Tell The Truth - Part 2

Today, on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

You see, that's one of the most important aspects of this. What's wrong with me before I came to Christ? Self-deception. What's another way of saying self-deception?

I lie to myself all the time. Jeremiah 17 said that the heart of a man is desperately wicked. It is deceitful above all things. Well, who does it deceive? The man. Your heart deceives you.

That's part of the flesh. You see, one of the biggest problems that we have is we lie to ourselves constantly. 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. 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.

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 won 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, oh God, according to your loving kindness. 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 has 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 an 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 that 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 see, that's what happens. Lying is almost at the heart of everything.

And even when we overtly sin, our first temptation is to do what? Lie about it. Tell a lie. Why do we lie? Well, to find the answer, you've got to go like the Dr. Phil. Dr. Phil had Dr. Robert Feldman on. He's the author of the book, The Liar in Your Life, The Way of Truthful Relationships. And Dr. Phil asked Dr. Feldman, why do people lie generally?

Dr. Feldman said, people lie because they can get away with it. Because it works for them. He says, it's a way to get along with other people. It's a way to control your world. See, define your own reality. It's a way to control your world, he says. And it's a way that you can use to make other people do what you want them to do. Then Dr. Phil said, why do men lie?

What's their general purpose? He said, men usually lie to make themselves look better. Wow. He said, they build themselves up by lying. And then Dr. Feldman says, women tend to lie more to make other people feel good, to make them feel good about themselves. Even when it comes to lying, women are spiritually superior to men. It's astounding. They lie for better reasons than we do.

Ours is self-promotion. He then, Dr. Phil says, one of the things you say is that parents actually teach their kids to lie. And he said, yes. He said, we think that we're always telling our kids to be honest and always tell the truth.

But the reality is, he says, there are instances when we do quite the opposite. He said, we'll say to them, grandma knit you this new sweater. She's going to come over and give it to you.

I know you're not going to like it, but you need to tell grandma you love it. Dr. Phil said, so we teach our kids to lie, but that just seems like a little white lie. Dr. Feldman, that people who tell white lies eventually become colorblind. Teach our kids. God hates lies. God delights the truth.

And that's what he expects from us. Turn with me now to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. The Apostle Paul in verse 22 says this, in reference to your former manner of life. That's what we were like before we came to Christ.

Paul loves this theme. He says, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit. You see, that's one of the most important aspects of this. What's wrong with me before I came to Christ? Self-deception. What's another way of saying self-deception?

I lie to myself all the time. Jeremiah 17 said that the heart of a man is desperately wicked. It is deceitful above all things. Well, who does it deceive?

Men. Your heart deceives you. That's part of the flesh. You see, one of the biggest problems that we have is we lie to ourselves constantly about ourselves. He says you need to put that aside. He said in verse 23 that you may be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

Put on the new self. He says which is in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. In other words, one of the things he's saying generally in those verses is you have to put aside the lie. You have to embrace the truth. When you put aside the old self, you put aside that propensity to lie.

When you put on the new self, you have the propensity to tell the truth. Notice he gets very clear in the application in verse 25. Therefore, laying aside falsehood. First thing he says when you make this exchange is you lay aside falsehood. Speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor. For we are all members of one body. Notice that he says right in the beginning here what happens when we do that.

We stop lying. He goes on and he says be angry and don't sin. He said in verse 28 if you steal, stop stealing. He said in verse 29 let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth.

He said but only such a word which is good for edification according to the need of the moment. So it will give grace to those who hear. He says don't grieve the Holy Spirit. Verse 31 let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you with all malice. All these other things but he starts out with stop lying. Stop first lying to yourself, then stop lying to others.

Wow. He then talks about this idea of the laying aside. Verse 15 of chapter 4 which is a precursor to the verses I read. He said speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head even Christ. We are to speak the truth in love.

That's a very important thing. My experience over all these years is some of you are naturally pretty good at speaking the truth. And some of you are naturally pretty good at speaking in love. But only those of you I believe who are controlled by the Spirit of God are good at speaking the truth in love. You see there are a lot of people who like to speak the truth. And we use wonderful terms for them like we say well they're really blunt. I don't mind bluntness.

The question of it is, is blunt language designed to hurt? He's not saying look I have to speak the truth because the Bible says so. And I just wanted to let you know something here. I've been wanting to say this to you for a long time.

You're a pretty homely fellow. See because I want to follow Jesus. I'm just telling you the truth. That's not following Jesus. You see that's mean spirited and of the flesh. Remember what Paul said? He said in verse 29 let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth. But only as such is good for edification according to the need of the moment.

So that it will give grace to those who hear. You don't speak the truth to hurt people. You see you can't hide in that. You've got to speak the truth in love.

It's got to be edifying. So I'm not talking about that type of thing. I'm talking about this idea of not lying anymore. You see God hates lies. God delights in the truth. And you and I have the capacity to speak the truth.

That's what he is saying. You and I have the capacity. You're a new creature in Christ. The Spirit of God indwells you. You can do all things through him who strengthens you.

You can stop lying and speak the truth. He doesn't just say it. Here he says it in the sister book Colossians. Look at Colossians chapter 3 with me for a moment. Colossians chapter 3.

Just a few pages to your right. Colossians 3. Verse 9. He just says it as a commandment. Do not lie to one another.

