Telling the Truth

Okay, well thank you to the Hymn Choir. That is a beautiful, beautiful melody with beautiful words. Looking forward to building upon Mr. Osterli's first message in perhaps a unique way, and I hope it will be in an adjoining manner. Here we are. We're about to move into a new calendar year. We're about to turn a page, and as we step into that new calendar year, there is nothing more important for me to share as a minister of Jesus Christ than to encourage each and every one of you out there to be a person of integrity. Allow me to share that again.

There's nothing more important as we cross the calendar year, which gives us time and space to consider our actions past and our movements forward to be a person of integrity. To all of you that are out there, I speak to you as man, I speak to you as woman, I speak to you as adult, and I'm specifically gearing a lot of this as I can to our teenagers and to our young people.

This is going to be a message for all of the children of God. There's an old expression that goes this way. He's as good as His word, and His word is no good. What a sad commentary to have an individual labeled in such a manner. It reminds me of the story of a man who seemingly came to himself and he desired to be baptized. His reputation throughout the remote village that he lived in was no good. He was known to be an outrageous liar. When people heard that he wanted to be baptized, well, many of the folk, well, they were very highly skeptical of his change of heart.

He was taken up into a cold mountain stream to be baptized, to be put into the chilly water.

The pastor went up, went streamside, went into the water real quick and dunked him. Oh, must have been that that mountain stream had to be mighty cold. He was baptized in that chilly water. Well, the man, he came out shivering all over, and the pastor asked him, well, how's the water? Well, the man came back and said, well, it wasn't cold. And then one of the villagers that were watching and witnessing said, dunk him again, pastor. He's still a liar.

The moral of the story is simply this, folks. Once trust is broken, it's very, very hard to regain.

An additional story to create a framework for the message that I want to bring you today about telling the truth is a very real saga of a man that lived in fourth century BC Athens.

He was the philosopher Diogenes. Diogenes was a Hellenistic philosopher that roamed the streets of Athens during daytime when the sun was straight up and he was carrying a lamp with him.

And the reason he said that he was carrying a lamp with him was because he was looking for an honest man. Interesting. An honest man in a world that was full of darkness and full of deceit.

His actions, the actions of the philosopher, kind of mirror and echo what David said in his frustration in the Psalms when David said, all men are liars. Psalm 116 verse 11.

Well, the question I have for all of us today is simply this. What about us?

How truthful are we as men and women and teenagers and children and everyone that can hear the sound of my voice today or will be hearing this message down the line? Let's consider for a moment this kind of do a rolodex of life moving forward. Every day we have numerous opportunities to stand up for telling the truth when it comes to our words, when it comes to our actions, in marriage, between a man and a woman, a relationship that is based or ought be based on truth, trust, transparency.

What about on the job?

Teenagers, young people, what about test at school? What about we that are a little bit older when we take state exams for positions that we know are very important and we really desire that we obtain them, but what happens when we're perhaps in that room alone taking the test? How about being truthful with our parents? Truthful with our parents, even when we know if we tell the truth and we do stand to be corrected.

What about holding confidences? When one individual has opened up their life and opened up their heart and shared something in confidence with you and has asked you not to take it any step or any person further and he say, absolutely, I will not.

What about filling out tax forms? Hello, right around the corner.

What about telling the truth about the speed that we were really going when the officer comes up and says, hello, and do you realize how fast you were going? May I see your driver's license and your registration form? Oh, no, not me, not me. I was only going 90. Perhaps a little bit slower. And what about what we tell our Heavenly Father or perhaps what we don't tell our Heavenly Father when he already knows what we have already done?

With all these thoughts in mind, I hope I brought all of you into play in this message that I want to give you today. This afternoon, I want to share with you the value of the Ninth Commandment. Join me if you would. Let's go to Exodus 20 and verse 16.

In Exodus 20 and verse 16, let's notice what God laid out before his covenant people. In Exodus 20 and verse 16, and this is the ninth of the Ten Commandments and not the Ten Suggestions, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Why is this? Because, well, when we look at the Ten Commandments that are given, and many of us that are students of the book understand this, that it's been broken down that in type the first four commandments are about our relationship with the all-man. And the last six of those commandments are about our relationship with our neighbor. And, of course, Jesus mirrored all of this when he said, the first and the second greatest of commandments is, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul, and also you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Well, this moves into loving your neighbor as yourself, but in reality, it's not that you're not your neighbor. But in reality, it is also about loving God, which we will see later on as this message develops. Well, some people say, yeah, but this is really about a, perhaps, a legal and or a property matter and or an issue between neighbors that might have been taken to court.

