because from infancy were pretty lacks about exaggeration it opens the way to everything else under the Sun God wants us to be honest then there's a sin of slander that's where you're not just bearing false witness you may not be in a court setting but you're saying unkind things about another reputations are often murdered with words vitriolic tongues and pens can assassinate characters one reason you're not to bear false witness is because you can hurt a person's name and you know one of the most precious things a person has is their name and sometimes we assassinate murder and attack people's reputations so important is human speech that two out of the ten commandments regulate the tongue remember the third commandment do not take the name of the Lord in vain and then you've got this commandment do not bear false witness we got a lot of problems sometimes that spot below the nose and above the chin you know God could be very generous when it came to giving us eyes gave us two ears two nostrils but we came to the tongue said we can barely handle one so it just got one mouth because sometimes we talk about things we shouldn't talk about proverbs 1018 whoever hides hatred has lying lips and whoever spreads slander is a fool so we hear things about others we spread it around psalms 101 verse 5 whoever secretly slanders his neighbour him I will destroy have you ever heard some little tidbit juicy gossip about somebody you have no facts to prove it's true but it's interesting and hearing and it's interesting and telling so you pass it on how does the Lord feel about that him I will destroy gossip is serious business with God proverbs 1113 a tail Bearer reveals secrets but he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter they say if any two people know a secret it's not a secret anymore because of human nature can't wait to tell you've got inside information because that's power when you got inside information I am the go-to person you want to know is really going on I've got the scoop my mother was a film critic in Hollywood do you know what kind of a dog-eat-dog world that is and she had all these relationships with all these people and she would trade information it was currency to find out all the juicy tidbits and people wanted to hear it it's sort of a ruthless business but it's slimy and people just want to know what's the latest scandal and what bit of juicy gossip and we may not be living in the world of Hollywood but it still happens in the church to trade and information the currency of power what you know and what you can tell about somebody else and every church has a gabriella gossip or two and it might be a george gossip i that wasn't a swam against just the women matter of fact I've had some church as I pastored where if I had some information I needed to get out I knew just who to call and say make sure you don't tell anybody and then I knew it was gonna go to everybody it was it was a one man calling tree the sin of slander proverbs 18 8 the words of a tail bearer are like tasty trifles and they go down into the innermost belly something about that bit of gossip that it's just like some kind of forbidden dessert Leviticus 19 16 you shall not go about this is a command thou shalt not go about as a tail bear among your people loose translation do not be a gospel gossip no it's actually thou shalt not gossip but we do and what's something that we all need to pray about sometimes I've heard a lot of gossip that has been disguised as a prayer request you know there's something I need to tell you so you can pray about it and it's like because we say so you can pray about it that sort of paves the way for you to tell about these terrible things going on you need to pray for this family did you know and then they begin to gossip and there's very little praying that goes on but there's all kinds of mental mastication of the juicy tidbits better to be silent by the way tell the truth always but don't always be telling it God always wants us to tell the truth but we always don't have to be telling everything that you know sometimes it's a good part of Christianity is to not speak everything you know even Jesus said to the Apostles I have many things to tell you now but you can't handle it and he didn't tell him at his own trial Jesus had a lot of things he could have said but he didn't say anything sometimes we need to know when to just not say anything have you read they're in good with me this isn't in my notes but it just kind of came to me now I hope it's the Lord go with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 5 while we're talking about the subject of the tongue verse one please yes these five verse one walk prudently when you go to the house of God and draw near to here rather than to give the sacrifice of fools opposite of hearing is speaking that's the sacrifice of fools for they don't know they do evil do not be rash with your mouth doesn't say don't ever speak anything but don't do it rashly think before you speak and do not let your heart uh tur anything hastily before God for God is in heaven and you're on the earth therefore let your words be few he will give an account to God for every idle word we speak isn't that what the Bible says for a dream comes too much activity enough fools voice is known by many words when you make a vow to God do not delay to pay it there again words being honest for he has no pleasure in fools pay what you have vowed it's better not to vow than to vow and not to pay do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin and do not say before the Messenger of God that it was an error why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hands for the multitude of dreams and many words is also vanity but fear God many words is also vanity God part of a definition biblically of a god-fearing