Sermon

What Is Truth? | Geary Trent

Church of Christ - Bakersfield, Ca

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  1. Good morning everyone. Good to be here this morning.

  2. Chris asked me to speak the

  3. other day and I told him I'd do my best. So

  4. here it goes. John chapter 18 verses 37 and

    John 18:37

  5. 38. That's the text for this morning.

  6. It's about truth. Over

  7. 2000 years ago, Pilate and Christ had a conversation.

  8. We're going to read that

  9. conversation. John 18 37 38. Jesus

  10. before Pilate therefore said to him, are you a king

  11. then? Jesus answered, you're not going

  12. to say that I am a king. This

  13. cause I was born of is cause I have come into the

  14. world. That I should bear witness to

  15. the truth. Everyone who is true of the truth,

  16. here's my voice. Pilate said to him, what is

  17. truth? What is truth? A

  18. question to be asked today in many places is what is

  19. truth? The truth can be used in so

  20. many ways. People take the truth. It

  21. sacrifices truth for peace. It

  22. sacrifices truth for war. It

  23. sacrifices the truth to make them look good. It

  24. sacrifices the truth to make you look bad. It

  25. sacrifices the truth to make money. It

  26. sacrifices the truth to cost you money. It

  27. sacrifices the truth to save themselves. Sometimes

  28. it seems like some people just can't stand the truth.

  29. They try to evade it, do

  30. everything they can. They run from it, minimize its

  31. importance, even explain it away. How

  32. sad that is, but that's the way it is sometimes.

  33. Now in Christ and early

  34. Christian, we are just to tell the truth, period.

  35. That's what we're supposed to do.

  36. An example, think about this.

  37. A woman stand before a judge

  38. in a jury. She places her hand on the

  39. Bible and now they're in the air. She

  40. used to make a pledge before the judge and

  41. everyone in the court. Next to me is this. God

  42. is your guide. She'll tell the truth, the whole

  43. truth, nothing but the truth. The

  44. pledge you take when you go to justify. She's

  45. a witness. She's not to expand and dilute

  46. the truth. Her job is to tell the truth.

  47. You've lied, you're interpret, the

  48. judge is to resolve. The judge will be applying the

  49. law. But the witness, what's the

  50. witness to do? To speak the truth. She

  51. does more or less, she may take the outcome on where

  52. the other. Be truthful as she can. Let

  53. her tell the truth and maybe justice will have a

  54. chance. Because Christians are witnesses

  55. too. You also make a pledge. Like

  56. a witness in court, we're called to tell the truth.

  57. John 17 to 7, the Bible says,

  58. thy word is truth. We're called to do that. The

  59. watching world is a jury. We're

  60. the main witnesses. We're basically a subpoena by

  61. Christ himself. In Acts chapter 8 and 1,

    Acts 8 chapter mention

  62. Christ told the apostles that the 1 and 8, Acts

    Acts 1 chapter mention

  63. chapter 1 and 8, they're called to be witnesses of

  64. Jesus. You're a witness me. The

  65. word witness is very clear there. Like

  66. a witness in court, we're called to testify, to tell

  67. what we have heard, what we have seen, and tell

  68. what we know. We're not the whitewash or twist

  69. of truth. You always remember the Great

  70. Commission says, in Matthew chapter 28, 19 and 20,

    Matthew 28 chapter mention

  71. Guree therefore and teach all nations, baptize them

  72. in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy

  73. Ghost. Teach them to observe all things,

  74. whatever I have commanded you and lo, I'm with you

  75. always, the end of the world. Teach

  76. them all things that I have commanded you. The

  77. witness in court eventually steps down to the witness

  78. chair and takes her seat, breathes a sigh of relief,

  79. but that's over. The Christian does not. The

  80. Christian remains. We're a witness for the duration.

  81. But we're tuned. You

  82. went to war. Many of the members told they're

  83. there for the duration. It's

  84. the end. That's the same with those

  85. Christians. As he claimed to Christ, we're

  86. always on trial. The court seems is always in

  87. session. That way, deceptions, lies,

  88. coverups and division should never be an option in our

  89. lives as Christians. Honesty.

