Jeff Durbin: Breath Full of Lies | Proverbs 14:5

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If you would, please open your Bibles to Proverbs. Book of Proverbs, chapter 14,

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Proverbs 14, and verse 5. As you get there, again, this is our series through the book of Proverbs, wisdom from above.

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And you'll note that there's been a lot of sort of bouncing back and forth between 13 and 14, and that's because, as we said as we moved towards this section, as you get to the later portions, the middle and later portions of the book of Proverbs, it's not so much in huge chunks in unison.

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It's a lot of what is seemingly random, but not really random. So there'll be a lot of moving back and forth, and hopefully we'll be done by 2050.

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So Proverbs 14, verse 5. These are the words of God. A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness breathes out lies.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray as His people. God, please bless the proclamation of Your truth and Your word today.

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Lord, if all of us are honest with You and ourselves, we have not been and are not always faithful witnesses.

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Lord, You've saved us, that You know about our lying tongues, You know about the deceitfulness of times that exist even within Your body, the deception, the slander, the gossip, and so Lord, I pray that as we go through Your word that You would renew our minds, change us by Your spirit.

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Help us to love the truth, You are the truth. Help us to live like You do, the

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God who cannot lie. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So Proverbs 14, 5.

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Simple, right? It's repeated a number of times throughout the book of Proverbs in a different way, and it's put in contrast to other things.

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The consequences of not being a faithful witness, of telling lies is right on the page, and so you'll see the deceitfulness of sin and deception leading to destruction all through the book of Proverbs, and there's really no way to completely exhaust this, even in the book of Proverbs.

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It's throughout the Bible, of course, pervasive themes throughout Scripture, because we have one author over Scripture in this one story of redemption, and so you'll see in the book of Proverbs, in this amazing, powerful work, you'll see so many things that are pervasive throughout the entirety of Scripture, and in particular, this right here.

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Lying lips, a lying tongue, in contrast to the faithful witness. This is thematic, and as a matter of fact, interesting, we talk about lies, deception, over against being a faithful witness, and loving the truth, and telling the truth.

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It is interesting to note that there are a lot of sins mentioned in the Bible, of course, because we're fallen, we sin in a number of different ways every single day, and we display that we are, in rebellion against our creator, we display every day, even as God's people, that we're still a work in progress, we're still being sanctified.

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But this particular sin, lies, telling lies, being deceptive, this actually is at the very beginning of this story of redemption, just, you know where I'm going with this.

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If you look in the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter three, after this one and only true and living

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God, this holy God, this beautiful God, this good God, this God of truth, the God who is eternal, he's always existed from eternity into eternity, you are

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God, he speaks and creates out of nothing, he makes good things, glorious things, creative things, he puts his image in the garden, male and female, he created them, in the image of God, he created them, and so he tells them who they are, what they're to do, he tells them exactly why he's made them and their purpose, and he tells them also what they can and can't do, they were in a period of testing, they were not righteous yet in terms of obedience, they were upright, but yet not fulfilling this test, this test that God gives to them, this but not that.

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And so of course God says the day you do, the day you eat of this tree, you will surely die.

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That's the beginning of the human story. God creates us, he tells them this but not that, and then of course we have

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Genesis chapter three, that full display of the fall of humanity. And so let's go there quickly for a moment,

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Genesis chapter three, the beginning of the biblical story starts with a lie, there's your first sin, deception and lies.

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Genesis chapter three, verse one, the word of God says,

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Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

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He said to the woman, did God actually say, you should not eat of any tree in the garden?

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And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you should not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

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But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

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So this story of humanity, your story and my story, everybody's story begins here in terms of the whole narrative of the fall.

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Serpent enters, the deceiver enters, and how does this fall occur?

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It starts with the father of lies, the deceiver, manipulating the facts and the truth and trying to deceive.

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And then he tells an outright lie, contradicts God. God is the truth. God speaks. It's going to be like this.

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The day you eat of it, you shall surely die. And Satan says, what contradiction? Not die.

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Actually, you'll get this if you eat of it. And so this whole story of humanity, story of the fall and redemption leading to Christ and eternal life begins with deception and lies.

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That's how it started. Could have started with a number of different sins, but it starts with deception and lies.

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Listen to how the apostle Paul speaks about this in 2 Corinthians chapter 11.

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In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, listen to the inspired apostle describe this.

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He says, in talking to the church in Corinth, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness.

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Do bear with me for I feel a divine jealousy for you since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

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But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, some translations say craftiness, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

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For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we have proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you have received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

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Say, you might even put up with these people. And so what Paul is concerned with in Corinth is that they would not be deceived by the craftiness of Satan, his cunning, the same kind of craftiness, cunning, and deception that he engaged with at the beginning of the human story with Eve.

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He manipulated the facts to deceive, and then he tells an outright, bald -faced lie.

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That's how the Apostle Paul describes that experience, the craftiness, the cunning of Satan.

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And he's worried about the church in Corinth very early on in the history of the church. He's worried that someone may come and be so cunning and so crafty and so deceptive that they will give to you another

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Jesus that's not the true Jesus, a Jesus that cannot say save you. And they'll be so crafty and cunning and deceptive, they'll manipulate facts to the degree that they give you a different gospel.

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But there's only one gospel, according to the Apostle Paul, only one that saves. And you might even receive a different spirit, and he's saying,

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I'm worried that you would even put up with these people, crafty, cunning, deceptive.

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I'm worried that you'll tolerate this kind of stuff. But isn't it interesting that the human story, the story of the fall itself, starts with deception and lies?

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And if you, if you push yourself through this Bible to the very end of the Bible, you will see that the

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Bible begins with a lie, and then it also, at the very end of the Bible, tells you the ultimate destination of liars.

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Move to the book of Revelation, Revelation, easy to find, last book.

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Revelation, chapter 21, again, Bible begins with a lie, deception, and we see at the end of this beautiful story, we have packed together like this in this order, we see the ultimate outcome of the liars, the ultimate destination.

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Revelation 21, verse 8.

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But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

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So again, this you're gonna see is pervasive, it's throughout the Bible, faithful witness, telling the truth, loving the truth, speaking the truth to your neighbor, over against the liar, the lying tongue, the lying lips, the person who is so deceptive, the person who slanders and tells lies and spreads lies.

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You're gonna see that throughout the Bible. Now, it is important for us to note that the Lord Jesus tells us about people who lie.

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There's no middle ground in Scripture for these things. We talked about that last week in terms of the tongue itself.

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There's no middle ground. Scripture tells us about the identity of those who lie ultimately.

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In John 8, the Lord Jesus speaks to people in his day about their lies, about who they are.

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He says something shocking to them. In John 8, verse 44, actually

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I start in verse 42. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me for I came from God and I am here.

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I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what

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I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

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He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

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When he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies.

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But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. And so Jesus here is speaking to people that this would have angered,

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I mean, dramatically. You think God is your father, but you're rejecting me.

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Actually, no. If you were in the truth, if you love the truth, if you actually cared about the truth, you would believe who

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I am. No, actually, here's who you belong to. You belong to Satan. You're one of his children.

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He's your father. He's been a liar from the beginning and he is the father of lies. The truth is not in him.

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And so we have a contrast here. According to the Lord Jesus, you're gonna be a child of God or the devil's your father.

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The truth is gonna be in you or you're gonna be like your father. It's not in him. You're filled with lies.

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And so Jesus speaks about it like that to people who thought God is my father.

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Now, Jesus also speaks in the gospels about the source of our lies.

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Where's it come from? Where's it come from? The source of our lies. Jesus speaks very clearly to this that it all comes from the heart.

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In Matthew chapter 15, just move to the left from where you were. In Matthew chapter 15, starting at verse 18, there's a controversy here in terms of things that you eat, things that can defile you.

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The Jewish people then and today are very focused upon the externals, cleanliness.

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There's a lot of symbolism for them in terms of keeping yourself clean and pure and unstained in terms of what you put into your mouth.

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I mean, you'll even have people today that are of a more orthodox Jewish tradition. They're very disciplined. They'll gargle with certain things like vinegar to try to purify their throats.

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Because again, in the Jewish mindset, we've saw it last week so much as it's attached to the tool itself, your feet swift to shed blood, your hand that causes you to sin, your eye that causes you to sin, your lips, your tongue, your mouth, your throat, the open grave.

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And so the Jews then and today are very focused on purification rituals.

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And Jesus addresses this here in Matthew chapter 15, starting in verse 18.

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But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. And this defiles a person.

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For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

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These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.

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And so Jesus now impresses upon Jewish people that really should know this.

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It's not like this was some New Testament revelation where all of a sudden the Jews go, oh, I thought it was all about the externals.

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I thought I was allowed to sin with impunity with the externals, but just, or not with the externals, or sorry, not with the internals.

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I could not, I could sin there, but I said that wrong, didn't I? Let's start over again. Let's rewind the tape for a second.

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It's not as though the Jewish people thought that God was fine with them sinning inside, just not outside.

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God spoke about that throughout his entire revelation, something that they really should have known.

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And he's telling them the source of your sin, the source of your disobedience, the source of your problem and mine is a matter of the heart.

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It's a matter of the heart. You know, oftentimes people may sin, fall into sin, and many preachers have said this before, and they'll always sort of have an excuse over the sin and say, you know,

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I've sinned against, I've sinned, I take full responsibility, but I've sinned against my own real internal values and who

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I really am. Now we know what that means typically in terms of, you know, I'm repentant, I confess my sin, but in reality, if we sin in a particular way, the right thing to do as God's people, the honest thing to do, the thing of integrity, the biblical thing to do is say, yes,

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I did that. There is no excuse. I am fully guilty. I have no excuses. And at least in that moment, that sin was in me.

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That was me. I did that. It was in my heart. If there was adultery, it's because it was in my heart.

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If there were lies, it's because it was in my heart. If there was hatred, it's because it was in my heart.

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No excuses. We need to be the kind of people who, when we sin, we return to the

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Father like the prodigal son. How does he return? He says what? He says, I've sinned against heaven and you.

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No excuses. I'm foul. I'm broken. I've got nothing. We need to be like the tax collector versus the

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Pharisee. The Pharisee goes and got it. Thank you, I'm not like other men. All these people over here and even this foul tax collector over here.

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And what's the tax collector doing off to the side? He won't even lift his eyes up to heaven. And what is he doing?

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He's beating his what? Chest. Apparently he understood that the source of his problem was his own foul heart.

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And so he's beating his breast like he's trying to get at the very source of his own sin.

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And all he says to God with no excuses is what? God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

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And Jesus says in that contrast between the Pharisee and the tax collector, he says that it was the tax collector that went to his house, what?

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Justified, declared not guilty rather than the other.

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And so Jesus is quite clear on the source of our lies. Here's the point, ready? We talk about a faithful witness as opposed to somebody who tells lies and doesn't just tell them, but they breathe out lies.

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Their breath is filled with lies. When they breathe out into the world, it's lies in their breath.

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It's a sin issue. It's a heart issue. If we wanna get at our problem of being deceptive, being slanderers, being liars, people who don't love the truth, we need to be the kind of people that actually address the roots of the issue.

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It comes from our hearts. If we're comfortable telling lies, we've gotta deal with our hearts.

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If we're comfortable telling lies, we have to consider who we are and why God made us.

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We have to consider who God is. This is a sin issue. The only answer for a tongue that lies, a mouth that breathes out lies is ultimately regeneration and redemption.

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We need to have God take out that heart of stone. We need to have a heart where God actually creates within us a desire to observe his statutes as Ezekiel 36 says, to purify us in such a way that we long and desire to obey his law and his will, not resist his commands and his will.

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You see, scripture's clear. You know this. I hope you do. I hope your kids know this. We all know this.

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It's in the 10 commandments that God has spoken on this issue. Here's what

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God says. The one who made you, the one who made me, the creator of all things, the one who sustains all things, the source of all life and light, he says this, you shall not lie.

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You shall not lie. God has spoken. In Exodus 20, 16,

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I want you to go there because I want you to know your way around your

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Bibles. I highly, again, recommend getting yourself a paper Bible. I'm not condemning you if you're using a device, but I think it's important for you to know your way around the

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Bible, where things are at. In Exodus 20, verse 16,

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God says, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

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So as he gives the Decalogue, the 10 words, the 10 commandments, we know the 10 commandments.

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You have, of course, the popular ones everyone knows, like you should not murder, you should not commit adultery. You should not take the

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Lord's name in vain, but of course, you know you should not bear false witness. That was one of the foundational laws that God gave to his people that it extends then into the rest of the

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Torah, into the rest of the law of God with descriptions of how to make sure you can extend that rule.

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You shall not bear false witness. Then Leviticus, go there, Leviticus 19,

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Leviticus 19, that's to the right, verse 11.

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The text says, you should not steal, you should not deal falsely, you shall not lie to one another.

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You shall not swear by my name falsely and so profane the name of your

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God. I am Yahweh. It's listed as one of the sins that God hates the most.