It couldn't be clearer than that. If you're lying, stop it. If you haven't lied, don't. Do not lie to one another since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him. We have the capacity to stop lying.

Now, there's one other thing I want to talk about and I'd call it sort of lying's ugly stepsister. And we're going to find that in the book of Proverbs chapter 26. Proverbs 26. Verse 20. Solomon writing again. Solomon writes, for the lack of wood, the fire goes out.

Now, we all know that, right? You run out of wood, you run out of fire. It eventually just burns out. Then he says this. And where there is no whisperer, contention quiets down. What do you mean whisperer? Gossip. Gossip. What a beautiful metaphor he uses for gossip. Whispering. You ever notice how someone says that? You're talking away and they go, oh, by the way, did you hear about Leroy? Did you hear what his wife did? That's gossip.

That's whispering. He has a wonderful image of it. It hasn't changed in all these years.

Solomon says nothing ever changes under the sun. He then says this, like charcoal, he says to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. That's what gossip does, it just kindles strife. Causes problems between people. He said the words of a whisperer, he said are like dainty morsels and they go down into the innermost parts of the body. Gossip corrupts you. You see? And notice something else. You like hearing it. Like dainty morsels.

Prime rib. Oh, I just heard that. You see how this is to us. He's talking about this and it's such an interesting way. Look at chapter 20, verse 19 of Proverbs.

I want you again to see this for clarity. Verse 19 says this, and he who goes about as a slander reveals secrets. Therefore, do not associate with a gossip. Notice he didn't say don't gossip, that's understood. He said don't you associate with a gossip.

Why? Because if you associate with him, you're going to take him in like dainty morsels. You see, it's kind of an interesting thing because some of us like to spread gossip and some of us just love to hear gossip. And gossip in America is an industry.

I mean, think about it. Years ago, they started with gossip columns in papers. You have a gossip column. Then they have gossip magazines. They have gossip TV shows. The whole show is about gossip, about people.

That might be your favorite show, but that's because you like the dainty morsels of it. Oh, I just love hearing what's going on in these people's lives. We have to be careful with that. Do not associate with a gossip. I have to say this, too. There are a few myths about gossip that sort of permeate the church, and we need to put those to rest.

Here's the first one. Gossip is a woman's problem. Wow. Not only a man could say that. Gossip is an equal opportunity employer, and this comes from a distorted view of 1 Timothy 3 when Paul says that women should be dignified and not gossips, and we say, see, that's what women do. I can tell you this with as much clarity as possible. Over all the years of ministry that I have done in God's church, I have not seen any difference between men and women when it comes to gossip.

It's been exactly the same. Second myth. If it's true, then it's okay to spread it.

No unkind word. Does the spreading of it edify the people? Does it give grace to people? You can't just spread it because you heard it. And thirdly, and this is an obvious one, and I've said it before, and that is that if it's a prayer request, it's sanctified. If you hear something about somebody that would diminish that person when it's told to someone else, please don't spread it around as prayer requests.

We have a capacity to do that. When it comes to gossip, by the way, I love the pragmatic words of Chuck Swindoll. If you don't say it, they won't repeat it. Those are good words to live by. We have to be ever mindful of the weight of our words.

Always. God hates lies. He delights in the truth, and you and I have the capacity to speak the truth. And the truth is so important because one, the truth aligns us with God. Jesus was full of grace and truth. Psalm 31 5 says He is the God of truth.

Titus 1 2 says that God cannot lie. Whenever we speak the truth, we align with God. Secondly, we were saved to reflect God's character.

That's Romans 8 29. That we were saved to be conformed to the image of Christ. Christ speaks the truth. Our spiritual maturity again is revealed by how much we speak the truth and how little we lie. And thirdly, truth telling is a matter of submission to God's will.

You know if you struggle with it. The real struggle you're having is you're not submitting to God's will. You need to think it through.

I keep creating a reality of my own so the people have a certain picture of me. So I'm tempted to continually lie. You need to submit your will to God's. Maybe the best advice, the psalmist said it best. The psalmist said, Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Let's pray. Father, I fear that with this subject matter that those of us who really struggle with the idea of lying will somehow deflect it.

In one way or another we'll be able to redefine it and turn it into something else. Not allowing it to penetrate our own hearts so that we have integrity and honesty before you. Just like the psalmist we should be saying, Lord created me a clean heart.

The kind of heart that speaks the truth. The same thing comes when we gossip, Father. The idea is that we somehow justify it. But I'm afraid that every careless word that we speak as Jesus said we will give an account for. And so it's a very serious matter that we allow you to convict us, to cleanse us, and then to guide us. Father, how freeing it would be if Jesus said the truth will set us free. How freeing it is that if we would be people of the truth. How much it would help our personal integrity. How much it would assist in our witness to others.

What a wonderful commentary on our lives as born again followers of Jesus Christ that people who don't know Christ say these are people who speak the truth. Father, I pray that if need be in these days and weeks ahead convict us, each and every one of us when we find ourselves sliding back into our default mechanism, our propensity to tell lies. We pray this for your glory and for our good. In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen. That's OnePlace.com and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website you will find not only today's broadcast but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church then you should visit our website fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for you can listen online or if you prefer you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt I'm Jason Gebhardt thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.