  90. You know, daytime has something very strange,

  91. isn't it? It shouldn't be, but it is.

  92. Honesty. And as they had chapter

  93. 53, verse 9, the Bible says this, being of Christ,

  94. they made this grave with the wicked, with the rich

  95. and his death, because he had done no violence. It

  96. was he needed a seat in his mouth. The

  97. word deceit means no untrue words, no lies to deceive

  98. people. The English version has it, he

  99. never lied. He did nothing wrong, he never

  100. lied. Jesus was honest, bootily so

  101. sometimes, especially with the Pharisees, called them

  102. hypocrites. The leaders of the religious

  103. war that time, Jesus was very, very blunt to those

  104. people because they needed it. Trying

  105. to give them a wake -up call. His

  106. every word was accurate. You

  107. know, altering accounts, he didn't stretch the truth.

  108. He said, be told the truth.

  109. This says no deceit was found

  110. in his mouth. He had many times made people

  111. like us face the truth in our lives. He

  112. didn't just teach the truth, he made us face the

  113. truth. It's hard to do that sometimes.

  114. Matthew chapter 19, verse 16 to

    Matthew 19:16–22

  115. 22, the example of a young man, he made face the

  116. truth. Very, very difficult. A

  117. good person, a good young man. Matthew

    Matthew 19:16–22

  118. chapter 19, verse 16 to 22, the Bible says this,

  119. and then behold, came one and said to him, good

  120. teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may

  121. inherit eternal life? So he said to him, why do

  122. you call me good? No one is good but one that

  123. is God. If you want to enter them to

  124. life, keep the commandments. Jesus

  125. said to him, he said to him, which ones? Jesus

  126. said, you shall do not murder, you shall not

  127. commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not

  128. bear false witness. On your father and your

  129. mother, and you shall love your neighbors yourself. The

  130. young man said to him, all these things that I kept

  131. from my youth up, what so do I lack? Jesus

  132. said to him, if you want to be perfect, go, sell

  133. what you have and give to the poor, you'll come and

  134. have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.

  135. Well, the young man heard that

  136. saying, he went away sorrowful, he had great

  137. possessions, had been truthful with himself, a

  138. good quality person. Jesus was no sugar coating, kind

  139. but firm, a good man needed to face the truth

  140. to straighten out his life. Sadly,

  141. we don't have any evidence that he ever did, but it's

  142. a good example we think about our lives. I

  143. thought about something that people Jesus spent his time

  144. with, I thought about calling the Jason home,

  145. they're big time fishermen, they go to tournaments and

  146. things. Y 'all know the fishermen's

  147. stories, you know, the one this long, the one that

  148. got away? Jesus spent a lot of his time

  149. with some fishermen, Peter, James, John and Andrew.

  150. People from the world, Jews he

  151. called in to be his followers and to teach them

  152. to tell the truth all the time. Probably

  153. difficult for them, as it was for us. There's

  154. been times in my life when I wish there was a truth

  155. meter that I had when I could put on people. The

  156. shop used to joke about that sometimes. Folks,

  157. I know who it would fail the test real quick. It

  158. would have been long for all the bells and whistles

  159. to go off. And there is no such thing, we

  160. used to joke about that. Sometimes

  161. we're just outright lying all the time, you just

  162. knew it. When they come to you talking

  163. to you, you knew it. All done but, you all done but

  164. guys. They all done but and they did

  165. be, you know, the comical sometimes, you need an

  166. audience to hear some of the stories they would have

  167. to tell. We knew they were lying. They

  168. knew they were lying. It's sad. Not

  169. a day in time, it's sad this has to be even taught

  170. on to be honest. Look at the corporate world.

  171. Think about that. The

  172. political world, we won't touch that one. Think

  173. about that. What about religious world?

  174. That's the sad, that's almost

  175. embarrassing. The religious world, the

  176. honesty, all the scandals, and lustation issues to

  177. have in the religious world, all these different

  178. face, have all these things going on. Big

  179. of honesty, people getting caught doing these things.

  180. Even more it's tough to know

  181. who and what to believe. True

  182. stretching lies seem to be the norm, not the accepted

  183. many times. People ask me when I was raising

  184. my children, one of the hardest parts about raising

  185. children. The hardest part for me

  186. personally is watching them lose their innocence. Look

  187. at guys like Charlie walking around here, you

  188. see them, they're great kids, you see them. You're

  189. going to raise them, teach them to tell the truth,

  190. teach them to write, treat people right, respect honor,

  191. you teach them all these things you're supposed to

  192. do, sit them out of the world that does none of

  193. those things. They'll lose their innocence, they

  194. have to survive in the world, but you lose their

  195. innocence to do that. I'm watching my granddaughter

  196. Macy lose her innocence right now, it's so hard

  197. because I have a tender spot for some parts of

  198. her. And she's losing innocence

  199. little by little, that's difficult because the

  200. world's not kind, the world's full of deceit,

  201. full of lies, we send our good kids out into that.

  202. So we need to teach that as

  203. Christians, teach that it's still in the lies they

  204. have that when they go out in the world that's already

  205. in their form, it's part of their makeup. Being

  206. honest though, what about all of those that's in the

  207. church, the Christians at the time, are we different,

  208. are we set apart like we should be for thinking as

  209. Christians we should be, we're set apart, we're

  210. doing pretty good with these things. Is

  211. we never tell any lies? We all did sometimes as kids,

  212. I guess story about my sister in a few minutes,

  213. well we had a lot of times when we lied, who

  214. did it, she did it, he did it, those things. Terry

  215. had a lot of siblings, same thing. No

  216. lies at all in our lives, no lies in our marriage,

  217. no lies in our jobs, no lies in our family

  218. relationships to anyone and then all. Not

  219. even a few little white lies, be honest about this

  220. one, it's a personal thing, don't lie in this one,

  221. think about it. Christ says, as strict honor code,

  222. from Genesis to Revelation, in Psalms 101 and 7, the

  223. Bible says this, he who works deceit shall not

  224. dwell within my house, he who tells lies shall not

  225. continue in my presence. In Psalms 12 and Proverbs 12

  226. and 22, the Bible says this, lying lips are an

  227. abomination to the Lord, but those who deal

  228. truthfully are his delight. In

  229. Proverbs 6, starting in verse 16, noticing this

  230. list of two of those things concerning lying,

  231. these six things the Lord hates, he has seven are an

  232. abomination to him, a proud look, a lying tongue, hands

  233. that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked

  234. plans, feet that are swift and running to evil, a

  235. false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows

  236. discord and mumbred. It goes all the way to

  237. Revelation. Revelation 21, verse 8, the Bible

    Revelation 21:8

  238. says, but the cowardly, unbelievable, unbelieving,

  239. abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers,

  240. idolaters, and all liars should have their part in

  241. the lake with burnt with fire and brimstone. Also

  242. in Revelations 22 and 15, the Bible says, but outside

  243. are dogs and sorcerers, and sexually immoral and

  244. murderers, and idolaters, and whoever loves and

  245. practices a lie. It's interesting, lying in the

  246. same class as all those others since according to

  247. verses, sexual sins, worshiping idols, committing

  248. adultery, people getting drunk, robbing folks, lies,

  249. the same category as those, yes, telling a lie, it's

  250. the same category as those according to the Scriptures.

  251. Why is lying all that bad? Why

  252. does little fibbing strip heavenly anger as much as

  253. adultery and assault? We'll get to an example about

  254. that in just a few minutes. Well

  255. with a hard line in this, why such a tough stance is

  256. this, in Hebrews 6 and 18, dishonesty is contrary to

  257. the nature of God. According

  258. to Hebrews 6 and 18, it's not possible for God to

  259. lie. The Bible says about two

  260. innumerable things, which was impossible for God to

  261. lie, he might have a strong consolation. It's

  262. not he's chosen not to lie, he can't lie. He

  263. has to tell the truth. Titus

  264. 1 and 2 says, in hope of eternal life, life which

  265. God that cannot lie promised before the world

  266. began. That's scary, but it's reassuring.