person is their careful with their words says here Psalm 52 to your tongue devises destruction like sharp razors working deceitfully someone in a book called Schneck wrote a book on the 10 commandments by holy in our peace when we have it in our power to defend what he's talking about here I should set this up you can tell a lie by saying nothing sometimes rely with a wink or by blatantly saying a lie sometimes rely through silence and this is what he's talking about by holy in our peace when we haven't in our power to defend by failing to mention the good when the evil is spoken of by encouraging the telling of evil by eager listening we assault the reputation of our neighbor and by the ascent of our silence and sometimes silence is golden sometimes silence is yellow you know what I mean yellow like in cowardice and God wants us to speak up sometimes saying nothing when you know the truth and everyone else is believing a lie is endorsing a lie I found this old poem talking about all the different nations of the world and how they've got proverbs about truth in the tongue listen to this the boneless tongue so small and weak can crush and kill declares the Greek the tongue destroys a greater horde than the Turkish Ertz then does the sword the Persian proverb wisely sayeth lengthy tongue an early death or sometimes takes this form instead don't let your tongue cut off your head the tongue can speak a word with speed says a Chinese outstrips the steed while the Arab sage duct this impart the tongues great storehouse is the heart from Hebrew hath the maxim sprung through feet should slip let near the tongue the sacred writer crowns the whole who keeps his tongue he keeps his soul everybody in the world knows that a lot of trouble can come from the tongue now is there such a thing as a half-truth or a white lie when Abraham went down to Egypt during the famine and I guess Sarah must have really been a good-looking lady because he was so afraid that even after she was at over sixty years of age he thought that they were gonna kill him for his wife and he said Sarah look let's have a little talk you know we are half-brother half-sister got the same father different mothers didn't you know that said let's forget about the marriage part when we get to Egypt just say that you're my sister because they'll probably kill me and take you I don't know what he was so afraid of he had 300 soldiers in his household had his own bodyguard was it true was she his sister yes but wasn't it important that he let the Pharaoh know that this is my wife especially when Pharaoh took her to be part of his harem shouldn't he have said something but he held his peace half truth Abraham fathered the fate by the way children learned from their parents years later Isaac did the same thing with the Philistines said to Rebecca she was also beautiful those Jewish girls back there must have been really good-looking seguín you lying tel Abimelech that you're my sister and Abimelech looks out his window on isaac is getting very coy and flirtatious with his sister he said I saw you sporting with your sister it's not your sister she's your wife you lied well but she's my first cousin which technically in the Hebrew culture was called a sister and so it was a half-truth or was it a whole line maybe's patriarch slide sometimes they lied when you see Bible characters lie is not a justification for lying can you name people in the Bible that lied Hey Rahab lied Benjie of course people say well rehab lied she was a prostitute too we're not endorsing that are we I mean she was a pagan coming in she lied she did save them during war you'll often find they use deception didn't Joshua use deception when they pretended they were retreating and it was really a trap they were drawing the people of AI the soldiers of AI were being drawn into a trap when David when he David realized that the Philistines were getting under a little nervous about him walking around among them carrying Goliath sword he started to drool on his beard and scratch on the gate and act like a madman is that honest or is that deception is God endorsing lying or did they just do it back then and he's telling us what they did was David being deceptive when he tried to cover up what happened with Bathsheba how about Peter when he denied knowing Jesus was that a lie so there's a lot of lying that went on but it's not an endorsement for lying God just gives a face faithful history of what his people did tell me about when Jesus lied he never did did he everything he said was the truth who is it that we follow we had a very interesting discussion in the bachelor house last night during worship and we were reading a part of a book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the scenario was presented where during the Nazi occupation for instance if you are hiding Jews in your house and they were your friends and soldiers came to the door and said do you have any Jews here if you say yes they're going to be killed what do you do it's kind of a dilemma isn't it a lot of people have been faced with that I'm not sure we had agreement in our family about how you deal with that it was very interesting conversation I took the old-fashioned view that do what Jesus would do and either say nothing or find some way to speak the truth and not turning your friends look for any other alternative but you know we spent a lot of time talking about that and you probably will be a little exercised about that among yourselves hopefully you'll think about those kind of questions but in reality that's not the time we usually have trouble with lying God please let that be the only time that your church has to worry about what to do I wish that was the problem and we had to worry about lying under those circumstances in reality that's not the issue it's a lot