And so that when you have your hand on a Bible and you affirm, and the guy asks you, are you willing to tell the truth? I think that's the truth. Ba-ba-ba-ba. But let me take that a step further, if I might. Again, you might say, well, this is about a legal proceeding in a court of law against a neighbor. But as Shakespeare once said, the world is a stage.

And you and I, as participants in this world, we operate in many, many rooms. And every man and every woman in that sense is our neighbor. If you don't think so, just remember what Jesus asked the crowd that gathered around him. Who, then, is neighbor? It's everybody that we come into contact with. The bottom line principle, when you think of the Ninth Commandment, is that we are to give an accurate account of our actions and our words, and to not lie about them.

Thus, for all of us, we are, in a sense, being judged by a righteous God who says, You shall not lie, but tell the truth. Again, for those that are coming slowly to this message, you might wonder, what is Mr. Weber going to talk about today? Here's the title of my message. It's simply this. Allow me to be blunt. Telling the truth. Telling the truth. You say, you've got to be kidding. Mr. Weber is going to be talking about people that might lie, that know God, that go to church. Yes, I am.

Because the last time I read the book, there were some people that were of covenant that told some big ones, or didn't really tell what they knew, and tried to skirt around the issue as if God might not know. And we're going to acquaint you with some of those today, as we go a little bit further. Why is understanding and abiding by the Ninth Commandment so important? Some people consider it the most pervasive of all sins. And I realize this is theory, and somebody else will come up and say, well, about fifth, the fourth, the sixth, the third, and that'll be another day in another way.

But what is interesting about not telling the truth, and or bringing it down to one word, lying, it's simply this, lying is the handle that fits most other sins. Other sins are either accompanied or handled by the sin of lying. Between God, between family, and between friends. Maybe that's why David said in Psalm 119, in verse 163, let's turn over there. Let's put our eyes right on Scripture. Psalm 119, verse 163. David says this, I hate and abhor lying. Lying is not something to trifle about. Lying is not something to go easy about. Lying is not, well, everybody else is doing it today. Somebody here in the Bible says that he abhors, and he hates lying.

Again, why? Let's get down to why. Because when a person lies, a husband to a wife, a wife to a husband, a child, a teenager to a parent, an employee to a boss, member to member. What is the end result, dear brethren? What is the end result? It's simply this. Trust is lost. Relationships are broken. I'm sure all of us at one time or another remember a moment, perhaps in parenting, or perhaps in some other situation where your child or your grandchild came up to you, and you knew the story, and their story did not match what you knew about the story.

And how disappointing that is to see the continuation of human nature down to the next generation. And then to have to explain to them why it's important, why it is important to tell the truth, and why it's important not to lie. Because otherwise there is no trust and there is no relationship. Trust that is lost is twice as hard to regain, and three times as long as coming. Let's understand something. Let's be blunt. Lying, not telling the truth, corrupts people. It destroys families. It can destroy congregations. It can destroy churches. It can waste precious time and puts opportunity on hold.

Why is God so concerned about lying and not telling the truth? God witnessed His spiritual realm, divided by deceit, divided by falsehoods, that divided His kingdom, that heavenly realm, before there were human beings. Join me if you would in John 8 and verse 44.

In John 8 and verse 44, Jesus speaking here, and He was very aware of this because as the Word was to pre-incarnate Christ, He was there. He saw these things happen. He knew what was going on. And in John 8 and verse 44, it says, speaking of again religious people. Remember, most of the time Jesus was speaking to people of covenant. People of that day and age were churchgoers and Judaism, and people that ought to have known better and did not believe Him. 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.

And when He speaks a lie, He speaks from His own resources, for He is a liar and the Father of it. When a person does not tell the truth, when a person hides all of the facts, all of the details, when a person lies. This is the Spirit that He is following. To show the folly of lying, God shares an entire book laced with this insidious weakness of lying. What I'd like to do for a few minutes is to take a peek at the book of Genesis and see the results of obedience and disobedience.

