Truth Or Consequences

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES

I’m not talking about the old game show, or the town in New Mexico were it was filmed. What I want to talk about is being truth full no matter what the consequences are.

THE PRICE IS RIGHT

I’m not talking about that game show either. In Revelation 21:8 the Bible says the place for all liars will be in the fiery lake of burning fire. That’s the price.

We are going to cover four major areas of non truth today.

Beguilement

Deceit

Lying

And the false witness

Let’s begin with the whole armor of God in Ephesians 6:14 gird your loins with the belt of truth. Do you remember that the breastplate of righteousness is connected to the belt of truth?

And the scabbard that holds the sword spirit, the word of God, is attached to the belt of truth. God’s word is the absolute truth,

So without truth, you don’t have anything to attach your righteousness to. Without truth you don’t have a place to house the word of God.

If we are not truth full in all areas, where do we stand with God? I’ll tell you. When we’re not truth full we don’t stand with God, every non truth we tell moves us further and further away from God.

Here is some interesting statistics that I ran across. In the 1960’s 65% of Americans said they believed the Bible is true, and today the figure has dropped to 32%.

And even more dramatically, 67% of all Americans deny that there is any such thing as absolute truth. 70% say there are no moral absolutes.

In a similar study done by the Barna group, when just asking those aged 18-25, amazingly 72% of them said nothing is absolutely true.

Now, if there is so little confidence in the existence of absolute truth, is there any surprise that there is an eroding commitment to practical truth.

When you tell a non truth it’s like unleashing an earthquake. You not only have to worry about the quake it’s self, then you have all the little aftershocks that follow it that you have to worry about.

When we let absolute truth erode, we also erode trust, confidence, integrity, security, and stability.

At the same time as our reliance on truth diminishes, the space or the void that the non truth leaves is immediately filled with falsehood and all of it’s followers. Suspicion, doubt, insecurity, conflict, resentment, and anger.

every time non truth comes into a relationship, trust and confidence is thrown out the window.

Let’s look at some important truths about truth. The 9th commandment in Exodus 20 is thou shalt not give false testimony against thy neighbor.

Proverbs 6:16-19 says there are 6 things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him; haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush to evil, a false witness that pours out lies and a man that stirs up dissention among brothers.

Truth is so important in our relationship with God. Psalm 31:5 says; Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O Lord, the God of truth.

In a very familiar verse Jesus says; I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:6

We know that Jesus is the way, and the life, he is also the truth, and we can’t go to the Father thru Him without truth. So may the truth be told.

We were created in God’s image, so we are a reflection of God, conformation to God requires an accurate reflection of who God is, and God is truth. His nature, His character, and the will of God is truth.

Let’s move on to the heart of the lesson, Colossians 2:4; Paul says; I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine sounding arguments. And this I say, lest any man beguile you with enticing words.

Beguilement is non truth by misdirection and deception.

Have you ever been in a situation where something has happened, and without any evidence concluded that a certain person must have been involved.

Only to find out latter that you were wrong. If you have, you have been beguiled.

Now then, after you have come to this conclusion without all the facts, and you share it with someone else, you’ve not just been beguiled, you have become a beguiler.

There is a book called Tongue in Cheek, written by Joe Stowell, and in his book he gives five suggestions with scripture to help you avoid falling into beguilement.

1. Have a patient spirit, and wait for all the facts.

Galatians 5:22; but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness.