Benjamin Hatch brings a message on 2 Corinthians 1:12-22 as part of our series "God's Power in Our Weakness," a series in the book of 2 Corinthians.
Redeemer Bible Church of Fort Bend
Simplicity and Sincerity (2 Corinthians 1:12-22)
(soft piano music) - You're listening to a podcast by Redeemer Bible Church. Come visit us Sunday mornings at 10.30 a.m. or visit our website at redeemerfortbend.org for more information. Thanks and enjoy. (soft piano music) - You have a Bible term with me now to 2 Corinthians chapter one. You're using one of the chair back Bibles. Leave today's text begins on page 906. I'm gonna read 2 Corinthians chapter one, very lengthy section. Verse 12 to chapter two verse 13. Next week, we will take on part of this same passage. So we're not gonna do all of this today, but a lot of it, so. Second reading chapter one, beginning in verse 12. For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity. Not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God and supremely so toward you. For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand. And I hope you will fully understand, just as you did partially understand us, that on the day of our Lord Jesus, you will boast of us as we boast of you, as we will boast of you. Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first so that you might have a second experience of grace. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you for Macedonia. And have you send me on my way to Judea? Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say yes, yes, and no, no, at the same time? As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no for the Son of God Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you. So Vanis and Timothy and I was not yes and no, but in him it is always yes. For all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. But I call God to witness against me. It was to spare you that I refrain from coming again to Corinth, not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy for you stand firm in your faith. For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I've pain? And I wrote as I did so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice. For I felt sure of all of you that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. Now, if anyone has caused me pain, he's not caused it to me, but in some measure, not to put it too severely to all of you. For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough. So you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. For this is why I wrote that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ so that we would not be outwitted by Satan for we are not ignorant in his designs. When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was open for me in the Lord, my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia. And all God's people said, amen, let's pray. Father, in many ways, this is a challenging passage dealing with Paul's journeys and events that are not fully narrated for our benefit here. Lord, as we grapple with this text and its difficulties, we pray that what is necessary for us to know would be very clear, that we might live lives of integrity and holiness and not hypocrisy. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. You should not judge a man by his one week moment. You need to look at his whole ministry and don't judge him on one hiccup that happens, end quote. These words were part of Steve Lawson's final sermon. And without any context, we might well agree with them. That because church leaders sin, as all people do, we should primarily evaluate them on the total body of their work rather than their individual failings. But just five days after Lawson said these words, his church announced that he had been quote, disqualified from ministry because of an inappropriate relationship with a woman. Now that context puts Lawson's words in a different light because now when we hear Lawson saying you should not judge a man by his one week moment, we understand that what he really means is don't judge me by what you're about to find out. And he frames his sin as one week moment, but unfortunately it seems that his sin was neither singular nor momentary. Lawson said one thing, but he meant another. Now I have heard from a number of people in this congregation about Lawson's disqualification over the last few days and how troubled I know some of you are by it. Not only because of his extensive influence, but because of his apparently sound theology and his commitment to expositional preaching, which are things that we should value and that we do value here. And so I know that this scandal stunned a number of us just as other scandals in recent days have sorrowed many of God's people. Feel like anytime you open the newspaper, there's another one, right? And it's sorrowful because when church leaders disqualify themselves by abusing their office or preaching falsehood or continuing in unrepentant sin, it hurts, it hurts God's people and it hurts the cause of Christ because Christian leaders must have integrity and yet hypocrisy is so common and it's so easy because sin is deceitful and rationalization is easy. But integrity is vital for every Christian leader and for every individual believer. And this morning, as we continue our series in the book of Second Corinthians, we're gonna see the Apostle Paul talk about his integrity and he's gonna talk about that because it was called into question. Some in the Corinthian church have alleged that Paul is dishonest and today in Second Corinthians, chapter one, verse 12 through chapter two, verse 13, we will see how Paul answers this accusation, defending his verbal integrity, his truthfulness in speech. And as he does so, he will show us what the verbal integrity of every believer should look like. And that's what we're gonna see today in two points. First, the believer's verbal integrity means that we must speak in an honest manner, meaning what we say. And second, the believer's verbal integrity means speaking the truth to those who need to hear it, even when it's hard. We start with our first point. The believer's verbal integrity means we must speak in an honest manner, meaning what we say. Now, Paul was writing this book to defend his apostleship to the Corinthian church. And the Corinthian shouldn't have doubted Paul's apostleship. After all, Paul planted their church and Paul gave them a wonderful foundation in the gospel. But early in their history, the Corinthians gravitated to the false wisdom of the unbelieving world. And that kind of wisdom made them doubt Paul. Now, by the time Paul writes this book, the church is less worldly than it had been. And yet, Paul still knows that his apostleship is not a certain thing in all of his readers' minds. Some questions about him remained. And Paul knows he has to answer these questions because Paul understands that spiritual leadership is about credibility. And if Paul loses credibility with the Corinthians, they will not only reject him, but they may reject his message, which is the one true gospel. So Paul must defend his credibility. And last week, we saw how Paul answered the first challenge to his credibility, which came from the Corinthian's prosperity theology. They thought, oh, if Paul was a real apostle, he would not suffer. And we saw his answer to that last time. Today, Paul answers a second criticism, which says that his words cannot be trusted. That Paul says one thing, but he does something else. But let's look now at Paul's response beginning in Second Corinthians chapter one, verse 13. It started in the second part of verse 13. I hope you will fully understand, just as you did partially understand us, that on the day of our Lord Jesus, you will boast of us as we will boast of you. Now, Paul uses this word, "bost" here. And when we think about boasting, we usually think about like an arrogant person, glorying in their own greatness. Friends, God hates that sort of a thing. Psalm five says the boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evil doers. Indeed, in Romans one, Paul lists boastfulness alongside murder and hating God as sins that deserve death. So, arrogant boasting is evil. But there is a boasting that is not sinful. Jeremiah 9.23, thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me. Friends, it's not wrong for us to have great confidence in the Lord and to talk about him. That's righteous. We should boast in our God, in who he is and what he has done. And as Paul talks here about boasting, that's what he's doing. He's not arrogantly boasting. Rather his boast and the boast that he wants the Corinthians to have are both grounded in God. God's salvation, God's gospel, God's action. And Paul speaks about having these kind of gospel boasts on a coming day, the day of the Lord Jesus, the day when Jesus will return and set everything right. Now Paul told the Corinthians about this day before, that it will be a day like this. First Corinthians four, verse five. The Lord will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Yeah, we live today in a world of limited knowledge, right? We can't see everything infallibly or exhaustively. Everything we see is only partial. So people can hide their thoughts or their motives from us, sometimes even their actions. We can't know people, even the people closest to us, exhaustively. In fact, we can't even know ourselves exhaustively. Jeremiah 17 9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? We're all prone to unintentional self-deception. And friend, if you think you can get away with being a deceptive person, you need to know that on the day of Jesus Christ, all things will be laid bare. All deceptions will end, nothing will remain hidden and judgment will be administered upon all that has taken place, whether open or seemingly hidden in this life. And Paul says that when all is revealed, when the curtain goes up, he is confident he will have a reason to boast in the Corinthian church. That might surprise us 'cause the Corinthians were really worldly bunch. But sometimes Paul does say some really positive things about them, 1 Corinthians 1 verse 6. The testimony about Christ was confirmed among you so that you are not lacking in any gift. God had done a real work in Corinth. It was evident the Corinthians had been touched by the power of the gospel, even if for a season they had wandered after sin. But it was obvious they really had encountered God because of the spiritual gifts that they practiced. And so Paul was confident that in the end, when everything was revealed, he would look at the Corinthians and have a reason to boast in them, what the Lord had done in Corinth through him. But more to the point, Paul is also confident that when all is said and done, when all the hidden things are revealed, the Corinthians would find that they had a reason to boast in Paul, to give God glory for all that had been done in their church through Paul. So Paul knows that when the curtain goes up, the Corinthians aren't gonna be doubting him anymore. But what he wants to do here is get that certainty they will have on the last day and give it to them now so that they can be confident in the apostolic ministry of Paul even when he writes this book. That's the goal. But how can Paul get the Corinthians to have that kind of renewed confidence in his legitimacy? Well, Paul points them back to the way he conducted himself when he lived among them, look at verse 12. For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God and supremely so towards you. Paul makes another boast here. Here's something else God did that Paul glories in. God gave Paul the testimony of his conscience, which is to say that as Paul reflected upon his ministry, especially his ministry in Corinth, he could find no fault in how he behaved himself or what he said. And he gives God glory for that. That's not that Paul's great, that's that God is great. Now look what Paul says about his behavior in Corinth. He says he behaved with simplicity. Now your version may have the word holiness, there's a textual variant here. We don't know which word Paul actually wrote at the beginning, but it doesn't really matter because both are true. Paul lived a holy life everywhere he went, but Paul also had a simple life where he went. And especially when Paul came to Corinth, he intentionally wanted to present the gospel in a simple way, in a way contrary to all of the rhetorical practices of the religious teachers and philosophers who were popular in the ancient Greek world, who were known for their lofty rhetoric and oratory. Paul says I don't want any of that, instead first Corinthians two. He says when I came to you brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul didn't want his preaching to fit into any kind of cultural rubric that Corinthians would be familiar with and say, oh, we've seen somebody like Paul before, that's an entertainer, let's get entertained, or that's a philosopher, let's do philosophy. Paul didn't want to be confused with any of those guys. So he kept his message simple and direct, he just talked about Jesus' death and resurrection again and again, because that's the power of God on desalvation. And Paul didn't preach to make a bunch of money and live an upscale lifestyle. Rather, first Corinthians 9, 18, he says in my preaching, I present the gospel free of charge to Paul's message and his lifestyle were simple and they were sincere. Second Corinthians two, 17, Paul says, we are not like so many peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. Or listen to this, this is such a powerful statement. Paul makes in Second Corinthians four, two. We have renounced underhanded disgraceful ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. Paul wasn't a fraudster. He wasn't trying to build a cult of personality. He didn't mess around with God's word to give himself some kind of big crowd around him. No, he really represented Jesus. And that was obvious from the transparent way he lived and his honest handling of the scriptures and his straightforward speech. You know, some people today are intentionally vague. What they wanna do is leave their message open to interpretation. They're a blank canvas and they're happy to be a blank canvas 'cause they want you to project your own thoughts onto them and imagine that's what they're saying to you. Paul didn't do that. Paul didn't just tell people what they wanted to hear. Paul didn't go around in the wisdom of the world. No, he spoke plainly and he spoke the truth of the gospel. And that was true everywhere Paul went. But he says that was especially true in Corinth 'cause he knew the Corinthians were watching him closely and he wanted to show them how he was different. So Paul was very careful in Corinth to keep his message and his life simple and sincere. But more than that, he says his writings are simple and sincere, look at verse 13. For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand. And I will hope you will fully understand just as you did partially understand us. By the time Paul writes this book, he's already sent a number of letters to Corinth and only this one and first Corinthians have survived today. But we do learn about them from these two books. And unfortunately what we learn is that Paul's letters are the Corinthians generated a lot of confusion and controversy. And part of the controversy around Paul's letters seems to be that some of the Corinthians accused Paul of writing in a worldly and dishonest way. Writing things that were deliberately vague or had multiple possible meanings or required reading between the lines. You know, maybe sometime you've gotten an email at work from like a passive aggressive boss. They're like, oh, that's Paul. No, Paul says that's not what I'm doing but that's the way they thought about Paul. And they were saying Paul is guilty of verbal duplicity. And Paul wants this kind of slander to end. And so he tells the Corinthians again, very plainly here. I am not trying to hide anything from you. My writings are plain and straightforward. You can trust what I am writing and you should understand that I mean exactly what I say. Paul has no hidden agenda. He's not playing word games. This is not manipulation. He is direct. And he hopes that as the Corinthians remember, the godliness of his past lifestyle and his direct speech, they will trust him again and receive this letter and stop slandering him because he is not subtle and false in a worldly way. He is simple and sincere in a godly way. But as we keep reading it becomes clear that Paul is really being attacked most about one particular issue. A change in some travel plans he had previously communicated to Corinthians. Paul planted the Corinthian church near the end of his second missionary journey but he didn't have any reason to interact with them again until his third missionary journey when he was writing from the city of Ephesus. And while Paul was in Ephesus he learned about the Corinthians descent in descent. And so he started writing them some letters. The first letter has been lost to history. We talked about it two weeks ago. This is referenced in 1 Corinthians chapter five. It was a letter about sexual immorality. Then Paul sent them a second letter about a variety of issues that we have today as the book of 1 Corinthians. And at the end of 1 Corinthians, Paul revealed his upcoming ministry plans. This is what he intended to do when he finished his work in Ephesus. 