Fellowship in the Word

Bill Gebhardt: Now you are a child of God, a new creature in Christ. So, one of the most important things that we can possibly do is be truth-tellers. And if we don't tell the truth, then we run into a risk, a very strong risk, of a lot of damage to ourselves and others. So, recognize the source of truth and falsehood, understand the importance of truth to God, and we must make a commitment to tell the truth.

Because you need that commitment that you'll confess it when you know you're lying, just confess it. And you have to consider the consequences of lying. It hurts you, it hurts your relationship with others, and it hurts your relationship with God.

Jason Gebhardt: 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.

Bill Gebhardt: Turn with me to Proverbs chapter 6 and verse 16. Proverbs 6:16. This is what I talked about earlier. This is God's list. And this is a very unusual, 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. Because what's number one on your hate list? Pride. Human pride. I hate that. We have no reason to be proud. You see, we were created, and we're the creature. The creator could be proud if he wanted to, but not us. Haughty eyes. Now, notice number two: a lying tongue.

Wow. That's the second thing God hates. He said, and then, "and hands that shed innocent blood." That makes sense to us. "A heart that devises 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, does not abide our lying. He hates lying. Not only just the 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. Jeremiah chapter 5.

Now, if you understand the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah's 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 a nation." Isn't that amazing?

There wasn't one person. That just stuns me when you see this. He said, "Now watch. Although they say, 'As the Lord lives,' surely they swear falsely." Wow. "Oh 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."

Is it amazing? You see, they duped themselves because of their religiosity. They think, "Look, we're going 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 he said, 'And we will not see a sword or famine. There's no judgment coming on 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 are 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." Wow. "They are fat. They are sleek. They also excel in the deeds of wickedness."

"They do not plead the cause or the cause of an orphan that they may prosper. They do not defend the rights of the poor." He said, "These are people in love with themselves and in love with stuff." Does that sound anything like our culture? You see, they're just in love with this. "God would never judge us for this. Look at how well things are going." Then he says in verse 30, "An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority, and my people love it so."

You see, they had prophets stand up and say, "I'm going to tell you what the Lord said. It's going great for you guys. Look at all the blessings you have." They're liars. They're just lying to the people. And the priests aren't functioning under God; they're functioning for their own benefit. Everybody, everybody, you see, in this context, seems everything's going well except God. God's like, "I'm going to judge this. You can't get away with it, and you're not going to be able to get away with it."

That's his point. It's not going to continue to happen this way. They were physically successful; they were spiritually failures. And mostly because they hated the truth. They didn't want the truth. They didn't want to deal with the truth. See, one of the things about lying or lies to us, it's so convenient for us. It's easy to tell lies, and you know how easy it is.

Now, there are big lies that you're sort of hesitant. "This is going to be a big lie," and you're pretty hesitant. But there are everyday lies, and they're easy, aren't they? Now, I know you guys look like, "Not me. I don't know what you're talking about." Well, then let me explain about me then. Okay. Long day, I'm home, phone rings, my wife answers, and then hear her talking, and then here's my first lie: "Tell them I'm not home."

Why would you do that? It's a lie. See how easy it is to justify something like this? That's not right. See, that's a lie. And well, yeah, but I wouldn't say it this way, but when we do that, we know that's only a white lie. That's a white lie. Please, there are only lies. All lies are the same color. Okay? Some lies may have bigger consequences than others, but all lies are the same. But you could see how easy this is, especially within our culture.

I mean, we have people also in our culture that are what I'd call compartmental liars and truth-tellers. For instance, you may go out in the lobby and start talking to someone, and pretty much I'm convinced, pretty much, you'll tell the truth to each other because you're in church. I don't want to stand and tell lies while I'm in church. Right? See, you wait till you get in the car. You know? Now, it's not easy to lie in your home. Why? Because they know you.

You see what I mean? Not easy to lie to a spouse. The spouse kind of knows you. But how about in the business world? Is it easy or hard? It's easy. Can it be to your advantage or not? Yes. You can see there are certain contexts where lying's easy for us. That's just the way this whole thing works. By the way, I had some fun with that. After the 8:00 service, I was walking out and a man over there, of a couple over there, and he come up to me and he said, "Well, that was a really, really great sermon."

