Good afternoon, everyone.  Nice to see you all. What a jam-packed hall we have today.  Nice to see you all here.  I had to make sure I wore one of my larger suits after last night!  I hope you had to wear yours too.  It is a nice way to begin the Feast of Unleavened Bread with the Night to be Much Observed with the sharing of friends and families, so it was a really nice evening for all of us.  I hope you had a wonderful one, too.

I want to mention to you:  I am hoping and praying that the offering this year will be a very good one to start off because you know we have fewer people this year.  To have a good offering will give a boost to the Church, boost to the Work and a boost to the budget so we are praying and hoping for that.  I heard from Victor Kubik.  He already wrote me after the Night to Be – he had just gotten back from the Night to be Observed down in Malawi, I believe he was serving down there.  I've also heard from Melvin Rhodes down in South Africa.  Let's see, yes, he was down in the South African area, so one of them is going up to be with the brethren in Zimbabwe after that as well.  So, please keep them in your prayers.  They are serving the brethren in that particular region of the world and I am sure they'll appreciate your prayers, serving them down there.

We're off to my daughter Suzie tomorrow.  We will be driving over there for a couple of days before we drive up to Peter for the Sabbath in Bloomington and then we drive up to Madison, Wisconsin, to do the service on the last Holy Day, I think combined with a couple of churches up in that area.  So, we will be remembering you.  Hope you will remember us.  I will be back for the Bible Study that we have on Wednesday, I think the 27th and then I will be off to Denver on Friday.  I fly out there and hopefully I will have a few more weeks to be back in the Cincinnati area. 

"A very odd bit of sculpture adorns the wall of the grounds of Ribston Hall, Yorkshire, England. It is what is commonly called 'The Two-faced Butler.' On one side there is a face that is all smiles and politeness; on the other side is one that depicts nothing but insolence and impoliteness. It is told that this represents just such a butler who once served the household. One day after having received orders from the mistress of the household, all smiles and groveling, he was seen a moment later when he thought she was not looking, sticking out his tongue at her and making other impolite gestures. So this statue was ordered made and erected in a very prominent spot to both shame him and warn any other servants who might have a tendency to imitate the behavior of the two-faced butler."

How many times have you seen that happen where people smile to those they know because that is the thing to do and afterwards down them when they are not in their presence? During these days of Unleavened Bread, leaven typifies sin but Jesus Christ identified leaven in one other way. In Luke 12 – we read what Jesus Christ said:

Luke 12:1 In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

V.2 – "For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.

So Jesus Christ said:  Beware.  What kind of hypocrisy did these individuals have?  Look at Matthew 23.  We will take a look at them first and then we will take a look at ourselves.  In Matthew 23 Jesus Christ denounces the approach and the attitude that they had.

 

Matthew 23:5 "But all their works they do to be seen by men.  They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments.

They wanted everybody to see how righteous they are by things that they put on – not by how they are.

V.6 – "They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,

V.7 – "greetings in the marketplaces, -

He goes on to say:

V.13 – "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; - you close the door for them – for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.  You are a stumbling block for them and you don't even have that kingdom in front of you.

V.14 – "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses – you take from them; you draw from them; you extract from them – and for a pretense make long prayers.  Come, let me make a long prayer at your house that you may give me a wonderful offering.  Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. 

V.15 – "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, - you go all over the place to try to draw people in - and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

You bring him down to your level and you hurt him.

V.23 – "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin – you take these little herbs and you go through and you count them: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.  One, two, three … you arefastidious about that – and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: You can do the physical things but you don't have the heart for things such as judgment, such as mercy, such as faith.  These you ought to have done.

He is not telling you forget about tithing. He says: without leaving the others undone.  You should be interested in those heart values; you should be interested in that which must come from within: the judgment, the mercy and the faith.

V.25 – "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you cleanse the outside of the cup – make sure it is ceremoniously washed; make sure it has been washed however many times; make sure you wash your hands so many times – and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.

Clean the outside of the cup but what is inside of you?

V.27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs – you can whitewash a gravestone but underneath it is someone who is dead.  It doesn't make it any brighter – which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.

V.28 – "Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

V.29 – "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous.

Yes, you make them look good but you are not like them.  You can do all the exterior, external issues, but you can't do the internal ones. 

