God will deal with His people where there is lying.
(Originated Dec 18 1977)
In the title of this message we are coining a new word, truthers, referring to those who tell the truth, just as those who tell lies are called liars.
It is natural or human for a Christian to try to conceal certain problem in his life, because he knows that as soon as he confesses them Satan will use his confession as an exposure.
By exposing an individual, Satan causes others to exercise their natural human prerogative of judging by what they hear.
It is difficult for Christians to have an objectivity in the compassion of Christ for another person when they know that person's past.
God forgives, but people do not tend to forgive.
Even if they do forgive, they always remember what they have forgiven.
This is not according to the true ways of God.
He buries our sins in the depth of the sea ( Micah 7:19 ).
He removes them from us as far as the east is from the west ( Psalm 103:12 ).
He remembers them against us no more.
How wonderful that is!
People do not tend to do that.
In this world, those who love each other remind each other continually of how much they have forgiven the other person.
That is actually an unforgiving spirit, a tool in the hand of Satan.
You cannot become a pure channel without the confession that comes forth from the heart, so that God obtains truth in the inward parts.
He is able to purge you of iniquity if there is no covering over and no deceitfulness.
The extent of your sin is not as important as the fact that you frustrate the grace of God from dealing with that sin if you do not have an openness in your spirit to His grace.
You must have an honesty of heart before God.
In this end time one of two conditions will prevail: either universal deception will swallow men up and they will believe a lie, or they will have a revelation and an understanding of the truth because their hearts are honest and open before God.
They will be caught in one tide or the other.
False prophets will arise, and you will fall into deception if you are not alert and careful.
However, if truth prevails within your spirit, no lie will ever be able to take hold in your life.
Ephesians 4 reveals a great deal about truth, about ignorance, and about deception.
It also emphasizes the fact that God gave the gift ministries from heaven through Christ- apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers- so that there would not be a lie or a deception operating within the Body of Christ.
Instead there would be revelation and understanding.
Concerning these things, Paul wrote,
And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the Body of Christ: till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-13.
The objective of the ministries is not merely to build up church attendance, but to see that everyone who comes into Christ is helped and taught.
The authority of Christ in the ministries is to operate within the Body that the people grow to maturity.
A leader is not a true ministry that God gave to the Church if he builds a sphere around himself and makes people dependent upon him.
A true ministry leads believers to be mature.
He rejoices when he sees spiritual sons and daughters coming forth to maturity in the spirit.
This is the purpose for which God has given ministries.
We think in terms of God having raised up ministries, but in a sense He has lowered them down from the right hand of the Father, directly from the throne of Christ's authority, to bring believers into a maturity in Christ.
Those who hear a living Word from a ministry of authority are often amazed at the rapidity of their own spiritual growth.
They are led into a new way of life and a deeper walk with God than they ever believed possible.
This is the purpose of the ministries- to bring us forth into maturity, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind or doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error. Verse 14.
This verse presents a very negative picture if we do not understand that it is because of their immaturity that people can be carried about by error.
It is common for carnal Christians to become the source of persecution, rather than the sinner who is in the world.
In I Corinthians, chapters 1 through 4, we find that Paul was dealing with the fact that carnal Christians cannot understand spiritual truths.
They walk as mere men and they think as mere men; but the spiritual man is able to judge everything rightly, because his spirit is open and he is able to receive revelation ( I Corinthians 2:14-15 ).
The apostle Paul was aware that divisions and error find fertile soil in immature carnal Christians.
We know that the Corinthians were believers, because Paul said that they were still babes.
In I Corinthians 3:1-3 we read that he called them "babes in Christ," and he told them, "Are ye not carnal and walk as men?"
They loved the Lord, yet they were caught in all the wiles of error.
Lies are based upon facts which have received a false focus.
Satan presents one fact after another in a situation in order to introduce a thought that is detrimental.
It is not enough just to say that a certain thing is true.
Satan is a better liar than that.
He is a liar and the father of lies ( John 8:44 ).
He knows how to deceive you into excusing yourself by saying, "Well, I just told the truth; I only said what was true."
You are still a liar if you distort facts and give them a false focus so that people do not see the truth, but they see facts that have been distorted.
These facts cause faction in the Body of Christ rather than creating unity.