And I said, "Is that the truth?" And he said, "Well, yes." I mean, but it was interesting. He had to stop and think. And I've been a little leery of that. I started preaching in my mid-20s as a layman, and I preached in a church in Meridian, Pennsylvania. And I preached every Sunday there for almost a year. And there was a man who came up and sat right on the end of the pew, and as soon as the last song was sung, before I got up, he just went out. The whole time. Every Sunday at the door, "That was a wonderful message." Okay. So, I was kind of conditioned early on, like I can't always believe that.

So, you have to recognize the source of truth. You have to understand how God views lying and the truth. Thirdly, you have to make a commitment. You have to make a commitment to the truth. You just have to. Listen as I read one verse out of Zechariah. It says, "These are the things which you should and must do. Speak the word to one another, speak truth to one another, judge with truth, and have judgment of peace in your gates." You have to make that decision.

You have to be able to make a decision, "I'm going to tell the truth. I'm going to do this." In fact, there's a little bit, and by the way, sometimes we can be truth-tellers because we like making people feel uncomfortable and giving them pain. That's not what I'm talking about. Paul wrote to the Ephesians and said, "Speak the truth in love." And I've said over the years, I've known a lot of people that speak the truth but not much love. And other people that will speak the love, but they never speak the truth. We're obligated to do both. We're not to hurt people with truth. That's not the design for it, unless that moment calls for it. And so, we are to speak truth in love. That's the way it should happen for us. But you have to make a commitment in order to speak the truth. There's no other way to do that.

Thirdly, go to Proverbs 28 with me. In verse 13. Solomon writes this: he said, "He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion." That's the Old Testament version of 1 John 1:9. When you lie, confess it. See, don't just let it go by. "I'm just waiting for big sins for my confession." No. Lying, you need to, and the reason you have to confess lying is a very important thing. Lying is addictive. And lying takes control.

That's why I have to confess the sins when I do lie, that I tell, I confess it immediately. I'll show you an example of that. Go with me to Matthew 26. Matthew 26 and verse 69. This is the night before the crucifixion and the Apostle Peter. Now, by the way, for Peter, this whole night started out with a lie. He lied right off the bat. Because he said, Jesus said, "Look, I'm going to go, I'm going to get arrested, I'm going to be, you know, I'm going to be abused, crucified, and you know, that's that." Peter said, "No, you're not. I'm not going to let it happen. I'm going to be right there for you."

That's a lie. Jesus said it was a lie immediately. He said, "This very night you'll deny me three times." I mean, could you imagine telling someone that? All the other disciples like, "Look at Peter, he's strong." No, Jesus just said he's a liar and he's going to deny me three times. So, here comes Peter, first time. "Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him and said, 'You too were with the Jesus the Galilean.'" Now understand, a servant girl has no social standing at all, none.

So, Peter's just sitting out there, and she says, "Weren't you with Jesus the Galilean?" Bit easy. He's weighing something, though. "What if other people heard her and this could cost me something." So, it says, he denied it before them all. He said, "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what you are talking about." That's a lie, right? Now watch. "And when he had gone out to the gateway, another servant girl saw him and said to those who were there, 'This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.' Again he denied it with an oath: 'I do not know the man. I swear on my mother's grave, I don't know that man.'"

Did Jesus ever teach on oaths? Did Peter hear that? Now he's violating that. "I swear. I swear." Wow. That's amazing how we use words like that. I mean, there's some that happens in our vernacular now, I've seen on TV often, and people say, "Hey, I'm not lying here." You ever hear that? "I'm not lying. I'm going to..." Why you have to tell me that? I mean, where would that come from, "I'm not lying"? And then they say something. You see? But Peter now notice, he has given an oath that he doesn't know him.

Now watch. "A little later the bystanders came up and said to Peter, 'Surely you too are one of them, for even the way you talk gives you away. You have a Galilean accent. We're in Jerusalem.'" Then he began to curse and swear: "I don't know that blankety blank blank blank." Cursing and swearing. "I do not know the man." And immediately the rooster crowed. What happened? Each lie became progressively worse. And that's what happens when you lie.