Hypocrites – what is a hypocrite?  A hypocrite is one who pretends being what he isn't or he pretends feeling what he doesn't feel.  That is what a hypocrite is.  The Greek word for hypocrisy is hypokrisis.  That means pretense or hypocrisy of play-acting and hypokretes is a pretender and originally came to mean an actor - some body who assumes another role and acts.  Some of those people, I tell you, they act really well. Some of them you like – they are really nice and then you read about them in the society column and they are not very nice at all but they sure played a nice role.  They seem like really nice people.  Hypocrisy – this is what Jesus Christ condemned.

1 Corinthians 5:8 As was read – thank you Mr. Metzel for not stealing too much of my thunder. He knew I was going to give it on this because we had the sermon titles sent out already.  I didn't check with him; he didn't check with me but I appreciated his sermonette. 

1 Corinthians 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast,  - he just talked about Christ, our Passover.  What follows on the heels of the Passover?  Days of Unleavened Bread.  Let us therefore keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread – it says bread in italics – of sincerity and truth. 

I would like to see us all focus, at least partially during this Feast – this is not the only most important thing – but God says, we need to have sincerity and truth.  Sincerity and truth and yet the world lampoons sincerity and truth.  Few realize the value of being truthful and if they do few are willing to be truthful - I am going to read you some quotes in a moment. It is especially hard to be truthful when you know by telling the truth it is not in your best interest.  It is not going to benefit you any to tell the truth.

What is truth?  Here is a definition of truth:  The quality of sincerity and honesty.  The quality of sincerity and honesty - That is one given by Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, and the other one is:  being in accord with the facts, experience, reality.  Being in accord with the facts, experience and reality. So, again, are we people of truth?  Are we sincere?  

Here is the definition of sincerity.  I heard this given out – I don't know if it was here in a sermonette or in one of the areas that I traveled in – they talked about what is sincere.  Sincere means:  without wax, or sincerely means without a false foundation. Apparently back in the days, in the Middle East, they had these urns.  They would sell these vases and when a person was making the vase, if he didn't do it well he would take wax and melt the wax and work that in and cover the fault so that the jar or vase looked perfectly normal except if you held it up to the light you could see it was wax and not real.  It wasn't the true substance all the way through.  So they would try to sell these off to people and they then would say:  Does this urn or vase - is it sincere?  Is it without fault? Is it without pretense?  In other words: is it real? Sincerity: without deceit, pretense or hypocrisy.  

That is why he said, keep these days with sincerity and truth because he said, you don't want to be hypocritical because those who are hypocrites are the ones Jesus Christ was denouncing. Sincerity means this:  the same in actual character as you are in outward appearance.  The same in actual character as you are in outward appearance.  The "what you see is what you get". 

It used to really bother me at times when I would see a man that I knew, regularly day in and day out, and he would be a normal mild mannered kind of guy, nice person, easy to talk to and he got up on the stage, and as soon as he got up here – as they would say, he put his speakers cap on. The next thing you know, he is a tiger.  He walks off the stage and he is a pussycat.  Look, if you are a pussycat, be a pussycat.  The only difference between speaking in an organized way and talking to you conversationally ought to be the largeness of how you present yourself.  Not that you are a different person when you speak than you are in person.  It ought to be the same.  What you see is what you get.  What you see on the outside is how the person is on the inside.  That is the way it ought to be.  Some times it is not so.  It literally means genuine and real; Genuine and real.  You say, boy, that person is real.

Why is this so important?  Why do we need to focus on this?  Because truth has fallen in the streets.  I am going to read you a few quotes here in a moment.  Truth is fallen in the streets and by the way, the apostle John wrote - 93 times he used the word truth or true or truly in his five books:  The gospel, 1, 11, 111 John and Revelation.  He uses true and truth 93 times.  The rest of the New Testament: 90.  He was the last of the apostles.  What was he arguing for God's people to have at the end time?  Truth.  Being truthful is the opposite of being a hypocrite.

I'll share with you some of these comments. I don't want to be giving you too many of the words now because it is not profitable but if you want them, I've got the Greek words for them. 

Let's look at Isaiah 59, first of all.

Isaiah 59:4 No one calls for justice, - here is a prophecy about the people of Israel - nor does any plead for truth.  They don't say, be truthful; let's be honorable; let's be truthful in this. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth.  They trust in empty words and speak lies; they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.

Notice in verse 14:

V.14 – Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off;  - you can't get a fair shake – For truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. You can't get a fair shake because truth is trampled in the streets.