The Lord gave gift ministries to the Church, so that we may no longer be children who are subject to error, but speaking the truth in love, ( we ) may grow up in all things into Him, who is the head, even Christ; from Whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.
Ephesians 4:15-16.
This gives us a picture of the flow of love and shows us the results of speaking the truth in love.
In the Body of Christ we do not deal with just the facts and non facts; we deal with truth and with the wiles of error.
In the house of God, we must be very much concerned when certain things take place which are not pleasing to Him.
Let us not be guilty of sweeping anything under the carpet.
God requires that we be honest and open.
If we know that a brother is in trouble, we must try to help him, rather than judge him.
We must learn to speak the truth in love to a person without exposing facts that could destroy him.
Nevertheless, we must be sure that we convey the whole truth to him.
Be honest with God even if it means an exposure that Satan may try to turn against you.
Do not conceal anything; lay it before the Lord.
If someone confesses a sin only to relieve the heaviness of his own guilt, he can hurt and offend others by his confession.
That is not an honest confession; it is a perversity which is related to lying.
A person needs to confess with such a brokenness and such a sense of repentance that when the truth comes out, the ministries of authority can speak to him in love and thereby cause the whole church to grow stronger.
Do not expose one another; instead, find ways of taking the honest confession of another's heart to the throne of God, saying, "O God of truth and righteousness, You desire truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden parts You will make me to know wisdom.
Now, Lord, I give to You the broken and contrite heart which is the sacrifice You want."
We must seek the truth in order to build up one another in love.
Paul gave this warning to the Ephesians:
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind.
Ephesians 4:17.
You must walk in the Word that God gives you, or you will be walking in the deception of the unbeliever.
Let the Word of the Lord be the truth that you live by.
Let His Word be the conscience that you submit to and the law of life.
Submit yourself to His Word that comes through the ministries of authority which God has given to the Church.
You will not come forth to walk with God any other way except under submission to divine order.
Submission to the New Testament pattern of divine order is not legalism; it is an exhibition of the grace of God.
As you submit to those who are ministries of authority to watch over you, you will do better than if you are a rebellious Christian living your own life and thinking your own thoughts.
You are protected when you listen and submit to what God says and admit you are wrong.
Congregations of believers who are submissive to divine order learn the mind of Christ that is conveyed through the channels of authority in the church.
Time after time, as they come out of a church service, they are no longer walking in vanity of their own minds.
Paul emphasized the fact that we must not walk as unbelievers who walk in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding.
Even the wickedness of the world is not as appalling as the fact that in this enlightened, scientific age there is a great lack of understanding.
A darkness is coming over the whole earth, yet mankind appears to be entering into a golden age of scientific enlightenment.
Fields of science are coming forth with wondrous new discoveries, and yet men are without understanding.
They are alienated from the life God, because of the ignorance that is in them.
Ephesians 4:18.
They are without wisdom.
What is wisdom?
Is wisdom elusive and nebulous, or is wisdom a reality, a living entity?
The book of Proverbs implies that it is a living entity.
Wisdom crieth aloud in the street.
How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?
Proverbs 1:20,22.
What is the truth?
Is it a living entity?
Jesus said, I Am the way the truth and the life. John 14:6.
In contrast, Satan is the personification of everything that is a lie.
Just as Christ is the truth and the fountain of truth, so Satan is a liar and the father of lies.
Truths and lies are living substances and forces of spirit.
A statement is not necessarily the truth just because it is factual; liars use facts to deceive.
Lies are made up of a fabric of true facts that can be ascertained and proven.
What is truth?
It is a living thing.
Paul said that unbelievers are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God.
A lie is a darkness
that robs you of life and darkens your understanding, so that even when you know the facts you cannot know the truth.
The Lord wants you to know what a lie really is.
Some think that they can conceal things from their pastors and elders.
They try to outsmart them by evasively working around the truth.
Any evasiveness of divine order becomes a turning away from the truth.
The ignorance that is in unbelievers, and in those who do not speak the truth in love, is like having a living force of Satan.
We can see why Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead.
God dealt with them not because they cheated Peter out of a few dollars, but because they lied to God.
Imagine the audacity of trying to deceive God!
When Peter said to Ananias, "Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?" he was speaking judgment.
Otherwise that deadly cancerous evil in the Body of Christ could have destroyed the early Church.
Everyone who saw and heard of it realized what was taking place ( Acts 5:1-11 ).
Let us speak truth.
Let us be true, honest and truthful, even if it seems to be to our own hurt.
Regardless of our mistakes or misjudgments or problems, God looks for our honesty of heart.
It is not how we measure up to the human standards of perfection that is important; it is how God looks in our hearts and sees truth in the inward parts, a broken and a contrite heart.
There cannot be true repentance without that openness to God.
Paul went on to say that ignorance was within unbelievers because of the hardening of their heart.
Ephesians 4:18.
The heart is the organ of understanding.
If you harden your heart, ignorance will take over; and then you will become darkened in your understanding.
In John 7:17 Jesus said, " If any man is willing to do His will" ( that is, from the heart ), " He shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak of Myself."
You will have no problem of discernment or problems of understanding if your heart is set to do the will of God.
However, even if you are an outstanding genius, you cannot know the truth if your heart is not set to walk in it.
Paul continued to describe the unbelievers who did not walk in the truth; who being past feeling gave themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Ephesians 4:19.
A lie opens the door to every kind of evil.
When a man lies again and again, he gives himself over to an evil way of life.
The Christian who is not honest with God may find himself becoming increasingly sneaky until he is past feeling and wholly given to immorality.
Suddenly, those who are walking with God will appear to be very naive; and he will rationalize his lifestyle as being "free."
That is the worst kind of slavery, for in reality his freedom will have been lost.
Notice in the following passage that Paul refers to the truth again, saying that the truth is in Jesus.
If you are not open to Christ, you cannot know Christ.
The two cannot be separated, because He is the truth.
But ye did not so learn Christ; if so be that ye heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus; that ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit.
Ephesians 4:20-22.
Paul also spoke of the lusts of deceit.
Deception itself is based upon a lust of the flesh.
Lust may follow many paths; for example, the lusts of deceit are often related to the lust of sex, but almost invariably they are related to the lust of rebellion.
There is a lust which motivates people to be loosed from responsibility; they want to be "free."
That kind of lust comes against the members of the Body of Christ who are involved in responsible relationships that require faithful stewardship.
You may be genuinely concerned about the family of God.
You may be looking out for your brother and wanting to bless everyone with all your heart.
In other words, the lust of deceit will cause you to break the oneness of the Body.
Paul told the Ephesians to put away the old life: and then put on the new life; and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.
Verses 23-24.
This fourth chapter stresses the fact that every member in the Body of Christ is to bring forth truth.
If we are going to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, or rightness, we cannot harbor any deceit.
As God is right, so also we must be right.
We must strive to come into perfection, which means that we cannot deliberately hide anything from God or from one another.
We cannot live a lie; we must try to walk in the truth.
After Paul told the Ephesians to put on the new man that is created in holiness and truth, he added, Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye the truth each one with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.
Verse 25.
The moment you speak a lie, you sever the oneness of the members of Christ; but when you speak the truth in love, you create a unity, a oneness.
When a pastor moves in perfect love, he develops an immunity to shock.
No matter what is confessed to him, he is not impressed.
He knows that sin is sin, and he hates it.
His only concern is to help those who have sinned.
He is not restrained against them, nor does he hold their sin against them.
He watches over them to be sure they are not overtaken by their natural tendencies.
He ministers to those who tend to be rebellious, in order to help them stay submissive to the Lord.
Never reject anyone because of a sin that he has confessed to you or that you know about.
Never hold anything against anyone- for it is past, bury it.
Water that has passed the mill-wheel can no longer turn it.
Put away falsehood and speak truth each one with his neighbor, for we are members of one another
( Ephesians 4:25 ).
Speak the truth in love, that we may grow up in all things unto Him who is the Head, even Christ, from whom the whole Body is fitly joined together.
(Ephesians 4:15,16).
Both of these Scriptures indicate that the truth in each member's heart is the key to oneness in the Body of Christ.
It is also the key to revelation and the key to walking with God in the end time.
Ask the Lord to help you, so that you will hold your counsel and not judge, but wait until He shows you the truth.
Otherwise, you might be guilty of seeing your brother with a distortion that would be a lie of Satan against him.
Satan is the accuser of the brethren and the deceiver of the whole world ( Revelation 12:10 ).
Have you ever stopped to think how he can distort your attitude and your observance of one another?
By that he becomes the accuser of your brother, and you see your brother in a wrong sense; what you see is a lie.
God can help you to see others in the grace of God.
Even when you know facts and problems, God can help you to see them in truth and compassion.
The truth is not necessarily related to an exposure of facts.
Facts that are voiced without love produce faction and division.
Certain facts can create a false focus.
Therefore, Paul gave this advice:
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Philippians 4:8.
Speaking these things ministers truth to the Body.
Sometimes God deals with a handful of offenders in a church; but this does not mean that the whole church is at fault.
It is easy for Satan to create a false impression of an entire church when those who are new have not dropped some of the old wrappings of death in their lives.
Facts such as these do not reveal the truth about a church.
There will always be a number of new people who have problems throwing off their carnality and sin.
It will be the responsibility of the rest of the church to minister to them and see them delivered.
People do not come into the church after they are perfected; they come into the church before they are perfected.
The facts in some people's lives do not mean that the church is filled with sin.
Publicans, harlots, and sinners come in and become the saints of God; they are delivered to walk with Him ( Matthew 21:31,32).
The truth is more than bringing forth facts which can be used to create a false focus.
God gives the Spirit of truth.
Although we are not to focus on facts, we are also not to be tolerant of sin.
Everyone who comes to God must be purged in Christ, as with hyssop, and washed by His blood, so that they will be clean and whiter than snow ( Psalm 51:7 ).
They must be delivered from their iniquities.
We must believe for an anointing to pray for them, to help them and to minister to them so that they can walk with God.
Facts can be used in a wrong way, but that does not mean you should always cover them over .
There are times when you can be a liar by concealment.
You have a false sense of loyalty if you know something of critical importance to the church and you conceal it because you promised to say nothing.
You will walk in the same guilt as the one who confided in you.
Speak the truth, rather than keeping the confidence of someone who is in sin and rebellion.
If he is not letting God deal with his heart, and if the situation will draw the church into the dealings of God, why keep silent out of a false sense of loyalty to that person?
If you do, you are guilty of being a liar by virtue of concealment.
People can be guilty of believing lies because they interpret situations by their own biased and carnal thinking.
A lie is not just a fact that is twisted; a lie is a living thing within a person's heart.
Everything a liar looks at takes on the bias of a liar's nature, just as if he were wearing distorted glasses.
Therefore, a liar's heart never sees the truth.
Because he sees through his own lying spirit, the sinner projects his sin to those he observes, but rarely does he see himself in his own need.
If a sinner comes into a church service and is unrepentant, he sees only the faults of everyone else and he leaves the church feeling superior. what deception!
It is very difficult to recognize an impersonation of yourself because you do not hear or see yourself as others do.
Chances are that you walk up to a mirror, you stand erect and hold in your stomach because you want to maintain that lying image you have of yourself.
Seldom does a man smell his own garlic breath.
The senses- the ears , the eyes, the nose - never reveal the truth about one's self.
On a worldwide scale, the lying spirit prevails in governments and in situations requiring legal procedures.
We should be concerned about the dishonesty and the concealing of evidence that is prevalent in our courts of law.
Liars stand up in court, on one side presenting facts and witnesses only to condemn, and on the other presenting facts and witnesses only to excuse.
We should have a process of law whereby everyone who knows anything about a case presents it in honesty to be evaluated.
Satan is deceiving the whole world; therefore, God must deliver us from the lying spirit of this age, from the false prophets who will arise to deceive the very elect if possible.
( Matthew 24:24 ).
We must be delivered from the deception of the wicked.
In Daniel 12:10 we read of this time: none of the wicked shall understand; but they that are wise shall understand.
Those who are wise will know the truth; they will know how to walk with God.
Perhaps you will want to meditate before the Lord for any adjustment that is needed in your dedication, so that you can be more honest, more truthful, and more open with others and with God.
Find out where you fall short, and believe God to help you.
The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth, and He will guide you into all truth.
( John 16:13 ).
He will lead you into righteousness.
As the Lord fills your life with His Spirit, you will be true because He is true.
He will deliver you from the corrupt world system.
He will deliver you from lying vanities and bring you into the knowledge and reality of truth in your heart.
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