Join me if you would in Genesis 3. In Genesis 3, because this kind of begins right at the beginning. This father of lies and how he mentored his disciples that were supposed to be God's disciples, but mentored him in his spirit and in his way. I think all of us as we turn to Genesis 3 are very familiar with the conversation between the serpent and Eve. But let's go over it one more time. Now, the serpent in verse 1 was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat nor shall you touch it lest you die. And then verse 4, Then the serpent said to the woman, Oh, you will not surely die. For God knows that in the day that you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. The first recorded lie shared with a human being, stretching truth over falsehoods and allowing then faulty reasoning and conclusions that ultimately led to death.

And ultimately led to, remember what I said earlier about how a lie is the handle that fits all the other sins? This lying and believing this lie ultimately put even later Adam into the place of breaking the first commandment. You shall have no other gods before me. And so we see it right here in the beginning. Let's go another chapter over in chapter 4. It's the story of Cain, the son of Adam and Eve. And in verse 1, Now Adam knew his wife and she conceived and bore Cain and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord.

Seemingly, Eve thought that Cain was the cure. Cain was solution. Cain was the individual that was spoken of in Genesis 3.15. That that would be the seed that would stomp on the head of the serpent. And the meaning that is behind this is that, ah, the man has come. Then she bore again, and this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was the keeper of sheep, but Cain was the tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.

Now Abel also brought to the firstborn of his flock and of their fad, and the Lord respected Abel in his offering. There was something special that was in Abel's giving attitude. But, verse 5, he did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. Cain felt that somehow he had been left out of the loop of opportunity, just as Adam and Eve had felt that same way and therefore had to take matters into their own hands.

And thus we see what happens here. And he did not have respect, and Cain was angry. In verse 6, so the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.

Just like Mr. Osterly was bringing out each and every one of us every day, in every way, with every say, have an opportunity to say whether or not we're going to live by faith and or by fear. Cain was choosing in that way of Cain, spoken of in Jude, was operating on fear. Now Cain talked with Abel his brother in verse 8, and it came to pass when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.

And then the Lord, verse 9, said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know. Lie! Lie! Right there. Then he tries to cover it up. Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, God speaking, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. And so now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened up its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

And when you till the ground, it shall be no more longer yielded strength to you. If you're going to be a fugitive, you're going to be a vagabond. And notice then what Cain said. And Cain said, Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. He was not concerned about having murdered his brother. And then used the handle of a lie. Breaking a commandment with breaking a commandment, the handle of the lie, to try to cover up as if nothing had happened. Why did Cain lie?

He felt squeezed. But here's something I want to share with you. And, parents, I'm talking to you right now. Cain also fell back on what we might call familiar territory. Know that old expression, monkey see? Monkey do? Monkey see, monkey do. Cain had grown up in the Addams family. Adam. Addam family. And there is a culture there. They were not careful with their words. Remember when God went to visit Adam and Eve in the garden? Hello, anybody? Yeah, we're just out for a walk.

We're just here in the bushes. Oh, that's interesting. Just in the bushes. Okay. See, oftentimes, and I found this in ministry and dealing with families, oftentimes, that pattern of lying and of not telling the truth is an unfortunate heirloom that passes down through the generations. You tend to return to that which you are familiar. You tend to thrive on that which you are given seed in. And, parents, as we move into this new year, and we want to be persons and families of integrity, you want to be a father, you want to be a mother, you want to be an aunt, you want to be an uncle, you want to be a grandparent, who is a person of integrity and tells the truth just like it is to be told.

You say, well, that's Adam's family, of course. Well, let's go to another family. Turn over to Genesis 12. Let's go to the family of faith, the family of Abram, the family of Abraham, later called. And this family had some challenges. It's easy to kind of, shall we say, lean on Adam and Eve and Cain and get examples, but here's this famous family of faith that goes down four generations from Abram to Isaac to Jacob to Joseph, a family that God was intimately working with, sometimes in spite of themselves. And we find this story now as we go to Genesis 12, and it's the story of Abram in Egypt.

And notice what it says in verse 12. Now, there was a famine of the land and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass when he was close to entering Egypt that he said to Sarai, his wife, indeed, I know you are a woman of beautiful countenance.

Therefore, it's going to happen when the Egyptians see you that they will say, this is his wife and they will kill me. But they will let you live. Well, that's a nice husband. You know, I'm going to be a goner, but they're going to let you live. Okay, well, it kind of tells you where this whole conversation is going.

Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you. So it was when Abram came into Egypt that the Egyptians saw the woman, and she was indeed beautiful. And the princes of Pharaoh also saw her and then commended her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house. And he treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep and oxen and male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys and camels.

But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister? I might have taken her as my wife. Now, therefore, here is your wife, take her, and go your way. Basically, get out of here. Enough trouble already. So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. One of the famous stories of the Bible.

Question, was Abram telling the truth? Sort of. Right? Sort of. He's trying to get by with the inside curve. Sarai was his half-sister. At that time in human society, God was still allowing that aspect in the human relationship. There were still enough people to produce. Later on, that would change during Moses' time. So Sarai was Abram's sister, but, and we call it the big, but, was also his wife.

You see, Abram told a white lie. He was trying to get by. He did not, as Mr. Osterly brought out to us so well today, he was living in fear. He was not living in faith. And that's what happens when we live in fear. We are prone then to not telling the truth. God has become vacant in our mind and in our heart. We are distanced from Him. We feel left out of the opportunity, and we feel like we have to take matters into our own hands, words into our own hands, excuses into our own hands. And this happened. Now, the story with Abram that I don't have time to go into, he did it again.

This is not a one-time occurrence. Sometimes if you have a problem in telling the truth and lying, it just doesn't evaporate overnight. He did this again in another land with another king named Abimelek. He can go to Genesis 20 and read that. And how again Sarah was used as a pawn.

He did the sister-sister deal again. To try to get by. And an entire nation and a kingdom almost collapsed. Not even knowing why. Because of a lie. You see, a lie, either in our own lives or in our own hearts, and or in the families that we think we love, when we begin lying and living a life of untruth, it's like a crack.

If you ever know, first of all, the concrete seems real flat and hard and thick, but you get a little water in there and you get a little seed and it begins to crack. And I'm looking at Robert because he works in the trades. And pretty soon that crack, and that crack, and that crack, it widens and it widens and it widens.

It's no longer what it once was.

That's what a lying spirit does. It corrupts our being. And not only that, it not only hurts us, it hurts others. It hurts family. It hurts a company. It hurts a church.

It can bring down nations and empires if we're not careful.

No, sometimes people get so used to practicing lying that they no longer know that they're lying. They begin to believe their lies. And pretty soon white lies and white lies and white lies basically make the person colorblind all together and they don't realize that they're doing it.

It's interesting. Again, remember how I talked about how Cain fell back on the example of Adam and Eve being in a family that was comfortable with untruths?

Well, Isaac, about 20-25 years later, came back to the same area and he spawned the same fib that his father did.

That's why I'm speaking to the men.

Men, you are the head of your household.

You are to be a person of integrity and to tell the truth, to set the atmosphere, to set the sail of the ship, to anchor yourself in faith, to anchor yourself in truth.

No matter what comes, it's always better to tell the truth.

You say, well, I heard that when I was a youngster. It still holds true.

Telling the truth is always a better outcome. You know, when you think about Abram later Abraham, is it any wonder that later on in his life that God finally took him and Isaac up onto a mountain, put him on the top of the mountain, isolated him on the mountain, to see what Abram would really do?

To see if he was really a man of integrity and a man of faith, that even when he didn't necessarily see all the answers that he was going to, no matter what, and this was not about his wife, but this was about his son, that he was going to obey God and do what God told him to do.

You know, there's an old expression. Many of us are familiar with it. One by Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president.

He said, you may fool all the people some of the time.

You can even fool some of the people all of the time.

But you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

Ultimately, Pharaoh was not fooled. Ultimately, later on, Abimelech was not fooled. And God, who reads the heart of man and woman, teen and child, cannot be fooled.

Now let's understand and let's get the correct parameter here. God is not looking for us at every corner to tell a fib, to tell an untruth, to lie.

He's really with His covenant people. He's looking for us to be truth-tellers.

He's looking for us to give the facts and nothing but the facts. He's looking for us to have a life that is above board and that we measure every word that comes from every thought that we think.

And that's what God wants in store for us.

Let's look at Proverbs 12, verse 17.

Proverbs 12 and verse 17. Let's anchor ourselves in a proverb.

I always remember what an old black lady once told me many, many years ago when I was an insurance inspector. I was visiting her house and I don't know how we got onto this conversation, but we did.

And she said, young man, she said, my mama, she taught me this. She said that you read the Proverbs by day to learn how to live and you read the Psalms at night to comfort your soul.

I thought that was one of the best pieces of advice that I've ever gotten. So let's anchor ourselves for a moment into the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 12 and verse 17. And notice what God says. He who speaks truth declares righteousness, but a false witness to see.

There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health.

The truthful lip shall be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.

The seed is in the heart of those who devise evil, but counselors of peace have joy.

Now, we've talked about one covenant family, the family of Abraham.

What about us today as 21st century New Covenant Christians?

Let's look at just a few verses here for a moment to anchor us.

Let's remember that God tells us in 1 Peter 1, 15 through 16, that I am holy, therefore you are to be holy. Our thoughts, our words, our phrases, yes, our motives are to be cured. Be holy like God.

And why do we do that? Because God is holy. Join me if you would in Titus, the book of Titus.

And there's a reason why I turn you to Titus, which follows Timothy. Titus is one of the disciples that followed Paul.

And Titus was on a missionary effort on the island of Crete.

And notice what it says here in verse 1, Paul abounds the sermon of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's election, the acknowledgement of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God cannot lie, which God who cannot lie promised before time began.

God is truth. He is holy.

God is pure.

God is transparent.

What you see is what you get. That's why you're here today. That's why you're here today.

You unconditionally surrendered yourself to God Almighty through Jesus Christ because you took Him at His Word. You took Him that His Son died in our stead, that we might come before His holy presence.

We took Him at His Word that no matter what we have done, including lying, would and could be forgiven.

We unconditionally surrendered our life now because He promises us a kingdom in the future.

We believe that God does not lie, as it says back in the Old Testament, that He declares the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end, and that His purpose shall stand. We take that as gospel truth, both out of the Old Testament and the New Testament, because it's all good news.

We have trust.

That our God cannot lie.

Titus was not worried about God above. He was worried about the Cretans down here below.

If you'll notice here in verse 10, Titus had been sent to the island of Crete.

Crete had a problem culturally. They were just a pack of liars.

In fact, they had been known to be a whole culture of liars for six or seven hundred years. Notice verse 10, For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, whose subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain. Notice verse 12, One of them, a prophet of their own, said, Creteans are always liars.

Ouch!

Evil beasts.

Lazy-gottons.

And this was actually what Paul is quoting from, was written six hundred years before this.

So this reputation had gone around, a little bit like the man that was dunked in the cold stream. Dunk him again! He's lying!

See, the two great terms of antiquity were to Corinthianize, which I won't go too far on that one, and to Cretis.

They were known. God basically told through Paul to Titus, Titus, we know your pain, but you're not coming home.

You stay there.

You stay on the ground. You keep your assignment and tell them to repent.

Don't become a part of the problem. Become a part of the solution.

And that's a little bit like you and I today. Here we are in a world that is more and more becoming sloppy with the truth.

Sloppy with the truth.

Careless on details.

On television.

On the internet.

In publications.

In just talking to one another. People do not have the same amount of integrity that they used to have when it came to communication.

They're sloppy.

And rather than measuring their words and measuring the truth, anymore they try to measure a get-around background non-apology.

Rather than being straight up. Straight up! The first time.

And telling the truth.

Now, you and I have to recognize something. Can we talk?

Even though we are new creations in Christ, we're still wrestling around with this human nature down here, aren't we?

And to recognize that telling the truth is a challenge for human beings.

Especially when the squeeze plays of life come upon us.

Especially when we're feeling left out of the loop of opportunity.

We need to be aware of that. We don't need to be afraid of that, but we need to respect human nature. We don't need to be afraid of human nature, because we are in Christ.

And God sees things as if they already are. But we need to respect the ground that we're still on. That human nature that is in us. And that if we are not close to God, if we're not drinking in of Jesus Christ, if we're not close to the call of the Father, if we're not filling ourselves with the promises of faith that Mr. Osterly talked about, boy, when the moment comes, and you know, how do you plan moments? Life is basically what's happening that you haven't planned for.

We can possibly not tell the truth. So you and I need to be aware of that.

We need to be growing up and to recognize that perhaps, in some of us, there is still unconquered territory that we have not completely surrendered to Jesus Christ. I'm going to give you some really, really quick points. So get ready. Here we go.

Because we don't want to just simply talk about what, but what you and I can do. Here's what I'd like you to understand. Number one, we've already covered point one. So isn't that nice? Spiritual reality is to understand lying lies around the corner.

Lying can lie around the corner. We just need to be aware of that and recognize its ramifications.

You know, it's interesting that people that know God and even have God around the corner can also tell non-truth. Join me if you will just for a moment to show you this point.

Just so you know I'm not being too hard on you or me.

