Dear Father, we ask that you bless the preaching of your word today. Get us through some of these technical difficulties. And we thank you that you love us. We thank you that you're working in us. And we thank you that you're coming again. Now we do pray you'll speak to us today. In Jesus name, amen. Title of the message is when you lie to yourself. We've been doing a series on lying. And we've dealt with whether or not there's a holy lying or not. The new Bibles say that Jesus lied. And we showed that there is no holy lying at all. But it's been said that it's easier for deceivers to lie to people and convince them of error than it is for truth tellers to convince people that they've been lied to. Like all sin, lying, once you do it in practice, it becomes easy as our conscience is deadened. The Bible said there'll be a lot of liars in the last days. Second Timothy said there'll be false accusers. First Timothy four says, now the spirit speaks expressly that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. It mentions hypocrisy. Oftentimes people that lie are guilty of the things that they're accusing others of. So the Bible says they'll speak lies and hypocrisy. Corrie ten Boom, as I mentioned last week, was almost 50 years old. when she became conscious of her first lie. And she was amazed at how easy it was the first time she became aware of lying, how easy it was to roll off her tongue. But it's not easy for our conscience, especially if you're a generation that's been taught the commandments of God, the law of God. But what happens is when you begin to do something and you do it again, it gets easier and it gets easier. I know when I was about seven or eight years old, I've told the story before. I had a friend come over my house when we were in a neighborhood and my dad was a construction fella. So there was always ladders and everything around. And this fella said to me, because I stayed home after school every day and Got bored, nothing to really do. And this boy said, why don't we just take that ladder and get on top of the roof? I said, oh no, I'll get a whipping. He says, well, your dad's not here. He's not gonna come home. He's working off on a construction job somewhere. You'll be okay. And this boy talked me into it. So we climbed up, got on the roof, and we played around up there and just did what boys do. And all of a sudden I could see up there on that roof, I could see my dad's red truck coming down the road. He was coming home to get a tool or something. And boy, I just, I was so panicky, I just jumped right off the roof. And I landed on my wrist, ran inside, opened the bathroom door, ran in the bathroom, and pretended like I was in the bathroom all along. I never knew what happened, but I guess the other boy, according to my dad, jumped off the roof himself. And as my dad pulled up in the driveway, he come off the roof and landed on the windshield of the truck. And of course, my dad, anybody that knew my dad, he was, uh, he's quite startled, quite amazed at this fellow jumping off the roof, landing right on his windshield. So my dad ran into the house and was hollering about the story about what happened. And I told him, dad, I was just in here in the bathroom the whole time. And, um, he didn't believe me, but one of his friends argued for me. And I remember That plagued me my whole life from eight years old. From eight years old. And when I got saved at 23, one of the first things I did was go to my dad and ask him if he remembered the story. And I had to get that off my chest. And I told my dad that I'd lied to him. And, um, You know, when you continue to lie, like all sin, the conscience just kind of stops working. It gets seared. The Bible says in Jeremiah nine, they will deceive everyone as neighbor and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. You can actually teach yourself to sin and it gets easy. It becomes a habit. Psalms 140 says they have sharpened their tongues like a serpent. They've used their tongue so much for sin that it's become shapened into an instrument of sin. But the Bible says instead of training ourselves to sin and getting addicted to it, let's become habitual with righteousness. Let's addict ourselves to the ministry, to soul winning, to helping others in godly ways in the truth. Wouldn't it be wonderful that you have a habit of soul winning? You have a habit of speaking to people about Jesus. And maybe at one time you did. Our country was built on soul winning Baptists. It was said about Baptists before the American revolution and in the colonies that you could not pass a Baptist on the street without him giving you a gospel track. Let's get that back. Let's get that back. Let's addict ourselves to the ministry. It says in 1 Corinthians 16, let all your things be done with charity. I beseech you, brethren, you know the house of Stephanus, that it is the first fruits of Achaia and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints, helping Christians, helping preachers, helping soul winners. He goes on to say, submit yourself to people like that. Get involved in what they're doing. But today I want you to notice something else. Something that's all too possible and very important. Exodus chapter 20 says, thou shalt not kill. We call that the sixth commandment of the 10 commandments. The ninth commandment is thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Now, what I wanna point out to you is this commandment against killing. Our forefathers showed time and time again that this is not just against killing somebody else. It's also against hurting yourself. For hundreds of years, our forefathers taught that it was a sin to make yourself unhealthy in a sinful way by diet and by poison and harming yourself, not taking care of the temple of the Holy Spirit. In other words, you're to be good stewards of what God has given you and you shouldn't inflict harm on others and you should not harm yourself. What we find out from the Bible is the same thing is true in regard to the ninth commandment. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. However, the Bible tells you it's also wrong to lie to yourself. It is possible to lie to yourself. And the Bible says it's wrong. In fact, self-lying opens you up to many other sins. It makes them easier to commit and it makes it hard to repent. That's why the Bible said in the last days, they'll follow these devils and they'll speak lies in hypocrisy, hypocrisy, lying to themselves, lying to others. Part of your fruitful repentance is when you stop listening to the lies of the devil, the world. and you quit lying to yourself. You become true to yourself, not in some new age-y, psychobabble manner, where people say, I just have to be true to myself, and they go and divorce or do something like that. I gotta find myself. The Bible's not talking about that. Proverbs 18 says, a fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover himself. He's quick to speak, but slow to hear. He chases foolish delusions and imaginations. Instead of being sober and seeking to be godly and wise, he wants to discover himself. But there is a holy way to come to yourself in truth, to come back to yourself, to come back to what you know God wanted you to be, to come back to your conscience, To come back to what you know God meant you to be. To acknowledge the sin and folly of believing the world and its ways. And this character that Satan wanted you to play and be. There's a holy way to speak truth to yourself instead of lying to yourself. It says in Luke 15 that that prodigal, he was a young adult. But he knew he needed to go back home. He knew he needed to go back home where God wanted him to be and be the person that God wanted him to be, that he had left. The Bible says in Luke 15, when he came to himself, that was the start of it all. He said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough in despair and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and I will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, This man came to himself. He spoke truth to himself. He came back to the person he knew God wanted him to be. James 1 says, wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. There's a salvation for believers at the judgment seat of Christ, a salvation into God's millennial kingdom of reward and truth. The Bible says right here, you need to have meekness if the word is going to profit you. What does meekness mean? It means not to be like a stubborn horse. Don't kick against God. Don't be angry and wrathful with God and rebellious, stubborn. It means let God have his way with you. without biting and kicking and jerking your head away from him. It means willing to do right. Lay apart all filthiness and superfluity and naughtiness. Receive with meekness in grafted words. See, when we're meek and our motives are right, it allows us to receive and understand what God's saying in his word. This is why somebody can read the Bible and not have a meek spirit, but they read the Bible with their rebellion and their stubbornness, and it doesn't profit them. They can hear a message or hear a sermon, and because they're stubborn and rebellious or offended at God, it doesn't profit them. But the Bible says in Psalms 25, the meek will he guide in judgment. Not those that are not meek. And the meek will he teach his way. These are people that come to God and say, Lord, have your way with me. I'm not gonna be stubborn. Show me your truth. We're told elsewhere by God that if we would not be immature in a sinful way, we'll be able to hear his truth and be taught by him. Well, that's a lot to work through. The Bible says we have to seek His truth if we're going to find it. It says we need to fear Him if we're going to understand. We need to be meek and mature. We need to have faith that the Word of God will not profit us. All these things, if we want the Word to profit us, if we want to understand it, all of these things open us up so the Spirit of God there to help us can bring the truth of God to our minds. But as you are on the way to victory with all of these things, that old devil, the old serpent has one more thing for you. He knows that, oh no, if he can't make you rebellious as you hear the preaching and the truth, if he can't make you rebellious and tempt you to rebellion, if he can't make you immature, lacking in faith, he loses. He loses a soul. And just because you're saved in eternity and he's lost you that way, he still comes after you because he doesn't want you to be rewarded. He doesn't want you to be used by God. He doesn't want you to minister to other people. He doesn't want you to be a soul winner. He doesn't want you to be a testimony. So the devil comes after you with all his might. And he says, oh no, they're reading the Bible. They're understanding. I've got to do something. So just like Pharaoh and all his devilish rage, one last time came