The Fundamentals

Colossians 1:25-29

COL-223

Our topic is the "Mystery of the Church," number 38, in Colossians 1:25-29.

The Bible records, without any error, are the wisdom of God, which Paul the apostle teaches to church-age believers who are under his care and influence. And this is what he's telling the Colossians in Colossians 1:28, when he says, "We proclaim Him (Jesus Christ). We admonish (warn) every man about sin. And we teach every man the Word of doctrine, and we do that with all wisdom, and for the purpose of wisdom." This wisdom refers to the mind of God (His thinking) about life. This divine viewpoint wisdom revealed in the Bible is the only truth that there is about spiritual issues in all the world. And this is the only religious book in all the world in which the wisdom of God can be found. Divine viewpoint is important because it is reality.

The Mind of Man vs. the Mind of God

This is the way things are by the character and the authority of God, the Creator. Those who live by the wisdom of God enjoy meaningful lives, free from the point of free grace salvation to the spiritual maturity that is able to produce divine good works to be rewarded someday in heaven.

The mind of man, under the influence of the old sin nature and the guidelines of Satan, produces a perverted human wisdom. And if we are not careful, even we, as Christians, can fall into the system of thinking the way the people of our human society do, and they have no orientation to the things of divine wisdom. Those who live by the wisdom of God enjoy a meaningful life. Those who live by the wisdom of the world have a life which is never satisfying, and is, in fact, a wasted life. The mind of man cannot compete with the mind of God.

This human viewpoint wisdom opposes the divine viewpoint wisdom of God at every point. Human viewpoint wisdom is not the truth. Therefore, it leads to self-destruction for those who live by it, and those people are under divine judgment. Human viewpoint wisdom is at odds with reality, as God has structured His universe to function. God is in charge, not people. God sets the rules. God sets the way that people will relate to one another. And anybody (Christian or unbeliever), who steps out of the pattern of relationship by the wisdom, of God is going to come into conflict. And those who are out of the pattern of God will be the losers.

The Wisdom of God vs. the Wisdom of Man

God's wisdom is spiritual light, while man's wisdom is spiritual darkness. The Christian who is filled the Holy Spirit walks in the light of God's truth. He has fellowship with the Father. That person lives. The person who operates under divine viewpoint wisdom, he is living. On the other hand, the carnal Christian who walks in the spiritual darkness, and has fellowship with the world, but not with the Father, he does not live. He exists. But he never learns to live. All he does is exists.

Now each church-age believer has to choose whether he is going to live by the "in" thing of God's wisdom (God, Who is his friend), or he is going to live by the "in" thing of the wisdom of Satan, and of Satan's world as God's enemy.

The Source of God's Wisdom

The source of God's wisdom is in Bible exposition – the teaching ministry of the local church pastor-teacher. All churches are not equal. All churches could be equal when it comes to performing their duty, and when it comes to performing their divine calling, which is to explain the Word of God to the people of God, and thus to feed their souls, so that they may have the sustaining capacity to walk through the world of Satan, and not be contaminated by it, and not be destroyed, and not be injured by it.

We are moving increasingly into a technological age where it is easy to get at the wisdom of the world, in all of its most corrupt forms – it is easier than ever before. And Christians who do not understand the danger of that, and do not understand the hazards of accepting man's point of view, run a great personal hazard of their own self-destruction.

The Pastor Teacher

So, this is a very important subject. Each believer has to decide what is the "in" thing. And it is the pastor-teacher who makes one church different than another. If the pastor-teacher fails to teach his flock the doctrinal principles of Scripture, which are the truth of God, then he will deny them the wisdom of God for their lives. And he should not do that. And he will be judged for that if he does. Christians who are left ignorant of doctrine, when they are subjected to inspirational sermons; popular style preaching; entertaining; one-liner humor; and, preaching that has little pithy sayings – none of that, if it is not explaining a verse of Scripture verse-by-verse and word-by-word, is going to amount to anything. That is robbing Christians of their right to wisdom.