V.15 – So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The person who tries to do good – he get's picked on. Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. 

You have to have truth to have judgment.  Truth is fallen in the streets.

I am going to read to you a few quotes:

Number 5110 – This is from Lee Tan's 7700 quotations or his later one, 15,000.  I think it is the 15,000 one but anyway this is number 5110: "Honor system for tolls failed: During one summer the state of Delaware experimented with the honor system for 20 days on the Delaware Turn Pike.  Motorists without exact change as they exited at the automatic toll-booth were allowed to take appropriately addressed envelopes and mail in the money".  So all you have to do was take an envelope and the gate went up and you drove on. "But in 20 days more than 26,000 envelopes were taken".  How many of them do you think returned?  Only 582.  "Out of 26,000, 582 were returned, according to the Associated Press, and of those returned some contained stamps, pieces of paper instead of money. The experiment cost the state $4000 before it was discontinued but that didn't include the lost tolls."  That was just in all the envelopes and all the special contraptions they needed to have them there – it cost them $4000 just to have the project, not including the tolls. 

There is another one: Number 5111 – I often lie, said the judge.  "When Canada's judge Landreville of the Ontario Supreme Court admitted before a Senate commerce investigating committee that 'I often lie on minor matters' many Canadians were shocked.  A man who is vested with the responsibility for handing out justice who had often commanded those before the bar to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God, had himself handled the truth loosely."

Here is another quote: Number 5115 – "Keeping Uncle Sam honest.  A quote: 'Truth in Government act proposed by representative Donald Frasier, democrat from Minnesota a few years back, would make it illegal for federal officials to lie to private citizens.  'Right now', Frasier says, 'Honesty is a one-way street.  Under the current law it is a crime for a private citizen to lie to a government official but not for a government official to lie to a private citizen.  Perhaps officials should take an oath of honesty when they are sworn in.'"

Here's another one:  Saturday Evening Post.  There appeared an article: "The Government has the right to lie" by Arthur Sylvester, assistant secretary of Defense, 1961 and 1968.  'If I'd been living in the early 19th century in what was then our country's west and had been a religious man I'm sure I would have taken my stand with the lying Baptists against the truthful Baptists.' He was referring to an incident in 1804 in Kentucky when some Baptists were disputing whether they should tell the truth, possibly sacrificing the life of a child in so doing, or whether they should lie to the marauding Indians and possibly save the child."  So he said: I would just lie if it makes a difference.

Let's share with you just a couple of other comments about the frequency of lying.  I had this quote from 1986 and it hasn't changed much but here is what the Gallup Poll said: "63% say that on a whole they are dissatisfied with the honesty of people in this country while only about half that proportion, 33%, are satisfied." 

You see now 40% think lying is justified sometimes.  This is from 2006.  It is a Foxnews.com search and it is entitled:  Public Attitudes About Lying.  "A poll was taken of about 1000 adults and about 4 in 10 think lying is justified sometimes while over half, 52%, said it is never justified."  But listen, be careful, "Of the 52% who said it is never justified, when asked the question: Did you lie in the past week? A number of those people said, yes."  Even though they don't believe in lying when they were asked: Did you lie in the past week?  They said, yes.  "About two-thirds or 65% said it is at least sometimes okay to lie when trying to protect some one's feelings.  About 4 in 10 said to at times exaggerate a story to make it more interesting and/or lying to a child about the parents past misbehavior.  About a third said it is okay at times to lie about one's age and lying about being sick to take a day off work.  Very few thought it was okay to lie on a resume, lie about cheating on your spouse or cheating on your taxes."

Who defends lying the most? Who thinks lying is okay to do, the most?  People between 18 and 29 compared to only 4 in 10 adults 30 and over.  College graduates tend to lie more. They think it is okay to lie more.  People with higher incomes also think it is okay to lie more.

There is one other quote I want to share with you.  Who lies the most – men or women?  "Men tell twice the lies that women do."  Men lie twice as much as women. "Research found men tell six lies a day on average but women come out with just three. A study of 2000 Britons" – now maybe America is better – "also reveal that the most common lie told by both sexes is this: 'Nothing is wrong.  I am fine.'" Nothing is wrong. I am fine – the most common lie. "People say, 'I can tell if people are telling the truth or not because if they were lying they wouldn't look me straight in the eye and sit straight.' They assumed that if someone is hiding the truth they would hide their face and avoid eye contact.  In fact, the opposite is true. Liars usually do everything they can to convince you of the truth: Sitting still, looking straight at you and watching your reaction to them." So don't think you are just going to be able to spot them because that doesn't happen.

While I am here I will just share with you a couple of other comments about definitions.  You see there is more than just a bald faced lie, and by the way, any lie is a lie. If you don't tell the truth – it is a lie.  God doesn't deal in colors:  white, black, red, purple lie, whatever.  He doesn't deal in that.  A lie is a lie.

What is a lie?  Here is a definition from Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary: "Lie - Deliberate false statement; give a false impression." Here is another one: "Insincerity – not genuine."  What's deceptive or deception?  "Deliberately misrepresenting the facts by word or deed." What is a fib?  "A falsehood on a minor matter."

What does it mean to prevaricate?  Do you ever prevaricate?  Here are these words – I wanted to make sure I knew what they meant.  When you prevaricate it means, "To quibble to evade the truth."  So you get them off on another topic so you don't have to tell the truth.  To equivocate is another one.  It means, "To be ambiguous to evade the truth." To fabricate is also part of this deception and hypocrisy. To fabricate means, "To invent a story in order to mislead." To accuse: "To find fault or point the finger at, and usually when you are not sure and certain that you have the facts." Finally, to mislead: "To cause someone to follow a wrong course."  It is not always deliberate.  When you mislead people sometimes you just didn't know enough but it still is not truthful.  It still is not truthful.

Jeremiah 5:1 – In this prophecy in the book of Jeremiah, God counsels Jeremiah to go and run and take a look around the city. What is He looking for?

Jeremiah 5:1 "Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem; See now and know; and seek in her open places – go and look in every place; the big, broad, wide places – if you can find a man, if there is anyone who executes judgment, who seeks the truth, and I will pardon her.

Go take a look.  Run, Jeremiah, run around the city.  Go to the broad way.  Go to the main intersection. Go the main centers of town, to the market places and see if you can find anyone who executes true judgment and who deals in truth.

Are you a truthful person? We need to be truthful. We need to have truth in our lives as the apostle John urged the brethren so many times in his writings as the last of the original apostles.  Let's take a look from the scriptures and see how we may be truthful.

First of all, to be truthful you must know what the truth is. You must know the truth. Now let's take it to knowing the Bible, thinking about it, but it is about anything. You must know the truth. The Bible condemns people who speak about those things that they don't even know. Remember when Jesus Christ was being on trial? People were standing out there quoting the books I read. The people out there, they were just saying: Crucify Him! Crucify Him! They didn't know why they were saying it.  A lot of people shoot off their mouths and they don't even know what they are saying.  They don't know the facts.  I often say to somebody: Were you there? You are saying this about them, were you there? Well, no.  Then how do you know? How can you say this?  You weren't there.  Often times we say things we don't know so you need to know the truth.

What is truth? Scripturally speaking, Bible speaking, Christian speaking, we need to know the Bible.  We need to know God's word. We need to understand and know it.  You need to know the truth and if it is about any topic or subject or situation – you need to know the truth.  You need to know the truth.

John 17:17 "Sanctify them through Your truth. Your word is truth.

How did He say God's people should be set apart?  I have read this many times but it just struck me now:  Sanctify them, set them apart, through your truth.  How does God recognize His people?  They are not hypocrites.  They are truthful. They are men and women of truth but in order to be a man or a woman of truth, a boy or a girl of truth, and I am talking to young people too, it's not fair and right to lie and cheat to get away with things.  You cheat or lie or become a hypocrite or play act – you don't help yourself at all.  To win through cheating is a hollow victory at best.

He says: Sanctify them through Your truth.  Set them apart through Your truth.  Your word is truth.

So first of all we need to know the truth.  We need to study God's word.  We need to be conversant with it.  We need to understand it.  We need to be able to keep our hearts and minds in it and let it guide our hearts and minds.