after Israel and the Red Sea experience, the devil has one last trick for you. And this is it. To make you think that you've already received the word and that you've done all you need to do You've already responded in the way you need to respond. Because in faith, in meekness, without rebellion, you have come to the word of God, unlike others that want to run from the word of God. You have come to it. You have heard it. You are interested in it. You agree with it. And the devil says, isn't that a good thing you have done? Others don't agree with that doctrine. Others are rebellious. Oh, what a good thing you have done. You are hearing the word of God. You are hearing the preaching. You like the Bible. And so the devil will try to tempt you to pry. And his trick is to tempt you to deceive yourself, to lie to yourself, to convince yourself that you have done all that you need to do because you have heard the word of God and you like it. So. He will tempt us to walk around. Quoting scripture, hearing scripture. Being excited about scripture. And make us think that we are. Obedient. The world refers to posers. those who like a certain style or genre. And they dress up for whatever clique, whatever group. But they're just dressing the part. In South Carolina for years, I was an equestrian counselor with horses, but I didn't wear cowboy boots. I didn't have a Western belt buckle. I didn't wear a cowboy hat, but I spent every summer with horses. That's all I did. But we moved to Texas when I was 16. And I came to a high school in Texas, in Dallas, Fort Worth, and everybody, I am serious, everybody, not just a group of people, every fella, every girl in the school was a cowboy. They wore cowboy hats, cowboy boots, Wrangler jeans, belt buckles, everybody in the school just about. And I began to talk to folks and meet folks. And I began to ask them about, well, how long have you been riding and what kind of horses do you have? And I couldn't find anybody in the school that had ever been on a horse. I said, but you're all dressed up like a cowboy. It was very confusing to me. But then we entered a world where there would be people that dress like musicians, but they walk around like they're some rock star, but they've never even played an instrument. And then you see people that they're gangsters. They dress the part of a gangster. Everybody's dressing this part, but there's a lot of people that have, they're just playing dress up. They're lying to themselves. And this is gone just through the roof now in this generation. Now you've got the trans people. They really believe they are the opposite sex. You've got people pretending to be another ethnicity. This whole identifying movement of self-delusion. The problem is we can believe that we are obedient Christians because we like the Word of God, and we've heard it and agree with it. Listen now again to what the Bible says in James 1. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls. And listen to the next verse. But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves, lying to yourself, because we agree with a doctrine, because we believe a doctrine or a truth is true, does not mean that we have fulfilled our responsibility in regard to that truth. That is part of the responsibility. That's the first step, is to hear it, to agree with it. But until we actually obey whatever it is God says to do, just hearing the gospel doesn't save anybody. You've got to believe, because that's what the Bible said to do. In the same way, you can't just hear the commandments of God. and say a lot of people hate those commandments, but I agree with them. But that doesn't mean that we're obeying those commandments. It says in verse 26, if any man among you seem to be religious and bridle, if not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. We can deceive our own hearts. It says in the Old Testament, they'll come to the prophet. They'll come hear the preaching. They'll come hear what God has to say. It says in Ezekiel 33, they come unto thee as, that is to Ezekiel, as the people cometh. And they will sit before thee as my people. And they hear thy words, but they will not do them. For with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice. That's not me, I'm not that kind of preacher. But there are some preachers that, well, they're just musical. You just love to hear them talk, boy. They're just very musical and... Thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one to have a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument. For they hear thy words, but they do them not. They walk away and they say, oh yeah, I agree with God's prophet. Are you obeying what God said? That's what makes the difference. That is what makes the difference in our Christian life. The Lord stressed this often. He says in Luke 11, yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. If you don't put that keep it on there, We're deceiving ourselves and lying to ourselves. John 13 says, if you know these things, happy are ye, not if you hear them, but if you do them. He was talking about washing your brother's feet, playing the part of a servant, humbling yourself, getting out here and serving people taking time when you'd rather not, when it's inconvenient, ministering to people. In 1 Corinthians 3, it says, let no man deceive himself. Don't lie to yourself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise. In other words, if the world is calling you wise, nine times out of 10, something's wrong. If they think you're smart and wise, something is wrong. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. In other words, God looks at what this world calls smart and says, that's just absolute insanity. That's stupid. For it is written, he taketh the wise in their own craftiness. They think they're smart. And of course, he's writing to Corinthians and this Greek culture where everybody's a philosopher and they're into this wisdom of man. And God looks at it all and says, it's just vanity. Don't let this stuff destroy you, the philosophy of man. So don't deceive yourself with worldly wisdom. What are other ways we can deceive ourselves? 1 John 1 says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. This is written to believers. Certainly if an unbeliever says he has no sin, he's not gonna believe on the gospel. He has to know he needs a savior. But we are to confess our sins and the Bible says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. We're lying to ourselves. And verse 10, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar. And his word is not in us. So not only are you lying to yourself, you are claiming that God is a liar. Proverbs 30 says, such is the way of an adulterous woman. She eateth and wipeth her mouth and saith, I have done no wickedness. Whatever the sin is, God help us. Verse John 2 says, he that saith I know him, that is I'm walking with him in fellowship and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. This is talking again to believers. An unbeliever doesn't walk in obedience to be saved. You don't tell an unbeliever, go obey all the commandments and you'll be saved. No, you tell an unbeliever, you need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't work your way to salvation in eternity. It's a free gift. But after you're saved and you understand that you're saved in eternity, you believe the gospel. Now you need to keep God's commandments. You need to walk in his truth. And what the devil is going to try to do is trick us into thinking because we agree with the commandment, because we have heard the commandment, that somehow or another, that's all we need to do. So as I wind down here, I'd like to press upon us and all that are listening to this message. Let's not forget the basics. Let's not forget the basics, man. There's an old saying that preachers like to use that instead of standing on the promises, they're sitting on the premises. Going to church is an awesome thing. It is. Hardly nobody does it today. It's so important. But you can actually come to church and hear preaching and be driving down the road, listening to messages and listening to the King James Bible, reading the King James Bible. And we can get ourselves in such a state that that is so important. It's important to hear and not fill yourself full of garbage. It's important to hear. But what happens if we're hearing and hearing and hearing but not being obedient? What happens if you sit before preaching and the Holy Ghost tells you through the preacher over and over and over again the same things? It becomes easy. It becomes easy. You say, preacher, that was a good sermon or yeah, you convicted me there. But are you going to change? Are you going to move in that thing that the Holy Ghost is putting before you? And if you don't, Pretty soon it loses any power over you. So we need to get back to some basics and make sure those basics are always there. What's one of the main things, and believe me, I know, It used to be a time when Christians built some of the largest churches in the world in the 70s and 80s and fundamentalism was going strong in a world that was very dark and growing more and more wicked. There was this contrast. And there was a time when people were involved in evangelism. And the argument was that they took that so far, or they were unbalanced, or there was door knocking and evangelism, but they allowed a lot of sin to come into their life. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about just do one thing and forget everything else. But God forbid, if we're not doing the basic, if we're not doing the main thing, How can we expect power to do all the other things as well, or to keep at those things? The Bible says that part of your armor to resist Satan is to have your feet covered. They just found some ancient Roman armor, the whole shield and everything through archeology. And part of that soldier's armor was to have his shin and his ankles and his feet covered. And the Bible says that that is a picture of the preparation of the gospel of peace, having your feet shot. The Bible speaks to his church. God speaks to his church and says, how beautiful are thy feet with shoes? The Bible says how beautiful are the feet of them that bring these glad tidings of peace. Jesus has made peace with man. He's paid the price of sin so man and God can have peace together. He calls you to be an ambassador of peace, to go tell people the gospel, the good story, the good news. that your sin has been forgiven if you will embrace and receive your savior. And then we have all of these beautiful commandments after salvation that'll change people's life and help them to find rest for their souls. And what the Bible is saying is if you take your shoes off, if you take that armor off, The devil's gonna go for your feet. And it doesn't matter that your head's covered. It doesn't matter that your breast is