Am I an Agent of Truth?

Here we are in God's Sabbath day. This day is more than just a day off. This day is more than just a day to worship God. This is a day that teaches us about the future of mankind. It teaches us about that future on several levels. For some, it says in Ephesians 1 and verse 4, he has chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before him and love at this time, a first fruit. To others, there is a witness that is going out, and as they are living life the best way they know how, they will ultimately come to the conclusion that that is not the best way to live life, because the way that seems right to a man ends up in fractured relationships and ultimately a lifeless eternity. There is another thing that this day pictures, and that is the time when a resurrection will take place and others will have it put in their mind for the first time. Ultimately, as it says here in Ephesians 1 and verse 4, everyone will understand that they are chosen. Everyone will come to understand the purpose for life is to become like God, to be holy and without blame before him, with the same mentality that he has. Matthew 5 verse 48 is a very short scripture, but it really gives us, from the lips of God's Son, what his intent for us is, and that is to become like him. He created us to look like him, but he wants us to develop a mindset like him. Jesus said, Be you therefore perfect. Some can interpret that as become because we have the struggle. We never reach it. Paul, at the end of his life, said, I am not perfect, but I am struggling and I am trying. So in that sense, we are to develop this nature of God. Become you therefore perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. You know, your Father is somebody that precedes you. He is one who teaches you how to be like him, to develop his mindsets, his ways. He corrects you. He directs you. And so our Father in heaven is one who is steering us to put off the childish mentalities, the humanistic ways, and to mature into thinking as he does. Your and my do-or-die purpose on this earth is to become like God in our mind. And I say do or die because if we don't, then eternal death or a lifeless state is the future. If we do, we are presented with a wonderful opportunity to join in that family. The question is, do you or I really want to be like our parents, our spiritual parents? In fact, there are two options. You can have the mind of one parent or if the other one appeals to you, you can have the mind of that parent. Father or Satan? And it's sort of the parent of choice. We're presented with the parent of choice. Jesus said, I'm coming quickly and my reward is with me. Okay, choose your parent. Choose your mindset. One gets life and one does not. Now, many people support godliness. They say, I'm for God. Yep, I'm for God. I support what God is and how he thinks and everything else. Well, that doesn't count. I mean, how many times does the Bible tell us and Jesus himself tell us, Manny will come to me in that day saying, Lord, Lord, we've done this, we've done that. And he said, I don't know you. Get out of here. You know, you have a different mindset. You practice a lawlessness, the lack of doing what I've commanded you to love one another. In Mark, in Mark, chapter seven and verse six, Jesus speaks to those of us, all of us included at times who would say, Oh, I really like God. I really like the Bible. I really like, you know, Jesus Christ. I really like all this stuff, but it's not about liking it. It's about being it.

And Jesus says here in Mark seven, verse six, he answered and said to them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites. Oh, I really like this, but you see, I don't do it. I'm not it. I'm not developing, but I really stand for that. Well, that he prophesied you hypocrites, as it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. So don't ever get it in your mind that, Oh, yeah, I'm associated with the right God. You know, I'm attending the right church. I have the right laws. I have the right concepts. We have the right doctrines, you see, because if we honor that with our lips, but our heart is somewhere else, then it accounts for nothing. In James chapter one and verse 22, James one and verse 22, I just want to nail this down before we begin the topic for today, because in all that I've tried to teach, and hopefully God has been inspiring the various topics, the various elements of the mentality of God that we're to grow up into, we've got to realize these aren't just things to support. They're not just things that say, Oh, yes, that's a good message. That's a good sermon.

There are things we have to be. In James one, beginning in verse 22, it says, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. See, there's a hypocrisy that exists. Who am I talking about? I'm talking about me. All right. I'm talking about me. There's a hypocrisy that exists. Paul was talking about him when he said, that which I want to do, I don't do. It's a hypocrisy. That which I stand for, I do the opposite of. I'm a hypocrite. And that's where we find ourselves part of the time. We say, how could I think that? How could I do that when I am a person that really stands for something else?

This is the reason why we need to be cleansed. We need to get on our knees and repent. We need to open up the mind and look in there with God's help and say, you know what? I'm just carnal. I am just so self-centered. I'm so about me and what I want to do that I justify it all and somehow make it sound religious. But no, we deceive ourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. Notice he didn't say a woman. He said a man. Because now here's why. Now come on. A woman remembers. If you don't believe it, next time you lose your keys, who's going to find him for you? So you look at yourself in the mirror, you observe yourself. Verse 24, go away and immediately forget what kind of man he was. Can you remember what color shirt he's wearing? And he's got it on. But that's the way we are, you see. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word, this one will be blessed in what he does. Because there's a character that's being developed. There's a decision-making pattern that's going on. And after a while, that's where the heart is.

Today, I'd like to bring another vital ingredient of the mind of God that you and I need to have. It is so important. We need to grow in this. And it is truth. Truth. Absolute, pure truth. Now, truth does not exist except within the divine family. Outside of that, I personally see no evidence of pure truth. If you look for it, you may find the same thing. Truth is solely a trait of theirs, of God the Father and his Son. But being like them requires us to develop truth. Their truth. And it's very, very difficult for us. Because as much as you think you're truthful and honest and accurate, try writing something down sometime and passing it to somebody for editing and see if they can't find something that's not 100% accurate. And yet, we pick up the Bible and we see it as truth. And it's so inspiring. I was talking to my father this morning in Texas. He was saying, you know, I just love reading the Bible and I go back and I see things that either I have not seen before or I see them in a different way. And I was mentioning to him, I said, you know, it's just the most unique book in the world because no matter what you read, you're either seeing it, you think for the first time because you tend to forget, or you're seeing it from a different perspective based on where you are or events in your life or what you've been reading. It is just unique, but it is truth in its originally inspired form. And yet, pick up another book. I was in some bookstores at the airport on our trip and in Amsterdam going through books and thumbing through books. I never picked up anything there that I would ever want to read twice. You know, you wouldn't think, oh, this book, I just want to go back and read the nuance of a sentence to capture some meaning for life or some direction. No, it's just words on a page, somebody's ideas. And I ended up putting all of them back down and thinking, I didn't really care for the author's ideas. And yet, the Bible is so different. Truth does not exist outside the divine family, and yet you and I are called to be like our Father, and He is truth. Now, there's a challenge. And if you've done writing or editing or speaking, you want to be accurate, truthful, and yet you're human. A famous person once asked the question, what is truth? What is truth? You know, Pontius Pilate posed the question to the one called truth. I am the way, the truth, and the life. And he asked the question, what is truth to the one who was truth? I thought it was kind of interesting.

Scriptures say, let God be true and every man a liar. And that's the case in my situation, because my brain, the words, the concepts, you know, my memory, all combined to come out with things that I wouldn't really want written down. To pass, you know, some scrutiny of the accuracy board, the accuracy police. But there is another type of inaccuracy, and that is intentional. That's certainly not what I would try to do or you would try to do. And yet there are some that is actually intentional. Well, God is the agent, the sole agent of pure truth. Satan is the sole agent of pure lies and of deception and of false information. We can go back to Genesis and see an account here in the second chapter of God who came along and was working with Adam and Eve. And throughout the second chapter, we see him doing things that are helping. He creates a helper for the man. He creates the surroundings, the environment, whereby they can grow and prosper. And then chapter three, we're introduced to someone else. The serpent was more cunning, and he begins to ask the question, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of everything in the garden?

God put two trees in the garden, and he said that in verse 9 of chapter 2, the tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God commanded them not to eat of one.

But this deceiver came along and says in verse 4, if you eat of that fruit, you will not surely die. Now that's a lie.

Then he goes on, for God knows that in the day you eat of it. Notice here, God knows. He's saying, God is lying to you. God knows something more, but He's not being honest with you. There's something wrong with this God. He knows something here, and He's not telling it to you. He knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you'll be like Him, knowing good and evil. And He's keeping that from you. And here's a rumor, and here's some condemnation, and here's some innuendo, and here's some slander against God. And so what happened? Verse 6, the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and she saw that God was lying to them, and God was dishonest, and God was not to be trusted. See what happens here. The lack of truth is not just a technicality. It's actually a power, and it has a reason. Falsehood, in all of its forms, exaggeration, innuendo, a lying deception, a false witness, slander, all of these things are tools for a purpose, and the purpose is self-promotion. Satan was promoting Satan. He wasn't doing anything for God, and he certainly wasn't doing anything for Adam or Eve. He was promoting himself, and he uses this lack of truth for self-promotion. It's very important that you and I understand why we are to be truthful, honest, where we are to be like God. It's not just a technicality. Accurate, inaccurate, you get the buzzer, you don't. No, it goes back to the concept of God is love. Man is self-centered. We've got to develop the mindset of God, and this thing of a lack of accuracy or outright lying in any of its forms is the opposite of love and serve. It is all about self-promotion and hurting others and not even caring about others in the process. If you look at what sin is, just analyze the Ten Commandments. Don't put other things before God. Don't disrespect God in any way. Remember to keep the Sabbath, and then it rolls over to your fellow man. Your parents and others don't harm them. Don't take advantage of them. Don't in any way promote yourself above them and be careless when it comes to them. Because sin is about me, and all of those commandments and any sin is defined as about me exclusively, and it doesn't really care what happens to others in the process. And in fact, sometimes we'll reduce them like Satan tried to do to God. They're in relationship to Adam and Eve. It'll reduce them. It'll slander them. It'll try to hurt others or get rid of them, blow them away, cut them off at the knees or whatever, and move forward. Sometimes it's willingly. Sometimes it's carelessly. Careless just means to care less about someone. I'm sorry I hurt you. I didn't mean to hurt you. Why? I was just thinking about me, just blowing my way through.