How do you know the truth?  God's Holy Spirit will lead you into it. It is amazing - I am shocked – Sometimes I sit there and watch these people and I can't believe these people are on television saying these things.  I can't believe that this person is a representative and he is making these comments.  He is a government representative and he is making these comments!  I can't believe these comments but he thinks people are going to believe it.  He obviously does or he wouldn't be saying it.  There is just so much blather coming out.  It doesn't have anything to do with truth and we say, what?  I am not in government, I am not a governmental official, I am not a politician and I am not in politics but I sure see that that is not true.  Why does he think people are not going to recognize that?  Because people don't deal in truth.  God's spirit leads you into the truth. Notice:

John 16:13 "However, when He, the spirit of truth, - you see, God's spirit in us begs us to be truthful; God's spirit in us leads us to be truthful; it won't make us be truthful but it makes it possible for us to be truthful.  God's spirit being within us leads us in the truth.

V.13 –, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. "However, when He, the spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; - God's spirit leads you down the path of truth.  That's the way it wants you to go.  It is the way it begs us to be. - for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

So in order to be truthful we have to know the truth.  We have the word of God to help distinguish – when you talk about truth as far as spiritually is concerned; you have the spirit of God dwelling in you to lead you to see and understand and discern and ask the proper questions.  Sometimes I just say, well, how do you know that?  Why would you say that?  Where is your proof?  A lot of people don't do that. Ask questions! God's spirit in you leads you to say, where is the truth here?  I want to know the truth.  God's spirit will lead us to the truth. 

As we study God's word, God will show us the truth and God's time-tested God-inspired methodology will lead you and help you.  His word will guide you; will be there to guide you down the paths of righteousness and truthfulness.

2 Timothy 2:15 Study (or do diligence, the New King James says) to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

It takes effort to study God's word to arrive at truth.  For instance:  in the offertory it was read, six days you'll keep the days of Unleavened Bread and on the seventh is a Holy Day.  Oh, well, there must only be one Holy Day here.  That is not rightly dividing the word of truth.  If you want to know the truth on this subject, what do you do?  Go back to Leviticus 23 and see what he says there.  He says there you have two Holy Days but if you just took that one scripture you will say there is only one because it says keep it for six days and on the seventh you will have a Holy Day. 

Study the word of God; rightly dividing the word of God; not pulling a section out here and a section out of there.  The old famous statement of, if you are against people wearing their hair up in a bun, you say, top not come down. Where do you get that scripture from?  Matthew 24 – let him that is on the mountaintop not come down - you take one part out of the scriptures.

You can prove there is no God by the scriptures.  Psalm 14 says there is no God. See, the Bible even tells you there is no God – if you want to misread it and not rightly divide it, because prior to saying there is no God it says:  The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." (verse1).

Rightly divide the word of God. Study it; be a workman who gets into it and who studies.  I want to know the truth.

I often tell my class, when I used to go visiting – the first years when I was a new minister I had this big briefcase that was almost like the type of case a pilot carries.  I had my concordance and I had my dictionary and I had my Bible – two different translations.  When we came up to the door, they thought we were selling encyclopedias or something!  We were there to visit somebody but we wanted to be ready to whip out our Bibles and whip out our concordances and then we got to be a little bit less than that.  We started taking fewer and fewer items in with us but when I would go into the houses I wondered, I wonder if they would stump us with a question?  I came to realize, nobody can ask me a question about the Bible that I don't believe.  If it is in your Bible, I believe it.

They say, well it says you are justified right here – justified by faith without the works of the law.  I agree with that. What?  I thought you agree at keeping law.  I do. It says here you are justified. I agree.  It all comes in the meaning of the word, justified. You cannot stump me with the Bible because I believe it.  I may not understand it but if it is there, I believe it.  Study the word of God that you may know it and that you may be conversant with it so that it becomes you friend.  So know the truth - that is number one: having a basis and understanding of the truth.

Now we can move on to the next part and that is: speaking the truth.  When we talk we have to be truthful people. Speaking the truth is no excuse for being cruel; it is no excuse for being blunt; it is no excuse for being hurtful. I covered with students counseling with me from time to time, the subject of assertion. Assertion means: I have a right to express myself and you have a right to express yourself.  I can say what I feel and you can say what you feel but never in a hurtful way.  It doesn't give you the right to say: Now I'm taking off on you.  It doesn't give you that right and speaking the truth must always be in love. 

Ephesians 4:15 – Speaking the truth in love.  Speak the truth.  That is the first thing we need to do. Jesus Christ spoke it; God looks for us to be speaking it; He looks for us to speak truth.

