329: Simon O’Grady - The Wise and The Fool, The Righteous and The Wicked

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   Welcome to Good Christadelphian Talks. I'm Levi. I'm Chris. I'm Giddeson. And I'm Brian. Thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our daily news feed. Each week, we post a talk that we previewed from suggestions sent in by listeners from around the world. Then, we record a short intro beforehand as a personalized recommendation to you on why we are sharing the talk. And now, let's talk more about this week's talk. Hi, everyone. This is Jason Hensley. And this week, we are going to be listening to a talk by Brother Simon O'Grady, given fairly recently. It was at the 2023 Summer Bible School in New Zealand. And his topic is Unlocking the Proverbs. We are going to be listening now to the sixth and final class in the series. This class is called The Wise and the Fool, The Righteous and Wicked. What I really liked about this class was Brother Simon's emphasis on truth. He talked about truth and its role in the character of God, truth versus a lie, and why truth matters so much, and how truth is really a major part of who God is.

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   I found it very affirming and very encouraging regarding our own community and the emphasis that we put on why truth matters. Now, in addition to that, I also just want to note that this whole series was recommended to us specifically because the recommender pointed out that oftentimes when reading Proverbs, it can feel a little bit like one proverb is talking about one thing and the other one's talking about something else, and it can feel a little bit disjointed. And yet what was really neat about the series, this is what the recommender felt, was that it created essentially a narrative for Proverbs, really brought everything together. And I have to admit, I felt the same way in reading through Proverbs over the years. Sometimes it can feel choppy, and yet this series was great in bringing everything together. And so this class is an emphasis on truth in the Proverbs, and each of the other classes then emphasizes another theme through the Book of Proverbs. So here we go. This is class six in the series Unlocking the Proverbs. It is the wise and the fool, the righteous and the wicked.

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   Good morning, brothers and sisters, as we come to our last day together and our final study here on the Book of Proverbs and Unlocking It, and we've titled this Love Truth, Proverbs in Practice. I want to begin this morning by you doing a little bit of a self-test. So here's the self-test. Just let's spend a minute thinking about where we would rank ourselves here, mark ourselves on this scale. Am I a truthful person? One, not at all truthful. Ten, I'm truthful all the time. And zero, too embarrassed to say. Give me a minute to think about that. Am I a truthful person?

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   All right, that's probably enough time. I won't ask for a show of hands. I'm sure we all put zero, too embarrassed to say, because we're truthful people. But that's just a quick little anchor for us as we begin to look at the subject of truth in the Book of Proverbs, Proverbs in Practice.

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   So there's our first anchor. Here's our second one. I just want to reflect for a minute on this slide here, our circles of identity. All right, so our truthfulness, our untruthfulness is going to revolve around who I think I am, my self-identity, all right, the beliefs I have about myself. They're going to revolve around who we want others to think we are, our status, what judgments they make about us, what they might think about us. And our identity is also going to focus or be revolving around who we really are from God's perspective. So just reflect on that for a moment. This is another just anchoring slide for us as we start looking at the subject.

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   Who do we think we are? Who do others think we are? Who does God think we are? And when we come to the subject of truth and lies and honesty and dishonesty, it's going to be a relationship concept. It's going to be about what we think about ourselves, the lies we tell ourselves. It's going to be the lies we tell others around who we think they think we are and about the lies that we tell to our heavenly father in our relationship with him and with our Lord. So just reflect on that for a moment, our circles of identity and our relationships between those circles and within them and the subject of lies and truth. Okay, when we come to the book of Proverbs and Proverbs chapter 8, it tells us that wisdom and understanding, that which was asked by Solomon of God inherently about the knowledge, understanding and wisdom so he discerned good and evil and choose the good and reject the evil as the foundation of the book of Proverbs. We find that that wisdom and understanding that came from God himself is inherently truth. Proverbs chapter 8 verse 1 to 8 on screen. Does not wisdom cry and understanding put forth her voice? Here I will speak excellent things. The opening of my lips shall be right things. My mouth will speak truth. Wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness. There's nothing froward or perverse in them. Nothing froward and perverse in them.