Because you know I'd never do that. Genesis 18, verse 9. Genesis 18-9. This is the story of where the news is brought that Sarah's going to have a baby. Notice what happens here in Genesis 18 and verse 9.

Then they said to him, Where is Sarah, your wife, the angel speaking?

And so she said here in the tent, and he said, I will certainly return to you according to the time of life. And behold, Sarah, your wife shall have a son. Now Sarah was listening in the tent door, which was behind him.

Right there!

In proximity, in proximity to the angels of God, just feet away.

Hear me out on this story, just feet away from the messengers of God, of whom one of might have been himself, the pre-incarnate Jesus of Theophany.

We'll find out one day.

Nonetheless, we're talking about feet and yards away.

From the servants of God. And therefore, Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I've grown old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also? And the Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I surely hear a child, since I am old?

Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will return to you according to the time of life. And Sarah shall have a son. Now, verse 15, notice, But Sarah denied it.

That's a nice way of saying, shall I?

She denied it, feet away from the angel of God, hearing the messenger from the men of God.

And she's got human nature issues that each and every one of us have if our faith goes down.

I didn't laugh.

And then again, why did she make this denial out of faith?

No. She was afraid.

What does it say in the epistle of John that love cannot be perfected in fear?

And he said, no, but you did laugh.

You can fool some of the people some of the time.

You can never fool God.

God's already there.

God's just waiting for us to arrive to Him as people of integrity.

Let's go to point number two. When you tell the truth, this is a positive, when you do tell the truth, you don't have to remember what you said.

When you tell the truth, you don't have to remember what you said. You live a life of integrity and consistency.

If you are ashamed of the fact, you are ashamed of yourself.

Rather than alter the facts, go to work on yourself. The truth can't be changed, but by being true to the facts, you will in turn be true and you will change. A little bit of like what we were discussing today in our very fine adult Bible class, that sometimes we can't deal with the culture around us. God's just dealing with us as if we will reflect the light of Christ in us who is the way and the truth and the light and to be people of integrity and of character.

God recognizes our inward struggle.

I'm talking about my struggle. I'm talking about your struggle. Can we talk? We are still encapsulated in this physical tent. But notice what he says in Proverbs 12 and verse 22.

Proverbs 12 and verse 22. It's a wonderful encouragement.

Proverbs 12 and verse 22.

Proverbs 22 and verse 22. Proverbs 22 and verse 22. Proverbs 22 and verse 22. Proverbs 22 and verse 22. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are his delight. Proverbs 22 and verse 22. Dear brethren, if our Heavenly Father is telling us that and delights in us when we're persons of integrity and we put the truth out there, just putting out the truth does not mean some of the consequences somehow evaporate. There will be consequences for our actions. But our Heavenly Father above delights in us. I hope all of us as parents and as grandparents, recognizing the challenge that this younger generation has growing up in this world that has become loose, and not necessarily the world that we grew up in. Let's understand the world that you and I grew up in. It was never the world that God intended because since Eden we've been having problems. But sometimes we always think the generation ahead is better. Let's just recognize that we live in a world where there's so much communication that at times there are what we call loose lips. Loose lips that run quickly can also lie and not tell the truth. There was, during World War II, a very famous phrase, Loose lips cause loss of life. Loose lips, because a secret could have gone out of a shipyard during World War II and could have gone abroad to either the Axis powers of the Japanese Empire and could have caused problems for our troops and the death of our troops. Loose lips lose lives. Loose lips, lying lips alter lives, affect lives. There is no such thing as a victimless crime. Lies spread out. Lies are the handle that fit every other sin. Let's make sure that when our children and our grandchildren are truth-bearers, even in difficult situations, and maybe things that they ought not to have done, but are truthful that they did them, delight. Let them know that they're doing the right thing. Let them know that they're beginning to be a young man and a young woman of integrity. Nurture them. Build them up. Edify them. It can't, as a parent, always be, no, no, no, no, no. Parrots can do that. We've been called to be mentors and builders of young people. Point number three. You are responsible for what you say as well as what you don't say. You are responsible for what you say as well as what you don't say. There is a sin of omission, and there is a sin of commission. Lying is not always what you say, but it's also what you don't say, what you hold back on. I'll give you some homework. Read Acts 5, the story of Ananias and Sapphira. But beyond that, join me in Jeremiah 5. Jeremiah 48. We're about to wrap it up here. Jeremiah 48.