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Go to Proverbs, you know this, we were here in Proverbs chapter six,

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Proverbs chapter six, starting at verse 16, a powerful section, challenging section.

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There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him, that are loathsome to him, that are detestable to him.

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So he said, all right, God, what's the things you hate? What are the things you hate the very most,

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God? Like give them to me, I wanna know what you detest, what is loathsome to you. And God says, this is what it is, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

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So if you wanna know on an intimate level, a very personal level, God, what do you loathe? What do you hate?

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What is detestable to you? What are your least favorite things? And God says, one who breathes out lies, it's detestable to God.

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And that ought to challenge us, because if we're all honest with ourselves, throughout our lives, there have been many times where we have just easily, easily deceived, easily breathed out lies.

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We've thought that we can lie about people, about ourselves. We've thought that we could deceive people and get away with it somehow that we'll only really know that we're lying.

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There are times where maybe we have a secret hatred towards another person and we slander them, we tell lies about them.

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Times where we manipulate the truth even to make ourselves look better. Times where we actually engage in flattery of another person.

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We really have a secret hatred for them, we think a different thing, but when they're in front of us, we have the big, nice, bright teeth, the big smile, and we flatter them, we lie to them.

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There's something we know we need to say that we don't really say, because we're cowards, or whatever the case may be, but we have this experience in fallen humanity.

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We tell lies. We spin the truth, we stretch the truth, we try to protect our own reputations at times, maybe as God's people, by lying.

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We breathe out lies. And I think we have to take this seriously as God's people, like, do we really believe this, right?

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Like, what are we really here for? Is this just a club? Is this just a really nice, safe, loving community? Or are these the words of God to me?

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It's God speaking to me right now. You don't love the truth like I love the truth. You're flexible on the truth.

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You're comfortable with deception. You're comfortable with just telling outright lies.

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Scripture is abundantly clear about this sin, lies, and those who breathe out lies.

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Here's the answer from the book of Revelation, as you saw. You and I, outside of Jesus Christ, will go to hell forever for lying.

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That is the destination and the place of people who breathe out lies.

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That lake of fire, that's how serious God takes it.

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Liars go to hell forever. Outside of the redemption that's in Christ, that's what would belong to all of us, that kind of destination, that place for that kind of sin, because here's the thing.

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God is not like that. He's not like that. God is the truth.

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God cannot lie. Now, it's important to consider this when we think about us talking today about how serious lying is and breathing out lies and being a faithful witness, how important that is as God's people.

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It's important for us to recognize something, and this is very key. You need to have this. This conversation I'm having right now about lies and how bad lies are and how deception is wrong.

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We have to fight against that, and we have to love the truth. Christians should care about the truth, protect the truth, love the truth, wanna believe the truth, defend the truth, proclaim the truth.

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That right there is only available if you believe the words of God and stand on the

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Christian worldview. You understand what I'm saying? Unbelievers may have a conference about evidence and telling the truth and believing the truth, but people who reject

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God's word and his revelation have no foundation to have any meaningful complaints against those who tell lies, breathe out lies, engage in deception.

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Now, the atheist who rejects God's revelation can't help being what

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God made him to be or her to be. They're in God's image, and they're gonna have this detestation of lies and deception, but they're not gonna be able to make sense of it or justify it because if our ancestors were

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African apes and if all of us come from bacteria in a purposeless, unguided universe, then what's the point of trying to protect the truth?

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Right, who cares about lies? What's the famous response? So what? If my ancestors were fish, if there's only sky above me, then who cares about telling the truth?

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Only with the Christian worldview can you provide a foundation that allows you to complain about deception and lies.

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And so every time you see people in the news or on social media or out there in the public square decrying deception, decrying lies, you can only do that in a meaningful way if you have the

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Christian worldview. We all recognize, we all recognize the problem of the corrupt politician, the fake, the phony, the one who is just doing things for money and for votes.

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We all know that problem with politicians and people complain about that. But what gives us a right to complain about a politician that makes a promise and has absolutely no desire or intention to fulfill it?

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They're just doing it for money and for votes, right? I mean, when people talk about the corruption and deception and the lies of politicians and we complain about it as a country, how do you have a right to complain about those things?

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I mean, how do you have a right to complain about someone like as disturbing and perverse as someone like Nancy Pelosi?

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I mean, what is the salary given to somebody who's a senator in the state of California?

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I don't think it could bring you to over a hundred million dollars in assets. So what's going on there?

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What kind of fraud? What kind of deception? How come you're winning so much in the stock market?

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How does that work? Isn't it interesting, by the way, that some of these politicians are in real trouble now where there's websites that basically record their trades and their stock trades that they're doing unusually well with and that's probably because they write the legislation or they know the insider information and how to actually do that.

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They are corrupt, they're deceptive, they're lying. And now we can just go to these websites and just say,

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I'll just copy that trade. I'm gonna do real well for myself. Politicians lie, people complain, but why?

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On what basis can you and I complain about somebody lying only if you have Jesus? What's the scripture say at the very beginning of this book we're studying?

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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? Knowledge. You are not going to be able to know anything in any justifiable or meaningful way apart from the fear of the

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Lord, amen? And so when we have this conversation about lies are sinful, lies are wrong, lies will send you to hell, we should love the truth, defend the truth, proclaim the truth, that is a

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Christian thing, understand that? Only with Jesus can you have that in any meaningful way.

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We all recognize over the last couple of years the many lies, the many lies, destructive lies.

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I mean, it feels like, isn't it weird? I thought about this recently. The whole COVID nonsense feels like it is so long ago and it's just this fuzzy time in my mind, but wasn't it just weird?

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Crazy, right? Crazy for people to just spout off lies no matter what the data said, just to lie to people and say, you know, you gotta wear a mask on an eight hour flight, no matter how much that'll hurt your physical health, you gotta wear it because it's somehow gonna help you.

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And you would look at the data, all the data and the facts and the research, and you'd say, excuse me,

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Mr. Professional, Mr. Medical Professional, Mr. Scientist here that's making me do this now, and to walk around with a diaper on my face, you know, for a year, the data shows that this mask does nothing, nothing to stop the spread of COVID, but you're telling me that I have to wear it and I have to walk into your store and wear this and choke on my own breath for hours because somehow

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I am loving my neighbor, right? That kind of deception, those kinds of lies, or the kind of deception that happens in our nation where they fast track a new technology and they tell people, you must put this into your body or you will not be able to get an education, you will not be able to get this job, you will not be able to keep your job.