Do you speak the truth or do you prevaricate, or do you fabricate or do you equivocate?  You get people that dance around – I call them, around the bush people. Not a former President. They just like to beat around the bush.  Dance round this part of the bush; dance around that part of the bush; they never tell you straight!  Speak it straight. Not hurtful, but straight. 

You know what one girl used to do?  She didn't want to date a particular guy.  The guy would come on the phone and the mother would answer the phone and say it is so and so, you know what she would do?  She would quickly step outside the door and then her mother would say: I am sorry, she just stepped out.  Another dodge she used was when a call came from somebody she didn't want to date and didn't want to say no to, didn't want to say, I'm sorry, I don't want to date you, she would run upstairs, jump in her bed and her mother would say: I am sorry, she has just gone to bed.  Or, to tell somebody you don't want to date: I think I am going to get a headache tonight.

Tell the truth.  Don't be hurtful; don't be cruel but tell the truth.  Speak the truth.

Matthew 22:15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk.

V.16 – And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are true (truth full).

What a nice statement for people to say to you.  We know you are true. Can people say that of you?  When I talk to him or her, I know they are true.  They don't pretend; they are who they are; they are real.  Is that how people talk about you? 

V.16 - They said: we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; When You speak, You speak the truth – nor do You care about anyone – You don't try to put on for anybody – for You do not regard the person of men.

You don't speak one way to this person and one way to that person.  You speak the truth. We need to speak the truth.

In Zechariah 8 verse 16 is a future prophecy.  Won't this be a wonderful time?  This is a millennial scripture. 

Zechariah 8:16 These are the things you shall do: Here's what you need to do in this Jerusalem that we are rebuilding; here are the things you need to do: Speak each man the truth to his neighbor;

Do you speak the truth or do you magnify the truth? Do you enlarge the truth when it benefits you and minimize the truth when it might not benefit you?  I got a fish this big; I just made this one little tiny mistake (I wrecked your car), this one tiny little mistake. Do you speak the truth unfettered, unembellished, not minimized?  Do you tell the truth?  Not fabricated and not equivocated and not prevaricated and not a fib; tell the truth.  Not white – because there is no white lie.  It is just a lie.  Tell the truth. 

V.16 - …Speak each man the truth to his neighbor; Give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace;

That's what God says we will be doing in the Millennium.  We will be speaking the truth.  Go to Ephesians 4. He talks about the perfecting of the saints and how we have to become better, how we are growing, how we are overcoming, how we are becoming more like Christ and less like ourselves. 

Ephesians 4:15 but, speaking the truth in love, - not in hate; not in hurt; not to batter somebody; not to bash somebody. 

As a councilor we are always told - you might be honing in on somebody's problem as a councilor - you always give them wiggle room. If they want to wiggle out of it, you let them, but you are honing in; you are not being brutal.  I had one guy that I trained under and not that I trained under him - I did not like his style at all and I do not use his style.  He was called the butcher.  I saw him bring a grown lady to tears, big time, in a group setting by his butchering.  That is not the way you want to be.  The other councilors would say, give them wiggle room.  If they want to wiggle out of something, give them a chance to do it. Don't nail them to the wall. Bring the truth to them. Don't back off from truth but don't press it so hard that you nail them to the wall.  Give them a chance to wiggle away if that is what they would like to do and then they will think about what truth you brought to them and maybe they will come to repentance afterwards. 

V.15 – but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him – remember what Jesus Christ spoke?  The truth?  Remember what it said about Jesus Christ? He was true. – may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ.

Notice also verse 25:

V.25 – Therefore, putting away lying, "Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor," (that comes from that quote in Zechariah 8:16) … speak truth with his neighbor," for we are members of one another. 

If we are members one of another don't you want to all be truthful?  You don't want to have a truth and a liar, and a truth and a liar, and a truthfulness and a liar and a truthful liar – you want to be truthful, all truthful.  So speak the truth.  That is the second part. 

Know the truth; speak the truth.

The third one is: love the truth.  How can we be sincere?  How can we keep these days with sincerity and truth?  How can we do that? How can we be sincere and truthful? Love the truth.  Do you love the truth?  Do you love God's word? 

We find that at the end-time there is going to be somebody around who does not love the truth.

2 Thessalonians 2:10 and with all unrighteous deception  - I am breaking into a thought: this one who claims he is God; sits in the temple of God; holds down the truth; does not want to see the gospel go out; mystery of iniquity already working.

V.10 – and with all unrighteous deception – deceiving people; he is misleading them remember, deliberately so – among those who perish, - and why?  Why would people be able to be deceived and led away by miracles by some false religious leader?  Why might they be tempted to walk away from truth? Notice:

V.10 ……they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

Do you love the truth?  Is truth something that you want to embrace and hold onto, be close to, adore?  We need to hold on to the truth. 

Notice Psalm 119 – a few scriptures in this particular section.  There are several others that talk about it: buy the truth and don't sell it; hunger and thirst after righteousness, which is God's law and God's way.  Notice in Psalm 119 how many times David, the psalmist, extolled the law of God, extolled the word of God, extolled the truth of God. 

Psalm 119:47And I will delight myself in Your commandments, which I love.

You know, Unleavened Bread is about taking leavening out of our homes and as Mr. Metzel mentioned, putting in something else: That the law of God may be in your mouth; that truthfulness may be in your mouth, and you eat that unleavened bread – we had our egg-and-onion today with some butter on it and last night Mrs. Fenger makes some pretty delicious unleavened bread, and I said, this doesn't even taste like affliction.  This is great!  It was good bread – very tasty. Each one brought some unleavened bread to the restaurant we went to and it was delicious.  We said:  Wow, this is really good stuff.

As you eat that bread, whatever it is – whether you crunch it or whether you salivate with it, think [that] you are putting the law of God in your mouth; you are putting truth in.  He says in verse 47 – I will delight myself in Your commandments, which I love.

V.48 – My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on Your statutes.

Notice also in this section:

V.97 – David said this: Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.

The students in class have heard me say from time to time, I love this scripture.  I love that scripture.  I do love those scriptures.  They are awesome.  There are some of them that stand out better than others. Some of them are so great.

I love the one in Ephesians that says, God, who can do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask.  I think it is Ephesians 3:20.  God does exceeding abundantly above all.  Wow!  He doesn't just do what I ask. He doesn't just do part of it: He does it all.  He doesn't just do it all - He does it abundantly.  He does it exceeding abundantly.  He does above all that I ask.  I love that scripture. 

I love this scripture: Micah 7:18 where God says He delights in mercy.  He delights in mercy.  God loves to tell people, you are forgiven, if people believe and repent.  He loves to tell them, you are forgiven. That is pretty awesome.

Psalm 130:3 where he says: If You Lord, should mark iniquities, O lord, who could stand?

V.4 – But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.

God, You don't hold it against us.  You don't stand there with Your red pencil, with Your black book, and ready to write names in and x us out.  Who could stand if You mark iniquity?  But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared. 

There are so many beautiful scriptures.  Love the truth, brethren.  Love it. Don't be caught unawares because those are the ones who can be deceived: the people who don't love the truth.

Finally, the fourth area: Live the truth.

I can love it and I can know it and I can speak it and that is fine but what do I do in my life?  What do you do in your life?  Are you without wax? Are you genuine? Are you the real thing? Sometimes you think you know people and you think, now is that the real thing? And then you find out later how they are. Which one is the real thing? I don't know. Do you know? Sometimes you meet people and I think well, is this the real person?  Maybe that is the real person. Which one is the real person?

1 John 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word – Oh, you talk a lot about love – or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

Our lives have to be led by truth and as we walk the way, we need to walk in truth.  We need to walk with God because that is where God would lead us, in truth. In fact, if we are going to worship God we must worship God in spirit and in truth.

God doesn't want you to prevaricate; God doesn't want you to fabricate; He doesn't want you to come before Him and tell Him some story. He wants you to tell him the truth.  Do you remember David?  He couldn't see himself, could he?  There was a story that was made up to help him see the truth and after that do you know what David said? I have sinned.  I have sinned.

God wants to hear truth from us.  He doesn't want to hear alibis; He doesn't want to hear excuses when we come to Him to repent. Now there are times when we want to discuss something: God, should I do it this way or should I do it that way.  God why are you doing this to me?  It is okay to complain to God but it is not good to complain about God.  You can complain to Him if you want – complain to Him but not about Him.  You can lay out your case: This is what I have here.  It is not about repentance.  When we are wrong, just admit it. Don't give Him a song and dance.  He doesn't want a song and dance; He wants truth.