The Pastor-Teacher Gift

It is for this reason that God will someday award to certain Christians some of the four great spiritual crowns in heaven, for special merit in service. It is not without reason that one of those crowns is exclusively to the pastor-teacher. And it is a crown called "the crown of glory." And it is for those who have been faithful to using their pastor-teacher gift. And you have to have that gift of communicating. You don't deserve it; you don't earn it; and, you don't have any special reason to have it. It's just God's decision. You have to sharpen it, you have to train it, and then you never get over having to sit down; shut the door; get in prayer; pull the Bible out; and, start reading the Scripture. You take a look at the original language, and analyze what is there, and proceed to tie it together with the greater structure (a framework) of Scripture, until you have something that you can convey to the people as the wisdom of God. You cannot get it from your own cleverness. It comes from God.

The Wisdom of God

So, the wisdom of God is crucial to the church-age believer, and the only source for this is the Word, and the Word, and the Word. It's very easy to find the Christians who are immature, especially when they come into a crunchy place in life. All that they have been riding on is a background of challenge and inspiration to their emotions. Then they will not have anything to carry them through. We have these summertime Christians, but those who must face the destructive effects of Satan (the pressures of Satan) – that takes spiritualism, and, that takes maturity.

There is not a Sunday that goes by, but what some Christian in this circle does not hear something that is so distressing to them. And then, they'll say something about it, in one way or another, (either to me, or to somebody else, and it'll get back to me. And the first thing they want to do is not come back for a while, because something has been said that is so against what they want to believe. But all they have to do is say, "No, that's wrong," and then face the Judgment Seat of Christ, and see whether they were right or not. But the wisdom of God is crucial. And you have the right, as Christians, to have that wisdom brought to you from the Word of God.

Now, as I say, the primary, divinely-ordained source of the Word is the pastor-teacher. He has been given the special gift to be able to do this. And he is the one who is the communicator. And he is the one who has to study and learn and teach.

Modernists vs. Fundamentalists

Earlier in this century, in the 1920s and 1930s, the battle between liberalism and biblical Christians was heating up to white intensity. In those days, the liberals were called "modernists," and the Christians (faithful to a literal interpretation of Scripture, and to an inspired Bible) were called "fundamentalists."

"The Fundamentals"

In The Fundamentals, volume three, on pages 168 through 177, one of the writers, Howard Cosby (who he who was the Chancellor of the University of the City of New York), wrote an article in The Fundamentals about the instruction of believers, and the importance of feeding the people of God upon the Word of God.

Now, we know that that's important. Regularly, people come, and they've done it this morning. They come to me, and they say, "I gave so-and-so a copy of a tape on this subject or that subject, and this person listened to it, with not particularly any great expectation, and suddenly heard something that was plain, simple, ordinary run-of-the-mill, expository preaching, explaining the Scriptures." But this person suddenly had spiritual thirsts, satiated by the Word of God. They suddenly were able to drink in the wisdom of God to satisfy their soul. And one of our people this morning said that one of the ladies, this past week, had been given some of the introductory, beginning, basic, doctrinal tapes, and she said, "You know, it really makes me angry. Here, I go to this other church, with all these people, and all these programs, and all this hoopla, and I'm ignorant of all these things that are on this tape. Where do you get things like this?" Well, you get it in any church that has a pastor-teacher who understands his duty to preach: not to be a social butterfly; and, not to be running around creating programs for different categories of people in the congregation, but just to preach the Word. That's what Paul told Timothy: "After I'm gone, Timothy, don't ever forget your fundamental calling. You're going to be the communicator. When I'm gone, preach the Word." What did he mean? He meant expository preaching – explaining the Bible to people.

So, here this lady, to one of our members, is saying, "I'm angry about the fact that I sit in church regularly and faithfully, and I get nothing like this. I'm totally ignorant. Here are the simple basic things of the Bible, and I can see how important they are, and how easily it is to understand these things, and how vital this is, to my being able to think my way through the devil's world.

Now, that is not an unusual experience. It has happened hundreds of times, when people have gotten hold of a Berean tape, and then became very angry when they realized how much of their lives had been wasted, and how much they'd been denied.

Well, Howard Cosby put this together in a very excellent way, because he understood that the battle between modernism and fundamentalism, in the early part of this century, in this country, was dependent upon what the preachers were doing in the pulpit. And the battle was being lost, as eventually it was in every major denomination, virtually, because the preachers got away from their calling.

Fundamentals – Howard Cosby

So, let me read you what he said in one section of his book in Fundamentals," volume three: "One of the latest injunctions of the aged Paul, just before his martyrdom, was that to Timothy: 'Preach the Word.' It is called the Word of God because it is not of man. As God's Word has both authority to demand attention, and power to convert and save the soul. It is not to be twisted and fitted to man's preconceived ideas. It is not to be filtered through man's strainer, nor mixed with man's conceits. It is God's, and, as God's, let no man dare add to it, or take away from it, or alter it in any way. God has not given us a doubtful and deceitful light for our path. He has not given us a bundle of truth and fable tied up together. He has not left us to our weak and discordant reason, and on this sure Word is His church built. The doctrines of grace have neither human origin nor human support. They're altogether divine, and are received only by the soul that becomes partaker of the divine nature.

"To go, therefore, to human philosophy, or to man's inner consciousness for their confirmation or explanation, is to go to the sentenced criminal to understand the excellencies of criminal law. If we honor God, we shall honor the Word that He has sent. And we shall be jealous for the Word, and not one jot or one tittle of it be disturbed. It is the Word of God. And as such, we shall not allow for a moment the speculations, imaginings, and guesses of men, ever so learned, to weigh a feather's weight against it.

"The preacher is a proclaimer, a herald, not a college professor or an originator of theories. He has the Word given him, and that he is to proclaim. He is not to draw from the wells of human philosophy, but from the streams that flow directly from the throne of God. He is to tell the people what God has said. He is to hide himself behind his message, and to receive it equally with those he addresses. He is responsible as a herald to God, and not to the church.

"Success is not to be reckoned by full houses and popular applause, but by converted hearts, and by the strengthening of the faith and piety of God's people; a holier life; a more pronounced separation from the world; a stainless integrity in business pursuits; a Christly devotion to the interest of others; and, a more thorough knowledge of the Word. These are the true signs of success which the preacher may justly seek, even though his people meet in a barn, and in them, he will rejoice with a purer, holier joy than that which comes from numbers, wealth, or popular admiration.

"If the preacher preach the Word only, he will bathe in God's revelation, and be permeated by it, and so be proof against the shafts of ignorance and conceit. He will not go to pope or counsel, or to Calvin or Schleiermacher, to know what to preach, but his delight will be in the law of the Lord. And in his law, will he meditate day and night. The word is supernatural. And woe to the preacher who leaves the supernatural for the natural, and who sets aside the sword of the spirit to use in its stead a blade of his own tempering." That sums it up very nicely indeed.

So, the wisdom of God and particularly the wisdom as we've been looking at it, and as it applies to the issue of morality, which currently, I need not tell you, the moral code of God is widely disregarded; widely reinterpreted; and, is widely abused. God's wisdom taught in Scripture, relative to personal morality is commonly ignored and violated in society today, from the highest echelons to the lowest.

A prominent example, we have pointed out, is the moral law against bearing false witness against one's neighbor. This is declared in Exodus 20:16, as part of the ninth commandment of the Mosaic code. It is also repeated in Colossians 3:9 under the topic of lying. Violation of this moral principle also violates the second greatest commandment that Jesus pointed out, which is to love one's neighbor as oneself. We have this beginning at Matthew 22:37: "And He (Jesus) said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments, depend the whole Law and the prophets." If you love the Lord your God above everything else, and you love your neighbor as yourself, you will not violate one of the commandments of God. It is the lack of love that causes the commandments of God to be violated. It's just that simple. And the violation of love is commonplace today.

The exercise of mental attitude love for others precludes the violating of all the other commandments. The apostle pointed this out in Romans 13:8-10. Paul says, "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another (mental attitude love), for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law. For this, you shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; and, you shall not covet. And if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is a fulfillment of the law." That kind of mental attitude, self-sacrificial goodwill makes all the difference in the world. Jesus commanded believers to exercise this kind of mental attitude love even for one's enemies – that they were not to be slandered. To love your enemies – that is the result of obeying the moral code of telling the truth, and not violating this second most important commandment.