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And when you ask certain questions like, I'm sorry, I kind of love my family and my life and my body, and I'm concerned that this new technology hasn't been tested, and I'm concerned about the impact it can have on my family and my life, my fertility, and so I have some questions and they're saying, it's perfectly safe, it's all safe, it's all right, and then all of a sudden, you start seeing people suddenly die, drop dead, and all of a sudden you start seeing people that are actually damaged from this technology, and then all of a sudden, within a matter of a couple of years, the people who are saying,

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I think there's some problems, I think it's not safe, I think we should be concerned, are turning out to be right as these people who created these vaccines that are actually not vaccines are now pulling the vaccines, acknowledging the damage that they cause.

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See, we recognize in terms of just life over the last couple of years, the danger of deception, the danger of lies.

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We understand the importance of being a faithful witness, telling the truth, loving the truth, proclaiming the truth in public discourse.

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If we're engaging with other human beings out there, we ought to care about the truth, amen? I wanna ask you a question.

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On what basis should we care about the truth at all? I mean, why don't we just lie and deceive for power and for profit?

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Seriously, why not? If there's no God above us, no justice ahead of us, if there's no ultimate standard or meaning to life, then why not lie?

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Why not lie for profit? People do it, they get rich doing it. Are they wrong for doing that?

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The book of Proverbs says they are wrong for doing that. But on what basis should we care?

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Now, I'm trying to drive this home because this is very important. We live in such a crazy, absurd time and mind, a cultural mind, where you actually have this flip that's happened.

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Christianity in history, Christians were the movers and shakers in terms of culture and science and education and truth and medicine.

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Why? Because the Christian worldview provides a foundation for all of those things. And somehow, because of the

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Christian church, stepping away from the world, not having a prophetic voice, not standing on the words of God, not having a rigorous commitment to the words of God and how they actually make it out into the world and build a culture, because we've abandoned all of that, we have atheists out there today that act like they're the ones that care about truth and evidence and all those things.

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And I say, this is amusing because it is your worldview that forbids any such attachment to those things.

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It is only the Christian worldview that can provide a foundation that makes public discourse meaningful, not lying, telling the truth, not inventing evidence.

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Just consider this for a moment. Imagine for a moment, you came together today to witness a public debate between two worldviews.

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Maybe you came to witness a public debate between say two scientists, let's just use the example, on the issue of the

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COVID vaccination. So imagine now you walk in to a public debate between two opposing sides.

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What does everybody assume instinctively when there are two people in a debate and there's a moderator?

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That each of these sides is responsible to the audience to tell the truth.

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That when you bring forth evidence, you're not simply gonna invent evidence. You're not gonna tell lies in a debate because if you invent evidence and you tell lies, you lose the debate, right?

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And so it's instinctive. Human beings walk into a conflict like that and they assume everybody here must have a commitment to the truth.

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We all wanna know what the truth is. That's what we're aimed at getting at. That's what you need to convince the audience of.

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And everybody has that commitment and assumption that each of these opponents are not going to lie.

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All public discourse depends on being a faithful witness, telling the truth, not breathing out lies.

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Again, what worldview provides a foundation for that? Only the Christian worldview. So education, history, medicine.

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Here's one in terms of the world being fully dependent upon the Christian worldview. Every single day in our community, people engage in a business contract with one another.

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You have people that actually go into business together and make contracts. You may go and try to get an apartment.

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And what happens when you get an apartment? You go into a leasing office and what happens?

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You visit the spot, you look at things and the leasing agent says to you, all right, here's the deal.

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In today's climate, a one bedroom for $3 ,500 a month or something nuts like that.

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Oh my goodness, it's getting crazy. How are we surviving? I think we're gonna be living in the desert soon together, guys.

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We'll make it. But you walk in, leasing agent says, okay, here's the deal.

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Look, this is our property. Here's the apartment. You've seen the floor plan. You took a look inside.

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And so here's what we'll do for you. If you pay us a ridiculous inflated amount of money in 2024 for this one bedroom apartment, we're gonna do these things for you.

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We're gonna upkeep it. We're gonna do maintenance. We're gonna do all these things. We'll control protecting the air conditioning and all these things.

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We're gonna make the facilities safe. We're gonna have security here, whatever the case may be. And your job in this contract is you make a promise that every month on the first of the month by this time, you will give a check.

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You'll make a payment for the plot. Deal? And you say deal.

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What is assumed in that contractual obligation? I have obligations and you have obligations.

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And if you break your promise sanctions, now you will be punished because you broke your promise.

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And so every single day, it's even to the lowest level of, let's say you walked into McDonald's.

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Don't eat at McDonald's. But if you walk into a McDonald's, you go to the counter, you'd say, I would like the

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Big Mac, the number one, and I want all this, okay? You walk in there, you say, I want this. I say, great, that'll be $20 today, right?

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Or something ridiculous. And you hand over the cash. What's the assumption there? I paid you,

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I fulfilled my obligation. Now you have an obligation to give me my food. What if you walked in to a place, you said,

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I really like that. They say, fantastic, 20 bucks. You pay it and you're waiting around for 45 minutes.

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You're like, it's just a Big Mac, right? What's going on? You walk up, excuse sir, a long time ago,

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I gave you the 20 bucks. I ordered the meal. And the guy says, yeah, so? Thanks for the 20 bucks.

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I'm not giving you anything. No, we had an agreement. I give you the money, you give me the foods. Everything is dependent upon being a faithful witness, telling the truth, loving the truth and not breathing out lies.

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Or how about our entire court system? Our entire court system is dependent upon the

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Christian worldview. I want you just to consider, even to this day, you walk into a court and what takes place when you come up as a witness?

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What do they say? Put your hand on the Bible. Put your hand where? Here. Is this just like a, hey, like what is this?

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What is this? Like I'm waving at the crowd. Everyone, hello everybody. Nice to see you. No, what's the hand up for?

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It's hand to who? Hand to God. And so the tradition, that symbol is built into that tradition of God be the witness today with my words.

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Like this whole motion in the court system or this motion for the president of the

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United States of America. Hand on the word of God, hand to God. This motion is supposed to testify to the world.

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I am saying that I know that there's a day of judgment. I know that there is a day of judgment and I know that lying is a sin.

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I must keep my word, be a faithful witness. I must tell the truth. And God, as my witness, these words are the truth.

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Brothers and sisters, you don't get that with atheism in any meaningful way whatsoever.

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Only, or how about this? One more, one more, sorry. By the way, can I get that water over there, Pastor James? Can you?

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It's on the ground down there or sorry. You good? Okay, thank you.

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Sorry, my throat's going out of here now. Thank you, brother. Just one more thing,

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Pastor James, I'm just joking. Okay. Or how about a big one?