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   So the wisdom and understanding that we've been considering this week is inherently truth. Nothing untruthful. No frowardness. No perverseness. They are words of truth. Now that idea pervades through the book of Proverbs. That's why we will find that the characteristic that defines the evil man and the strange woman from chapter 2 that we are to be delivered from through the book, through the knowledge, understanding, wisdom of the book. Dishonesty, lies, frowardness are the inherent characteristics of those two arch nemeses. And God thinks it's disgusting. It's the term abomination. In Proverbs 11 verse 20 he says, a froward heart is an abomination, disgusting to Yahweh, but such as are upright in their ways are his delight. So it provokes the visceral and emotional reaction from God, dishonesty and untruth. It's an abomination. But he's delighted by the opposite with the truth of the upright.

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   Proverbs chapter 12 verse 22. Lying lips are an abomination, disgusting to God, but they that deal truly are his delight. Proverbs 11 verse 1. A false balance is abomination to Yahweh, but a just weight is his delight. And finally in Proverbs chapter 6 verse 16 to 17 where we see the seven attributes of the evil man. These six things does Yahweh hate. Yea, seven are an abomination, disgusting to him, a proud look, and a lying tongue. So deceit, dishonesty, lying, and thought and tongue and action is disgusting to God. And the opposite, truth in all of those are his delight. There's a strong emotional reaction from God to both of those. And it's the theme that runs through the book of Proverbs.

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   So we find that the theme of true and false witness keeps repeating through these little snippets of Proverbs. Remember those little Proverbs, the little parallels, little dualities, the little small Lego building blocks that God's saying, see, this is the very step when you put two things together and it infers wisdom. That's how understanding is created. And so he's given us a pattern through the book. He's also done it beautifully, genius, that every one of them is presented as a time, a choice, and a consequence to the two branches of it. So he's telling us that there are choices in life constantly all the time and the wise develop the ability to recognize them, see the principle, choose the good and not the evil. And he does it in these brilliant little couplets, these parallelisms that either compare and contrast or they extend to create consequence and meaning, the base building blocks of his knowledge, his understanding, his thought and his wisdom. And so many of these little couplets revolve around the principle of true and false witness or the true and false weights. Now, why? Because in the nation, the two key interactions of people and their social activities day by day, where the principle of truth was essential is where justice is to occur, true and false witness. And where economic exchanges occurred every day between people and the nation, where there was to be a true weight, not a false one.

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    And God calls those in Deuteronomy chapter 25 verse 15 to 16, you will have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shall they have, for all that do such things, all that do unrighteously, that is have an unjust one, are an abomination, disgusting to God. So when he looked at the nation and they were exchanging economically all over the place, every day is one of the central aspects of social interaction between human beings. He said, there needs to be truth in that economic exchange. And it's not as disgusting to me. And when he saw conflict between human beings and the nation, and they came to the justice system that was established, he said it must be based on truth, true witness, not false witness. And he uses the same term, disgusting, abomination is a false witness. So God embedded in the society they had, in these two dominating interactions, in conflict and economic exchange, the principle, truth for us, not of lies. Now when we come all the way through to the New Testament, we look at the conflicts between ecclesias, bringing in a false doctrine, the emerging of the apostasy that would grow out, it's all explained and talked about in terms of deceit and lies. Here's just a series of passages on screen, and I'll read them because the font's small. Romans 16, 17.

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    I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences, contrary to the doctrine you have learned, and avoid them. They are those who serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the heart of a Proverbs term, the simple. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 2.

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    Ephesians 4, verse 14. Ephesians 4, verse 14. 2 Peter 2, verse 14. 2 Peter 2, verse 14. 2 Peter 2, verse 14. So you see, the thinking, the framing of it was all about deceit and lies and dishonesty, which is disgusting, abomination to God, and it was at the heart of these conflicts and the introduction of false doctrine.

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    Now, when we come to the book of Proverbs, there's a completely different attitude and spirit when we come to the wise. This is what the wise think of truth. It's a summary of what they think of truth in the book of Proverbs. They love truth.

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    This is an emotional connection to truth. It goes far beyond an intellectual construct to one that's a relationship base. It's a love of truth. They hate lies and deceit. There's an emotional aversion, as well as intellectual, to lies and deceit. Their way of life is truth. For them, truth is a way of life.

