Fellowship in the Word

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bil Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bil Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world.

Bil Gebhardt: Three weeks ago, I started a series that I titled Practicing the Presence of God in our lives. The reason for it was that in my experience, I have found that I know a lot of Christians who know their Bible well and even serve the Lord, but somehow, when a real crisis comes into their life, they just fall apart.

The thing that bothers me about that is that the Word of God says that should not be our experience at all. So, the more I thought about it, I realized that we need to learn to practice the presence of God in our lives each and every day.

In the first week, I talked about the idea of how you strengthen yourself. Ironically, we always think of prayer when we're asking God for something, and that's only part of it—the petition part—but God uses prayer often to strengthen us. That's what David did. He strengthened himself in the Lord through his prayer.

Hannah did the same thing. David got a "yes" answer from the Lord. Hannah didn't get any answer at that time; she went to the temple, she was very distraught, and she left after prayer and was strengthened.

The Apostle Paul three times entreated the Lord because of the pain he was in to remove a thorn in the flesh, and God told him "no." Paul then was strengthened and said, "That's fine. I'm more than happy to bear this the rest of my ministry or my life for Your glory."

Last week, I talked about this idea of having prevailing gratitude in your life. That's not easy; life's not like that. Life is really difficult, but Paul told the Ephesians that they are to give thanks for everything. He also told the Thessalonians to give thanks in everything.

What they have found, even in secular sources, is that people who have prevailing gratitude are much happier than people who are not. It just makes sense. So, this week, I'm going to move in a bit of a different direction and deal with a negative subject.

The reason I'm going to deal with this negative subject is that I believe it's possible that it is present in our lives. We all know that before we became a Christian, we struggled with sin. We also know that after we became a Christian, we struggled with sin. I mean, that's the experience. We know that's difficult.

We also know that in 1 John 1:9, John wrote that if we confess—that word is *homologeo*, meaning say the same thing—it doesn't mean confession the way you may have been taught it. The Greek word means *homo* (one, same) and *logeo* (to speak). To say the same thing.

If we confess our sins with God, He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, He's talking about His relationship with us, whether He stays close to us. So, we know that confession is a very important part of the Christian life.

By and large, we're really good with that as long as it's what we call "big sins." Christians are good at "big sin" confession. I've heard them tell me that, saying, "Yeah, I had to confess that; that was really a big sin." But the Bible doesn't talk about big sins. In fact, it's going to talk about it in a different way than you imagine.

You see, if I said to you, "Tell me the big sins," you'd run through your list. When you read what God thinks of sin, it's not like that. When God makes a list, it's not like that at all. His list, as you'll see today, is quite different than our list.

So, there is a sin that's kind of prevailing in all of us. We were born into it and we developed it at an extremely early age. I want to talk today about the sin of lying. It's kind of right there with us almost all the time.

Way back in the '90s, there was a study done, and they called it "The Day That America Told the Truth." Ninety-one percent of all Americans said they lie on a very routine basis. Ninety-one percent. Now, I know what you're thinking: "That's them; I'm the nine percent." But understand, that may be a lie.

In fact, George Gallup said this: Church attendance made little or no difference in these statistics. Whether you attended church or not didn't make any difference as to whether you lied on a regular basis.

Not too long ago, I saw this study: Ninety-two percent of all middle school and high school students lie routinely to their parents. Wow. And having been a teenager, I kind of get it; I kind of understand that. Our culture is now permeated with lying.

America was asked this single question: If you were going to define a politician with one single word, what would the word be? Overwhelmingly, "liar." Now think of that; these are the people who lead our nation. The number one word is the word "liar."

Some sociologists say that they believe that we're lying now at a rate unprecedented in human history. We lie more and with greater consequences than at any time. What they look back to is they say, if you go back 600 years and then back, when you lied, you could only lie to the handful of people you talked to.

Now, if they know you're a liar, then it's not really effective anyway, but you only talked to a few people that you could ever lie to. But they said with the invention of the printing press, now you could lie to hundreds of people, thousands of people, and eventually in the 20th century, millions of people.