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How about a big one? Marriage. Marriage. Marriage is only meaningful with the

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Christian worldview, with the word of God. It's only meaningful, not just in the genders.

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Jesus says, from the beginning, God created them male and female, all right? So Jesus believed in the binary there, male and female, and a man shall leave his father and his mother, and they'll be joined together, become one flesh.

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There's a foundation there. But also, marriage is only meaningful with the Christian worldview and God's word.

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Why? Because you are making a promise before God and witnesses. I want you to consider this for a moment.

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Before the state got involved in marriage, which it should not be involved in the whole marriage covenant process, it's not even necessary.

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That's a whole other discussion we'll get into someday. When the state gets involved in the marriage contract, it's wrong.

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It causes a lot of problems. It's sort of a modern problem that we have today.

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Some of you guys are probably wondering why in the world, again, can't do that in this sermon today. Just understand something. Every day in this state, contracts are made between parties, right?

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And those contracts aren't all contracts that are witnessed by the court or received by the court.

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When do those contracts go before the court? When? When somebody breaks it, right?

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So the assumption is, we don't need to see all these contracts as the state. You guys keep your promises.

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If somebody breaks the promise, lies, violates the contract and covenant, then bring it to us and we'll make sure there's justice.

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That's how the state works. That's how we're supposed to have justice. Contracts are made every single day and the state knows nothing about them.

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See this? And it wasn't very long ago where marriage was the same way.

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It operated on the same assumption. You have witnesses that witnessed a man and a woman making an oath before God that they are going to maintain fidelity towards each other, keep their covenant towards each other.

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And those marriages were privately held, privately done. And if somebody broke the covenant, then those witnesses could stand and say, your honor,

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I watched that guy promise that girl that he would do such and such.

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He gave that oath before all of us. We were all there and God was watching and he's now violated it.

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You see how it works? The assumption of marriage itself is that somebody is making a promise and it's meaningful only with the

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Christian worldview. A faithful witness versus somebody who breathes out lies.

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Only Christianity can justify telling the truth. Again, why not lie for profit, pleasure, or power?

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If we're nothing but cosmic accidents in a universe that does not care about us, why not lie for our own pleasure and our own good?

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Now here's a foundation. Are you ready? All right, we got the commands. You should not lie.

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You should not bear false witness. We got the command, we got the warnings, but in terms of like, all right, but ultimately why?

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Is it just somebody making the commands? Like does God say, don't lie, be a faithful witness?

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Does he say that because he's got some law above him, right?

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Something that he's appealing to? Like there's a standard out here and I'm God and I follow it and you should follow it too.

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No, actually the objective standard and the foundation for opposing lies and deceitfulness comes from the very character of God himself.

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So go to, there's a lot of examples of this, but go to Titus. That's almost near the end of your Bibles. Titus chapter one,

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Titus chapter one, starting in verse one, here it is. Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness in hope of eternal life, which

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God, ready, who never lies, lies, promised before the ages began.

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God never lies. You can go to Hebrews, one book over,

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Hebrews chapter six, another example. Hebrews chapter six, verse 18.

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So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

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And so let's stop there for a moment. God cannot lie. It's impossible for God to lie. It's against his own character.

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It's against his own nature. But the point being made in scripture over and over again on this point is the reason you and I have hope in our eternal life and that God's never gonna lose us, he's never gonna forsake me, that he calls me his child and he's my father and I have peace, the hope that we have is that God cannot lie.

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And that is where we have to anchor ourselves because if you are honest, as I hope I will be, you have times in your life where you just feel like you're on a ship that's just being knocked back and for times where you feel super strong spiritually, close to God, deep with God in the moments of darkness and pain and depression, you feel lost.

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And in those moments where God feels like the very farthest thing from you, your hope and my hope is that it's not in how you feel or what looks true around you.

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It's that God cannot lie. It's impossible for him to lie. And if Jesus says, you are his sheep and he will never lose you, he will never forsake you, he will raise you up on the last day.

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God cannot lie. It's not based upon you. It's not based upon your good days or bad days or your strong emotions, your good commitments.

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It's based upon his promises. Scripture is clear. Numbers 23, 19 is another example.

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You can just make a record of that. But scripture is clear. Ready, here we go. God cannot lie. So our foundation as image bearers of God, to be faithful witnesses, to love the truth, to defend the truth, to proclaim the truth and to not breathe out lies, the foundation is the very nature and character of God.

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He cannot lie. He can't do something against his own nature, God's own character.

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Now you know this. Jesus identifies himself. John 14, six, I am the way and the what?

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Truth and the life. No man comes to the father but by me.

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Jesus identified himself as the truth. God is the truth.

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God loves the truth. God cannot lie. And so the foundation of it all and not breathing out lies and being a faithful witness is we're in his image.

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You and I were created unique above the creatures and creeping things and beasts and the rest of all of creation, no matter how beautiful it is.

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According to scripture, you have a unique status in all of creation. Just the other day,

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Charlie and Stellar were coming back inside from working out and like Charlie points back at the sky and you know the

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Arizona sunsets, I mean, nothing can beat them. The Arizona sunsets look like cotton candy skies and it's just glorious.

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And Charlie points back, he's like Pastor Jeff, look, the heavens declare the glory of God. I was like, right, isn't that amazing? It's just every night,

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God just does this banging sunset. It's amazing and beautiful and powerful. No artist can even compete with it and it's just vast and glorious.

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And that's nice and beautiful and to the glory of God. But scripture says that that and this and how vast this all is and how powerful and glorious and beautiful is nothing compared to you in terms of you and I being in the image of God.

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We are God's image bearers to bring God's light and likeness into his creation.

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And so a foundation of not lying is he cannot lie. It's impossible for him to lie.

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So you're in his image, don't lie. You shall not lie because God is not like that.

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And so here in scripture, we also have, what does it look like to be a faithful witness and not breathe out lies?

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God's law provides protections against false witness, lies, slander and gossip.

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So just some verses to record and write down later or write down to do a look at later. You're familiar with most of these if you've been a member of Apologia Church for any small length of time.

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Deuteronomy 19, 15. Deuteronomy 17, six. Numbers 35, 30.

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First Timothy 5, 19. Hebrews 10, 28. This can go on.

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Scripture makes it very clear. You are not to receive an accusation against a person unless it's on the basis of two to three witnesses.

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You cannot accuse somebody on the basis of the testimony of one person. And I know there are times where it is so tempting to listen to one person's story and to believe it and to accuse.

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God forbids that. You cannot receive an accusation on the basis of one witness.

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Now that one witness may lead to other independent lines of witness, for sure.