  267. God makes a promise, he keeps

  268. it, our heavenly home for us, but we fail, he has a

  269. promise for that too. He makes it covenant, he keeps

  270. it, he makes a statement, he means it, he proclaims

  271. the truth, we can believe it, and we can teach it

  272. also. What he says is true is even

  273. if we are not, in 2 Timothy 2 and 13 the Bible

  274. says, if we are faithless, he remains faithful, he

  275. cannot deny himself. As he's reassuring to us, in

  276. the world we live in, we can go to a place where

  277. the truth is always told. Satan,

  278. on the other hand, finds almost impossible to tell

  279. the truth. According to Jesus, he's the father

  280. of all lies. John chapter 8 verse 44, the

    John 8:44

  281. Bible says this, you are of your father the devil

  282. and the desires of your father you want to do.

  283. Speaking of Satan, he was a

  284. murderer from the beginning, he does not stand in the

  285. truth because there is no truth in him. He

  286. speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for

  287. he is a liar and a father of it. The

  288. father of lies. The Satan lies have been with

  289. us since the beginning. The seat was the first tool in

  290. the devil's bag in the Garden of Eden. Satan

  291. didn't discourage Eve, he didn't seduce her, he'd

  292. sneak up on her. Nothing happens. Genesis

    Genesis 3:1–5

  293. 3 verses 1 through 5, the Bible says this, now the

  294. serpent was more cunning than any beast of the

  295. field, which the Lord God had made. He

  296. said to the woman, as God indeed said, you shall eat

  297. of every tree of the garden. A

  298. woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit

  299. of the tree of the garden, but the fruit of the tree,

  300. which is in the midst of the garden, God has said

  301. you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest

  302. you die. The serpent said to the woman,

  303. you will not surely die, for God knows that in the

  304. day you eat it, eat of it, your eyes will be

  305. opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and

  306. evil. You know what verse 6 says,

  307. with when woman saw the tree was good for food,

  308. there was pleasure in the eyes, the tree to be

  309. desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit,

  310. ate, felt to get her husband with her, and he

  311. ate. Who's a lie that led Eve to

  312. sin? Never say lion's a big deal, the

  313. sly is not a big deal, she fell for it, she poked

  314. the fruit. The next paragraph, the husband

  315. follows suit, and the joy of eating became a distant

  316. memory for them, and just something we can study

  317. about. Man was man, was made in the

  318. image of God at that time, and he wasn't acting like

  319. it, his honesty and deceit entered their minds, and

  320. thought about it before, Satan made him think about

  321. it. They didn't physically hurt

  322. anybody, and our day and time, this was meaningless,

  323. something that simple, but have a cost so high, this

  324. seems no big deal. The big deal is man is the

  325. image of God, when he lied, that image vanished.

  326. That happened, the lie brought

  327. that about. Denny Webster says this, there's

  328. nothing so powerful as the truth, and often nothing is

  329. strange. The devil seemed to be very

  330. successful. Here's a few examples, I forgot

  331. an example of a book psychology today, I don't

  332. prescribe you this, I just have notes from it. More

  333. than half say the tax return, just a good time

  334. of year to say this, audited, you probably owe

  335. the government money, because they cheat on their

  336. taxes, they lied. But one of three people

  337. lamented deceiving your best friend in the last year,

  338. they've done it. 96 % of them feel guilty about it,

  339. but they did it, just thinking you buy with

  340. something, and now hurt your feelings maybe. You

  341. only have to predict that if you scratch down the

  342. corner parking lot, they drive away without leaving

  343. a note. Although 89 % said it'd be wrong in

  344. the morning. Think about that, put yourself in

  345. these positions. What is the big lie? What

  346. is the little lie? What's the difference? To

  347. do a little lie, it will lead to a bigger one,

  348. it'll happen. To question why does God

  349. demand such honesty? Why does the man be so honest?