more elementary where we struggle instead of these philosophical conundrums that we develop about what do you do in a case like this that's not what we grapple with we grapple with lying on just a very basic level being dishonest with our spouses where were you well I went to Walmart well you did go to Walmart but that's not where you were the last three hours and so we're not really saying where we were or your parents asked that question there's all kinds of shady answers that we give and we're Christians sometimes with our body language of folding of our arms and the shape of her head and the shrug of the shoulders we can tell a lie amen half-truths you ever say you're glad to see someone when you're really not or you tell them hey next time we get together we'll have lunch and you're thinking boy I hope that's not anytime soon or someone says how are you doing and you say fine and you're anything but fine you know what I'm saying God wants us to be honest so why do people lie well for one thing they might be afraid did Sarah lie when the angel said I heard you laughing I mean when God says were you laughing at my promise oh no I didn't laugh I said oh yes you did laugh she lied why she was afraid people often live because they're afraid is that an excuse sometimes oh and why did Peter lie when the girl said don't you know him he was probably afraid sometimes people lie because they want personal gain or some reward why did Jacob lie to his father pretend to be Esau he wanted to get that blessing sometimes the person wants a reward or they want a job you know I forget what the percentages were but I think it was over 50% of people exaggerated or lied on their resumes when applying for jobs made it look like they had a little more experience so they were a little more appreciated than they really were sometimes people do it to win approval in second Samuel 1:10 this soldier comes to David he had found saw dead on the battlefield he thought David was gonna be happy because everyone knew Saul was hunting David's life they just didn't know David very well he had no animosity towards Saul David knew how to love even his enemies this soldier came and he brought the bracelet and the crown of King Saul he said I killed him expecting a reward he lied he didn't kill him Saul killed himself and you know what happened to that liar David said how dare you lift your sword against God's anointed and he had one of his young men's soldiers by him he said slay Batman he was telling a lie hoping for a reward to get some approval I remember I went from school in New York City that was in a Jewish school in New York City my father kidnapped my brother and I had summer camp took us down to Florida put us in a Catholic school I didn't know anybody called Saint Patrick's and I it was partway through the school has already started and I was just an outsider and I didn't know anybody aunt and I wanted so much to be liked so who are you I'm Duggan me where you from I'm from New York not my mother was in show business and I had friends that were actors and I said I'm a child actor oh really what did you act in I wasn't an actor what are you well my mom had taken me to see Oliver Twist's I said I was an actor and Oliver Twist really the nun is now asking me this you know what part did you play I was Oliver see you're laughing she said well that's a musical is it I said yes she said can you sing one of the songs for us well the count was out of the bag after the first few lines but you know why I did it I wanted to be accepted I didn't know anybody here I'm a Jewish boy in a Catholic school that's all I was trying to get some approval big liar boy yeah I know I wish I could tell you that was the only whopper I'd ever told but no vengeance some people tell why is to hurt someone else they concoct a story sometimes just destroy a person's reputation you remember when Potiphar's wife when her advances were spurned she lied about Joseph and said he tried to rape me had him put in jail it's called bearing false testimony I wonder what happened after Joseph became prime minister did he still have her address that's me very interesting to play the video back in heaven and find out how he dealt with that ID thinking he forgave her I think it probably was enough for Joseph when his chariot went down the street and everybody bowed down he'd see her in the crowd some do it for vengeance God wants us to be true witnesses he wants us to be honest Luke 12 verse 8 and 9 Jesus said I also say to you whoever confesses me before men him the son of man will also confess before the angels of God but he that denies me before men will be denied before the angels of heaven you know one commandment says thou shall not take the name the Lord in vain that doesn't mean just don't curse that also means if you're gonna take the name of Christian don't do it in vain live as a Christian and when it says do not bear false witness against your neighbor it doesn't just mean don't accuse your neighbor in the witness-box of doing something they're not guilty of it means do not be a bad witness before your neighbor of your Christianity let your light shine tell them what you believe I remember one of the sad indictments that I received after years of being in a certain town and knowing some people in the community I was talking in a supermarket with one gal there and I mentioned something about Christianity and she said oh you're a Christian I didn't know that she didn't mean it as an insult but I thought to myself wow I've known this person for several years what kind of a Christian manat am i she had no idea that's because I'd lost so many given up I should say so many opportunities to be a witness Ephesians 4:15 speaking the truth in love and that's our sermon title speaking the truth and love that we might grow up in