It's kind of like anything you see on TV or in the movies. I'm just ramming my way through, and I've got all these casualties, but I've got the big vehicle, or I've got the big gun, or I've got this. I'm just blowing my way through. Oh, sorry. Well, truth is power, and it's power for someone else. This is where it hurts to be truthful, because whenever you're honest and you're truthful like God is, it gives the power to other people.

I don't know if you've analyzed that before. I'm beginning to see that truth can hurt you. Truth can put you at a disadvantage. Truth can expose you. Truth can make you in a weak position, because it empowers others to know exactly what the details are for their success. And that's not a good thing for human nature. Falsehood, however, is power for you. It enhances you. It embellishes you. It gives you the power. By being false, deceptive, misleading, rumor-mongering, gossiping, saying things that aren't quite accurate about others, gives you all the power. And in fact, if you learn to do it well, you can reduce the playing field to where you're the last man or woman standing. See, falsehood, gives you the power. But, warning, if you are truthful, like your Father in heaven and like Jesus Christ, you will be in a weak position. Others will have the strength.

See, if you come back to the two trees, what God says is, there's two trees. You have to choose which one. Do you want to eat off the one that my son and I are of? Do you want that mindset? If so, you're going to be humbling yourself. You're going to be a servant to others. You're going to place yourself in a disadvantage. You might even end up losing your life like we did. You'll end up giving away an entire inheritance of all that exists in the universe. You're going to lose your own inheritance. You know, Jesus Christ inherits everything. He was given everything by the Father. And by having truth given to you about the way of life and how to reach the Kingdom, He loses it all. He loses His life. He gives His blood. And He loses His inheritance forever.

Now, if He wanted to protect His inheritance, He would have lied to us. He would have slipped us a little stuff that wasn't quite accurate. It would put Him on a bigger playing field, and He would have ended up with a whole pile. See how that works? So now they present us with the two trees. And man says, ooh, I'll have the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I'll have the one up here. I'll have the power for me. The first tree, actually, was power to you from God. But it put Him at a disadvantage.

Power to you from God. The power to know, the power to do, the power to succeed, the power to ultimately prevail and be on an equal footing in the family of God. That's power to you. The second tree gives power to Satan. It lets Satan control, reduce, take advantage, prevent you from any future. It gives him the power to take away the opportunities that God is offering you and me. And we saw that with Adam and Eve. They instantly fell, were booted out of the Garden of Eden, and they lost everything. But they gave it all. They gave the power to Satan by eating off of that tree. Jesus said in John chapter 8 and verse 44, words that could apply and do apply to all of us, because we are of the human family. We do put the mindset of human nature or Satan's nature before all. And he says in John 8.44, you are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer, it says. See, he encourages sin, and the result of sin when you sin is eternal death. That's why he's a murderer. He didn't go around murdering people. Satan has a murder of people. Satan hasn't killed anybody, if you haven't noticed. He's not able to kill anybody. But he's a murderer forever. That's his intent, is to get people to do those things by which they lose their eternal life and die a death that keeps them out of the kingdom of God.

From the very beginning, he did that to Adam and Eve. Had they partaken of the tree of life, well, I can't say exactly what would have happened. They didn't.

But they took something else, and at least temporarily, it prevented them from obtaining eternal life. He does not stand in the truth. Notice how truth here is so crucial. It's the key point to eternal life, to being in the kingdom of God. He does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him. He wants to be the big one on the playing field. He wants no competition. And the last thing he wants happening is any human being being resurrected and being part of the kingdom of God and a ruler with Jesus Christ, because he wants to be all the rule. Therefore, he's trying to get everybody else disqualified. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he's a liar and the father of it. This is how lying and keeping people from life go together. Satan is in competition with you and me. He wants you to fail, and these are his tools. And truth is a tool that he hates because it gives you power. Satan is a murderer. He takes your life. He's a liar. He takes away your ability to know, to decide the right things. He messes up the map. He sends you in a different direction. It's a common tactic in warfare. If you think of two armies going head to head, what do they do? Well, the first thing is they want to give misinformation or disinformation. The last thing an army on the other side wants you to know is what they're planning. So they'll fake an attack. You know, D-Day, they faked an attack somewhere else up the coast.

