Chester Clark

Ouachita Hills College

Truth vs. Lies, Part 1

You know, so many little things in our daily life hinge on truth.

As we're going around our activities, as we're maybe in the dorm, in class, maybe we're at work, there's often opportunities for us to hear little things being said.

They might be reports of what someone has said, right?

And often we take these things as though they were truth when perhaps they were just The interpretation of what was said and what was done you understand what I'm saying?

And so little in little ways and in big ways Little things that aren't quite true get into our thinking and into our ideas and into our understanding And the more those little things get into our ideas and into our understanding The more they begin to cause problems.

I believe you're going to see this evening that God is a lover of truth.

And there's a reason that he's a lover of truth.

And he knows that people thrive on truth.

The more completely truth encompasses our mind, fills our thinking and our thoughts, the more healthy we're going to be mentally and spiritually.

Oh there's so many things that the devil tries to bring into our consciousness that are not truth.

As young people, maybe it's that, You know, really that chocolate ice cream would be good for me, mommy.

Or maybe it's really I think that I would be happier if I could do this or I could do that or I could have this or I could have that.

The devil gets these little thoughts into our thinking from a very early age.

And it's important for us, now that we have become adults, young adults, it's important for us to begin filtering our thoughts on a standard of truth.

You see, when someone says something, you might be tempted to take it at face value, but we should ask ourselves the question, is it what?

If we simply ask that question, it would solve an awful lot of problems between people.

It would solve an awful lot of problems in our own thinking.

The devil tries to bring lies about us into our thinking as well.

1 of the forms of lies the devil tries to bring into our thinking about ourselves is that we're not good enough.

Have you ever been tempted to think those type of thoughts?

I don't think there's a person, probably, who hasn't at some time or another thought those type of thoughts.

In the light of the Bible, in the light of truth, are those accurate thoughts?

The Bible says you have been bought with a price.

Are we too great of a sinner to be saved?

No, because Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners.

And Paul himself, the more he came to understand the character of God, the more he came to understand truth, the more he realized he was a great sinner, but Jesus Christ was a great Savior.

And so he could say, Jesus Christ came to this world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

The other form the devil of lies the devil tries to bring into our thinking is that we're pretty good after all.

You know other people may have strange ideas, but we're pretty balanced, you know.

Everyone else is either liberal or ultra-conserved, but we're middle of the road.

And we interpret the spirit of prophecy in the Bible correctly.

And that after all, we're pretty good and we're pretty popular, and the world revolves around us.

And actually, we know it revolves around the sun.

And we are but a speck on a speck in a speck of a galaxy in this great universe.

So the devil tries to bring error into our minds.

Another favorite lie of the devil is that somehow, by following God, we're going to miss out on something.

By following our own ideas, which in reality is following the enemy of souls' temptations, we're going to have a happier life.

It's not something that comes flagrantly at us, that we just openly say, yes, I want to be happier following Satan, or I will be happier following Satan.

We don't say that, but in our mind, we hold back a full surrender to God.

And the only rational reason that I can think of that we might hold back that surrender of our entire being to God is because somehow we're listening to some of the devil's lies.

And as you have opportunity to go home, you're going to have to put a filter up and determine what is truth and what is error.

The only way we can determine truth versus error is through the Word of God.

So this evening we're going to look at the Word of God, and we're going to look at how God's Word defines not just truth as something God delights in or loves.

We're going to look at how truth is a very description of who God is.

Father in heaven, tonight the truth is that our hearts are hardened by living in this world of sin.

Our minds have been numbed by 6, 000 years of transgressions.

And we confess now our need for your Holy Spirit to be our teacher and guide.

Father, may my words be used by your Holy Spirit to bring conviction and truth to each of our hearts tonight, including my own.

Not because any of us are worthy, but because of Jesus, and because of His love for us, and because of His promises to us.

Tonight we're going to be talking about truth versus lies.

And primarily I want us to be able to ask the question, Whose character are we reflecting?

First of all, I want us to look in the Bible at many verses that describe the character of God.

I've made that as a statement at the beginning.

We're going to have to look at the Bible to see if that's true.

I hope you will think as we look at the following verses to see if in fact the Bible is teaching that the character of God equals truth.

Remember what I said about having a filter up that determines whether what we are hearing is truth or lies?

That should even be right now during prayer meeting, right?

Look at the standard, the Word of God, and see if this is truth.

Exodus chapter 34 and verse 6, the Bible says, And the Lord God passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord God, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and what?

Deuteronomy 32 verse 4, He is the rock and His work is perfect, for all His ways are judgment.

A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He.

Continuing on, into thine hand I commit my spirit thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of what?

For the word of the Lord, Psalm 33 verse 4, the word of the Lord is right, and all his works are done in truth, the Bible says.

Psalm 57 verse 10, For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto, where?

The psalmist is describing these attributes of God, and he says, your mercy is all the way to the heavens and your truth also to the clouds.

Now, sometimes we like to focus on characteristics of God, such as mercy, right?

But sometimes we forget that equally important with God's mercy is God's what?

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Truth vs. Lies, Part 1

Transcript

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