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    The way they think, the way they speak, the way they act, their subconscious habits are all about truth. And the truth of God appeals to them as something beautiful, something to be loved, something to be aspired to. And they deal truthfully with God's words. They hearken to it. They hang on it. They pursue it.

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    They seek it out. They're diligent. They're passionate about it. So this morning we want to examine this spirit, this quality of the wise and the opposite, that quality of the fool, of the evil, of the wicked, of the evil man, of the strange woman, their lies and their deceit. So we want to aspire this morning to be truthful, to love the truth of God.

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    So here's a few things about lying. I went searching, read a lot of different things, a few academic papers, read a few books. And here's some important facts, if you like, about lying. So children by about the age or two are accomplished lies. So within 24 months of birth, from knowing nothing, understanding nothing, they've built this complex map of the world and they understand that they know stuff that other people do not.

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    And they can use that to their advantage to get things. So they can manipulate others by telling them certain things or withholding certain things. Many studies, you can imagine the academics go, how early does lying start? Certainly by age two, maybe earlier. They lie generally to do two things, to embellish. All right, so they add stuff to the information, new information that's not true to make it look bigger or brighter or to cause people to think things or do things.

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    So there's an adding to or they hide it. They conceal to avoid punishment, to avoid consequence. And so they're concealing something. It's interesting, isn't it? The Lord's warning at the end of Revelation was do not add to or take away. And if you do, all the curses of the book will be added to you because it's the base principle, isn't it, really?

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    Where it all starts, where we add to truth or we take away from truth as the essence of a lie. There are many academic studies, but many of them are self-reporting. Well, how do you observe if somebody's actually lying in their head as they speak? But these all conclude and they're self-reported, so there'll be a whole lot of habitual lying people aren't even aware of.

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    But about two to three times a day is on average what they come up with, the average person. So it's natural, isn't it? Dishonesty, lying to the flesh. We learned it when we were two years old. Now, what is a lie? Well, here's the dictionary definitions. A lie is to make a false statement with the intention to deceive.

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    Oxford English Dictionary. Or Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. A lie is a statement by one who does not believe it with the intention that someone else shall be led to believe it. And if you look at all the academics and the literature they've got as they try and define it, this is generally where they come to that they'll have four components.

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    There is a statement that's needed for there to be a lie. That statement is not true demonstrably. The statement is made, transferred to someone else. And there's an intent to deceive the person and to believe in the statement to be true. Now, there are variations in this and there's lots of debate about whether intent is or isn't needed and what level of intent, etc.

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    But let's not worry about that. Because in a moment we're going to get a biblical definition of lying from the word of God. But that's what they've come up with as they try to define what are lies. But it is about trying to manipulate the views of someone else. So that they're deceived into believing something to be true when it is not.

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    Deceit's similar, but here's the definition. So the Oxford English Dictionary again says that deceit is dishonest behavior. So it goes beyond now just statement that is intended, so they still have an intent, to make someone believe something that is not true. Or Cambridge Dictionary, it is an act of keeping the truth hidden, especially to get advantage.

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    So you can see they're exploring the ideas of hiding a truth and behavior and intent and getting advantage. But it's all hovering around the same thing. We've created an impression, a belief in someone that is not true. We might do it by hiding information. We might be doing it by inventing information that's not true.

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    We might outright say something that is false. We might create impressions without quite saying something that's not true. But we know that the impression we're trying to create is not true. And we do so through innuendo or misrepresentations. So we can be quite clever about it, can't we? Well, that's how dictionaries and schools of philosophy seek to define what lying and deceit is.

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    And they're all hovering around the right essential ideas. But how does God understand lying and deceit? And we're going to find it's much broader than just telling a lie. And it's whenever falsehood is presented as truth, and intent is certainly not necessary for it to be a lie or deceit. So it's whenever falsity is presented as truth.

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    As we go through this passage, you'll start to see that idea emerge. So there are a lot of passages in the Scripture about God, about us, about Christ, about truth. We're just going to look up one passage for each. God is truth. Come with me to James 1, verse 17 and 18, because you learn some important things about God and his relationship to truth.

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    James 1, verse 17 to 18. And here the analogy of light and dark is used to represent the ideas of truth and falsehood. James 1, verse 17. Every good gift, every perfect gift, is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Now, of course, it's explaining an idea of a physical light.

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    And if you turn it, it doesn't create a shadow. It's using it as a metaphor, an analogy that God is truth. There is no untruth in him. Verse 18. So God is truth. There's no untruth in God. None. It's in Titus 1, verse 2. God, who cannot lie. John chapter 1. He is full of grace and truth, as is the Son.

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    Even in his name, I am, I exist, is the foundational idea of its truth. I am. It's a truth statement. All right, let's go to John chapter 8, verse 32. We find truth and the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, in John 1, verse 14, he is full of grace and truth. In John chapter 4, verse 24, we worship God in spirit and in truth.

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    And in John chapter 8, verse 32, let's turn that up. We come across those beautiful and well-known statements, but it makes this incredible point that truth will set us free. John chapter 8, verse 32. And commencing in verse 30. As he spake these words, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to the Jews who believed on him, If you continue in my word, you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

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    So the words of Jesus Christ are truth. They are where we come to know. And that knowledge of that truth will make us free in the context from death, from sin, and from everything associated with it. All right, finally, come to John chapter 3, verse 21. And we see the relationship of us as disciples to the truth, to God who is true, to Jesus Christ who is true, in whom there's no untruth, there's no variableness, only truth.

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    John chapter 3, verse 21. And that's a misquote. I should have the one that those who love the truth, who does truth comes to the light. Someone help me out here. Where am I supposed to be? Oh, am I looking at the wrong one?

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    Oh, you're right. I've been putting off getting glasses for so long. All right, let's begin in verse 18. He that believeth on Christ is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

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    And everyone that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in Christ, in God. So there's a beautiful statement, isn't it, about our relationship to truth.

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    As disciples, we want to come to the truth, so our deeds are made manifest. But those who do evil will not come to the light. They will not come to the scriptures. They will not come to God, because evil is in them, and they don't want it made manifest. So that's the spirit of truth in the light of a disciple.

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    They want to know. We want to know where the evil is in our life. We want it to be revealed by our judge, Jesus Christ. We want it to be removed, is the spirit of the disciple. All right, so we can see from those passages that truth is central to our relationship with God, our relationship with Christ.

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    I'm going to spend a few minutes now getting a bit deep. All right, we could spend a lot of time on this. But there's a lot of depth to this idea that God is truth. Just reflect on that. God is truth. Not he likes to be. Sometimes is. He is inherently truth. And that means that every single thing he says is true, and he can't lie.

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    He cannot, because he is true. So truth is inherent in everything he does ever. Now, why is that important? Because if you have no truth, you only have chaos. This is true in the material created world. God created the world because he spoke, and it was done, and it was a manifestation of the truth of God.

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    That's why we can look, that's why scientists can look, into a universe that's full of truth. That's why the scientific method of principle is a falsifiable hypothesis at the heart of the process, because there's a truth that you're looking for. That's why they can assume and look at everything out and think they will find structure.

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    They will find order. They will find truthfulness in it. Is it true? Is it not true? Is it right or not right? Is it at the heart of the entire creation of the Father? So without God being true, nothing can exist. Nothing.

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    Think about this. If there's no truth, we cannot know anything, because there's no truth to know. Knowledge is about something that's true. If there's no truth, we cannot believe in anything. We cannot have the concept of faith. It's fascinating that all the philosophers, going back to the Greeks and probably earlier, one of their big conundrums was a, do I exist?

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    How do I know what's true? Can I believe in anything? Kodji to ergo sum, I think, therefore I am. What is truth? Says Pyle.

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    God is truth. It's the foundation of the created universe as a manifestation of his order. And without it, there is only chaos. Without God, nothing can exist because he's true. We cannot have faith. We cannot believe unless he's true. So God is true. It's the foundation of everything. So if God is true, where did lying come from?

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    Well, we know, don't we? We'll put this on the screen. John chapter 8, 44. This is where lies entered the world. This is where God said lies or untruth came into the world. John chapter 8, verse 44. As Christ is having an exchange with those around him, he's saying, whose father, whose descendant are you from?

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    And this is what he says to them. He says, you are of the father, the diabolos, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because no truth is in him. And when he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he's a liar and the father of lies.

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    That's from the ESV because it gives the sense of the character of the diabolos. It's untruthful. There's no truth in him. It's the opposite of God in which there is no lie, no untruth. There is no truth in the diabolos. He is the father of lies and the first liar. So what is the first lie?

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    Well, it's beautiful, isn't it? In its simplicity. We all know this, but let's remind ourselves of it. So precise and beautiful and profound in its simplicity as is everything that God ever does. The serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die. The first lie, the father of all lies, if you think about it.

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    Because it says that there is no consequence for sin and God is a liar. And it entered the world, brothers and sisters, in the beginning and it is not of God and there is no truth in it. There is a consequence for sin and that's one of the fundamental messages of the book of Proverbs.

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    There is consequence, evil. There is consequence, good. There are choices to make and God is true. He is no liar. So that's the origination of all lying and deceit in the world around us today. It began in the beginning. What we're going to do now is we're going to do a biblical speed read of lying in the scripture and we're going to use the epistle of John.

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    So hopefully you will be all familiar with every one of these lies and I did all this before even knowing that the epistle of John was going to be our other consideration this week. So I'm going to race through these very quickly but you'll see John sets out, I'm sure as you know, a series of lies but it gives us a lot of insight into how God thinks about lying and what lying is.

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    It goes far beyond the concept of a statement and the statement's not true, there's an intention to deceive and the person receives it. It goes to a much higher level that God is true and in him there's no lie. There is no darkness at all. So let's speed read these. First one, John, I'll put them on screen.

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    First John 1, 5, 16, I've tried to highlight the actual lie in blue. We lie when we say we're in fellowship with Christ but our walk does not match that statement. This then is the message which we've heard of him and declared to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

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    He's true. There's no lie, no untruth in him and if we say we have fellowship with him, I'm in fellowship but we walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. So we lie when we say we're in fellowship with Christ but our walk does not match that statement. First John chapter 1 verse 8 to 9, we lie when we justify ourselves.

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    If we say we have no sin, there's our lie, the untrue statement, I have no sin. It's a lie. We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins as faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So we lie when we justify ourselves.

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    First John chapter 2 verse 3 to 4, we lie when we say I know Christ but we don't do what he asks us to. Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that says I know him is the lie and keeps not his commandments is a liar. The truth is not in him.

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    First John chapter 2 verse 21 and 22. We lie when we deny doctrinal truth. I have not written unto you because you know not the truth but because you know it no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ. He is the antichrist that denies the Father and the Son.

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    So the untrue statement is that Jesus is not the Christ. It's connected of course to 2 John chapter 1 verse 7 many deceivers are entered the world who have confessed that Jesus not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. I'm sure as you know what John is referring to was this evolving concept here that Jesus Christ wasn't really human.

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    He was only divine. He just looked like a human. He was really spirit. There was no humanness to him. He didn't come in the flesh. And of course that lie destroys the atonement. Because if Jesus Christ does not come in the flesh then he cannot die and declare that God is right. So that's a lie.

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    Finally in 1 John chapter 4 verse 20 we lie when we say we love God but we behave badly towards others. If a man say I love God there's the lie and hates his brother he is a liar.

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    I said that was the last one but I lied. 1 John chapter 1 verse 10 to 5 these are a little bit more tricky but I think there's some fantastic insight in this. If we don't believe something that God says is true we're saying he's a liar. That's because he said something and we're saying it's not true and so we're saying he's a liar.

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    So 1 John chapter 1 verse 10 if we say we have not sinned we make him a liar. Why? Because God says we have sinned. So if we say we haven't we're saying that what he said is not true. So he must be a liar. 1 John chapter 5 verse 10 he that believes not God has made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his son.

65. 34:45

    Ooh is that an expansion of the concept? He that believeth not God makes him a liar. Now we're being told that unbelief of a true statement or position of God is making God a liar. because God said it is true and we don't believe it. So we must be saying that what he said is untrue and we follow the next step of the logic but God is true.

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    So if we say God is not true when he is who is the liar? That extends it to say that whenever we fail to believe to have faith we are stating that God is a liar. that's the implications of 1 John chapter 5. This concept becomes much more pervasive doesn't it now? You know in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 8 to 12 beautifully built around the terminology and the picture and the archetype of the evil man of the book of Proverbs this man of sin the wicked one the evil one who would be revealed his inherent characteristic as lying wonders deceivableness unrighteousness because they receive not a love of the truth that they might be saved love of what truth that they might be saved well a love of the truth of the salvation in Jesus Christ what is that?