You've heard people say this: you know, the hardest thing about being a chronic liar is you need a great memory because you've constantly got to remember what did I tell so-and-so here? How do I remember all this? How do I get through all this? You see, if you tell the truth, it's pretty simple; you just tell the truth the whole time. But notice how it affects Peter's character. He gets worse and worse and worse because he lies. And when you become a more habitual liar, that kind of state of mind affects your relationship with God.

You see, you have to be careful that you don't live in that way. So, you have to confess it, and lastly, you have to realize the consequences of lying. Peter shows one thing: when you lie, it destroys your character. Lying is an enemy of your character. Lying will stop you from being fully conformed to the image of Christ. Lying is a perpetual sin you can carry with you every single day. Also, lying affects your relationship with others. You see, even to the point of whether you're going to have a good testimony or not.

You see, if I'm going to have a testimony to someone about Jesus and they know I'm a chronic liar, why would they believe me? Why would I believe what you're saying? You see, I think that's an interesting thing. It's important that we tell the truth. And then, lastly, it breaks fellowship with God. It always does. You know, I was reading the end of the Bible, and this verse is interesting to me because it tells me something. I'm in Revelation 21, and I'm just going to read. It's all over: lake of fire, new heaven, new earth, everything's all over. Okay.

Here's what this verse says: "But for the cowardly, the unbelieving, and the abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters," and notice what's added to that, "and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." And in fact, in Revelation 22, he said, "God judges everyone who practices lying." That's how serious lying is to God. I mean, it makes sense, doesn't it? The original sin is a basis of lies.

When you were born again into the family of God, it was on the basis of truth. Now, you are a child of God, a new creature in Christ. So, one of the most important things that we can possibly do is be truth-tellers. And if we don't tell the truth, then we run into a risk, a very strong risk, of a lot of damage to ourselves and others. So, recognize the source of truth and falsehood, understand the importance of truth to God, and we must make a commitment to tell the truth. Because you need that commitment that you'll confess it when you know you're lying, just confess it. And you have to consider the consequences of lying. It hurts you, it hurts your relationship with others, and it hurts your relationship with God.

Lying is natural to us. I keep wanting to say that. I love this illustration. When I was a student at the seminary, I heard this story, hadn't thought about it for all those years. And then I was reading a Dallas Seminary grad who was writing a sermon and he had this story, which he knew about too when he was a student at the seminary. And I'll just read this to you. He said, "One of my seminary professors told us about an incident where he was at a bank with another of our professors. The teller gave the other professor too much money back."

"And he called it to her attention, and he gave the money back. And she exclaimed quickly, 'Thank goodness that you're honest. Many of us would have just taken the money and left.' His reply: 'I'm not honest by nature. I would have ripped you off. But Jesus Christ is now my savior and Lord. He makes me honest.'" Wow. This writer said, "He gave glory to Christ as we should too. His saving grace is the starting point for you and I to live a life of truthfulness."

Yeah, by my nature, it's easy to lie. But by my Lord, you see, and if Paul said, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me," I believe with all my heart it also means telling the truth. And so, think about that. Think about yourself, think about your own habits. And if need be, confess it, move on. But if you're going to experience the presence of God in your life, keep a very short account when you find yourself lying. Let's pray.

Father, we are surrounded by lies everywhere within this culture. But your standard for us hasn't changed at all. We are to speak the truth to everyone in context of love. We are to be people that follow the Lord's words. When he was praying to you, Father, Jesus said, "Set them apart in your truth. Your word is truth." Father, we thank you that your word is true. It has given us the strength and it has given us the gift of eternal life.

But Father, my prayer today is that our word is true because we are your children and that you have given us your spirit to be able to achieve this amount of truthfulness in our lives. Father, I pray that we do this for our good and for your glory in Jesus' name, Amen.

Jason Gebhardt: 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'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 just with 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 form, that is, as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcno la.org. That's fbcno la.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 this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcno la.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.