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You can't say, well, one person said it so it's not true. A rape victim may be the one witness of the rape, but there are other means to find other independent lines of evidence, like a rape kit.

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It's not just her mouth and testimony, but it also is the DNA that is an independent witness.

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You see the point? The point is, is if one person is saying it, scripture says you cannot charge somebody because one person says something.

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You need two to three independent lines of witness and testimony. And this is not just in the

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Old Testament. It's applied in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul, after the resurrection, after the ascension of Jesus, he says to Timothy, don't receive a charge against an elder unless it's on the basis of what?

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Two to three witnesses. The assumption is the continuity of the law of God. How do you protect people from lies?

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Make sure there is evidence. Make sure there's a standard for truth and proof and witness.

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And of course we know that Jesus appeals to this standard, the law of God, in Matthew chapter 18, verse 16, when he talks about church discipline.

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What do you do? Jesus says you go to them when, how? First, privately.

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Privately. Protect their reputation. Protect this thing from blowing up.

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Protect this thing from creating factions and divisions. Go to them privately.

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And if they won't listen, then what? Well, then you bring the other witnesses.

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And they won't listen to them. You bring them before the church and the church in a unified manner puts them out of the church in the hopes that ultimately they'll repent and to come back.

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But Jesus appeals to that same standard. How do you protect people against false witness, false accusations?

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You have to have multiple lines of independent witness and testimony. What's the scripture have as a foundation here?

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To be a faithful witness, you must have evidence. You must have witness.

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You must have testimony. You must not approach accusations with a quick response.

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You must be willing to listen to both sides of the story. You have to cross -examine witnesses.

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You have to be making sure that you're available to not be partial. You have to not show personal favoritism.

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And that often is a problem in a fight, right, between two parties, is the two parties will do what?

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They'll firm up their team and the team has a commitment to the favorite face.

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And so it's personal favoritism generally on both sides. That'll happen, creates lots of conflict. Scripture forbids that, commands against it, says you must depend upon the truth, the evidence, the facts, not favoritism.

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This is very powerful. Oh, by the way, in terms of the evidence and witnesses, it is interesting that even to this very day,

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I mentioned this to you guys, I think before, it was actually during the whole COVID craziness. I mentioned to you guys,

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I was going to, it was nighttime. It was dark outside. I was pulling up to Fry's Grocery Store.

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I took a turn into a lane to park the car. And it was a man lying in the middle of the parking lot.

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He had just been attacked by a guy with a knife. He was cut open, bleeding badly.

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There was like a, it seemed like a river of blood was pouring out of the sky. People were standing around like they didn't know what to do.

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And so I jumped out and tried to calm him down and try to get him wrapped up and try to stop the blood from pumping out of his body.

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It was a grotesque scene. He was stabbed numerous times in his back and his arm was sliced down to the bone.

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It was a gruesome, gruesome scene. And the police and ambulance showed up. And the first thing the police did is they grabbed me and any other witnesses and they separated us.

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They began to ask us our testimony and the witness of what did you see and what just happened? And at one point,

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I was the primary witness there. I'm standing over by myself. The police are engaging with me a bit.

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You gotta love the Phoenix PD. They saw my gun on me and they were like, man, if you were just 10 seconds earlier, you could have taken that guy out.

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I was like, praise God for you. I love Phoenix. But I'm there in like 2022 or 2021 in the parking lot at nighttime surrounded by police and ambulance.

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And one of the other witnesses that was about maybe 20 feet away tried to say something to me.

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And the police officer that was standing next to me lost his mind and screamed at that person for trying to talk to me.

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He said, you cannot talk to him right now. Do not speak to him. Don't even look over this direction.

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That could destroy this entire process of justice. Say nothing to him. Don't talk to each other. Don't look at each other.

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There was the officer who understood independent witness, no influence.

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Don't influence, don't converse, don't let the stories converge together and maybe even manipulate memory.

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Don't do that. It has to be independent. Don't speak to one another. I just found that fascinating that even to this day, that Christian standard of independent witness is being upheld by the police department in Phoenix.

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Now, one point to make, I think it's important to try to always bring the story from the

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Old Testament or the Proverbs, if you can, bring it to the life of Jesus. I do think it's a powerful thing that in the humiliation of Jesus, just think about this.

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This world is awful a lot of the time, a lot of the time.

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There's consequences of sin around us. There's consequences of our own sin. It's just a tremendously difficult life at times.

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And there's times in this life where we experience the consequences of our own sin.

01:00:06

We did something and we experienced, we had to face the consequences. It's God's world, you can't live like that.

01:00:13

And so if A, then B, you reap what you sow, you'll feel it. And then there's times in this fallen world that God is victorious over and he will have ultimate victory in.

01:00:26

There's times where you and I are the victims of other people's sin. We're not the guilty ones, they're the guilty ones.

01:00:33

So in the life of Jesus, I think it's powerful. Not only does Jesus come and condescend and take on flesh,

01:00:41

God walks among us to live the perfect life we've failed. To die for our sins and to rise from the dead.

01:00:49

But he experiences everything in this life that is raw and evil and painful.

01:00:55

And he meets each and every one of us in that pain. So just consider, you may have been somebody who's abandoned.

01:01:05

You're abandoned by your loved ones, you're abandoned by those closest to you. And you cry out to God, God, why?

01:01:12

And Jesus meets you in that pain. He says, I know, I know what that feels like. I was abandoned by those who were closest to me.

01:01:19

People who were closest to me denied even knowing me in my hour of greatest need. You might say to Jesus, God, why in this world do people lie about me?

01:01:32

Why are people slandering me? Why are people just making up fake stories about me, spreading lies about me?

01:01:39

This is awful. And Jesus meets you in that pain. He knows exactly what it's like to have people tell things to others that aren't true.

01:01:47

Oh, Jesus, he's a friend of sinners. He's a drunkard and he's a glutton.

01:01:56

Lies, manipulating the truth, deception, right? Or how about physical abuse?

01:02:01

Jesus, I've been molested. Jesus, I've been raped. Jesus, I've been physically abused. Where are you,

01:02:06

God? And Jesus says, here I am. I condescended to enter into this world to take the sins of my people.

01:02:14

And I know what it is to be physically tortured and to be abused and to have people do things to my body that they had no right to do.

01:02:22

Jesus meets us in that pain. I do think it's powerful that in the trial of Jesus and the passion of the

01:02:29

Messiah, when Jesus goes to that cross, that there's this moment in there. In Matthew chapter 26, go there.

01:02:37

Let's look at it. Matthew 26, 59, it's the trial of Jesus.

01:02:51

Matthew 26, 59, it says, now the chief priests and the whole council, get this, were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death.

01:03:12

These people weren't just judges and mediators. They are literally plotting.

01:03:18

They're supposed to know the law of God. And they're literally plotting in the life of Jesus to try to find people that will lie about Jesus so they can have him put to death.

01:03:32

Isn't that powerful? These people are supposed to know the law of God and know that actually God's law says that false witnesses, if they're found to be false witnesses, are supposed to get the actual punishment that would have gone to the person had they been believed.

01:03:48

And they're actually, knowing the law of God, so corrupt, they're trying to find false witnesses. But they found none, though many false witnesses came forward and at last two came forward and said, this man said

01:04:06

I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. There's the deception, right?

01:04:11

Like they can't even get their stories to match. And so then they try to take a word that Jesus says and they try to twist it and manipulate it.

01:04:17

And somehow he's gonna try to take this temple down. And so there's just so much lies and deception.

01:04:23

But listen closely. Jesus comes into our humanity, takes on flesh.

01:04:31

And when he comes to purchase us and to save us, he stands there in a court being lied about where those who were there were being brought forward just to lie and bear false witness against him to have him harmed.

01:04:48

So when God commands us against this evil, he then enters into this evil world and experiences the weight of that evil.

01:04:56

It's a powerful thing to consider. Now, we could go for days on the

01:05:02

Bible verses in scripture, on lying, but because of the time here,

01:05:08

I will be merciful because it's Arizona and it's hot. But there are a number of ways that we lie, that we are not faithful witnesses, a number of ways that we breathe out lies.

01:05:23

Some everyday types of lies. Slander. Slander is, it's an accusation.

01:05:31

It's false. It's an accusation against somebody that is false. You are breathing out a lie.

01:05:37

You are not telling the truth. You are slandering. Another kind of way that we lie, that we breathe out lies is we flatter.

01:05:47

We flatter people, right? You think something different. You know the truth, but maybe it's the fear of man, right?

01:06:00

Maybe it's the fear of what this person can do to you, or maybe it's that you really want to manipulate so you can get something from them.

01:06:09

And so what do you do? You smile, you get stars in your eyes, and you say things to people that aren't actually the truth.

01:06:17

Now, don't get me wrong here. Scripture does tell us to speak the truth in what? In love.

01:06:24

Speak the truth in love. I'm not saying that we need to look for ways to always tell the truth.

01:06:30

Like a guy comes in, we just meet him, and we're like, hey, how you doing? Your breath is rotten. I'm just speaking the truth, and you are breathing out more than lies right now, my friend.

01:06:41

That's not what I'm saying at all. We shouldn't be abusive to others and those sorts of things.

01:06:47

We certainly shouldn't be trying to manipulate others, withhold the truth, or just flatter people with lies.

01:06:54

We're breathing out lies. Don't be a deceptive person. Tell the truth. Tell the truth.

01:07:00

Don't be abusive, but tell the truth. So there's a flattery aspect, right? We're lying to people about what we really think or what we're really up to.

01:07:08

We're flattering somebody. Flattering is a sin. Flattering is engaging in lying.

01:07:14

Christians shouldn't be flatterers. Don't, is that really a word? Find out for me, okay?

01:07:20

We shouldn't engage in flattery. But this is important, though, as well, when you think about what we say and not being somebody who flatters.

01:07:29

We do also need to be willing, if we're not gonna breathe out lies, if we're gonna be a faithful witness to God and to our neighbor, we have to be willing to be like Jesus and the prophets and the apostles in speaking the truth in love.

01:07:44

Sometimes you need to say the very hard things. Sometimes in scripture, you see the serrated edge coming out because it's time for the serrated edge.

01:07:55

It's not always time for the serrated edge. If you and I walk around with a serrated edge in our lives, stay away from us, right?

01:08:03

You need to not be abusive. Be gracious. Don't always be looking for the speck in somebody's eye.

01:08:08

Don't be the person that's always trying to police the Christian community. Be gracious, be humble, be loving, be merciful with one another.

01:08:15

But sometimes we have to, if we're faithful and we're not breathing out lies, we have to use the serrated edge.

01:08:22

We have to say the hard thing, like Jesus in Matthew 23 with the scribes, the Pharisees, and the hypocrites.

01:08:28

He says, woe to you, woe to you, woe to you, seven times, curse on you. You see in scripture, the prophets referring to them as brood of vipers.

01:08:40

You see, of course, times where Israel in the Old Testament, God is using the serrated edge and he refers to his own bride as a whore.

01:08:49

That's a hard thing. That's a hard thing. And God says, you're so detestable to me in your spiritual adultery, you are my wife,

01:08:59

I am your husband, and you're really a whore. That's a hard thing. But it's not flattering, it's telling the truth, and it's speaking it in love.

01:09:09

Or the Apostle Paul in Galatians, where he opens up with this grand address and beauty and wonderful and everything, he goes,

01:09:15

I'm amazed that you're so quickly deterring him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel.

01:09:22

And he says, if we or an angel from heaven should come preach any other gospel to you, let them be anathema, separated from God forever.

01:09:29

And he says, no flattery, serrated edge, he says, Christ has become of no benefit to you, whosoever of you attempts to be justified by law, you've fallen from grace.

01:09:40

And he says to these Judaizers, the ones who like to play with knives and they wanna bring all these

01:09:46

Gentiles into circumcision, he says, I hope they cut themselves off. Don't get mad, that's in the

01:09:55

Bible. So sometimes we do need to engage in the sharp word, the hard word, but generally avoiding, sorry, speaking the truth in love and always avoiding flattery.

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Deception is a way that sometimes we'll lie. Deception, we manipulate the facts.

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We manipulate the story. We manipulate the truth in an effort to protect ourselves, to protect somebody else, to protect our reputations, or we engage in deception and manipulate the facts in such a way as to gain something from the person.

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So you've heard about something like a Ponzi scheme, right? You've heard about the stories of people who have like created these major corporations where they have all these people investing billions of dollars, but as it turns out, the money was never really going to the investments they were supposed to.

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It was just lining the pockets of those at the top. And these things go on for just long enough for these guys to get rich and the investors to lose everything.

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That is pure deception. Manipulation of the facts, manipulation of the truth in an effort to harm somebody else or to gain something.

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So we understand deception at times and don't, please don't be offended here when someone says, are you guys like a used car salesman?

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No offense, there are good Christian used car salesmen, but you know the stereotype, right?

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The used car salesman, they're hiding something in their pocket. They're telling you one thing, but they really got something hidden away in their pockets.

