Tell The Truth - Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. She took from it fruit and she ate and she gave also to her husband and he ate. She bought it.

That's what she did, she bought it. She took the lie and said it's true. She took the truth and said it's a lie. Every single sin that exists came out of a lie.

Every single one. No wonder God hates a lying tongue. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. We've all seen this scene countless times in our life. It's a courtroom. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? And in the older movies, so help you God. Well, research is correct.

Good luck with that. Pamela Meyer in her book, Lie Spotting, says that we are lied to 10 to 200 times every day, depending on who and how many people you interact with. 10 to 200 times a day. Dr. Bella DePaulo says the average person lies in one out of every five interactions that they have every day. The average person lies in one out of every five interactions they have every day. And if you were standing where I am, you guys are average.

All right. One in five interactions. Dr. Lisa Firestone writes that we become proficient at lying by the time we are four or five years old.

Astounding. No wonder Mark Twain said, when in doubt, tell the truth. It will confound your enemies.

And he says it will astound your friends. And when Jesus showed up, John wrote that he was full of grace and truth. In fact, Jesus said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. Only Jesus could have said that. But as believers in Jesus Christ.

Who are being conformed to his image. We should be people. Who tell the truth.

People determined. Not to lie. Truth has valuable allies.

It's a sort of bedrock principle. When you have truth in your life and you speak the truth, it promotes trust. And confidence. It gives you integrity. Security.

Stability. But when truth is disposed of. By lies or deceit or falsehood. Then you begin to propagate suspicion and doubt, resentment, conflict and insecurity. I'm afraid that truth telling has fallen on hard times in our culture.

So many of our homes have been victimized by it. Our government has become suspect to us. The media is viewed with the jaundice eye of skepticism.

Conducting business is filled with suspicion. The word of God is very clear when it comes to telling the truth. And the speaking of lies. Open your Bible to Proverbs chapter 6 and we're going to start at verse 16.

Proverbs chapter 6 verse 16. Last time we began a series called The Weight of Your Words. And I want to deal not only this week but in the weeks ahead dealing with the way in which we speak.

Last week we sort of set the tone for the whole series from the book of James. James said that he gave us six reasons why we have to control our tongue. He said first of all God judges our words. Whether we like that or not he will judge them. Secondly, our words reveal our spiritual maturity.

They are linked directly to our heart. Our tongue desires to control us. Our tongue also will corrupt us. James said on our own our tongue is untamable. And he said it's also full of hypocrisy. Six reasons he gave us.

And now we're going to deal with this idea of telling the truth. Verse 16. There are six things which the Lord hates. You don't get that often in scripture.

It's there a few times. But it seems almost strange that you mean the Lord hates? Yeah, there are six things that the Lord hates. In fact there will be seven. You'll see in a moment. Yes, seven which are an abomination to him.

The first one is hottie eyes. Pride. He says boy I hate pride. You see man is this creature. This creation of God. And he falls into sin. And then he has the audacity to still be proudful.

But notice what the next one is. A lying tongue. God says I hate a lying tongue. That's an amazing statement.

The other sort of makes some sense. He says in hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that devises wicked plans. Feet that run rapidly to evil. And then he repeats himself a false witness who utters lies. And one who spreads strife among the brethren. Wow.

It basically shows up in almost three of those. Spreading a strife with gossip. False witness. And then he says speaking lies. God says I hate that.

I just hate it. Now that's amazing when you think that from 10 to 200 times a day someone lies to you. And one out of every five interactions you have you tell a lie to someone else. Now we really can't control what the world says to us. But we have a lot of control over what we say to people. The first thing we need to know is that God hates lies.

He has very good reason for it. Tell them with me now the Genesis 3. Genesis chapter 3. The account of the fall.

You know the story. The serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field. Which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman indeed. Has God said that you shall not eat from any tree of the garden. And the woman said to the serpent from the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat.

But from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said you shall not eat from it or touch it or you will die. The serpent then said to the woman you surely shall not die.