all things sometimes because we say I want to be honest we we say mean cutting things to another person under the pretense of being honest and where does being mean you don't have to say everything you know and you don't have to say everything you think to still be an honest person you know what I'm saying we need to speak the truth and do it in love and sometimes if you can't say anything nice you don't have to say anything God has not appointed us to be the critics and the judges of the world if you're going to speak speak the truth and do it in love now you know why this subject is especially important and I'm concluding now the whole world is soon to be deceived the Bible says the devil that dragon that serpent that deceiveth the whole world is coming down with great wrath and some people want to be deceived if we do not receive a love of the truth and that means have you done receive I'm not just talking about if you don't receive a love of Bible doctrine if you don't love and cherish truth God will then allow you to believe a lie 2nd Thessalonians 2 verse 10 notice speaking of the Antichrist power and with all unrighteousness with all unrighteous deception among those who perish unrighteous deception because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved if you want to be saved you have to love the truth you cannot be a practicing liar and love the truth and for this reason God will send them strong delusion if you loved illusion and deception he'll let you have it that they should believe a lie they'll be very sincere about a lie that they all might be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness pleasure in deception if we don't love the truth and receive a level of the truth that we might be saved the only thing left if you don't receive of love of the truth is what take away the light and you have darkness take away the truth and you have deception you know I heard about four high school boys had showed up in class late one day they've been goofing off but they told the teacher we had a flat tire she said well you missed the test this morning Oh couldn't help but we had a flat tire she said I tell you what I'm gonna give you a chance to take the test again but first I've got a one-question test I want each of you to go to a different corner of the classroom and here's your question which tire was flat there's gonna be a test someday friends do we treasure the truth all Liars will be lost the Bible tells us lying is lethal Revelation 21 verse 8 all Liars will have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death Lord save us from line revelation 22:15 but outside outside the City of God are whoever loves and practices a lie so that commandment do not bear false witness against your neighbor is not just talking about what happens in a court it's talking about what happens in the court of heaven - are we being honest now ultimately we are followers of Christ and what was Jesus we're called to be faithful witnesses Jesus said in Revelation 1 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness we are to be faithful witnesses he came to bear faithful testimony of what the father was like and what the message of the father is and to die for our sins revelation 3:14 and to the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans that's relevant for us write these things says the Amen the faithful and true witness and it's Jesus that's red-letter Jesus is the faithful witness Christ said in John 8 55 yet you've not known him but I know him and if I say I do not know him I'll be a liar like you but I know him and I keep his word Christ came to bear faithful witness of the father you know what put Jesus on the cross a false witness two of them they had to find at least two and they found two false witnesses and Christ was falsely accused because of someone's lies he died on a cross and it wasn't just their lies 2000 years ago you realize Jesus died on the cross for our lies our exaggerations our half-truths the white lies the black lies and everything in between God wants us to be a people that follow him and he is the truth and the truth will set you free lies will enslave you now I'm talking to myself just as I'm talking to you because there's so many areas where we think that it's gray and God is calling us to be a people that are sincere without wax honest dependable trustworthy let your yea be a in your Navy nay and the Lord wants us to have that in our hearts if we're gonna speak the truth in our mouths first we need to have it in our hearts and Jesus is the truth when will you receive him and his principles and you his teachings into your heart out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak and our words will be changed I'm hoping that I can have that kind of experience because someday we're gonna be called to a point where we're gonna be asked who do you believe in and if you lie you'll be lost we need to have such a love for the truth that even if we're executing for it we're gonna say Jesus is our Lord amen we're gonna take a stand for the truth in our word and in our deeds and you've got to really love the truth to be able to do that you've got to really love the truth to be willing to die for the truth if we're not faithful in the little things now what will we do when a big test comes when it comes to truth so we must cherish it now while all of us have lied I don't want anyone to be discouraged if it wasn't for God's mercy we'd be in big trouble amen but God can change your hearts and he can forgive our sins and he can pour his truth into our lives so I'm thankful for his Redemption

Channel: Aaron

Views: 17,026

Rating: 4.9560437 out of 5

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Id: qlMinj67DdA

Length: 54min 19sec (3259 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 14 2018