In Matthew 5:43-45, Jesus says, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, in order that you may be sons of your Father Who is in heaven. For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." God treats the good people and the bad people with equal grace; with equal kindness; and, with equal provision. And we treat them, while recognizing their sin, with that same kind of kindness and grace.

Matthew 5:46-48, "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax gatherers do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what do you more than others. Do not even the gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect (that is mature spiritually), as your Heavenly Father is mature." So Jesus said, "As believers, you not only exercise love toward one another, but that love, as yourself, toward your neighbor, includes your enemy.

Socialism

Now, liberals of Satan's world system claim to be extremely compassionate people. So, their compassion, they believe, should be expressed in socialism. Finally, I'm beginning to hear in public discussion, and on the news, and in debating circles, the word "socialism." For a long time, we have had a free enterprise capitalist party in this country, and a socialist party. They go under different names, but the socialist party has not wanted to identify itself by that, because all the world has learned what a disaster socialism is (government controls and government intrusions into one's life), such that they are fleeing from it in every which way. But liberals claim that they are the compassionate ones. But every socialist program that they create, enslaves and corrupts a person's character.

Here is somebody that moves along in life, and all of a sudden, faithful to the things of God, in comes the government with some provision, and that provision corrupts him. It pulls him out of doing the things that should be done in the work of the Lord. It is only the biblical Christians, in fact, who are compassionate and helpful to people in need. The governor of our state is using the term "compassionate conservatives." That's redundant. That is saying the same thing twice. If you're not a conservative, you cannot be compassionate. The liberals lie. What they do to people brings great injury to them, and that is not loving your neighbor as yourself. But they don't really care about that. They simply want the power of the vote. And if they can get your vote by giving you something, then that's what they will do. That is not love, and that is not compassion. And we Christians should not be intimidated by that nonsense and that deceit.

We have been told by two prominent writers now, in the New York Times and the New York Post, that the current situation in the impeachment trial had to have the outcome that it did, in order to preclude any victory for conservatives who would intrude the government into people's lives. What do they mean? Well: "Those conservatives want to quit murdering those babies. That's an intrusion into people's lives. Those conservatives want to stop taking the money that people have earned by the sweat of their brow, and take the fruits of their labors, and give it to somebody else in that society that never earned it, and never had it coming to them, but the government says that they should have equal opportunity." And they say, "Well, that's a person that will vote for us."

Well, everything is turned upside down. And the arrogance is so great now that they don't make any bones about it. They don't hide it. They say, "Yes, we will condone any evil, we will protect any evil just to be sure that people who might do things that are right by biblical standards, which they consider an intrusion into people's lives, and the intrusion of the government into people's lives, of all things, there's no one who intrudes in life of people like the liberals do. But by their thinking, their love is to squelch the true expression of the wisdom of God in people's lives.

In 1 John 3:17-18, John said, "But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need, and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth." We Christians (we conservative, biblical, fundamentalist Christians) are the one who take a verse like this very seriously. And people who are in need of whatever (of one kind or another, whether it's a material need, or it's a comforting need, or it's a need of personal wellbeing in some respect), we Christians are there to say, "What can I do to help you?"

And people come to me all the time in some areas of our work, and they say, "What can I do to help you?" That happens when they think that I'm on a tough line and need some help, as they do with you? This is what we Christians do. And yet, we are misrepresented. We are identified as the uncompassionate. Why? Because we are not socialists. We don't want the government running our lives. And we don't want the government redistributing the fruits of our labors to those that we don't choose to give it to. This is so subtle, and this is so vile, and yet it is preparing the world for the return of our Lord. You want to remember that.

How Long before the End Times?

One of our people this morning said, "If you are a betting man, what are the odds? How far are we from the rapture?" I said, "Well, we can't know the date. There are no identifying marks for the rapture. But I can tell you this: that there are many identifying marks for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ cannot come until there's a great movement in the world for world government. And that's happening, faster than you think. I can tell you that Jesus Christ will not return until there's a great movement toward socialism, under a unified government program worldwide. That's happening through the United Nations. I can tell you that Jesus Christ cannot return until there's a unified economic system through the world. You cannot have a world government until you have a uniform economy." And now the elitists are saying that one of our problems, of being able to push ahead, to take national sovereignty, and bring people into a sympathy for a world government, is that we have no religious tying of this together. We have to have some kind of a tie together in religion.