Disinformation. What are the common tactics of competition? You could say the same thing on a sports team. What do they do? Well, they're over there. They kind of point this way, kind of point that way. They put a runner up on the line. They have him go out and make a whole bunch of stuff. And the guy looks like he's going to throw to him. See? Or the basketball player comes up and he looks like he's going to shoot. Does a fake? Fakes you out. Competition in business and everything. It's all the same. Keep it secret. Lie about others. Fake. Disinformation. Deception.

And then cut him off at the knees. In you end, accusation. Slander. And the result of it all is somebody wins and you lose. Or you win and somebody else loses. And at the end of the You see it in politics. The deception, the lies, the speaking of things, and the slandering of others. And at the end of the day, the votes come in and the person says, well, I just like to say, I know I lost, but I'd like to congratulate the victor. It ran a better campaign than I do. We'd like to thank the winning team or the losing team. We all tried our best here, but somebody won.

Let's go to 1 Timothy 4 in the first couple of verses. 1 Timothy 4 says, And now the Spirit of God expressly says in the latter days. We believe that the end of this current age is about to wrap up. And the biblical prophecies about the end of this time are beginning to show. And in the latter days, it says, some will depart from the faith. Now, Satan wants to prevent you from being successful. How is he going to go about that? Well, let's read. Giving he to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own consciences seared with a hot iron.

You see how the lack of truth goes with people missing out on the reward of eternal life when Jesus returns. Now, if we compare that to the God family mentality, what does Jesus say? He says, I am the way. I reduce my stature. I sacrifice my life. I let myself be slandered. I let my blood be spilled. I am the way for you. The next thing he is is the truth.

I have provided you with a truthful pathway to success. It's the real map. It's the real deal. It's the real trail. It's difficult. It's narrow. I've outlined it for you. You don't have to wonder, did I leave out any missing, you know, steps? Did I slip in something subtle where you'll mess up? No, it's the true pathway to success. In John 14, verses 2-4, he tells us clearly that this is his intent, that he wants us to be successful, and he's providing us with the right information. John 14, verse 1 says, let not your heart be troubled.

You trust God. Trust also in me. Trust me. Develop a trust. Could we trust God if he wasn't truth? In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. Now, verse 3, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also.

We can count on that. He is going to come back. He's going to take us to that place so we can be with him. Now, verse 4, and where I go, you know, and the way you know. The way you know. I've told you before how Monty and I stood in the tomb of the great pyramid over in Egypt and saw the way to heaven written on all the walls, all the way in the paths and what you said to that person, the password to get by him and go on to the next step as you wound your way through the stars of heaven.

Now you go to the next pyramid. Oh, guess what? It's a little different. Somebody else wrote it out. Go to the next one. Oh, different. Another direction, another pathway, other, you know, bunch of junk. But the way you know is because of truth. These are tools in our favor. This is something we can absolutely believe on. But now let's notice once again these same verses. Verses 2. I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. Verse 3. A place for you. I will receive you where I am. You may be also. Verse 4. And where I go, you know. And the way you know. You see the power that's being given to you and me by truth?

It's not about God. It's not about Him. He's transferring us power. It's about us having that knowledge, that power, that right, that opportunity. That's what truth does. It empowers the individual who is receiving truth. And that's why, brethren, if you and I want power, we're in the wrong place. This isn't the mindset.

That we're to have of self-centeredness. If we want power, we need to go to the great power monger and learn from Him. To the power brokers of the world. To the sports teams. To the politicians. We need to go to the armies of the world and learn how to get control through keeping all truth to ourselves and giving out falsehood to others.

Jesus said, I'm the way, I'm the truth. And now He says, I'm offering you life. I'm offering you brother of God status.

Co-inheritance of the universe. You win everything. That's what truth does. You begin to see the importance of truthfulness and honesty. The point of being forthright, forthright to when others would like that. They would benefit from that. It would put you at a disadvantage. But by giving them absolute facts and truth and being honest and forthright, it would give them power. It would give them the stronghold, the high place, the better position, the better tools by which their lives would improve. But that kind of brutal honesty would put you in a weaker place. Jesus said in Matthew 6, love your enemies. Can you imagine being honest with an enemy? Can you imagine what would happen if you gave the stronghold, the higher place, the higher position, gave all the the tools of victory to an enemy?