In Jeremiah 48 and verse 10, let's notice definitions of sin. Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord deceitfully, those that are active in action items. And cursed is he who keeps back his sword from the blood. There is the sin of commission, the sin of what you put out on the table, the sin of what you do share, the sin of what you do do. And there is the part that you don't bring to the table. Did you know that as Christians that all of us have been called to be card players? I do realize that some churches don't play cards at all. But you and I have been called to be card players. You say, well, Mr. Weber, when does the party begin? After the Sabbath, no just teasing. We are to put all 52 cards, all 52 cards of our life out on the table. Why? Because we're to be people of integrity. We are to be witnesses that the life of Jesus Christ lives in you and me. Point number four, quickly. We need to be careful with whom we keep company. We need to be careful with whom we keep company. You, as a person, are responsible for your own well-being. If you're around a person with loose lips, is sloppy with the facts, is talking about other things that they don't know about and haven't been invited to know about but think they are in charge of what they are talking about, then you're in bad company.

And if they're talking about other people with you when they're not with you, they're talking about you with other people. Did you just follow me? The Bible in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 33 just wrote it down, says, Don't keep company with bad folks. Bad folks corrupt good manners. The same with your child, the same with your young lady, the same with your young man. Are they around people that practice lying, practice not telling the truth, have loose lips? You have a parental responsibility. Nobody else is going to raise your child than you.

Forget the stuff about the government, forget the stuff about the school. You are responsible for whom your child associates with. That is a God-given parental responsibility. Well, I just want to be a friend to my child. I remember how my parents were. The problem with the Baby Boomer generation and now this generation, we've been too friendly. Perhaps the generation before was a little aloof and a little alienated. But that's another time and another conversation in a world that was black and white, gone through the Depression, went through World War II, the two great cutting edges of the 20th century.

They had a lot on their shoulders and then they had kids. I need to give them some slack. I do my parents. But because of that, sometimes the Baby Boomer generation had to kind of, well, I have to figure out my child. I have to get in tune with where they're at. And now it keeps on going and it keeps on going. Dear brethren, your children need a parent. They need a dad. They need a mom. They need to know that they also have a friend in that dad and in that mom and that they love them.

But don't substitute your role for another role. Nobody will take care of your child like you do. And if they are around young people or persons that are practicing loose lips, lying, sloppy with the truth, you never quite know what's happening, but you know what's happening, but they won't tell you what's happening, you have a responsibility to your child. You have a God-given responsibility to nurture your child up in the way of the Lord. And you yourself, you yourself, need to make sure that, you know, Revelation 22.15, it talks about people who practice and love to lie.

They practice lying. It's a lifestyle. And the Bible says, come out of her, my people, and do not be partakers of her sins. Number five, last point. You take your values into the arena of life. You take your values into the arena of life. You don't find those values in the arena. You have to be prepared going in as to being a person of integrity. Let's conclude with this verse. Join me if you would in Psalm 119. Psalm 119 verse 25, remembering that we do not find our values in trial, we take our values into the trial with us in Psalm 119 verse 25 through 32.

My soul clings to the dust, revive me according to your word. And, brethren, all of us need a revival. All of us need a revival in this cretinized world around us of telling the truth. Revive me according to your word. I have declared my ways, and you answered me. Teach me your statutes. Make me understand the way of your precepts. And all of those precepts are designed to make us men and women and teens and children of integrity.

And then so shall I meditate on your wonderful works. My soul melts from heaviness. Strengthen me according to your word. Remove from me the way of lying. Hmm. Here's a man that later on is called a man after God's own heart. This was a man of covenant, but he was a man. He wanted to be like his God, but he was a human being, and he cried out, and removed from me the way of lying and grant me your law graciously.

I've chosen the way of truth. Your judgments I have laid before me. I cling to your testimonies. Oh, Lord, do not put me to shame. I will run the course of your commandments, for you shall enlarge my heart. Brethren, as we cross another calendar year, as you and I move into the calling of what we've been called to be, New Covenant Christians, witnesses of the life of Jesus Christ living in us, witnesses that none other than God the Father has called us, that we practice his loving law both in letter and in spirit.

That it is not only what we do on the outside, but what we do on the inside. This is not something that we can do by ourself. We must be convicted by the Word. We must be convicted by the Spirit. We must be convicted by the Head of the Church, who in John 14, verse 6, said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. I submit to you that Jesus Christ was one of integrity, who says, follow me.