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One time, and I'll end on a deception point on this story. I can't remember if I've mentioned this to you all before, but there was a period of time where I was,

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Kanye and I, I think we're maybe 24, 25 years old.

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25, and I had finally got the ability to open my own martial arts school.

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I had done it for guys across the country. I had been a consultant. I'd help guys, pull guys out of debt and get their schools back online and ran martial arts schools my whole life.

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And I finally got to a place where I'm like, I'm only doing it for myself. I will only do this ever for myself. And I got the ability to do it, but I needed a week before I could start.

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And the money came in and the doors could open. And so we were a young family, still needed to make some money at the time.

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And so I was like, well, I've got like seven days. And so I'm just gonna get like a temporary job just to have some extra income for these seven days and try to be responsible as a father and a husband.

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And so I'm looking through the paper. I'm like, I'll just do anything just to get some extra money before I open the doors of my school.

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And so I found a job that said it was a temporary job. You get paid at the end of the week. And so I was like, that sounds good, I'll do that.

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I worked at this stinking place for like eight or nine hours a day for that entire week.

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And so then I pull up on the last day and I'm not even paying attention to what's going on around me.

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I pull into the parking lot and I go into the CVS or whatever store is right there in the same plaza to get like a drink before I went into this job.

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And as I come out, I noticed that there's police cars and FBI vans all over the parking lot.

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And I'm like, what's going on? And so I walk up to this like FBI agent and I was like, what's going on?

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He's like, well, we're arresting everybody in here. And this is a big fraudulent operation.

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There's actually no product. And I was like, say that again. And he was like, yeah, did you work here?

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I said, I got nothing to do with this. I've only been here for a week. I'm just a husband and a father trying to do good things.

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Like, you know, I'm just, but yeah, I've worked here every day for the last week. And he was like, yeah, we're taking this whole thing down.

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We've already arrested all the guys in here. He said, you're fine, it's not your fault. And I was like, you think we'll be getting our checks?

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Nevermind. But that was deception, it was lies. And I was on the phone for a week calling random strangers, offering something that actually didn't exist.

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I didn't know, pure deception, pure deception. That's one way we can lie and breathe out lies.

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We can be bold in our lies. We can say things like, I didn't do that when we actually did.

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Or we could say, I did that when you actually didn't. Now, quickly, one word on deception and lies that we have to address, you have to address it.

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It's a fallen world. Sometimes in a fallen world, you've got a collision of principles. Two things that clash against one another.

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Why? Because this world is broken and sometimes in God's world, in fallen world, there's principles that collide against one another.

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Those are the challenging moments. Like I'll give you an example from Exodus chapter one.

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The Pharaoh says to the women, when the boys are born, what's he wanting them to do?

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Anyone know? When the boys are born, Pharaoh says, kill them, kill them.

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But the women don't kill them. And when the Pharaoh finds out that they disobeyed his command and didn't kill the boys, the women actually lie.

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They lie. Now, what are we to make of that? Scripture says, be a faithful witness, don't lie, don't breathe out lies.

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And then you've got that example from Exodus chapter one where these women lie through their teeth to the

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Pharaoh. And it actually says that God blesses those women for lying through their teeth.

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Now, that's my paraphrase. It doesn't say that in Scripture. That's the chapter of paraphrase. It doesn't really say that, don't fault me on that.

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But what are we to do in a fallen world where you've got the principle of the preservation of human life, the principle of the preservation of human life that is pervasive in Scripture, love your neighbor as you love yourself, and a command not to lie.

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Like for example, what do you and I do in Nazi Germany?

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When the SS comes to our door and we're hiding our Jewish friends and family under our floorboards and they come to your door and they say, are you hiding any

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Jews? What are you gonna say? Well, I'm gonna be a faithful witness to you gentlemen. Actually, I've got 10 under my floorboards right now and two in my attic, all

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Jews, come on in. Is that what you do? In a fallen world where you've got these colliding principles, do not lie, be a faithful witness and the preservation of human life and love your neighbor as you love yourself.

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When their lives are in danger, you can engage according to Scripture in righteous deception for the preservation of human life.

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Now watch, the danger of telling sinners that you can engage in righteous deception means they'll put that in their pocket and say, that'll be my excuse for everything.

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I didn't tell you the truth because I was just engaging in a little righteous deception. Pastor Jeff says it's fine, engage in a little righteous deception.

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No, no, and if you love the truth, you won't wanna live with that in your pocket to make excuses for yourself.

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That kind of righteous deception is in those extreme cases like they're trying to kill these babies and so you protect their lives.

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You engage in righteous deception to preserve their lives. Does that make sense? In those cases.

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Now, final word here and we are done. How do you summarize this?

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Colossians chapter three in terms of okay, let's grow out of this, let's heal from this.

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In Colossians chapter three, I'm gonna read it to you. These are the words of God. How do we overcome our hearts, our old nature, this life of lies and sin and immorality and idolatry?

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I'm just gonna read the text to you. Colossians chapter three. If then you have been raised up with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

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Set your minds on things that are above not on things that are on earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

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When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

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Put to death therefore what is earthly in you. Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness which is idolatry.

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On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked when you were living in them but now you must put them all away.

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Anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from your mouth.

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Do not lie to one another. Seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices.

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So pause there. These are the words of God. If you're in Christ, here's how you overcome.

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Ready? You have a new identity. You're not the old self. You have a new identity. You've been united to Jesus.

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You're seated with Jesus already in the heavenly places. I know that is incomprehensible and it should feel like that as a creature.

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That's how God sees you as joined to Jesus and already seated with him in the heavenly places.

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That's powerful. And so the call is because that's true, because there's an old self crucified with Jesus and a new one alive in Jesus, he says put to death, mortify these things.

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Kill these things in your life. Put to death all these things. He says put off these things and he says do not lie to one another seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices.

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So as a follower of Jesus, why don't I live like that anymore? Because that's a dead man you're talking about.

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That's a dead woman you're talking about. I'm not the idolater. I'm not the sexually immoral.

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I'm not the liar. I'm joined to Jesus. That's a dead man. I'm raised to newness of life and that's

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Paul's answer for how you and I transform. You've been raised up. You have a new identity.

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That's a dead person. You're alive in Christ. Put these things to death. Put these things away.

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That's an old self. Don't lie to each other because that's old self stuff and his answer is this.

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And have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

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Now go to verse 12. Put on then as God's chosen one's holy and beloved compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other.

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As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

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And above all these, put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.

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Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts.

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And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

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Amen. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Let us treasure it up in our hearts so that we might not sin against you.