Jesus is saying, give them the truth so they can succeed. Sounds the opposite of wise, doesn't it? He didn't say, you know, call up a thief and give them your bank account numbers and, you know, all that. You don't go and do something that's unwise, but if someone asks you, even for their own benefit, something whereby you could be taken advantage of, if you answer falsely, then you're not of your father. I'm not of my father.

In Luke chapter 23 verses 1 through 3, this happened to Jesus Christ. Put him in a position not only of having his things stolen, which they would be, but actually have his life be in jeopardy. If he answered truthfully, and this is the old question, what would you do if somebody came up to you and said, you know, the gun in your face asked you a question, and truth would get you shot. Of course, then you could lie. You know, I've asked that question in this room, and some people thought, well, under those circumstances, you know, you could just obviously tell a lie, because that's, you see, that would keep you in a position of power. That would keep you in a position of keeping from being shot. Well, what did Jesus do? In Luke chapter 23 in verse 1, then the whole multitude of them arose and led him to Pilate. Now, here's the Roman procurator of the region who has the power to say, this man can live or die. And they began to accuse Jesus saying, we found this fellow perverting the nation, forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar in Rome, and the worst of the worst. You see, it was illegal to call anyone king under the Roman Empire. Even a Roman couldn't call another Roman king. That's why Caesar had the title of Caesar, because they wanted to prevent him from having autonomy, total autonomy. You had the Senate, and you had a Caesar, and they would not allow the term king to be used. And yet, we found this fellow saying, he himself is Christ a king. That'll get you killed in Rome.

And then Pilate asked him, here comes the question.

Are you king of the Jews? You could hear that. You could probably hear the room go quiet. You could have heard a heartbeat. Are you king of the Jews? Here's a gun against your head.

And Jesus answered him and said, it is as you say. He didn't say, oh no, no, I'm not. Or I could just be like a senator of the Jews, not king. No, he said, it is as you say. It's interesting how Pilate accepted that and said, I find no fault in this man and sent him to Herod. I find no fault in this man. The title of the sermon today is, Am I an agent of truth? Am I an agent of truth? Do I play this game that humans play?

I hope you'll look within and find that being an agent of truth is a goal, is something that we struggle to achieve. God is truth. Do you want to be like him? Do you want to be like your father? Or do you want to be like that that seems right to a human? That sort of street-smart, devilish, cagey individual.

Isaiah 55 verses 8-9 takes God to a different level than us. That which we seek is very much higher than that which we are. This is in verse 8 of Isaiah 55.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways, says the Lord. Verse 9, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. So it's not like we're going to think like God. It's not like we're going to sort of become, oh yes, now I'm like God. He is so vastly superior to us that his level of truth, his level of thinking, his mentality is so much higher, it's going to be a goal. You can reach for the stars, but you're never going to touch one. Not in this life. God will raise us up to that at some other point. But are you reaching for his ways? Are you reaching for his thoughts? Or are you happy just to be human? Proverbs 6, verse 16, talks about six things God hates, seven are an abomination to him. Now why would God hate these six things?

They're kind of a curious concoction of things that God hates until you stop and think. These things God hates because they give you an edge over your competition. In every case, these put you ahead of your competition. It's not concern for others. It's not loving as much as you love yourself. All of these things give you an edge. And God does not like that. Verse 16, verse 17, these six things the Lord hates, seven are an abomination to him. Number one, a proud look. That's me. You see, it's about me and I'm doing well. I'm doing well and I have a lying tongue. That's what helps me do well. It gives me the advantage. I make more sales when I lie to the customers. See, in advertising, I can get more clients to buy if I twist the truth, if I exaggerate. Next, hands that shed innocent blood. I cut the competition off. I say negative things about my competition. And it's legal to do this and to do that. And you can say this in that way and you can say, everybody else is inferior to me. A heart that devises wicked, self-promoting plans. Feet that are swift and running to evil. A false witness who speaks lies. He's false witnessing about the competition or the other individuals and he is not telling the truth which would give them power, empower them to really know what he's about and what he's doing. And one who sows discord among the brethren. See, we put down, we sow discard, we say, I don't know. I don't think that individual is living right, doing the best. You know what they're thinking. You know they really don't seem to like you. And pretty soon you end up like Eve distrusting God. You know, we can start thinking things about each other by what others say or what little things pop up. Some will take the president of their nation and just think he is the meanest, ogre, deceptive, twisting guy that's out to ruin everything possible and there's nothing good about him and let's get rid of him. And yet, is that really true? Or you just listen to the press from the opposition who's sowing discord and trying their best to lie and discredit so that they can get back in power. And that's the way it works with humans. The person can really be trying their best and just end up, wow, what was that? I mean, I was trying to be really good and helpful and boom, but the competition, you see, comes in with falsehood and all these things God hates.

