Praise the Lord. Let's open our Bibles to the book of Colossians. Chapter three. Are we excited this morning? Because we should be case you've forgotten all of your sins have been washed away in the blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ. Our eternity is secure and the finished work of Jesus Christ, who sits at the right hand of the father and intercedes for us daily. The spirit of God is in us, we have so much to be thankful for. So let's if we're not seeing it, let's pray that we would see what we need to be thankful for, that we would be a rejoicing people. So let's just do let's pray for this word in our hearts. Father, we come in the name of Jesus Christ. God, just please take over. God, we are so quick to stop believing. I thank you that your son intercedes, as he did for Peter, that our faith would not fail. And Lord, ultimately, our faith will not fail if we are truly in Christ. I just pray that that would encourage the faint hearted this morning. That the week would be built up this morning in the truth and revelation of Jesus Christ through the preaching of the word. That the proud would be convicted by the Holy Spirit in light of your word. And that all. Would look to Christ. And find rest for their souls. God, convict us this morning, help us to confess, to repent, to believe, to trust, to be filled with hope. God, remove distraction from us. We pray that the spirit would come, as it says in Ephesians one and grant revelation. And the knowledge of Jesus Christ. that we would have understanding, that you would guard my mouth, God, that I would rightly proclaim your word, that it would encourage your people and strengthen them and sanctify us. And as Brother Phil mentioned, if there be lost among us, Lord, that they would repent and believe the gospel this morning. God, we are coming with expectation to your word, believing it will not return void. God, in each and every individual heart that you would do a work, and sanctifying us and conforming us into the image of Jesus. So help us. We pray these things in your son's most precious name. Amen. Amen. I'm going to read verses one through eleven for context. So if you'll follow along with me in Colossians chapter three, verses one through eleven. If you then have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you have put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another. seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek or Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all." It's been about two weeks since we been in Colossians three. So if I could very quickly just bring us up to date again, verses one through eight, for those of you have not been with us, we are working our way systematically through the book of Colossians. If you'd like a copy of the notes, you can put your email address and the gifts and offering basket in the back there, and we'll get you a copy of the sermon notes one. So you can be a Marine and two, so you can meditate upon the word of God this week. In chapter three, Paul is transitioned. Chapter one was the declaration of who Jesus Christ is. Chapter two was the defense of who Jesus Christ is. Chapter three is the display of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ is. sufficient and supreme and therefore preeminent. And the knowledge and understanding of that should transition and affect our lives in every area and every circumstance. So in chapter three, we're talking about living out the Christian life. And specifically here, how do you put sin to death? How do you walk in righteousness and holiness and not walk as though you were a slave to sin? Because we are not if we are in Christ. So verses 1 through 17 cover all of that, and we're just working our way through that. If you remember back in verse 1, it says, if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. And we talked about that. If we are in Christ, we died with Christ. We've been raised with Christ. And in light of that truth, we should be seeking. There's a command given here. We are to be seeking, purposing, intentioning that our conformity in this life. to Jesus Christ, we have a responsibility in. And then to do that, we must be seeking things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. We talked a few weeks ago that we seek out of desire. Every decision you make in your entire life is done out of desire. You are seeking after something. You are treasuring something. You are seeking after it. And Paul says, if you want to glorify God, you want to magnify Jesus Christ, you need to seek the things that are above. where Christ is seated at the right hand of the father. So we live Christians out of our heart. Everyone in this room is living out of their heart based on what you understand in your mind. And you live out of that. You treasure the things that are you believe it will bring you joy. They will bring you pleasure. Everyone in this room is worshiping something at this very moment. And one of the biggest things that we worship is ourselves. We need to be worshipers of Jesus Christ. Well, he gave us another command in verse two. And really, the second command helps us fulfill the first command. So the first command was seek the things that are above. And you might say to Paul, how do I do that, Paul, you fulfill the second command, you set your mind on things above. And we learned this is where the battle is, you want to have victory in the Christian life, the battle of faith is in your mind. What do you believe to be true? What do you believe will give you greater pleasure, joy, and you will seek that thing. And so Paul is saying, you need to set your mind on things above. And we look through all throughout scripture. You need to gorge your mind. You need to renew your mind. It's being bombarded daily with thoughts, things that you see whispers of the enemy, things you can pull up from the past. And we need to be constantly taking these things captive and setting our mind upon things upon Christ, not upon things on the earth. Then he gave us a motive for that in verse three. What was the motive for that? He says, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ. If we are Christians by faith in our union with Jesus Christ, we've been crucified with him and our life is hidden in Christ. He's my righteousness, his blood atoned for my sins. And what Paul's doing here is he's dealing with your past. All of your sins have been forgiven. And it's important for that in this context, if we're striving to glorify God and be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, I have to know I'm forgiven. Because if you are seeking to glorify God by seeking things above so that God will accept you, you're in