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    Well it's what we call the atonement isn't it? and what's the atonement? Well it's two halves it's death and life and says acts in connection to the other we are reconciled by death we are saved much more by life so it's a more powerful transcendent principle but you can't have it without the death and in the death of Christ we declare what?

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    God is right he is true and they could not accept that and so it's the spirit of the wicked one in the book of Thessalonians and for this cause verse 11 God shall send them a strong delusion and they will believe a lie what lie? Well the lie of John that Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh he's divine only Christ is God and they destroy the whole principle of the atonement because now Jesus Christ cannot declare the righteous truth of God and so they would all be condemned to believe not that truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness so we've covered a lot so let's just summarize what we've seen is that God's definition of lying and deceit is a much more extensive one it's based on the essential idea that God is true and it's absolute in every sense material moral everything he says and does is truth and a lie is anything that is not true as defined that way morally or materially by God it's untruth in all of its forms and it's the defining characteristic of the diabolos the serpent human nature and there's no truth in that nature it's the defining characteristic of the evil man and the strange woman in the book of Proverbs and it's the father of all lies the statement thou shalt not die there is no consequence for sin runs right through and you stop and think about it that all of those cupboards !

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    are saying the consequence of evil and that choice is death it's a restatement of the truth of Genesis over and over and over again through all the couplets and the Proverbs there is a consequence for sin thou shalt surely die is the essence of the knowledge and understanding and wisdom to discern good and evil that we're presented with in the book of Proverbs so it unlocks the book of Proverbs with it tells us that truth is at its centre at the discernment of good and evil God is true it's at the centre of the principles of justice and righteousness God is true it's at the centre of judgement deceit and lying is the core characteristic of sin from the beginning and that's why the book of Proverbs spends so much time there as the father explains to the son and the Lord Jesus Christ and to us all the characteristics of the evil man and the strange woman their deceit their lies and presents to us the way of good the way of the path the tree of life the way of truth all right well there's our definition of the concept of truth I want to spend a few moments now thinking about our underlying problem with deceit and lying you know one of the impacts on me of this study is to find out I'm much more deceitful and much more of a liar than I ever believed so I want to spend a few minutes you know the drill now we're going to seek a bit of wise counsel so what we're going to break into is groups of two or three and see

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    if we can keep two or three so the dynamics work well and we're going to ask these questions what do we lie about who do we lie to why do we lie so give about seven minutes to think through those and to share insights and collective wisdom wise counsel about our problem collectively with truth and honesty what do we lie about who do we lie to why do we lie give you seven minutes all right sorry to interrupt I have to confess a lie I said I'd give you seven minutes and it's now nine I should have said I'll give you approximately seven I will try to give you seven but I said I will give you seven and I have not see how easy it is to lie all right now I'd love to be able to spend 20 minutes on the white board and get all of that up but we don't have any time so I'm going to share with you again some of the collective wisdom of other brethren sisters who've done that little exercise this is some of the reasons why we lie or deceive to gain approval and acceptance of others so once again if you have some that aren't here and they're really important come and give them to me later I'd love to have them we lie and deceive to gain some personal benefit of some form some sort we can lie to avoid a consequence to avoid shame or embarrassment we can lie to hurt someone we may lie to try and protect someone we may lie to avoid facing reality we might lie to avoid a conflict

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    we might just lie out of habit we might lie to gain control of someone else and there'll be other reasons many others but these are some of the top ones and if we put that into our context of our identities we lie to ourselves we create a vision and a picture of ourselves out of pride and we imagine we're something we are not but we also lie to ourselves we can lie to ourselves and tell us that we're hopeless of no value nobody likes us we're stupid you know I have an example of that I thought I was terrible at mathematics as a child because I never learnt the time stables and I still don't know them but I've learned to add up really fast in my head I worked out later it's because I learned by having structured information if you just make me rote learn I cannot remember stuff but if it's a context and a framework concept I can get it you know and it wasn't it wasn't until well into around about fifth form so I was 15 I genuinely thought I was quite stupid at mathematics because everybody around me told me at primary school nobody wanted me in their group because remember those it all line up and the first four there'd be four times seven I don't know and whoever called it out first got a point for their team and you went to the back and nobody wanted me in their team I was stupid and I was told that so I came to have a self-belief that I was useless at it and I cut a long