Don't miss this. That's a lie. This whole thing begins with a lie.

You surely shall not die. In fact think about it from this point of view it's not only a lie. It also says quite clearly God is a liar. You see he lied to you.

That's not the case. He says he takes the truth and he says it's a lie. And then he takes a lie and he says it's the truth.

Now watch what happens. The serpent said to the woman you surely shall not die. God knows in the day that you eat from it your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil. And when one woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was the light to the eyes.

Those parts make some sense to us. But this next one and that the tree was desirable to make wise. She took from it. The fruit and she ate and she gave also to her husband and he ate. She bought it.

That's what she did she bought it. She took the lie and said it's true. She took the truth and said it's a lie. Every single sin that exists came out of a lie.

Every single one. No wonder God hates a lying tongue. Ravi Zacharias writes concerning this passage. He says it was at this point that truth was tested. The temptation of Satan he says was the challenge to the first humans to take upon themselves the prerogative of God and redefine reality in their own terms. The lie entered the truth was violated by rejecting the propositional revelation of God and contradicting his definitions of good and evil. By yielding to that temptation Adam and Eve exchanged the truth of God for a lie. And chose to create their own realities.

This as God had warned led to death and destruction. What he says is so profound in that quote is that's what happens when we lie. That is why we lie. Whenever we tell a lie we create our own reality. That's what a lie is. A lie is a creation of your own reality. When you tell someone a lie you're not telling them what reality is. You're not telling them the truth.

You're telling them a version that is yours. One of the reasons that God hates it so. Go with me to the book of Acts chapter 5. The book of Acts chapter 5 and watch how this plays out.

This is early in the history of the church. And up till now everything is just going great. But we get to Acts chapter 5. And it starts out with a very important contrast of word. A very strong one. It's the word but. You see everything is going well but.

Well what is going so well? Well look back at verse 32 of chapter 4. And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Not one of them claimed that anything belonging to them was his own. But all things were common property to them. And he says and with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And abundant grace was upon them all.

And there was not a needy person among them. For all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales. And lay them at the apostles feet.

And they would be distributed to each as they had need. And now Joseph a Levite of Cyprian birth who was also called Barnabas by the apostles. Which translated means son of encouragement.

Who owned a tract of land sold it and brought it money and he laid it at the apostles feet. Everything is going well. The church is exploding in size.

Not only is it exploding in size but the true fellowship of the church. The koinonia, the partnership is evident to everybody. It's all for one, it's one for all.

Everything is going well and then it says but. Something changed all that. A man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property. And kept back some of the price for himself with his wife's full knowledge. And bringing a portion of it he laid it at the apostles feet. But Peter said Ananias why has Satan filled your heart to lie?

Wow. By the way understand something here. There's no commandment in the early church that you had to sell anything. Ananias and Sapphira were not required at all to sell what they had. There is no requirement. The selling of the land they all for one, one for all comes from the motivation of a pure heart.

If you want to do it go ahead and do it. But notice that's the reality. But what do they want? They want another reality. You see they want, that's what happens when you lie. They want another reality.

Here's the reality. Barnabas, I mean look at this. This guy's name is Joseph and they changed his name. His name is Joseph. Now they changed into Barnabas. They call him a son of encouragement.

Everybody's talking about him. He's what a spiritual man he is. What a godly guy.

Hey how about this? Why don't we look godly? You see how do, why don't we look godly? Why don't we sell the land? Now we're going to keep a lot of it for ourselves but we'll give a portion of it and they'll think that's all we got.

And everybody will think we're spiritual just like Barnabas. Wow. Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?

And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.

Wow. See how that works? By the way, it'll be one of my hypothesis all the way through this and every time you lie, you lie to God. Every time you lie, you lie to God. And it's the worst lie you tell is the one to God.

And you know why? Because when you lie to me, I'm kind of stupid and naive. So I'm not sure. I don't know if you're telling me the truth or not. Now by the way, if you are what we call pathological liars, I'm kind of suspicious. Because most of the things you've said to me in the past aren't true.

But I don't know. But you realize that every time we tell a lie, God knows the truth. We always lie to God. He always knows the truth. And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last and great fear came over all who heard of it. I'll bet.

I'll bet. Now this is a unique situation. Both Ananias and Sapphira give their lives, they die of sin unto death. You know, aren't you glad that every time we lie to God, this doesn't become our outcome?

You see, it's not that, but it's a unique situation. But I think the point of it is, you have lied to the Holy Spirit, you have lied to God. By the way, it's a great verse to prove the deity of the Holy Spirit. Because he uses, you lied to the Holy Spirit, you lied to God. Synonymous parallelism. The Holy Spirit is God.

Wow. God hates lies. Now go with me to Proverbs 13. Proverbs chapter 13.

And just half of verse 5. Here's the application of God hating lies. Solomon writes this. A righteous man hates falsehood. God hates lies. A righteous man hates lies. A righteous man hates falsehood. Question, do you hate lies? Do you hate your lies?

You see, that's a good question. Because if you're a righteous man, you will. Now if you're not a righteous man, you won't. In fact, you probably have all kinds of defense mechanisms to protect your lies.

That's the whole problem, by the way. You ever notice how to protect a lie, it requires more lies? I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said that, that if you're going to be a liar, you have to have a tremendous memory. You got to remember all the lies you've ever told.

By the way, it's interesting, just if you remember the truth, it's a lot easier. But he says a righteous man hates lies. God hates lies.

There's a second point though. It's not just that God hates lies, but he delights in the truth. Go with me now to the book of Psalms, Psalm 51. Psalm 51.

A strange place to go when we're talking about lying. Because Psalm 51 is the great confessional Psalm. David the king decides not to go to war when the kings went in the spring of the year. And he stayed home. And he decided that on the basis of probably a habit or a pattern in his life, he decided to stay up off his balcony and take a look on an adjacent building where he knew there would be a woman bathing. Her name was Bathsheba. David then has Bathsheba brought over and he commits adultery with Bathsheba. And as you know, the rest of the story, then David decided to orchestrate the murder of her husband Uriah the Hittite. And then David just sat on it. He just sat on it.

He wasn't going to say anything to anybody. After all, he's the king. And then God sent Nathan to David. And Nathan gets David to admit and to confess his sin.

And this is David's confessional to God. He says, Be gracious to me, O God, according to your lovingkindness. He says, According to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me and against you and you only I have sinned. He didn't mean he didn't sin against as well.

It's just a matter of propriety. He's not saying I didn't sin against Uriah. He knows that he did. He said, But ultimately I sin against you, and I know that. He said, And as done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified when you speak and blameless when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.

It didn't mean she committed adultery. It just means he was born with a sin nature. And then he says this, Behold, you desire truth in the innermost being. All of a sudden truth becomes the issue. And that word desire, more often than not when it's translated, the Hebrew word basically is mostly translated by the word delight. It's not just that God desires truth.

He delights in the truth. Why would David say that? Well, I think it's because David realized how much he lied about this. You see, that's the way it is, not just with David's adultery, but all adultery. The major problem that you have when there's adultery involved in a relationship is how much lying goes on.

The adultery can be one act for one night, and it can spawn hundreds and hundreds of lies. And it probably did for David. I mean, David started out lying. Remember what he did? He basically trumped up a reason for Uriah to come back from the battlefield. And then he told Uriah, Uriah, you're back and you're such a swell guy. He probably never even knew who he was until he committed the act. He says, Why don't you spend a night or two with your wife?

You see, I want to reward you. That's a lie. He wanted Uriah to be with Bathsheba so that if Bathsheba's pregnancy shows, it will look like Uriah was the father. And I wonder how many times over the course of that year did David lie about this.

Until he confessed he lied and he lied and he lied, that kind of deceit undermines all kinds of relationships that we have. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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