trouble. Because you're not going to be perfect at this. I'm not condoning sin. But the Bible doesn't speak of our own righteous perfection this side of eternity. You have to know who you are positionally in Jesus Christ, that all of my sins have been forgiven, that he is my righteousness and based on his merits and alien righteousness, not of my own received by grace through faith, that I am accepted eternally in Jesus Christ. And when I understand that, now I respond to God in light of that because of what he has done for me. Not so he will accept me, but because I'm accepted in Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, you cannot have victory over sin that you do not know you are forgiven of. If you're striving to have victory over sin so that God will accept me, you're going to fail at that because your walking in righteousness is imperfect. And you know God demands perfection. And Christ is our perfection. Christ is our righteousness. And Paul says, I want you to know if you're in Christ, you've died with him. Your life is hidden in him. And if you know that it motivates you, it encourages you, it strengthens you to do what? To live a holy life because he's accepted me in his son, Jesus Christ. Another motivation he gave us is in verse four. He says, you also will appear with him in glory. Not only are my past, present and future sins forgiven in Jesus Christ, but my eternal future is secure. When Christ returns, we will be with him in glory. So what are we living for? So Paul motivates you by saying your sins are forgiven. Your life is hidden in Christ. He secured your inheritance. You have the guarantee of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, live for Christ. Seek the things that are above in light of what God has done for you. We must have a right attitude towards sin if we're going to be putting sin to death. And he gives us the right attitude in verse five. He says, put to death, kill therefore what is earthly in you. The therefore points back to verses one through four. So in light of all the things we discovered, you need to be killing sin in your life. I forget who said it, maybe Owens, John Owens. He might've said, you must be killing center. Sin is killing you. And this is the present tense. Are you killing sin in your life? And I want you to know this. We're going to study about lying today. You must fight sin individually. Now you read scripture to gain a vast knowledge of who Christ is and the promises of Christ. But when there's sin in your life, you got to fight that sin individually. There isn't just this huge overarching get holy type thing. You read, you study scripture, but when you see sin in your life, you fight it individually. We're going to fight lying today individually. that particular sin, we're going to look at it. We're going to dissect it. We're going to meditate upon it. And by the spirit's power and the truth of the word of God, we can put it to death. So if you have particular sins in your life that you struggle with, you don't just say, Oh God, I want to be more like Jesus. But then you've got to take that and you've got to fight individually your sin. Like we talked about grumbling this morning. You got to know why am I grumbling? What am I not believing? Why am I tempted to grumble? What perspective am I looking through? What perspective should I be looking through? And that's how we put sin to death, put to death. Therefore, what is earthly in you? And I can say in my own life and a lot of ours that we are too light on sin. We laugh about it, talk about it, watch shows about it. And God doesn't think that's funny. He says, kill it, put it to death. So we must deal with sin at the root. And we talked about that sin begins in the heart and the mind out of desire, out of desire. So we're tempted, desire tempted because of the passions within us. And then we looked at verses five through eight and we saw that there were progressions of sin. Look back at verse, uh, look back at verse five. He started out here with the actual sin of sexual immorality, and he worked his way back to the heart. Sexual immorality because of impurity, because of passion, evil desire, covetousness was idolatry. So I had an idolatrous desire in my heart. What happened then? It led to a passion there, a covetousness, a wanting of more, into evil desires, into a passion, a burning, a fire. I wanted impurity, and I acted that out in sexual immorality. Where do I kill sexual immorality here? This is where you kill all your sin right here. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. We kill sin in the heart and the mind. Look then at verse 8, this one, he walked it from the heart out to the action. He says, but now you must put them all away. Anger, issue of the heart. Jesus talks about it in the book of Matthew, Sermon on the Mount. Anger, that's where murder begins right here, right? I got anger in my heart, then what? It leads to wrath, a desire for hurting. Malice, then what does it lead into? Malice is a desire to do you harm. And then what slander? We're going to talk. Bill offended me. I'm angry. I'm letting it nurture here. It begins to spill over a little bit, gets hot. I'm going to slander him and I'm going to use obscene language to do it. Where do I kill that at though? If I'm going to kill it, do I just say, I really shouldn't just say those words. No, I kill it right here in my heart. Listen, I don't have to say the words for it to be sin. The Christianity is always dealing with the heart. So if you say, listen, I got a clean outside, but inwardly I'm dead man's bones. You're a Pharisee. Clean the inside of the cup and then the outside becomes clean. We are transformed inwardly and then it manifests outwardly. We don't want just conformity of behavior. This is the problem in most parenting. I just want my kid to look nice, talk nice, say yes, sir, say yes, ma'am, and sit quiet in the church. Well, great. What if he loves the world in his heart, though? And he goes to hell, but he looked good and everyone thought you were a good parent. What did you accomplish? Absolutely nothing. I'm not saying our children shouldn't say yes, sir. And yes, ma'am. And they shouldn't be mindful and respectful. They should be, but we need to be what? Borrow Ted Tripp's words shepherding the child's heart. It's a really good parenting book, by the way, shepherding a child's heart. So we must deal with sin at the heart and the mind level. Watch its progression. If sin is not dealt with at the root, it will manifest in our walk. It will manifest in our lives. And it isn't enough, brothers and sisters, just to say no to sin. We must say yes to the superior promises we have in Jesus Christ. You can't just say