But they said now, with the internet, you can lie to billions of people every day. Their view is the internet is just an amazing stockpile of lying. It's an amazing thing. So lying is, in that sense, permeating our culture. Who would have ever thought—I would have never thought this 20 years ago—that if I stood up here and told you, "Look, I'm a girl"?

It's not that funny. I'm a girl, okay? But I'm a girl. And you would think there's no basis for that. What? Because I said I am, I am. You see, that's how far this has got within our culture. And by the way, the culture doesn't like truth-telling.

So if you become a truth-teller in our culture, the other side has a word for you: "cancel." We just cancel you. You're out. We will not listen to that. So we realize we have a problem. We have a problem with this whole idea of lying on a very regular basis.

Now, what is also quite interesting to me is that's the culture, but that certainly not the way that we should—that's not the way you and I should be acting. I want to challenge you today about that. I want to give you five different reasons to tell the truth.

Open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 17. The Apostle Paul is winding up, in 4, 5, and 6, the book of Ephesians. The first three chapters are theological; the last three chapters are applicational.

So here's what he says in verse 17: "So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind." I tell you that every time you see the word "walk," it means "live." You don't live like unsaved people, and you don't live like you used to live before you came to Christ. He said that you don't do.

He said, "being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality and practice of every kind of impurity and greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth"—and that becomes important—"is in Jesus."

He said, "that in reference to your former manner of life, that you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of the flesh, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which is the likeness of God which has been created in righteousness and holiness and truth." Don't live the way you used to live; don't live the way the unsaved live. Now put on the new self. We're new creatures in Christ; let's act like it.

Then he says two things: "Therefore, lay aside falsehood." First thing he says—think of all the sins that are out there—first thing, falsehood. "Lay aside falsehood, speak truth with each other with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry, and yet do not sin; and do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity." Two sins.

The first two Paul mentions: lying and anger. Would that have been your two big sins? You're thinking of big sins out there; what would you be thinking? You thinking lying and anger? I wonder if we did show of hands, and they were honest hands, how many times people in the last week, in the church here right now, committed these two sins? Showed anger or was lying?

I mean, it's so part of us. Understand something. How did sin come into the world? The serpent told Eve the truth, and she refused to believe it, right? No, he lied to her. The scripture says he deceived her. You see, that's how it came into the line. This whole idea, and it's amazingly natural.

In fact, it's probably the first sins you begin to commit right after you're born. Now, if you don't believe me, volunteer to work in the toddler room and see if you ever see a child angry or a child that lies. Now, childhood psychologists—and I read this this week, it's their statement, not mine—said that the average child masters lying by the time they're four.

Isn't that something? Now, I'm not talking about your children. I'm talking about those children. Because the first time you see a child and you say to them, "Did you do that?", they always say, "Yes, I did," right? No, they don't, do they? It's just natural. It's natural to us. If there's a consequence to me telling the truth, I think it'd be easier for me to lie. That becomes the game for all of us and the way it all works. We can't really help it at all. In fact, Psalm 58:3 says, "Those who speak lies go astray from birth." These sins show up; they're just part of being a human being.

So, I want to talk about these five different ways that we can become a truth-teller. The first one is you have to recognize the source of truth and the source of falsehood. Go with me to John chapter 8, Gospel of John chapter 8. Jesus is in an argument in this chapter with the Pharisees.

Often when I teach on the Pharisees, I say, "Look, don't use today's bias against them." If you were alive in Judah at the time of the Pharisees, you would realize that they're the most respected people in the country, and by a mile the most respected in the religious community. That's a Pharisee. I've said in the past that if you had a daughter, you would pray she would marry a Pharisee.

But the Pharisees were extremely religious and had a great reputation, but they hated Jesus. They hated Him, and He had no room for them at all. He says more unkind words about them than anybody. You see, they didn't believe in the grace of God in any sense of the word; they were as religious as someone could be.

So Jesus is in a discussion with them, arguing with them, and He says down in verse 43, "Why do you not understand what I am saying to you? It's because you can't hear my word." You can't even understand—and remember, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." I'm telling you the truth; you can't understand it.