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    story short it was somewhere around fifth form and all the pennies dropped I got into things and my marks went from about 30% to about 90% and I went I actually are good at this but for almost all my life to that point I laboured the impression because other people had told me I was stupid it was a lie so we can lie to ourselves about who we are in a negative way we can lie to ourselves about who we are in regards to we're much greater than we actually are we can lie to others because we want them to believe something about us we create impressions because we want them to think something about us but the question we've got to ask from this is who are we really from God's perspective and I've concluded I don't know I can't even evaluate myself so we've got to come before the righteous judge before the father and the Lord Jesus Christ and say chasten me correct me show me whether there's any unclean or evil thing in me cleanse me of it is the spirit we need we need to focus on God's perspective the only one that matters so how do we overcome excuse me overcome lying and deceit well the scriptures tell us put it off Colossians chapter three verse nine and ten lying has to do with the old man that we put off when we became baptized into Jesus Christ when we put on the new man lying not to one another he says in Colossians three verse nine seeing that you've put off the old man with his deeds lying was a

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    characteristic of the old evil man and we put it off at our baptism and we put on the new man Christ and are renewed in that knowledge after the image of the one who created him who is true we need to put it off bring the sisters that's what we said we'd do at our baptism we've got to stop pretending you know the Lord said this incredible thing in Matthew chapter five verse thirty three to thirty seven in regards to the practice of swearing an oath now swearing an oath it kills us is an inherent thing about truthfulness are you telling the truth or not telling the truth can I believe you or not believe you and of course the bigger oath and the greater being or entity or thing and the gold in the temple with that that the temple itself might be the biggest thing I'll swear on that so you know I'm telling the truth and Christ says stop it stop all that pretense he says let your communications be yes yes and no no because whatever is more of these comes of evil see the echo of problems keep it simple and the Lord in brilliant precise says think about honesty in terms of the very first statement of truth and error yes it is true no it is fault let your communication be simple and clear yes and no because when you complicate it beyond that then evil comes this one makes me squirm so I'm going to share it with you and I framed it in terms of myself what about good intention so imagine this scenario you're there

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    you come to me and you Simon I want you to do something in two weeks time and I say yeah I'll do that and you go away thinking great Simon's going to do it he's going to do it on time it's going to be good quality it's going to meet the expectations that we agreed and two weeks later you come to me and say have you done that thing and I go I'm busy look I'll get on to it I'll be there give me a week and I say you go yeah okay Simon I'll give you a week but only a week and you come back in a week's time you say man has it done I'm so really busy I will have it done in a week's time and I finally deliver it to you not what we agreed over time poor quality and I say here it is I want to ask the question what are you thinking about Simon now can I trust Simon but you know you're all nice people so you're probably thinking look I don't know what's going on Simon's life I'll give him the benefit of the doubt maybe maybe there was just some urgency things and that's okay and so you do it a second time you come to Simon you ask him do something you have the same experience what are you thinking now can't trust him he's not true so you see this gets pretty close to the bone doesn't it about the truth of God that's why Christ says and you can see the principle of integrity and diligence through the book of Proverbs we say it we

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    mean it and we do it now of course what if something did happen in my life and it all fell apart and I couldn't deliver it and I came back to you and I said I can't do it what would you say you're nice you go it's okay I understand get someone else to do it but you'd still trust me wouldn't you yeah so see how important it is this is truth in interactions with each other Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 4 says when you vow vow to God prefer not to pay it he has no pleasure in fools pay that which thou hast vowed see this is truth and practice in our life we need to stop looking for status we all know the Ananias and Sapphira story we've taught it to Sunday school kids it's a brilliant story because we can say to them you're not lying to men you're lying to God but of course the whole lie of Ananias and Sapphira was a status one Barnabas just gave a whole lot of money other brethren and sisters are doing this oh I want to be like that I sold a possession get back part of the price put it there and project a lie an impression an image that this is true and immediately in Acts chapter 5 verse 4 Peter says why have you conceived this thing in your heart you've not lied to men but unto God and of course later on when Sapphira turns up he asks the question verse 9 how was it that you've agreed or he says did you spend or did you sell the land for so