no to anger. You have to say yes to what Christ has provided in love towards that person. So not just a matter of saying no, look at the consequences saying yes to something, a greater superior treasure of Jesus Christ. So we're talking about living lives consistently with the gospel, living a life that's consistent in light of the revelation of Jesus Christ. If these things are true about Christ and they are, then they should transform the way I live, the way I speak, the way I act, the way I think. So we want to have gospel consistent living. Gospel consistent living. And in verse nine here, Paul's going to deal with the particular sin of lying. So let's look at verse nine. Do not lie to one another. There's a command given here again, and to do not lie to one another. Lying is to speak deliberate falsehood or to deceive someone. I want to say this to the, you don't actually don't have to open up your mouth to lie. If, if will has truth and he knows I'm seeking that truth and I asked him about it and he doesn't say anything, he's lying. Anyone in here know this answer and will knows it. He knows I need the information to help me get this thing. Maybe children do that. You just don't say anything. Keep your mouth quiet. Listen, this is where the issue is, okay? So if you're deceitful here, it doesn't have to manifest here for it to be carried out. We've got to deal with it right here. I want to kill lying. I think everyone in here struggles with lying to some degree or another. Some may be more than others, but I want to kill it. God wants us to kill it. And I think we as a people tend to minimize lying, like we do most other sins. You've heard the old adage, it's just a little white lie. Let me tell you something, there is no little white lie. There's only truth and there's deceit. There's no little lies. Can I share with you this, and we'll get to it in a minute, but it seems important now. What you might deem the smallest of lies without the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ would condemn you to hell for all eternity. There's no small white lies. There's truth and there's deceit and there's intention towards one of the two when you speak. We're going to deal with the intention of the heart. Maybe you've believed the lie that it won't hurt anybody. See, if I say this untruth, it won't hurt anybody. Therefore, it's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. What you've done there is you've taken something that God has said is wrong and you've come to your own conclusion based on whether it will hurt somebody and use that as your moral compass. It doesn't matter whether it hurts anyone or not, if it's not true, it's a lie. Technically, I didn't lie. And I want to speak to the children here, not because adults aren't guilty of that, but just to address the children for a second here to specifically. If your mom and dad ask you a question because they want information about something and you know the truth of that information might get you in trouble. So you share a little bit of that truth and you don't technically lie. Let me give you an example. Let's say your parents say you can go. Play at Jimmy's house. And you walk over to Jimmy's house and Jimmy says, let's go over to Tommy's house. So you and Jimmy walk over to Tommy's house. And you play. And you come home. And your mom or dad say. Where'd you go? And you say, Jimmy's house. Is that true? Technically. But it's a lie. And I think sometimes we convince ourselves that if I can tell an aspect to get away with the technicality here, well, I really did go to Jimmy's house. I'm just going to leave off that I went to Tommy's house because, oh, my mom and dad don't like me to play with Tommy. So I can say I went to Jimmy's house. I technically told the truth, but in reality, I know what my mom is asking. Where have you been is what she's asking. But I said Jimmy's house, but really I went to Jimmy's for a second and we spent the whole day at Tommy's house. That's using a technicality to get out of it. The motivation is deceiving your mom and dad. And that's a lie. Same thing with, I told a partial truth. Address the children again, not because I'm picking on you because I love you. Mom walks in the room and you hit your brother in the head with a pillow. Out of anger. Your mom says, what are you doing? And. The brother that got hit says you saw it, mommy hit me in the head with the pillow and she says, well, tell me what happened. You said you walked in and hit me in the head with the pillow. And then. Your sister shares. Yeah, but he hit me in the head with his shoe. You see, you left that little bit of information out. You told a partial truth. Why? Because if I reveal the whole truth, I'm going to get in trouble here. So I'll tell a partial truth. I'll give my side of events, leaving out the necessary details. What's the intention of the heart to mislead my mom or my dad into thinking, look, they just hit me with the pillow. What's wrong with this person? But I left off that I hit them with the shoe. You see, if we leave off parts of truth, or if we use technicalities to get around truth, or if we minimize it to a little bit of lie, or if we say, well, it really didn't hurt anybody. So it's not really a lie. No one's going to get hurt. No one really cares. Then I want you to know this. You've minimized lying and the Bible doesn't minimize lying. It maximizes it. And it says, put it to death. I want you to know this too. Exaggerating is lying. You say, I don't exaggerate. Let me ask the couples in here something. In moments of frustration with your spouse, do you ever use this word? You always do that. You ever say that? Or you never do that. You ever use those words? You're lying. Because here's the reality. They don't always do that. Even if it's 99.9% of the time, they don't always do it. Or they don't never do that. What are you doing? You're exaggerating the truth. Why? You want to get your point across. And it may be true that they need to work on something here, but you feel the need to raise it up a little bit, to drive your point home, to get what you want. That's idolatry. I want that. I'm willing to lie to get to that. I've just raised what I want above what God has called me to, which is truth. I did it through lying, but I just called it exaggeration. In fact, I don't even call that. You see, we need to eliminate those types of words from our vocabulary. Many of the brothers and sisters are praying for jobs right now. We need to be praying for our brothers and sisters. Amen. Encouraging them. What is your resume though? Do you know how tempting it is to exaggerate on your resume? It's very tempting. Or how about the interview process? I'm not