All these things about a proud individual and the way of discrediting others and promoting self is something that is the opposite of God's mentality. Where do wars come from? James 4 tells us in the first three verses, where do wars come from among you?

How do we do battle to get what we want? He says in James 4 verse 1, Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You want something better for you. You want a better life, more stature, more fame, more prestige, more, I don't know, people adulating you or more things or whatever. So it's about you, just like we read in Proverbs. You lust and do not have for yourself. So you murder, you go out and you slander, and you cud, and you're untruthful and little bending to others of the truth. You murder and you covet and you cannot obtain. You fight and you war. Oh, I know how to do this. We'll send out a little disinformation, a little misinformation. We'll send some seeds out there. We'll discredit. We'll, you know, set everybody and I'll just pop up there and I'll be the winner. And yet you do not have because you do not ask God. You ask, you do not receive because you ask that you may spend it on your pleasures, on yourself. And God hates that. That's a mind of a different God with a small g. Dropping down to verse eight, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts. You double-minded. We say we're of God. We say we're about love, but are we hypocrites? Yes, we are at times. And we've got to learn to not be untruthful, not push and protect the self. But actually give the power away like God does. Verse 11, do not speak evil of one another, brethren.

What is that about? Speaking evil of others is just one tactic of being competitive, of gaining the advantage. It's lies. Speaking evil of others is actually sending out lies. Speaking about your competition, speaking about the other countries, speaking about the other armies, speaking about the other team. It's just part of the competition process.

Let's look over in Colossians chapter 3 verses 6 through 10. Colossians 3, look in verse 6.

It's because of these things. You know, this competition, this lying falsehood, slandering, self-promoting world is going to end up killing itself off if Christ doesn't intervene. You can see where this is going in our own society here. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 6, because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. If we have that mentality of not being truthful, not being honest and always protecting the self, no matter what, well, we're going to be lumped in with the sons of disobedience and receive the wrath of God, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off these things. Anger, you get angry when something is done that sets you back. Wrath, malice, you want to hurt the others, you want to go after them. Blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Verse 9, do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man. Do not lie to one another.

I saw you the other day and you were, I noticed you were doing this. Oh, no, not me. That wasn't me. Nope, wasn't me.

I remember a minister a number of years ago went to a lady's house. He was quite a lady, but in the church smoking is not a good thing to do. It's harmful not only yourself, but it's harmful to others. And the minister said to this lady, he said, so I see you're smoking. Oh, not me. No, I don't smoke. All right, I noticed there's a pack of cigarettes over there with a lighter. Oh, those aren't mine. No, no, I don't know how those got there. Those aren't mine.

So he happened to pick up a pillow. He'd come unannounced, just knocked on the door, he'd come in, and there's kind of smoke hanging in the air. So he picked up, there's this pillow, it just looked out of place on the table, and he just happened to pick up this little pillow. Underneath it was the ashtray. You know, the cigarette kind of just barely out, crushed, and it just... she's, how did that get there?

You know, we don't want to admit that we are wrong. We... Officer, what are you doing here? I mean, why did you pull me over? You know you're speeding? No, I was not speeding.

Uh, yeah, I have you clocked pretty high. Oh, no, no, it must be the... Your thing must be wrong there. That thing that you're using.

You know, you ever have an accident? You get out? You ever say, my fault!

Oh, what are you doing there? Going through a green light, anyway. We don't do that in this town. We only go on red, like I was doing. You know, you always have these excuses. You know, we fake people out. We try to bend. Sell somebody something. You're buying something. How truthful and honest. Well, if I were truthful, I'd tell you the transmission's just going out on this car, and I'm dumping it.

But that would give you power. That would give power to the purchaser. I'm not going to tell you that. How's the car running? Well, last time I was driving, and it was okay. How's the transmission?

Smooth!

You know, you don't want to give power to other people, because that would put you at a disadvantage. But truth, absolute truth, would be helpful, wouldn't it? A person's looking at the car, your car. Why are you selling the car? Well, I'm selling it because it's a piece of junk. Tired of it leaking all over my garage floor. It doesn't seem to run very well. I think it's going to let me down. I've got to get out of this thing. Well, thanks for letting me know.

You know, if you don't tell them that, you get a phone call the next day. I can't believe you sold me this car!

But go to a used car lot and see what the tactics are. It's considered a good thing. Wow, I unloaded that one. You're a good salesman. You're a salesman of the month! You sold another thing, you know, that we bought at auction that barely ran.

You know, they used to put sawdust and transmissions to make them last long enough to get off the the car lot.

But that's a good deal. If you got the sale, made the sale.

How can you love your neighbor as yourself while trying to reduce their opportunity to succeed? And how can you do that? Somebody's trying to better their life and you prohibit them by not giving them the information needed to better their life.

You know, Satan is an adversary, a divider of the brethren. And if we offend someone else, it says a brother is harder to be one than a walled city. We just, well, I'll go through here and I'll end up successful, but you've got all these bodies littered around. How are we going to rebuild those relationships? It's going to be very difficult. In Isaiah chapter 59 verses 13 through 15, we have the symptoms of our society that we are seeing now, growing more and more. These symptoms are stated in Isaiah 59, beginning in verse 13.

It says, "...in transgressing the lack of love, breaking God's laws of love, and lying against the Lord." These are the problems. I'm just talking here about the transgression that takes place, how people are cut off from God.

"...departing from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood." This is what human nature does. This is what democracy, this is what capitalism revels in. "...words of falsehood, justice is turned back, righteousness stands off afar off." Why? Why is justice and righteousness afar off notice? For or because truth is fallen in the street.

Truth is fallen in the street. Everybody's being untruthful. Everybody's being twisting, deceptive. Everybody's trying to keep the power. Even if they know truth, they won't let it out. Equity cannot enter, so truth fails.

Truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. You end up, if you're going to be honest, you're going to be the prey. They're going to eat you for lunch.

Now, how many of us then say, ah, I will be wise in that case? I will not be eaten. I will join the eaters. I will move with society. I'll be smart. I'll have integrity. I'll lie, I'll deceive, I'll protect, I'll misinform. I'll send a little slander out to those who slander me. We'll meet them head on, and I'll be a survivor. Is that how Jesus did it? Is that how the mind of God works? The problem with all this, you see, is positioning for self. A leg up on the competition, when it all costs. And then end result, remember, is no flesh would be saved alive unless God intervened. Well, God says to you and me, come out of my people. Don't share in these sins or the reward of the world. We need to face it. We need to come clean. We need to realize that the one-ups we tend to fall back on, including gossip or innuendo, slander, accusations, mistruth. These things are the opposite of God. Let's go to James chapter 1 and verse 18. Notice how God is, out of His own will, He brought us forth by the word of truth. See, God is the opposite of all that. He's not positioning Himself. You might say, well, He's big enough, He doesn't need to position Himself. Well, actually, He does need to position Himself if He wants to win, because He's about to lose. Right now, there's only one Godfather, one Son, and there's about to be perhaps 60 billion more, just like Him. They're going to lose that unique status of the only God beings, the only God powers in the universe. They're going to lose that unique status by including us. So if it were about that, we wouldn't have truth. And yet God wants you and I to succeed. He wants us to succeed. And for somebody to succeed means somebody else has to give, give way.

Notice, He brought us forth by this truth, this word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. Think like Him. Be like Him. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. Be careful about truth.

For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness. Got to get rid of false judgments, suspicions, all these things that run around in our head as we do battle on our little playing fields. In verse 21, continuing, And receive with meekness the implanted word, this word that God has implanted through His Spirit, which is able to save your lives. So we need to replace this self-positioning with truth, with help, with love, with encouraging others to win life, even if it requires us to be set back. I'd like to read something from the Council of Elders. This is actually, I believe, from Mr. Roy Holiday.

With regards to the Council and their role and the leadership of the Church, there are a number of issues that we have to resolve, but let's be careful to make sure that as we go about it, that our thoughts and words and actions reflect the aim that we find in verse 15 of Ephesians 4.

But speaking the truth in love, you know, that's where it needs to start. Whenever we have various ideas and you bring them to the table and you try to have the unity, it talks about in verse 3 of Ephesians 4, this unity and the bond of peace, it comes back speaking the truth in love, that you may grow up into Him who is the head of Jesus Christ. That is where it begins. That's the crux of it all. Truth and love are for the edifying of others. It builds up others. God is a repairer of relationships. You know how you repair a relationship? You get honest. You look at the way things really are and you admit the way they are, and you admit that, you know, I blow it at times, I said something wrong, I was in, I'm apologetic, and I'm going to try harder, and you become truthful, and that will repair a relationship. If you have the right heart behind it, God is called a healer. In other words, He stitches relationships back together. We're once like sheep gone astray now. He stitched us back together through the blood of Jesus Christ. You know what the first fruits are going to be called? According to Isaiah 58, verse 12, repair of the breach. Things that were broken, breached, a repair of the breach. The syndrome to all of this is truth. Bible says God is truth. Bible says God is love. Bible says God is a helper. Bible says God is life. See all those work together? They're all about empowering someone else. That's what He wants us to be. Truthful, loving, helpers, assisting others, working together for the success of others.