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    much in verse 8 and she says yes for so much so she lies and Peter said to her how is it you've agreed together to but listen to this test the spirit of God the spirit of the law because God's true and it's an abomination to him it's disgusting when he sees a lie because what were they really saying God cannot see I can lie to my brethren and sisters and create an impression God cannot see we need to stop looking for status as one of the drivers of our lives or the lay of the same problem have you seen that there's a lie at the center of it which is why the Christ the Lord says in Revelation 3 verse 14 to 17 he uses the title the amen the true the faithful the true witness I know your works you're neither cold nor hot you're not yes or no you're not yay or nay so then because they are lukewarm and either cold or hot I'll spew you out of my mouth I find you an abomination disgusting because you say I am rich and increasing with goods and of need of nothing and you have a self perception of yourself but really this is how God sees you you're wretched and miserable and poor blind and naked and of course that's the problem of materialism isn't it brothers and sisters it creates a false impression that God's blessed us and we are all of these things and we're blinded to the truth do you know confession is inherently a truth concept it's a truth saying first John chapter 1 verse 8 if we say we

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    have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us but if we confess now what is confession it's a statement about the truth of our position before God and I love this title this phrase if we confess our sins if we state the truth about our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us see our Lord Jesus Christ is our judge he's faithful he's just he perceives good and evil he's perfect and he is our judge and we come to him to confess our sins and he's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness righteousness so living the truth brothers and sisters means we need to come to the light the word of God his knowledge is wisdom and understanding is the sermon of good and evil to see with our deeds our truth we need to confess and admit that God is true and we are sin we need to create a habit of truthfulness in our life and break all the habits of deceit that we've learned from two years old we need to practice truth as a way of life we need to model it to our children and train our children to be true and not lie we've got to be tellers of truth we've got to think in truth and we've got to understand the immense power not of two but of the words that we speak I don't know why it says two there the immense power of the words that we speak the influence and impact they have on others so that our communication is true we need to in Ephesians 4

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    24 to 25 and this from the new King James put us a little bit of clarity to it we need to put on the new man we put off the old man with a lying deceit the new man created according to God and true righteousness and holiness and put away lying and speak one of us and each one of us speak truth to our neighbor because we are members of one another truthfulness honesty and a culture of truth and honesty at the heart of an ecclesia is essential to its functioning Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 15 we must speak the truth in love that we may all grow up in all things which is the head even Christ speaking the truth to each other in love so it's a high calling isn't it when we begin to glimpse the enormity of the principle that God is true in him there's no variableness or shadow of turning there is no untruth and so the book of Proverbs presents to us that overarching principle and characteristic of the wise they are true they eschew the evil of untruth of lies and deceit they love the truth so I'm going to finish with just two passages one's taken from the epistle of John because all the conclusions of the book of Proverbs end up dovetailing to those of John and I'll put these on the screen this really is the lesson of the book of Proverbs for us in the words of John all unrighteousness is sin there is a sin not unto death but we know that whoever is the son of God born of God sineth not but he that is

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    begotten of God keepeth himself and that wicked one the evil one the wicked one of the book of Proverbs touches him not and we know we have the knowledge that we are of God and the whole world lies wickedness we know we have the knowledge that the son of God is come and has given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his son Jesus Christ this is the true God and eternal life for without faith without a belief in the truth of God it is impossible to please him for he that comes to God must believe in the truth that he is and that he is a rewarder beyond our wildest imaginations far beyond what we deserve to those who diligently seek thank you for listening to the good Christadelphian talks podcast we hope this talk helped you in your walk and brightened your day if you would like to hear more please subscribe for new episodes we are on all major podcast platforms and also on YouTube if you enjoyed this particular talk please share it with someone else who you think might enjoy it too for show notes on the talk you just listened to visit our website at good Christadelphian talks calm or check out the show notes section of your podcast player please share your thoughts on the talk from this week on our Facebook or Instagram pages where we are at good Christadelphian talks or leave a comment on our YouTube channel where these talks are posted as well if you enjoy listening to the talks that we

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    post and hear one that you think we should share please tell us about it you can send us a suggestion using the contact us tab on our website or message us on any of our social media accounts thank you for listening God bless and talk to you next week you