proud of this and I think I've joked about it. I'm convicted even right now. My first job out of college was as a computer technician. Many of you are smiling and you should be because I don't know anything about computers. I was unregenerate and I'm not making an excuse, but I told him I could do that stuff. I got the job, but here's the reality. If I feel the need to exaggerate who I am or what I can do so that I can get the job and I justify it because I need a job. I mean, a man who doesn't provide for his own household is worse than an unbeliever, right? I mean, I'm doing the right thing here. Yeah, but you're going about it against the way God has provided for you. He lays a path of truth. He says, follow it. Trust me. And in exaggerating your resume and exaggerating what you can do in the interview, what you're saying is, I can't trust your way, God, I need to lift up what I can do a little bit higher and exaggerate it so I can get the job. I don't trust that telling the truth. I'm going to get the job. Ultimately, I'm saying this. I don't trust you, God. I need to go my own path to figure this way out. Do you see why God hates lying? Your way is not the right way. God, I got a better way. It's called exaggeration. And I've gotten jobs in the past because of it. I'm a smooth talker. You're a liar. You're an unbeliever. That's what you are. It's bigger than we think. Everyone in this room is guilty. Any intent to mislead, giving more than the truth or leaving out some of the truth is lying. Any intent to mislead is lying. So often we lie. You know, it's fun to sit around and tell stories sometimes. It's fun. It's okay. It's okay to laugh at stories. It's okay to have a good time. Some of you need to laugh some more, but if you feel the need to exaggerate your story to get more laughs, you're lying. You're putting the approval of that person and their view of you above Jesus Christ. It's not that big a deal. It is a big deal. It is a big deal. See, we promote ourselves when we lie. Make the story a little bit bigger. The old adage, how big was the fish this big? What are you doing? I want you to think I'm really good at catching fish and think I'm important. So you'll think my fish is better than anyone else's fish. And you'll think highly of me. And you said, I'll talk about fish, choose whatever it is. We're all guilty of this. And I want us to see it for what it is, which is lying. If we're going to put lying to death, we cannot minimize sin. Can't minimize it. Paul doesn't minimize lying. He forbids it completely. Do not lie to one another. Don't lie. Not to joke about it, but Danielle and I have talked before about an area where a lot of people lie. If you're asleep at your house and someone calls you and it could be three in the morning and you pick up the phone and you're groggy voice. Oh, you sleeping? No, no, no, I'm not sleeping. Why sleep has the appearance of weakness. I don't want to be thought of weak. to be thought of someone who's alert and strong and ready to go. I'm not sleeping. What are you talking about? What'd you do? You lied. There are times when I can fall asleep in three seconds by God's grace. And Danielle will look over me at the bed. Are you sleeping? No, I'm praying. Here's what's crazy though. You speak so quick. It's not like you sit there and say, now, if Danielle asked me if I'm sleeping, I'm going to tell her, no, I'm praying. She asks, and what do I do? I speak quickly. Let me tell you this. You're going contrary to scripture already. Be quick to what? Speak? No. Listen, I think we could eliminate a lot of lying if we just shut our mouths and counted to 10. You sleeping? I want to say no, but that's not right. Yes, I'm sleeping. You see, the Bible gives wisdom like, Hey, be quick to listen and slow to speak. Why? It'll keep you from lying. And God hates lying. These aren't little things. These aren't little things. Paul makes a big deal about lying. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices. What Paul's going to do now is he's going to mark, he's going to identify lying for the sin that it is. Paul rightly associates lying with our old self. Do not lie to one another, seeing, because you have put off the old self with its practices." Brothers and sisters, if you are in Christ, you have put off the old self. Verse 3 says we died with Him. Romans chapter 6 says our old man was crucified with Christ. Second Corinthians 517, we are new creations in Christ. Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. We are new creations in Christ. And what Paul's doing is he's taking lying, which he's forbidding you of, and he's saying, I want you to know that was a common with your old man. You're not the old man, you're the new man. So don't lie to one another. Why? Lying is in association with who? The old man. He's identifying lying. He's marking it. Now we all know outside of Christ, we were children of the devil. It's not a fun thing to think about, but it's a real thing. Look at John 8, 44, Jesus said to the unbelieving Jews, you are of your father, the devil. And your will is to do your father's will. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in truth. Why? Because there's no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character. That's a huge statement. When Satan lies, he's a corrupt tree that is bearing the fruit of corruption, which is lying. For out of a bad tree comes what? Bad fruit. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, what is natural to him. He speaks literally out of himself. For he is a liar and the father of lies. Now, that's who was our father prior to when we were in Christ. That's who we were when we were the old man. That was our father. We look like our father. We did, it says, his will. He has no truth in him. He masquerades truth, but it's not truth. So lying is a practice of the old self. The old self was corrupt at the heart. It was depraved. It was sin loving, God hating, and lying is consistent with the old man. Children tend to take after their father. When we were in Adam, Satan was our dad, per se. We took after our dad, Satan, the father of lies. And we lied. But if you're in Christ now, you need to take after who? Your new father, God, whose truth. So Paul's marking lying and saying, that's what the old man, that's the old stuff. Why is that in your life now? Don't do that. So here's what Paul's saying. If you're in Christ, you've put off this old self. in its practices. So lying is a practice of the old self. It's a fruit of the old corrupt tree. And what Paul is saying is, listen, be consistent with who you are. God made you a new creation. You've got a new heart. You've got a new father. Take after him. Don't do what your old self used to do. That person died. Don't put on the old raggedy old clothes. You got new clothes in Christ. So Paul is marking the sin of lying, and he wants us to put it to death. Can I tell you this? We must all mark lying as sins. Any and all forms of it in our lives. And we must see and acknowledge lying is consistent with the old self, and it's the fruit of a corrupt heart, and it took after the father of lies, who is Satan. Don't minimize sin. Don't minimize lying. Let me give you a quick, broader view of lying in the Bible. Proverbs 6, 16 through 19, there are six things the Lord hates. I don't list them all there, but look at him. Seven that are an abomination to him. Haughty eyes and a lying tongue. Further on down, a false witness who breathes out lies. Don't laugh about lying. Don't watch shows that laugh about lying. Don't watch movies that laugh about lying and don't lie to one another. God hates it. And it's an abomination to him. It is contrary to his character. It is contrary to your new nature in Jesus Christ. It's not a laughing matter. Proverbs 12 22 lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. What does it lead to? Revelations 21 eight. Look at the, uh, the company that liars are grouped with. As for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters. Yeah, they all deserve hell and liars. Their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. You've all seen Ray comforts test of a good person shows in the law, holds up 10 commandments. One of the first questions he asked them, he ever told a lie. Yes. Was it make you liar? You know what they do? Almost every time you watch one of those videos, they laugh. They make you liar. That's not funny. It sends people to hell. It's an abomination to the Lord and God hates it. Well, what about us as believers? You said, Jesse, I've been redeemed in the blood of Jesus Christ. He's my righteousness. My sins are forgiven. I'm not going to burn in the lake which burns with fire and sulfur. I know. But he's talking to Christians here in Colossians, chapter three. And if you minimize lying, it's actually worse because you have understanding now by the power of the Holy Spirit. And I want you to know, even in the life of the believer, although your sins have been covered in the blood of Jesus Christ, it still offends God and he still may. Chasing you here on this earth because of your line. You say, isn't the penal substitution where Christ takes my wrath away doesn't yet that happens, but God chastens those whom he loves. I'm not talking about going to heaven or hell here, but I am talking about God disciplining you for lying. And if you minimize lying, I just want us to look at Acts chapter five. Peter said to Ananias, remember the story here, Ananias and Sapphira. In Acts chapter four, this is after Peter preached a sermon. All those people are converted. There's great needs because people come from different places. They don't have any money. They're facing severe persecution. People are selling their land, putting the money at the disciples' feet. The disciples are distributing this amongst the people as anyone has needs or needs are met. So they're giving up things to sell. Ananias and Sapphira sell their land. They bring it to Peter. We see that they contrived in their own hearts to keep back some of it. But they're going to tell Peter what? Here it is. Here it all is. Look what Peter said in verse 3 through 5. But Peter said, Ananias, now Peter's been enlightened by the Holy Spirit here. Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? Now who did he lie to? Peter. But who did Peter say he really lied to? God, do you see why lying serious? You see, when you lie to your brother, sister, mom, dad, neighbor, coworker, boss, employee, you're lying to God. Ananias, why is Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? Verse four, you have not lied to men, but to God. How serious does God take lying even amongst the church? Verse five, when Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. Can I tell you this, we deserve that. Why did he sing, I mean, why did he sing about Ananias and Sapphira? Have you lied as a Christian? Yeah, you have. Why didn't you fall over dead? What's God doing here? He's warning the church. He's purifying the church. And he killed someone. And we have no reason to believe that are not Christian. We don't know anything else about these people. So God, in his loving discipline, not talking about the penal wrath you deserve because of your sin, but in the purification of the church and to bring a warning to the church, which it said it did, fear fell among the church after this. He could make Jesse Barrington drop over right now dead because the lie told. And he would be perfectly just to do so. Do you see how much grace you're under today? Not I'm not talking about just the eternal damnation, grace and mercy, I'm talking about you're still alive. Today. We are commanded not to lie, and we see that lying is is consistent with our old self lines and abomination to God, and he hates it. We liars have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. And we need to remember the seriousness of lying and the warning of lying. But we studied so far in our battle against sin that hearing God say, don't do this. And because of this, the wrath of God is coming still isn't enough for what we need to conquer sin. It should be should be enough. but it's still not enough for what Paul's laid out before us. So if we're going to conquer and defeat lying and put it to death, we need to market for what it is, know how serious it is, know the punishment it can bring outside of Christ and even the discipline within Christ. And then what? Let me read to you verse nine and 10 together here. Do not lie to one other, seeing that you have put to put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in or to knowledge after the image of its creator. So here it is again. Don't do this because of this, the wrath of God is coming. You want to conquer it, you must be renewed and what or what to knowledge of what the creator Christ. You see that the very path we've been walking down with everything Paul has taught us about having victory over sin. Don't do this. It's serious. People can go to hell because of it. Christians are disciplined because of it. But you must turn to a greater promise of Jesus Christ if you're really going to put lying to death. The new self is being renewed in knowledge. Or to knowledge. And this idea of renewed is this maturing, this growing. I want you to know that God's eternal plan for your life is to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ, for those whom he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. That's Romans chapter eight, verse 29, first Thessalonians four, three. This is the will of God for your life, your sanctification. So God's intention for you is to conform you into the image of Jesus Christ. Let me tell you this. If you're truly his, it will happen. It will happen. Some more than others, this side of eternity, but in all for all believers, it will happen. He who began a good work in you, he will bring it to completion. You have a responsibility and I want you to know this. It will not happen apart from knowledge of Jesus Christ. You want to grow in Christ and have victory over sin like lying? It'll come through revelation of Jesus Christ and His way, the path of truth, being a greater blessing than what the temptation of the lie is presenting. This lifelong process will not happen apart from knowledge. Sanctify them by your truth, giving us all things that pertain to life and godliness where, and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Look at Ephesians 2 13 until we all attain to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the son of God, to what, to a mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. I want to grow in maturity to Christ likeness. I hope you do too. If that's not the desire of your heart, you got a heart problem. I'm not saying we don't have competing desires, but the true believer, their desire is to bring God glory by being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. That's the desire of the believer. The Bible explicitly, clearly, repetitively teaches that will not happen apart from knowledge of Jesus Christ. Now work that out practically in your life. What does that mean for you? Read, study, meditate, memorize the scriptures. Pastor, why do you keep telling us to do that? Because you will not be conformed to the image of Christ and kill any sin like lying without knowledge of Christ. You can't. Because you're lying because you believe it's a better path. It'll work out better for you if you lie. You're being deceived in that moment. You need to see Jesus Christ in the path of truth is where blessing and joy are at. And if you don't know the word and who Christ is and the promises thereof, and you're not reading about them and renewing your mind and meditating upon them and hiding them in your heart, you won't bring that to remembrance by the power of the Holy Spirit in the moment, which is when you need it. Did you do this? Here's the path lit for you. Just say you didn't do it. You won't get in trouble. That's before you. It'll always be there. It'll always be presented, but it won't be more than you can handle. First Corinthians 10, 13. God will not let you be tempted beyond what you're able to handle. He will provide a way of escape. And the way of escape is the knowledge of the greater path in Jesus Christ, the path of truth, which illuminates itself when you bring it to remembrance by the power of the Holy Spirit. And it says, no, Jesse. The path of truth is better. The glory of God is better. Take responsibility for what you did. Be honest here. Magnify Christ. Don't do what the world does and just lie to cover it up or get out of it. It's not worth it. Choose Christ. That's how you'd be lying. But if you don't know this path, that path looks pretty good. Who tempted Ananias that Peter said, why have you let Satan fill your heart with lies? Now listen, if Satan's not there, you're gonna struggle with lying still, but he comes and he makes that path look good because he's the deceiver and he uses logic and emotion. You don't want to hurt your mom. I mean, she found out you did that. She'd be so embarrassed about you to say you didn't do it. No one will ever know. It'll be our little secret. You won't get in trouble. It'll just be a little secret. Yeah, I don't want to hurt my mom. Of course you don't want to hurt your mom. You're a very loving, sensitive young man. Young men don't want to hurt their mother. Just, just tell them you didn't do it. They'll never know. And besides what you're really focused on is not hurting your mom. That's the most important. What did a loving person not want to hurt their mom? It's convincing. Sounds good. That's a good path. But if you know the path of Christ, The Holy Spirit will illuminate that, but let me tell you this. You have a responsibility. Is your life prioritized around the necessity for the priority of scripture in your life? Jesse, I'm struggling in sin. How are you doing in the word of God? Not very good. OK. I wouldn't imagine you're doing very good. Why you're not renewing your mind, Satan's paths look very attractive and they're not laid against the path of truth. He's very he's good at this. He started it in Genesis chapter three. If God loved you, would he really tell you not to eat that tree? Yeah, that doesn't seem right, does it? And he's been doing the same thing since. And if you're not renewing your mind, you're going to fall prey to that. Going to fall prey to that. Look at Second Corinthians 318. And we all with unveiled face beholding from glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image as Christ from one degree of glory to another. This comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. This is where Romans 8, 13, the spirit put to death these things. He magnifies Jesus Christ in helping us choose the path of obedience and righteousness, which transforms us from moment of glory and a moment of glory into the image of Jesus Christ. Again, we must see that we cannot put sin to death by merely saying no or looking at the warnings of sin. We must turn to the greater hope and promise of Jesus Christ. And I want you to know that that comes through knowledge. That comes through knowledge. This is where the battle takes place in the mind. And so. We are renewed to knowledge. You can say, well, we're becoming more and more like Christ and we will grow in knowledge. That's true. And it's through the means of knowledge. But the reality of it is you need to know the word. And then he says in verse 11 here, there is not Greek or Jew circumcised and uncircumcised barbarian, Scythian slave free, but Christ is all and in all. Remember if Paul told us in verse nine, do not lie to one another. Now he's not advocating lying to those outside the church. He's using the example of those within the church. Paul forbids all line, but in the context here he says, do not lie to one another. Who's the one another, the church and his argument here in verse 11 is a good one. Don't argue. Don't lie to one another. Why? Because here there's not Greek or Jew or circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free. Christ is all. And in all you say, what does it have to do with lying? Well, number one is this. If you don't understand that Christ is all you won't believe he is sufficient. So Paul says Christ is all, he is sufficient. Everything the lie presents itself to you to be, falls on, stays flat in light of the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. But he also says Christ is in all. You say, what does that have to do with me and lying? I think of it this way. If we are one body, which we often described in scriptures as a body, Christ being the head, Ephesians four, first Corinthians chapter 12, Romans 12, I think it says lying to one another would actually hurt the body. So get the picture. Okay. The church is pictured as a body with Christ being the head. If there's lying going on in the body, what does it hurt? The body. use an analogy of your own body. What if you could lie to your own body? Like what if your hand, what if your, what if your brain could lie to your hand and this is a hot burning stove and I walk up and I put my hand on here and it starts cooking smoke and my brain lies to my hand. That doesn't hurt. And the hands going, Are you sure? Because it's on fire. It doesn't hurt. That doesn't hurt you. It's melting. That doesn't hurt you. And what Paul's trying to draw the analogy of is this. Listen, lying in the body of Christ impacts the body of Christ. When you lie, if I lie to Bill, it hurts the body. I actually hurt myself. He uses the same argument with husbands. Because a husband and a wife has a one flesh union in Ephesians chapter 5. And he says no one would hurt their own body. Why? When I'm not loving my wife sacrificially as Christ loved the church, I'm really hurting myself. And he argues against hurting yourself. So Paul's helping us see this. Listen, when the body lies, it hurts the body. Why? Because we're one. And who's the head? Christ is the head. How foolish. He's using logic here. How foolish of you to lie to your brother. Don't you know that you're hurting yourself? So lying within the church is almost like a double whammy. You lie against God. That's a sin. But you hurt yourself because Bill's a part of the body because I'm in the body and we're one in Christ. He says the same thing in a parallel verse in Ephesians chapter four, verse twenty nine. Therefore, having put away falsehood. Let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor. Why? We're all members of one another. If I lie to Jeff. I hurt me. And Paul's not saying, think selfishly about yourself on the here. He's saying, don't be a fool. You believe this lie to Jeff's going to help you. It actually hurts the whole body. And let me tell you something. You're a part of that body. So stop being a fool. The gospel unites all barriers that sinful man erects, race, culture, social, economical. And one of the beautiful things of verse 11, and although it is in the context of lying, the truth in it is just phenomenal because what it really tells us is this to be gospel consistent. We cannot have any barriers in the church. I mean, how much do we hear about racial tension in the world today? And believe me, it's out there. But it shouldn't even be named among us. Now, are there different races? Praise God. We are not all one boring race. Are there different cultures? We're going to taste a few of them in a little bit. Praise God again for that. But I want you to know this. Those aren't even mentioned in the body of Christ. You know why? Because before God and in light of scripture, there are two people. Two, not white, black, brown, yellow, none of that. There are two. You know who the two people are? You're either in Adam or you're in Christ. And as Christians, our new identity, I'm not a white man, I'm in Christ. You're not a black person, a brown person, a yellow person, a foreigner, an American, rich, poor, slave, free, Greek, circumcised. You're either in Christ or you're in Adam. And we've got to lose every other identity in this church. There's one identity in the kingdom of God, in Christ. That's it. And we have to fight the flesh, which is in all of us, to let any other barrier even be named among us. We need to be a pure people who do not speak about those realities, but we put them to death because the root of them is sin. Don't identify yourself with anything other than Jesus Christ. Who are you? I'm in Christ. Who cares about everything else? It all washes away. We've got to learn that. I think we do a good job at this church of that by God's grace, but I think we can do better. I think we can shine brighter, not so people say, oh, Grace Life Church. So people say, oh, Jesus Christ, look at the barriers shattered. I wish we could grasp what it means for the Greek and the Jew to be one. The greatest example I can think of on this earth right now from a tension perspective would be a Palestinian and an Israeli coming together as one and saying, forget it all, we're one in Jesus. Who cares about all that stuff? And uniting for the purpose of Jesus Christ. Hamas and Israel as one. That's what it should be. We don't even grasp what it says. There's no Jew. It doesn't mean anything to us. Jews would not even go into the house of a Gentile. They would not eat with them. They would not touch anything they touched. They would shake their clothes from the dust of which Gentiles walked upon. They were filthy. And now they've come together as one. We don't have slave systems in our time here today, but they sure did then. Read the book of Philemon. What does Paul say? Hey, he's a brother in Christ now. That's that's the level that you deal with them on no longer slave free owner. None of that stuff. Christ. God help us all find our identity in one thing. Christ and every single intention of the heart that has any thought towards racism or anything else would be squashed at the revelation of Jesus Christ, that we are in Christ. We are forgiven and therefore we are one. This church needs to scream that not so much with our words, with our love for one another. Should scream that. John reminded me that the clock didn't get moved back, so I really don't have another hour. But I haven't preached in two weeks. No, this is it, and we're done. Let's just apply this now. Okay? So we've seen what Paul walked us through. Let's apply it. Why do we lie? Just think with yourself. Think of a lie that you've told recently. Shouldn't be that hard. Why do you lie? Why do you lie? You lie out of desire. You've been, you've been convinced that the path of this lie will be better for you than the path of truth. That's why you lie. That's why everybody lies. Like we said before, no one lies out of habit. Never lied in like three days. Let me go lie real quick. You lie because you've been convinced that the path of