  350. If we read in the Bible the

  351. question should be this, why do we tolerate such

  352. dishonesty? Why do we do that? Sometimes

  353. we have to, out in the world, outside these doors,

  354. we tolerate it, it doesn't have to influence me in

  355. our lives, live in a world that has it, we don't have

  356. to tolerate in our own lives. Maybe

  357. Jeremiah was right, Jeremiah 17 and 9, the Bible says,

  358. the heart is deceitful above all things and

  359. desperately wicked, who can know it? If

  360. we have dishonest human lives, how do we explain

  361. it to our children, our spouses, our fellow

  362. Christians? Why do people lie mostly? Cover

  363. their weaknesses and their sins, make us look good or

  364. strong? The lies are about us, they're

  365. about our images. A good example is in Acts

    Acts 5:1–11

  366. chapter 5, verses 1 through 11, of lies and

  367. consequences. Again, this should not be a big

  368. thing, but it really was. We'll

  369. find out why. Acts chapter 5 verses 1 through

    Acts 5:1–11

  370. 11, the certain man, the Amen, and I asked for his

  371. wife's soul to possession, that he kept back part of

  372. the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and

  373. brought a certain part, let it be, Palsus' feet. But

  374. Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart

  375. to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the

  376. price of the land for yourself? What

  377. remained was it not your own? After

  378. it's soul, was it not in your own control? Why

  379. do you conceive this thing in your heart? Have

  380. you not lied to, you have not lied to men, but to

  381. God? The Ananias hearing these words

  382. fell down and breathed his last. So

  383. if here came upon all those who heard these

  384. things, on the amen arose, throughout them I carried

  385. him out and buried him, he died. It

  386. was about three hours later when his wife came in, not

  387. knowing what had happened. If

  388. Peter answered her, tell me whether you sow the land

  389. for so much. She said, yes, for so much.

  390. Then Peter said to her, how is

  391. it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit

  392. of the Lord? Look the feet of those who have

  393. buried your husband at the door and they will carry

  394. you out. Immediately she fell down at his feet

  395. and breathed her last. The woman came and found her

  396. dead, carrying her out and buried her by her husband.

  397. So great fear came upon all

  398. the church and upon all who heard these things.

  399. Just keep in mind some of the

  400. proceeds, lying a little bit about it. They

  401. lost their lives, they died. In

  402. verse 11 says, but great fear came upon the church

  403. and all those people. Why do you think such great

  404. fear came upon them? Maybe some of them had not been

  405. truthful. Maybe they thought they were

  406. next. They did some white lies. Maybe

  407. they just seemed a little bit. And

  408. these two gone, maybe I'm next. Maybe

  409. me and Paula next. Who knows who's next with this?

  410. Got the exam in the cells.

  411. Good example. So

  412. one of them afraid, you're in the crowd, where would

  413. you feel? Where would you be? Would

  414. you think you were next? It's

  415. just somewhat has changed. It's

  416. just an example has changed. Not

  417. God, not the book. Maybe our behavior, we think

  418. about that. We don't just lie to people.

  419. God's present. He

  420. knows it. We could go on many other

  421. reasons, folks lie, sacrifice your truth for

  422. peace. I could go on and on and

  423. on. It's 11 .15, I can't do that.

  424. But basically this, many did

  425. not like the truth. It's hard to take sometimes. You

  426. shall know the truth, the truth to make you squirm

  427. is not what John 8 and 32 says, but that's what it

  428. does sometimes. The truth is very difficult

  429. sometimes to take. And for not liking the truth,

  430. many of us can relate to this story. Humor

  431. is a little story, but it makes a point. We

  432. get to the end of it in a few minutes. Fellers,

  433. he had to call his wife, just he's about to fly

  434. home from Europe. She said, how is my cat? He

  435. said, dead. Oh honey, don't be so honest.

  436. Why can you break news to me

  437. more slowly? You've ruined my trip. He

  438. said, what do you mean? You

  439. could have told me that he was on the roof. Then

  440. when I called you from Paris, you could have told

  441. me he was acting sluggish. Then

  442. when I called you from London, you could have said

  443. he was sick. Then when I called you from New

  444. York, you could have said he was at the vet. Then

  445. when I arrived home, you could have told me he was

  446. dead. So husband wasn't used to such

  447. big deals about this. He's going to learn. He

  448. said, okay, you do better next time. By

  449. the way, how's my mom? If you're on a silence, he

  450. said, well, she's on the roof. Truth

  451. is hard sometimes. Both ends. Get

  452. the truth. It's hard to tell it sometimes

  453. in the right way. It's very, very difficult to do

  454. this. I dislike that the truth

  455. started when we were young. I

  456. remember my mom walking in the room, my mom walking

  457. in the room. My hands were in the head of

  458. my sister and said, okay, what's your mom? Who

  459. did it? It'd be one of these. Did

  460. you hit your sister? Well, depends what you mean by

  461. hit. I can't contact with her, but

  462. you know, who did it first? They

  463. did. You know, there's consequences.

  464. Mom, music got the truth out of

  465. us. She did. We

  466. know if dad didn't get involved. We

  467. didn't want that. Music and mom got the truth out

  468. of us before dad got involved. But

  469. we do, we're young. We learn then honestly has

  470. consequences. Because then we learn to start

  471. covering up. He hit me first, the blame

  472. game, the Garden of Eden. We

  473. learn early the truth is not fun. We

  474. don't like it sometimes. Sort

  475. of anti -sophia. But it's like fear to everyone

  476. around the truth. I'm afraid. I

  477. heard people joke over the years, speaking of these

  478. things. I've had it said too that I'm

  479. sure God doesn't strike people dead for lying

  480. nowadays. I'm not so sure he doesn't.

  481. Maybe in different ways. The

  482. Bible says Romans 6 and 33, the wages of sin is

  483. death. Gift of God is eternal. Seemed

  484. to me the wages of sin or deceit is still death. Not

  485. the death of the body. Maybe

  486. the death of something else. A

  487. marriage. Vault says it termites in the

  488. trunk of the family tree. Think

  489. of all those who can think of you examples. The

  490. marriages of families who suffered from lies and

  491. deceit. Cheating spouse telling lie after

  492. lie. Turning on to the death of a

  493. conscience. Which doesn't bother them anymore

  494. to tell lies. They've done it so many times.

  495. Trying to second lie is always

  496. that each student needs to do another one. Students

  497. have a way of having a life. It

  498. becomes a normal, not a wrong. Like

  499. those all done by guys that they shot. It's

  500. a normal thing. Part of their life. Coming

  501. to the death of a career. There's

  502. that student who got kicked out of class for cheating.

  503. An employee who got fired for

  504. sitting or in bezel match. Think

  505. about that. You can kill a career or you

  506. can kill an education. Long term consequences. Getting

  507. busted. We call them as a kid. You

  508. got busted. Total lie and you got busted.

  509. Going to the death of a faith.

  510. Language of faith and language of

  511. falsehood have two different vocabularies. Learn

  512. the Bible. They don't sink. So

  513. in the water. Turns like confession repentance.

  514. Hard to pronounce. Hard

  515. to put in the lives of those people. Confession

  516. repentance for what? The callous. We

  517. could go on with many others. Death

  518. of intimacy. Intimacy. The death of trust. The

  519. death of peace. Credibility. Self respect. There's

  520. many other ones. The sometimes worst casualty of

  521. death is our influence and our impact on other people.

  522. Our witness. We

  523. have in our life. Our lives we live outside these

  524. doors. Think about that. A

  525. court will listen testimony of a perjured witness.

  526. Neither will the world. Why

  527. would your coworkers believe you about the church in

  528. Christ? They can't believe you about

  529. other things. You can't believe what you say

  530. at work. Why would they want to come to

  531. church with you? Or they want to become a

  532. Christian? Like we can't how we convert

  533. family when they cannot trust us. Why

  534. are our neighbors going to church with us? We

  535. have been honest with them. Think

  536. about those things. There's a little story a long time

  537. ago. A man conned his way into an

  538. orchestra of the emperor of China. He

  539. wanted to be famous. He conned his way in. He

  540. could even play a note. He was there. Now

  541. with the group project performed he'd hold his

  542. flute against his lips pretending to play but not

  543. making a sound. Pulling everybody. He

  544. can eat how they're made. He

  545. received a modest salary. He

  546. enjoyed a comfortable living. But

  547. one day the emperor requested a solo from each

  548. musician. He wanted to hear him for

  549. himself. See how good they were. This

  550. guy got nervous. There was not enough time to

  551. learn the instrument. He pretended he'd pretend to

  552. be sick. But the physicians and the

  553. emperors, they weren't fooled. They

  554. knew he wasn't sick. The day of his solo

  555. performance, he took poison, killed himself. The

  556. explanation of a suicide did defraud his way in our

  557. English language. He refused to face the music.

  558. That's what he did. He

  559. couldn't face the music. The

  560. curfew to see is simply this. To

  561. face the music. Tell the truth. Is

  562. it costly? Yes. But not telling the truth

  563. down the road is more costly in many many ways.

  564. In this life and the life

  565. that comes after us. The lives of Anis and Sapphires

  566. held their deaths. The seatfulness of David,

  567. Bathsheba, let the death of their baby. Poor

  568. Uriah. You know that story. Some

  569. have buried a marriage. Some

  570. have buried family. Some have buried parts of

  571. conscience. Even parts of their faith. All

  572. because honesty doesn't seem to be that important

  573. anymore to people. Basically out in the world. Let

  574. us not infiltrate the church, please. The

  575. ripple of today's lie is tomorrow's wake and next

  576. year's flood. There's a time when it's okay to

  577. soften the truth. To be more encouraging to

  578. someone. Remember the cat and the roost

  579. story? There's times. My

  580. daughter, LaMagan, was killed in that car wreck.

  581. I was shot from my toolbox.

  582. I got the phone call. I

  583. had to go home and tell my wife and my son.

  584. There's people about her. The

  585. gentlest way to do that. There

  586. is no really right way. There's

  587. wrong way to do it. There's

  588. really no right way to do it. When

  589. you have a pet died and you've got a kid over

  590. here. To explain to your kid their

  591. dog died. There's times when you have to be

  592. compassionate. You maybe just soften your

  593. approach. You still tell the truth. We

  594. shouldn't be brutal like Christ was with the

  595. Pharisees, religious leaders. Jesus

  596. wasn't always brutal with the truth. He

  597. was subtle sometimes. But he was there. He

  598. told it. He got his point across. This

  599. is who we are. Whether it's a gentle way or a

  600. brutal way, we all should know how we're supposed to

  601. tell the truth. Remember Jesus told the truth? It

  602. really, really cost him. Think

  603. about that. What did it cost Jesus to tell

  604. the truth? It cost him his life. What

  605. kind of world was he living in? What

  606. were his trial they called false witnesses? People

  607. to lie about him? They're deceiving him. Say

  608. he was Caesar's king. Probably

  609. being a king. Caesar king. Compare

  610. him to Caesar. All these things. All

  611. the seats for the tricks they're all trying to throw

  612. around. Getting Christ crucified. All

  613. the Jews. All these rotten things are

  614. doing. All the Bible says not to do.

  615. He's the religious leaders of

  616. the world at that time trying to do these things.

  617. You know in the trial for the

  618. crucifixion Christ could have lied. He

  619. could use the seat. He could have maneuvered.

  620. Everybody else was. You

  621. know he could have blamed it on Peter. Peter

  622. wasn't far away. With eye contact. We

  623. know that for sure. Because Christ looked at him. I

  624. have a lesson on that gaze and that look. Call

  625. it the look. Think about that. Christ

  626. knew he was there. It'd be easy to tell a small

  627. tale. Save us on the hide. Peter

  628. was when they cut off Malcolm's ear when they

  629. came to get him. It was a good ammunition. If

  630. he just could have put this up he could have told

  631. a good story. He could have got out of it.

  632. Peter may have wanted to be

  633. crucified with them. He might have got out of it.

  634. He could have tried all kinds

  635. of things. But he didn't. He

  636. didn't have any distress. No

  637. deceit was found in his mouth. I

  638. put myself in that position. It

  639. would be tough. I couldn't say I could do

  640. that. I would try. I

  641. would do my best. I could say that. I'd

  642. do my best. It'd be tough. To

  643. examine yourself today. Ask yourselves some tough

  644. questions. Am I being completely honest

  645. with my spouse and my kids? Am

  646. I relationships all truthful and honorable? Let

  647. my work and my school environment. What

  648. about that? Am I honest with my dealings?