covered. It doesn't matter that you have all these other parts of your armor. He's just gonna take you off right down at your feet. Just wipe you. You're not gonna stand. You can't just sit around. You can't just have this truth and not use it. You can't just be a light and have light and then hide it under the bed. We can, as a church, As Christians, as disciples of the Lord, we can't just hide somewhere and relax. It was never, ever, ever my intention, but it sure is easy to get lazy. It was never my intention to come out and get in a good place, a better place, a more rural place, and then just hide the gospel. To not disciple people. And I repent for whatever laziness has come upon me. And may we all examine ourselves and anyone listening today. What spirit of sloth has come upon you? Have you become a hearer and not a doer? And what about the main thing One of the main things, Matthew 28, Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. He's got all authority and power. There's no authority on this earth that can tell you not to preach. The God of heaven said, go do it. Go you therefore and teach all nations. That's number one, that is to teach them the gospel, how to be saved. What do you do next? get them in church, get them baptized, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. That is their first public thing that they do after they're saved is to get baptized. Then what do you do? Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. That's the whole word of God. That's the things of Jesus. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Now that's scary right there because this command is for us today. The world hadn't ended yet. That means this for us, three things. Go get them saved, get them into church and get them baptized, and then disciple them in the things of God. And one of the things you disciple them in is how to go back out there and get others and get them saved, get them baptized, get them in church, and then get them out and go so on. And it's a continued cycle and you continue to grow and continue to disciple. And you're to do this until the world ends. You're to do this until Jesus comes. But the devil has tricks to keep you from doing this. You try to have retreats, you try to have these things, you try to reach people. And there's going to be opposition. Satan is going to bring opposition to anything you try to do that he knows is going to change somebody's life. It says in Haggai, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say the time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. They were saying, yeah, we're gonna do that one day. That was the physical temple, the physical house, but you know what God's saying here. He's saying, my people are saying, it's not time to go disciple anybody. It's not time to go soul in it. It's not time to build up God's church. Lord, forgive us. Tried to reach out. It was inconvenient. But I was talking to a fella. And um... I just said, do you know where you're gonna spend eternity? He said, I don't. I said, you ever heard of Jesus? He said, yeah. I said, you believe in him? He says, I don't know, I think so. I said, man, I know what that's like. I remember hearing John 3 16. to go through life and think that that means I have to go out here and sin and then just make sure I ask forgiveness and then maybe I'll be saved if my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds. I heard John 3 16 and that's what I thought it meant. So I gave him the gospel. How many people do we let slide by? How many people could you reach that I could never reach? Proverbs 13 says, a wicked messenger falleth into mischief, but a faithful ambassador is health. We're called to be ambassadors of God, messengers of Jesus. We're his messengers to go tell people that he's coming again and he has salvation for you. Proverbs 25 says, as the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so as a faithful messenger to them that send him. God, the Father, God, the Holy Ghost, God, the Son, have sent us to be his messengers. Man, if we forget that, what do you think you're here for? What do you think you've been left here for? Dear Holy Father, we do pray that we will be faithful messengers, faithful ambassadors, that we will refresh you, God, Not that you need refreshing, but we will not grieve you, Lord. We pray that we will not be slothful, you say over and over again that those that are right at your coming are those that are giving out the meat in due season. Those that are not hiding the talent, that truth that you've given them, Lord. Let us not be unprofitable. Lazy and hiding the truth. Let us not think that because we agree with that, that we're getting the job done. May we build your house, Lord, through you as your instruments and ambassadors. May we not forget the main thing, to glorify you. to teach all nations. And sometimes, Lord, we know it can be a lot of trouble, burping babies and how precious they are. Lord, let us have a spirit of love. Give us your love, God, for people, for lost souls and Christians that are wandering and wandering about off the beaten path, off the old path. Let us be found faithful, busy, working when you come Lord. And let us not be that evil, slothful servant. Instead of giving out the meat in due season and busy watching and preparing, he's beating the other servants, smiting and eating a drink with the drunken. In Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen.