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God’s
Constitution for Living 9
Grace
Emmanuel Church
Pastor Sam
Chess
(What is
Truth?)
I. Avoiding the Truth
Multiple choice:
A) This is a command against lying in a courtroom
B) This is a command against lying in the courtroom about the
person who lives in the house next to you.
C) This command includes lying to the person who lives in the
house next to you, even when you are not in a courtroom.
D) This is a command against lying to your neighbor, who is any
other human being on the planet.
E) This command does not include lying to your dog when you are
trying to give him a bath.
F) All of the above
This command is admittedly a little tougher to pin down than the
command against murder. You don’t often talk about little murders or
big murders. You don’t usually slip up and murder somebody around the
water cooler at work and think later… wow I didn’t mean to murder Fred
today… I’m going to have to do better tomorrow.
Unfortunately, lying is much more socially acceptable. Everybody
shades the truth sometimes. Even some of the “greats” in the Bible
lied’ and God went on to use their lives in a tremendous way. Perhaps
lying is not on the same level with big sins like murder and sexual
sins.
It’s true that there does seem to be a downward progression of
severity in the second half of this list. Murder and Adultery brought a
death sentence. Stealing required restitution only, unless you stole a
person (kidnapping)… that required death. Lying is not punishable by
death…. or even required restitution. But then…if it’s not a big deal,
why is it in God’s Big Ten List? Lying isn’t just in this Ten
Commandment list…it get into other sin lists…even in the New Testament.
1 Timothy 1: 8 We know that the law is good if one uses it
properly. 9 We also know that law is made not for the righteous but
for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and
irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for
murderers, 10 for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and
liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound
doctrine 11 that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed
God, which he entrusted to me.
Revelation 21:6 He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and
the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will
give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7
He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and
he will be my son. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile,
the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts,
the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake
of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
Whoa!!!!
I was watching T.V. Friday evening….. and one friend had bought four
tickets to a play and her husband had offered another couple the two
extra tickets. She was trying to explain to her best friend why the
tickets weren’t available to her and she lied. Then she felt bad about
lying to her friend so she told her the truth. Then her slighted friend
started feeling bad and told her she should have continued lying to
keep her from feeling bad. A discussion then “ensued” about when it was
better to lie to protect the feeling of the other…
I don’t remember either of them quoting “the vile, the murderers,
the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and
all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur…..
Hell is certainly reserved for murders and rapists.. but not
someone who lies to protect the feeling of a friend….is it?
Our politicians will, in front of millions of people, tell a fat
whopper…. know at the time they are telling a fat whopper, gladly
contradict themselves two weeks later if they think it will bring
them political advantage.
When commentators or other politicians, later, discuss their
untruths they don’t use the word lie! They say… they were
disingenuous!
Disingenuous!??
Winston Churchill used to say that his political opponents were:
Perpetrating a terminological inexactitude!
Maybe that’s the answer here. God is forbidding perjury….lying
under oath in court. All other lies are just: Perpetrating
terminological inexactitudes!
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When Pilate was working on sentencing Jesus to crucifixion… he
asked the age-old question that only the one standing in front of
him could have accurately answered.
What is truth?
II. The Source of Truth
The best way to figure out what God thinks about the subject of
truth and falsehood is to look directly at what he says…about Himself
and his relationship to truth.
Exodus 34:6 And the LORD passed
before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and
gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, (NKJV)
Psalm 33:4 For the word of the LORD holds true, and everything
he does is worthy of our trust. (NLT)
Jesus: John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling
among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,
who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (NIV)
John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Truth is not something God has some of….Truth is what/who God is!
God doesn’t have to work at being truthful, He is truth! Whatever is
dead-on truth… it is emanating from the source of all truth who is God.
Whatever God has said, in any situation, in any generation throughout
all of time, whatever God has said, is saying or will say can’t be
anything other than truthful. He doesn’t have a lot inner
truthfulness….He is Truth.
Hebrews 6:18 So God has given us both his promise and his oath.
These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for
God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can
take new courage, for we can hold on to his promise with
confidence. (NLT)
Dilemma:
God is Truth!
God is in us!
God’s truth is in us!
Therefore…. we live in truth!
Are you totally truthful without question…without pause… without
shading or deception all the time?__________________________ Opps!
III. The Source of Perpetrating Terminological Inexactitudes!
It’s Jesus, himself, who explains to us where the root of the lying
problem comes from. The religious leaders of the day were accusing
Jesus of being disingenuous….. Perpetrating Terminological
Inexactitudes…. And he tells them, in no uncertain terms, that the
reason they can’t see things from his perspective is because their
moral compass isn’t pointing north….
John 8:42 Jesus told them, "If God were your Father, you would
love me, because I have come to you from God. I am not here on my
own, but he sent me. 43 Why can't you understand what I am saying?
It is because you are unable to do so! 44 For you are the children
of your father the Devil, and you love to do the evil things he
does. He was a murderer from the beginning and has always hated the
truth. There is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent
with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 So
when I tell the truth, you just naturally don't believe me!
Just as clearly as God is truth and cannot be untruthful…satan is
deception/falsehood and cannot tell the truth. How much truth did Jesus
say you could find in satan? No truth!
Everything satan does is an attempt to skew the truth that is
God. Satan isn’t sometimes truthful and sometimes deceptive. When he
lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the
father of lies.
The Father of Lies produces children who act just like him!
My wife called me after leaving a meeting the other day with those
who are set on bringing a comprehensive sex curriculum into our county
schools. She was overwhelmed with the fact that these people were
ignoring scientific evidence that proved the truth and were placing all
their faith in statistics written by people who were known to have a
far left agenda.
“How can they think like that”, she asked……. How can they not
think like that?
The only way any of us have any truth in us is if it is
implanted there by the God who is truth. If a person completely
rejects the sovereign control of God in their lives, they are not
going to be thinking God-like thoughts.
In fact God describes this mindset in the first chapter of
Romans and even gives it a very interesting title:
Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven
against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who
suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may
be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it
plain to them.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as
God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile
and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they
claimed to be wise, they became fools
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of
their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their
bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for
a (the) lie, and worshiped and served created things
rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
This week, the new President of Iran, in an interview with Mike
Wallace said that the world was misunderstanding them. They had no
desire to make nuclear weapons, they wanted nuclear power to provide
energy that would help them help the world. They are peaceful people
who have found that much more can be accomplished around a negotiating
table than can ever be accomplished with bombs.
The entire world community knows he’s lying… “The wrath of God
is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and
wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their
wickedness… they neither glorify God nor give thanks to him, their
thinking becomes futile and their foolish hearts are darkened. 22
Although they claim to be wise, they become fools…”
It’s not, really, hard to understand why God removes lying from a
ho-hum list of wrongdoings and places it in a list with the Big Ten.
The distinction between God as all truth and satan as all lies makes
it very important for the children of God to pattern their lives after
the Father of Truth rather than the Father of lies.
Here’s where the holiness of lives issue that we have been
discussing on Wednesday evenings comes in:
God provides the potential for resisting satan but leaves
us with the responsibility for resisting satan. All the
power of the universe has been given to you to resist satan …As a
believer the Holy Spirit has been given to you to empower you to
say no!…..but we are still dealing with satan’s temptation from
without and we find ourselves wrestling with the sin nature within
and issues like truthfulness vs. falsehood becomes a present day
spiritual battle in most of us.
Like in all matters of personal holiness God wants to move you
further and further from your old sinful ways and invest more and more
of his character into you. Like in all other matters of personal
holiness God will give you the spiritual strength to leave lying and
deception behind and absorb greater and greater levels of his perfect
truthfulness…. But he expects you to step up to the plate ready to
swing the bat:
Colossians 3:5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things
lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity,
lust, and shameful desires. Don't be greedy for the good things of
this life, for that is idolatry. 7 You used to do them when your
life was still part of this world. 8 But now is the time to get rid
of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 9
Don't lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old
evil nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 In its place you have
clothed yourselves with a brand-new nature that is continually
being renewed as you learn more and more about Christ, who created
this new nature within you.
We often say we are defeated by a particular sin. Truth is…we
are not defeated… we are just disobedient! Victory over sin is
the byproduct of obedience.
But lying gets muddy…. It’s not hard to imagine that what we are
telling someone has to be what it is…
We can lie to God- imagine telling something false to the
source of truth!
We can lie to ourselves- excuses…. rationalizations
We can lie to other people
a) Destructive lies- deliberate, malicious intent
b) Defensive lies- not me…I’m not to blame
c) Defective lies- carelessness with truth/ unproven
gossip
d) Deceptive lies- stretching the truth/half truths
Some of this isn’t so bad….
How do you respond when your wife asks if she looks fat in a
certain dress?
What about lying to protect another’s feelings?
How about lying to an intruder to protect the safety of your
family?
Each of us need to remember this line we find ourselves on. On one
end is the “father of lies” whom we used to be controlled by….. on the
other end is the Source of all Truth in who’s image we are being
re-created. We don’t need to be asking how much we can get away with
and still be acceptable in the eyes of the Source of Truth….
Ephesians 4:17-25 17 With the Lord's authority let me say this:
Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused.
18 Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from
the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened
their hearts against him. 19 They don't care anymore about right
and wrong, and they have given themselves over to immoral ways.
Their lives are filled with all kinds of impurity and greed.
20 But that isn't what you were taught when you learned about
Christ. 21 Since you have heard all about him and have learned the
truth that is in Jesus, 22 throw off your old evil nature and your
former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of
lust and deception. 23 Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal
of your thoughts and attitudes. 24 You must display a new nature
because you are a new person, created in God's likeness--righteous,
holy, and true.
25 So put away all falsehood and "tell your neighbor the truth"
because we belong to each other.
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