John 4:23 "but the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

V.24 – "God is Spirit, (there is no indefinite article in the Greek) and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

God wants truthful worshipers; He wants true worshipers; He wants us to live our lives in a truthful manner. The apostle John begged the people to walk in truth. He loved it when he saw the brethren walking in truth.  Notice in this very short letter:

2 John 3 – Grace, mercy and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

V.4 – He said, I am so happy - I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth.

We've got to walk in the truth.  It's got to become us.  That is what we've got to be – in the truth.  He said:  I am so happy when I see some of your children walking in the truth, as we received commandment from the Father.

3 John 3 – [For] I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, - brethren could tell that Gaius was a truthful man.  People come and tell mehow truthful you are – just as you walk in the truth. They know you live your life in a true manner. You walk in the truth.

V.4 – I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

We've got to live the truth.  You can't just pretend; it can't be something we put on a shelf; it can't be something we just read; it can't be something we just love.  We've got to do it; we've got to live it.

1 Peter 1:22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth – you obey it; youwalk in it; you live it; you do it – through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, - See, when you live in the truth you are not going to pretend you love the brethren.  It isnot going to be a put-on.  You love them. – Love one another fervently with a pure heart.

Sincerity – a pure heart, fervently; that you have deep abiding care and love for them.  We need to walk in the truth.

Philippians 1:10 The apostle Paul wrote to the church that he loved: that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ.

That you may be without wax; that you may be sincere to the time of the end.

I want to read to you only one quote.  I had a number of quotes – they are some Hebrew quotes but since I couldn't find my original quotation book – I looked all over and couldn't find it I am not going to use that, but I will quote from this one that is entitled: The whit and wisdom of Abraham Lincoln.  Only one story:

It is entitled: "Honest Abe" and I am breaking into part of the story.  "It was during his shop keeping days in New Salem that young Lincoln earned the reputation for integrity that lead to the handle: Honest Abe. The nickname stuck with him for succeeding years and careers.  The following incident illustrates why.

"Soon after his store went out of business Abraham Lincoln received his first political appointment.  At the age of 24 he was named Post Master of New Salem and this is a job for which he was paid an annual salary of $55.70" Wow! Annual - not weekly and not daily and not monthly, annual. "In 1836 the New Salem Post Office was closed"  - So obviously it wasn't such a great thing after all, "but in those days beaurocracy was even slower than today and it was several years before an agent arrived from Washington to settle the accounts with the ex-post master, Lincoln.

"By that time Lincoln had started a fledgling law practice and was struggling to make ends meet." He wasn't making much money.  "When the agent located him at his law office and informed him that $17 was due the government, Lincoln walked across the room, pulled out an old trunk, opened it up, removed the yellowed-cotton rag bound with a string, he untied it and spread out the cloth and there was $17. The agent expressed surprise to see that the money had been untouched after these years even though Lincoln was living in poverty.  Lincoln explained:  'I never used any man's money but my own.'"

One of the stories that led to the legend – by the way there were only two presidents that were known for their honesty: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. What a sad commentary of all of our leaders that that title is not attached to every single one.

Satan the Devil is called a liar and the father of lies.  When we are not truthful, when we are false, that's whose side we are on.

John 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

He is the one that changed the truth into a lie, remember?  Romans 1:25 – I am not going to go there.  He changed the truth into a lie but you see when Jesus Christ came to this earth, what did He bring? What did He come with?  What was His equipment?

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

When Jesus Christ came into the world He was full of grace and truth.  Notice:

V.17 – For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ brought truth into the world. In John 14:6 He declared what He was like. Could we say this? 

John 14:6 Jesus said to Him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

I am the truth; I live the truth; I walk in the truth; I speak the truth.  When He comes back, what is going to be written on His vesture and on His thigh?  King of Kings, Lord of Lords, but who is He?  He is one who is called faithful and true – Revelation 19:11. What is Jerusalem going to become where God dwells? The city of truth. The city of truth because that is where God is going to dwell.

Every day in our lives brethren, we need to get up in the morning and when we put on our clothes we need to remember to put on our belt.  Don't forget that belt because right across the mid-section - it is at the core of your being and the core of my being.

Ephesians 6:14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth. 

Part of our armor that we put on every day is the belt of truth.  The very core of our being has to be the truth. Put it on everyday so that you might be truthful. Let's keep this Feast with sincerity and truth

1 Corinthians 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

May you have a wonderful feast, continuing to grow in Godliness; continuing to overcome various and sundry shortcomings in our lives.  Have a great rest of the Feast.