  649. Am I a trustworthy student?

  650. We're all going to face Lord one

  651. day in judgment. He'll be presenting us the truth.

  652. Everything secret we made known the

  653. Bible says. The truth of our lives will be

  654. present before God. This is not a living a lie.

  655. Matthew chapter seven. From

  656. 21 through 23. And now everyone says to me,

  657. Lord, Lord, you enter into kingdom of heaven. Be

  658. he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Maybe

  659. you'll say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, having a

  660. prophesied in your name. Counts

  661. out demons in your name. But

  662. then many wonders in your name. Then

  663. we'll declare them. I never knew you. You

  664. apart from me. You who product lawlessness.

  665. King James, George, use word

  666. iniquity. You apart from me. These

  667. people had the truth. They rejected it. They've

  668. been living a lie. And they're going to pay the

  669. price for it. Let's not be in that house of

  670. people. Let's not do that. If

  671. you had to face the music this morning, what would

  672. your life be? You closing one to read two,

  673. two songs. And I'll be done. So

  674. I'm 51 through three in the King James version says

  675. this, Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who

  676. shall dwell on that holy hill? He

  677. that walketh up brightly and worketh righteousness,

  678. and speaketh the truth in his heart. He

  679. that backbideth not with his tongue, nor doth he

  680. who doeth his neighbor, nor takeeth approach against his

  681. neighbor. That kind of person. So

  682. I'm 19, 11 through 14. This

  683. is the NIV. By them as your servant

  684. warned, and keeping them, there is a great reward.

  685. Who can discern his errors?

  686. Forgive my hidden faults. Keep

  687. your servant also from his willful sins. Lying

  688. is that category, isn't it? Willful

  689. sins. That they may not rule over me.

  690. Then will I be blameless,

  691. innocent of great transgression. In

  692. closing it says, May the words of my mouth and the

  693. meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O

  694. Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Let's

  695. be honest with ourselves this morning. The

  696. invitation song is saying. The

  697. kind of people we need to be. Christians.

  698. It would be a good thing this morning, but it would

  699. be a good thing for you to change a little bit of

  700. your life. Clean it up a little bit. Save

  701. more truths. Make some things right. Be

  702. true from here on in. Probably

  703. a good thing. Jesus 4 .17 says, There are

  704. people who know what they're good and do what

  705. they're not. Him is a sin. These

  706. things are important and they're very serious. Face

  707. this day and time when we live in a world where

  708. there's so many lies being told at every corner of

  709. the world. It's hard to get the truth out

  710. of anyone. Months ourselves, our families, our

  711. church members, our world we live in. Let

  712. there be some truth that we go by. Let

  713. there be part of our lives. There

  714. should be part of our lives. We

  715. shouldn't let the world run its way in. If

  716. you remember the church, God bless you. I'm

  717. glad you are. If you strayed away, you've

  718. done some things wrong. You think you're not right.

  719. You've fallen away from some of

  720. these things. You want to make things right?

  721. So you can restore yourself

  722. this morning. Come forward and have the

  723. brother pray for you. Make some prayer for the

  724. righteous. It's going to be out of much.

  725. I pray I'll be the righteous

  726. person to do that. If not, I'll call someone else

  727. to pray for you. You do not remember the church.

  728. You need to think about this

  729. time. Because there's no difference.

  730. You're in the, you're christening

  731. or not. One of the two. If

  732. you become a Christian this time, you get started a

  733. life, a life of truth. Living

  734. the truth, speaking the truth, teaching the truth

  735. about Jesus to others. Be the example you should be.

  736. So church may grow a number

  737. of spirits it should. But if you're asking for it

  738. this time, always stand while we sing. We

  739. thank you for listening to our podcast put on by the

  740. Church of Christ at 2215 Plans Road in Bakersfield.

  741. If you would like any

  742. additional information or you would like to receive

  743. a free Bible correspondence course by mail, please

  744. email us at info at churchofchristbakersfield .com.

  745. Our service times are Sundays

  746. at 10 30 a .m. and 5 p .m. and

  747. Wednesdays at 7 30 p .m. Please

  748. make plans to join us. We would love for you to be

  749. our honored guest.