He said, "You are of your father the devil." Wow. I mean, I couldn't imagine what a Pharisee thought when someone told them that. They believe they're the ultimate servants of God. "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, does not stand for the truth because there's no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

So where do lies come from? He just said he's the father of lies. He doesn't stand for the truth, there's no truth in him, he speaks lies from his own nature, he's the father of lies, you're his children. Wow. Notice the next line. Jesus said, "Because I speak the truth, you don't believe me."

So the point would be: When you speak the truth, where's it come from? Ultimately from God. When you speak the lie, where does it come from? Ultimately the devil. That's the way this works. There's an ultimate source to lying and truth. So anytime you're thinking about "I'm going to lie," you remember what you're doing is taking the ultimate source and putting it into your life, which we shouldn't do. We have to recognize the source of truth and falsehood.

Secondly, we have to understand how important truth is to God. Turn with me to Proverbs chapter 6 and verse 16. This is what I talked about earlier. This is God's list. And this is a very unusual description here. God says in this list, "These are the things that I hate." You don't see a lot of that; God doesn't use the word "hate" very often. He does some, but not a lot. This is the list of the things I hate.

So, look at verse 16: "There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him." Number one: haughty eyes. That's pride. What's number one in your hate list? Pride. Human pride. God hates that. We have no reason to be proud. You see, we're created, and we're the creature. The Creator could be proud if He wanted, but not us.

Haughty eyes, now notice number two: a lying tongue. Wow. That's the second thing God hates. He said, and then, "hands that shed innocent blood"—that makes sense to us—"a heart that desires wicked plans," yes, "feet that run rapidly after evil," okay. Now notice: "a false witness who utters lies." That's again. He's got a list of seven; two in the top seven are lying. Of the things God said, "I hate these." He said, "one who spreads strife among the brothers."

God does not abide our lying. He hates lying. Not only is it a matter of source; Proverbs 12:22 says, "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord." God says, "Look, don't you understand?" Even to the point of great judgment sometimes, it has to do with whether you're lying or believe the truth.

I want to illustrate that. I want you to go with me to Jeremiah chapter 5. Now, if you understand the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah is a prophet. His job—you see, his job is to try to turn Israel or Judah back to God. And if he's successful, that would be great. But God already told Jeremiah when he started, "You'll not be successful. No one will ever listen to you." I mean, that's what He told him.

So they're going to go into the Babylonian captivity. For 70 years, God's going to rip them out of the land, and for 70 years they're going into captivity. So now Jeremiah in chapter 5 is going to explain what's going on and why this is going to happen.

So in verse 1 it says, "Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and look now and take note, and seek in her open squares, if you can find a man, if there is one who does justice, who seeks truth, I'll pardon her." Think of this. The whole nation's going to be judged, and God says, "If you find one person who seeks the truth, I'll pardon the nation." Isn't that amazing? There wasn't one person. It just stuns me when you see this.

He said, "Now watch, although they say, 'As the Lord lives,' surely they swear falsely. O Lord, do not Your eyes look for truth?" Oh guess what, they're all religious. They're all religious. "As the Lord lives, I tell lies. As the Lord lives, I don't believe truth." Isn't it amazing? You see, they duped themselves because of their religiosity. They think, "Look, we're doing fine with God. As the Lord lives." He says there's not one person who would seek truth in this whole place. He said they are foolish; they don't know the way of the Lord.

Look at verse 11 then: "For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt treacherously with me," declares the Lord. "They have lied about the Lord and said, 'Not He, misfortune will not come on us, and we will not see a sword or famine.'" There's no judgment coming, not us. Now they had good reason for it, by the way: they're prospering. They're prospering. Things are good. And they're naive enough to believe God would never judge us now; we're doing so well, we are so prosperous.

Well, God does judge. Notice verse 27: "Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become great and rich. They are fat, they are sleek, they also excel in the deeds of wickedness. They do not plead the cause, the cause of an orphan, that they may prosper; they do not defend the right of the poor." He said, "These are people in love with themselves and in love with stuff." Does that sound anything like our culture?

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Pastor Bil Gebhardt on the radio ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you'd 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. 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 70006.

If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format—that is as a sermon that Pastor Bil delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church—then you should visit our website, fbcno la.org. That's fbc n o l a dot o r g. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bil'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 this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcno la.org. For Pastor Bil Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.