Just Like Jesus Pt 4 Series

Just like Jesus

Part 4

The heart of Jesus is compassionate, listening, led by an invisible hand, longs for God, worships God, and is a forgiving and focused heart. Today we will see that the heart of Jesus is an honest heart.

It is the job of a witness to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It is up to the legal eagles to interpret, the jury to resolve, and the judge to apply. But it is up to the witness to tell the Truth. As Christians we too make a pledge, which is to tell the Truth. The Judge is unseen, but his word is with us. The jury is the world, which is watching us. We are subpoenaed by Jesus himself when he says; “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

As His witnesses we are called to testify to what we have seen and heard, we are called to tell the TRUTH.

Isaiah says; “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:9). No false statements by Jesus, and we as his followers should have the same. God is direct when it comes to lying or deceiving. Prov 12:22 The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful.

Remember from the list last week about the 6 things the Lord detests one of them was a lying tongue and another is a false witness. Judgment is swift concerning liars and deceivers. (Rev. 21:8) But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

Why does God take such a hard stance against lying? It is contrary to His character, it is impossible for God to lie. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged (Hebrews 6:18).

God speaks the Truth, when he makes a covenant he does not break it, and when he says something he means it.

Psalms 116:11 says “All Men are Liars” is this a trustworthy statement. Have we ever told half truths? Or have we ever omitted telling the whole truth? Look at this list

This comes from Psychology Today it was the results of a survey taken not long ago

1. More people say they have cheated on their spouses than on their tax returns or expense accounts

2. More than half say that if their tax returns were audited they would probably owe the government money.

3. About one our three people admit to deceiving a best friend about something within the last year; 96 % actually feel guilty about it.

4. Nearly half predict that if they scratched another car in the parking lot, they would drive away without leaving a note, 89% of them agree that it would be immoral.

Sometimes we hold back information, maybe the information would be upsetting to a person who is ill and needs to recover, sometimes the motives are right, even if the method is not.

There is an old story that has circulated for decades. It is a conversation between a husband and wife as she is about to come home from a trip.

How is my cat? Asked the wife. Dead replied the husband. Oh honey you could have broken the news to me slowly. How? You could have told me he was on the roof. And when I called you from Paris you could have told me he was acting sluggish, then when I called from London you could have said he is sick, and when I called from NY you could have said you took him to the Vet, then when I arrived home you could have said he is dead. Oh ok, I will do better next time.

Ok then, well how is my brother doing? Oh well he’s on the roof. (He actually was on the roof getting the toy the kids threw up there.)

The fact is we don’t like the truth. We ask the questions we really don’t want answers to. Apple polishing, stretching the truth, we say its ok, God says it is not. Look again at the story of Ananias and Sapphira.

We say we are glad God does not strike people dead for lying, I am not sure he doesn’t

Maybe not physical death but

Marriage= falsehoods are termites in the trunk of the family tree