If we help others grow in their success, which means to really give them the benefit of the more powerful position, the opportunity, as Paul did, to say, look, you know what? To help you, I'm going to tell you I'm weak. To help you, I'm going to give you an opportunity here to succeed by telling you I'm a sinner. I'm going to let you know that I am imperfect. I'm going to tell you I'm the least of the apostles. I'm going to tell you that I used to go out and have people like you mutilated and put into prison and killed. And hopefully, even if it requires my own missing out on the kingdom, hopefully you will be successful. Truth is absolute factual information. Nothing misleading, nothing inaccurate. It kind of is like the GPS satellites. There's 20 GPS satellites that circle the globe at any given time. Actually, there's 22 of them, but 20 are switched on. Two are backups. And these GPS satellites can show an instrument picking up several of the signals exactly a point exactly where you are. And that point is even described by the satellites how inaccurate it is. So it's not exactly accurate, but it'll tell you this today right now is nine feet inaccurate. Or another time it's seven feet. The accuracy is off by seven feet. That's telling you something. It's giving you information. It's within a seven foot radius of where I am. Another time it might say 11 feet. So it is very, very good. Now where you go off if you buy some GPS thing is not where the pointer is. The pointer is accurate. But you buy maps to go behind the pointer? Moving maps? The people who make the maps aren't so accurate. Okay? The pointers bang on. It's funny, though, if you have some form of a GPS, and maybe you use it in a car or flying or hiking or something, the people who make the maps can be grossly inaccurate. You can be driving down the freeway out here, and it'll show you driving off through a farm field or through the wilderness. Say, no, I'm actually on the freeway. No, it's saying, no, turn right, turn right. Get over here, out in the middle of the desert and drive. You can go up here in the mountains, and you can be driving through a forest, and it'll show you drive... no, you can be driving down a road that goes through a forest. But it'll show you off driving through the forest, and you're saying, wow, I'm just hitting a lot of trees. I'm just... But what if you said, oh, I think I will follow this? You would be hitting a lot of trees. There's something in the news here in the last week that an elderly couple using a GPS got horribly lost somewhere, and they were blaming it on the GPS. No, it's the map. It's kind of funny. And that's the way Satan would like us to be. He would like to give us a false map and say, no, here's where you need to go.

God wants us to have the information to take us to our destination. Satan wants you to have a map of a hiking route and a trail that is wrong, like so many on GPSs. They are wrong. They're inaccurate. They take you someplace. They tell you you're going to go to a destination. And when you get there, it is absolutely wrong, and it can get you lost.

He's a liar. He's a deceiver. He wants to be your murderer, and God would never do that to you. He is the truth. He is a helper. As we begin to conclude, what you and I speak is not yet truth. It can be as good as we can do, but it is not pure truth because only God is pure truth. However, we need to be growing up into His kind. In the Bible, here we are told we are to be first fruits of His creatures in verse 18. First fruits of His creatures. And those aren't just those who like God, who like the Bible, who say, yeah, I like love. Those are the ones who are daily putting together the passions and the desires of self-promotion, learning to humble themselves and empower others with all the accuracy, with all the information needed for them to succeed. That's what God is. I'm trying to quit being inaccurate. I'm trying to quit stating opinions as fact, trying to get rid of assumptions and deductions and intuitions, false judgment, listening to gossip, replacing self-positioning with providing others with pure truth, even when it hurts. And it usually will put me at a disadvantage by doing so. But helping them, loving them, encouraging others to win in whatever aspect of life that they are struggling for. Because that's what God does for you and me. Let's conclude with Peter's admonition for us to be children of God's nature in 1 Peter 3, verses 8 through 12.

1 Peter 3 will begin in verse 8.

2 Peter 3 will begin in verse 8. Finally, all of you be of one mind. What mind should that be?

Let this mind be in you, which was in Jesus Christ. That is the one mind. Having compassion for one another. Love as brothers. Be tenderhearted. Be courteous. Get yourself out of the diamond. Get yourself off the high place, the high position.

Have a desire for others to succeed. Not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling. But on the contrary, blessing for evil. We're not fighting this war. We're not fighting the battle. We're not competing here. We're not trying to get the high ground. Knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. That's our calling. The blessing will be eternal life. Verse 10. For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Don't even go there for giving yourself the powerful position. Let him turn away from evil. Do good. Let him seek peace, harmony, and pursue it. Pursue it like a goal, like an animal, like whatever it is you're pursuing. Pursue harmony. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Let's go about being like our Father in heaven and our elder brother, Jesus Christ. Let's become agents of truth.