The New Age

Well, if you visited the United Nations, they have their meditation room. And boy, it's New Age, everywhere in it. And that is the religion that's coming. And the new age religion, which has come from Hinduism – I'm going to show you something about that, maybe starting next Sunday. I'll give you the warning, because we're not going to let the children be in, short of a certain age. We're going to show you what New Age Hinduism is all about, and the New Age expression in western culture today. And what is all that? I know that that has to happen before Jesus can return.

"So, we have all these Second Coming signs that are rapidly coming together," I told this man, "not the least of which is that there's going to be a possibility for people to have their private financial lives controlled, so that one man can say, "You are out of the loop." And the Bible says that you will not be able to buy anything or to sell anything. The computer has made that possible.

So I said, "I know that when the tribulation arrives, that these things will all be in place, and they will blossom into full bloom during the seven-year tribulation, and then the Second Coming takes place. So, all I can tell you is that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ cannot take place for another seven years. But when the clock starts ticking off those seven years, that's what I don't know, because it's the rapture that sets that in motion. And we biblical Christians are being degraded; being lied about; and, being misrepresented in every possible, imaginable way.

1 Thessalonians 4 has an interesting comment on this. 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12: "Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. For indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia, but we urge you, brethren, to excel still more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and attend to your own business, and work with your own hands, just as we commanded you, so that you may behave properly toward outsiders, and not be in any need." The apostle Paul says that we Christians are to go about our own business, taking care of our own needs, dependent upon God and our dedication to provide what needs to be provided for us, and that we will there go about doing God's work.

In 2 Thessalonians 3:6, when Paul wrote them again, notice what he says again to them, in terms of compassion on the part of biblical Christians: "Now we command you brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep aloof from every brother who leads an unruly life, and not according to the traditions which you receive from us." Some Christians will go into carnality. You treat them with the compassionate love of mental attitude goodwill, but you understand that they are not your friends when they are God's enemies.

2 Thessalonians 3:7-9: "For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it. But with labor and hardship, we kept working night and day, so that we might not be a burden to any of you – not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, that you might follow our example." The apostle Paul says, "Because we minister to you in spiritual things, it's completely proper. It's God's order that you should provide for those of us who minister to you spiritually. We can't be out there earning our livelihood in some occupational area if we are ministering to you in spiritual things: in all the preparation; all the effort; and, all the care that that takes for the people of the flock." But he says, "I didn't do that, even though I had the right to. I wanted to show you to have compassion for those who need your compassion on the basis of what you have gathered to give them – not from the government who robbed it from you.

2 Thessalonians 3:10-15: "For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone will not work, neither let him eat." How is that for divine compassion? "For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. Now such persons, we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, to work in quiet fashion and eat your own bread. But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. And if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that man. Do not associate with him, so that he may be put to shame. And yet, do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." It's a very touchy thing when you have a Christian who is out of fellowship, and who knows better, and yet, who continues to be in your association. You have to treat him with the compassion that only a biblical Christian is capable of giving – the compassionate love of God the Holy Spirit.

Now, liberals are always practicing deceit boldly in order to defend their power in political office. And socialism is now clearly the ultimate goal of this nation. And that is the thing that is the cement which is going to tie all the world together. It will be government as the source of all good, and provision to people. And the result will be, therefore, that the antichrist will ride supreme, and evil will be rampant, and nobody will be able to stop it. Until we Christians are taken out of this world at the rapture, God the Holy Spirit, Who indwells us, the Bible tells us, he restrains evil. He is the restrainer that Paul speaks about. And while that restrainer is here, because you and I are here, evil can never go to its ultimate expression. But once we're out of here, it's going to turn loose. And suddenly, the world will become a very hellish place, because there'll be none of these Christians to hold back what people want to do in their old sin nature, and in the compassion that they wish to exercise.