deceit is better in lying. We have been deceived to believe the path of deceit will bring greater reward than the path of truth. This is unbelief. The root of lying is unbelief. I don't believe you, God. I don't believe the path you've told me to walk is going to be better for me. So let's end with reading Ananias and Saviour. You don't have to turn there if you don't want to. Let me just read it to you. But a man named Ananias, with his wife, Sapphire, sold a piece of property. And with his wife's knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only part of it and laid it at the apostles feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why is Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back yourself part of the proceeds of the land? Verse four, while it remained unsold, did it not remain yours, your own? And after it was sold, was it not your disposal? The sin was not that he kept back a portion of it. That wasn't the sin. The sin was he made it appear that he gave it all. Why is that you have contrived this deed in your heart? There's where the root of lying begins. You've not lied to men, but to God. And when Anna and I has heard these words, he fell down, breathed his last and fear came upon all those who heard of it. And the young man arose, wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. The read versus later, the same thing happened to his wife a few months later. So let's ask some questions and we'll be done. What were Ananias's motives for lying? And this is how you have to kill lying in your life. Think of the things that you tend to lie about. What are the motives? Think with me. What are Ananias's motives here? What's prompting him to think deceit is going to be the better path here. Maybe to appear holy before men, maybe to fit in. You know why? Because in chapter four, it says people were selling their property and throwing the money at the disciples feet. Did that mean Ananias and Sapphira had to do that? No, they didn't have to give all their money to there. But maybe they wanted to have, they just wanted to fit in with everyone else and say, yeah, we gave it all to you. So they're seeking the approval of man, the praise of man. They want to fit in. And we know that Satan was there encouraging it. Verse three, Satan was there saying, Hey, listen, just tell him you gave it all. No one's going to know the difference. No one, no one has any knowledge of that. And it seemed like a good thing. The apostle Peter is going to think I'm so Holy. That's probably pretty good. And I'm really giving a lot of the money and everyone else is doing this. We want to be like everybody else. So there's so many potentials and you need to identify in the lies that you tell why you do it. What are they not believing? They're not believing they're sufficient in Jesus Christ. I need the approval of the apostle Peter here. Having the approval of God in Christ Jesus isn't enough for me. Now you think about when you exaggerate with people, you're seeking their approval. I want you to think I'm better than I really am. Why? That feels good to me when you praise me because you think I'm good. What am I not believing? Christ is enough. Christ is sufficient. Having my sins forgiven isn't enough. I need that. So when we exaggerate with friends, we exaggerate on our resumes or interviews, we hide things or tell partial truths or technicalities to get out of trouble. We're not believing in Jesus Christ and his sufficiency. You see, with the interview, you think I can't do what's right and believe in God's providence. He'll give me a job. I got to have a job right now. And the only way to get it is lying. We have to fight to believe God's love for you in Christ and his goodness towards you and following his word. That's the knowledge he was talking about there. If if I'm renewing my mind and knowledge by God's grace, the Holy Spirit, I'll be seeing and believing God's love towards me and seeing my sufficiency in Jesus Christ. Why do we lie to promote ourselves or to protect ourselves? What are we doing? Not believing Jesus Christ is sufficient. I need the approval of man. So I promote myself. I'm afraid of the consequences. So I protect myself. What should I do? Obey Christ and trust him. Lastly, as a community of faith, people are going to lie to you in here. We're all one in Christ and they're going to lie to you. And with the gospel does, and this is good, you know what most people do when they lie and they get caught. They go deeper in their life, don't they? Just dig a little bit deeper. Maybe we'll get him next time and they catch you again. Go a little bit deeper and you're believing the same lie over and over. Here's what the gospel does. It frees you so that when you are caught and convicted by the Holy Spirit in your lie. You can confess it. Because the Bible says he will forgive you. And you know what? That should be true amongst our assembly. Because when you lie and you confess your sin to God. Do you want him to forgive you? Do you want him to hold it over you? Do you want him to poke at it every time he says something? Do you want to say you have to earn my trust again? Give me two years. No, you want him to say, I forgive you. Washed in the blood. Come here, my son. And he does. Guess what that means then. In this community of faith. When someone lies, whether that's your spouse, your children, or a brother and sister in Christ, you need to forgive as Christ is forgiven. And if that's true, then guess what? It will encourage confession rather than digging deeper for more lies. God help us in this. We're going to pray. And then we're going to partake of the Lord's Supper together and then we'll eat together and fellowship. But as we pray for the Lord's Supper here in a minute. I'm going to ask you, do you have unconfessed lies in your life that you know and you're living right now? And if so, I'm going to encourage you this, if you're not ready to confess that, do not partake. But what the cross of Christ says, you can confess that because I've made it okay. There may be consequences here on earth, but I've secured the eternal ramifications. Trust him. Now that person that you need to confess to may not be here. You say, what do I do then? This is where the issue is. If you've convinced that you need to confess this sin before the Lord and the person or people you've been lying to, you need to go do that. And if you're trusting in that and looking to Christ, then you can. But if you're not ready to trust the Lord, do not partake. Do not partake. So I'm going to go ahead and we'll close our sermon prayer with the prayer, the Lord's Supper and have the men go ahead and gather the elements. And I have the team come up.