Our opponents today want to silence the truth of what we have to say. When we expose the tyranny and the falsehoods, the news media puts a blackout on it. Things that are completely false, unless you have some other source of information, you'll never know it, listening to the nightly news. It's blatant; it's arrogant; and, it's brazen. And unless you know better, you'll be believing the big lie. And I've noticed that when people are corrected (when their facts are corrected) in discussions, I've been amazed how they will cling to their falsehood, and I wondered why. Well, it was because they're not interested in the truth. They're not interested in biblical compassion. They're only interested in power. They're only interested in exercising the will of government over the lives of people. So, they distort statistics. They take polls, and they misrepresent the results. And a lot of that suddenly has been exposed in the last week or so. And people are horrified what foods they've been made of, because the truth has been distorted. That's the tyranny of power. Such conduct is not wisdom from above, from God, but it's from below, as James 3:15-17 tells us.

Lying to Yourself

Now, here's one place of bearing false witness that is particularly heinous, and that is lying to yourself. It is so easy for people to lie to themselves. Now, we have been covering some very dramatic areas of Scripture that govern the wisdom of God for our personal conduct. And I guarantee you that there are people who have sat here in the last few weeks, and listened to the Word of God, and who will listen on the tapes, who will lie to themselves about what they hear. They will somehow want to avoid the consequences of obedience to something they heard – lying to oneself by rejecting the correction of the facts, and calling God's wisdom in effect, foolishness, and referring to mankind's foolishness as true wisdom.

This is what Isaiah decried among the people of Israel, who had so much opportunity to know the things of God. They saw Him in action. In Isaiah 5:20, the prophet says, "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light, and light for darkness; and, who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." It was happening back then. What was evil was called good, and what was good was called evil. So, the sin nature of man could have free expression. Joshua told them, as we saw this morning: "Get your life straight with God." They said, "We'll do it." He said, "No, you won't. He knew what they were going to do. He had lived long enough to know how they were going to deceive themselves. They were going to bear false witness to themselves, and sure enough, they went right after those gods in no time flat.

1 Corinthians 1:22-25: "For indeed, Jews ask for a sign, and Greeks search for wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified: to Jews, a stumbling block; and, to gentiles, foolishness. But to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

James 3:14-16: "But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant, and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, and demonic." Why would Christians want to lie to themselves? Verse 16: "For where jealousy and self-ambition exists, there is disorder in every evil thing." This is rampant on the political scene today. And you cannot expect Christians TO be treated with any consideration or kindness, but they will be misrepresented at every turn.

1 John 1:6-7, "If we say that we have fellowship with him (with God the Father), and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all unrighteousness." Liberal Christians and biblical Christians cannot walk together. They can be cordial to each other, but they cannot walk together, because one walks in darkness, and the other walks in light.

Now, God, our Heavenly Father is a God of truth, and He hates lying. He hates for you to look yourself in the mirror, and to pretend you are something that you are not – to pretend that what should be condemned (what you should condemn in yourself) is okay.

Hebrews 6:17-18, "In the same way God desiring, even more, to show to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable nature of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement – we who have fled for refuge, in laying hold of the hope set before us." When God promises to do something, God cannot lie, it will come about. And God's oath is by Himself; Who He is; and, His very character, and He can be trusted.

In Proverbs 6:16, God is truth. It says, "There are six things which the Lord hates. Yes, seven which are an abomination to him: haughty eyes; a lying tongue." God hates lies. And He hates it worst of all, when you lie to yourself about your own condition; your own beliefs; and the consequences of what you think.

1 John 2:21, "I have not written to you because you do not know the truth," John says, "but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth."

So, we come to the strange condition that exists in our society today, where Christians compromise the truth in the most horrendous way. And it all starts by lying to themselves, and pretending that something about themselves is not true, because to admit it, would be to require that they change. And that's right. Confession of sin means: "I'm wrong. And I've demonstrated, in some respect, how wrong I am; how shallow I am; how without spiritual maturity I am; and, how I've been operating on how I feel about things instead of what my mind thinks about things, in terms of having God's wisdom in my mind.

Now, this compromising of Christian integrity now leads us into a very serious field of Christian conduct, because there are many Christians who compromise their integrity in order to gain something in life that is important to them. And we shall look at that next time.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1995

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