1 Corinthians chapter 16 verse five. I will visit you after passing through Macedonia. For I intend to pass through Macedonia and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter so that you may help me on my journey wherever I go. For I do not wanna see you now just in passing, I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits. Paul told the Corinthians, I can't see you now, I'm busy in Ephesus but I will see you but first I've gotta make a trip to Macedonia. Then I'll come visit for a long time. Those were Paul's initial plans. Later Paul amended these plans and he describes them in our passage. Look at 2 Corinthians 1 verse 16. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. Paul decided that when he finished up in Ephesus, he was gonna go now first to Corinth, then he would go to Macedonia and then he would come back to Corinth one more time. Now why did Paul add another Corinthian stop to his itinerary? He tells us, chapter one verse 15. I wanted to come to you first so that you might have a second experience of grace. What does he mean? Well, Paul said in verse 12 that his ministry was empowered by God's grace. Indeed it was a vehicle of God's grace. So Paul says in Romans 1, 11, "I long to see you that I may impart some spiritual gift "to strengthen you. "To get a visit from Paul was to be exposed to God's grace." And based on all the problems happening in Corinth, Paul thought they could use an extra visit. He wanted to help them get back on track. So Paul said, "I'm gonna make an extra stop. "I'm gonna visit you guys twice." And he communicated these plans to the Corinthian church. But for reasons that we will see in our second point, when the time came for Paul to leave Ephesus, he did not go to Corinth. He did not make this additional stop. Instead he went on to Macedonia. And because Paul didn't make this extra visit to Corinth that he said he would make, the Corinthians wound up with another reason to attack him. Another reason for them to say, "Oh, look at Paul. "Paul lied to us. "Paul doesn't mean what he says." And in verse 17, we see how the Corinthians were talking about Paul as Paul answers this charge. Paul says, "Was I vacillating when I said I wanted to do this? "Do I make my plans according to the flesh, "ready to say yes, yes and no, no, at the same time?" Some of the Corinthians think, "Paul's fickle." He just changes his mind on a dime. Or Paul's in sincere. He makes commitments that he doesn't keep. They claim that Paul says yes. In fact, more than that, that Paul gives them verbal assurances. He doesn't just say yes, he says, "Yes, yes, I guarantee it." But they say in actuality, what he means is no, no. He says one thing, but he means another. So he says, "I'm coming to see you, but he doesn't." That's what they're saying about Paul. Now we'll see in our second point, the Corinthians had no reason to complain. Paul actually did make an extra visit to Corinth. It just happened before he left Ephesus. He dropped the work in Ephesus and went to see them, a bonus time. And based on how that bonus visit went, Paul had really good reasons for not returning to them. So the Corinthians reading of the facts here is very uncharitable and skewed. But what I really want you to see here is how Paul strongly asserts his own trustworthiness. Look at chapter one, verse 18. He says, "As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, so Vanis and Timothy and I was not yes and no. Paul denies this allegation. Paul says, look, first thing Paul says is, look, I don't give a bunch of verbal assurances. I don't go around saying yes, yes or taking oaths. Now Paul says, I speak in a very straightforward way. He's not saying yes, yes or no, no. He just says yes or no because Paul's word is good. 'Cause that's what Jesus said in Matthew 5, 37. Let what you say simply be yes or no. Paul says, that's how I talk. And Paul insists that he doesn't say yes and no at the same time. He isn't a liar. He doesn't renege on his commitments. But he says the Corinthians should know this from the way that he and his ministry team conducted themselves in Corinth. How they all preach the same gospel message. How their lives were consistently marked by sincerity and honesty and all their dealings with the Corinthians. The Corinthians should remember that and Paul invokes God to stand as a witness in this matter. He says, just as God is faithful in holding up the scriptures. Paul says in the same way, I am sincere in my word to you. So even though Paul's ministry plans changed, that didn't mean Paul was a liar. And Paul now shows that on some level the Corinthians understood this as he points to their spiritual lives. Look at verse 19. But in him, Jesus, it is always yes. For all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory. Paul says, look at Jesus. Jesus was a dishonest or fickle. Jesus is the embodiment of God's faithfulness. You know, friends, God made lots of promises in the Old Testament, didn't he? That he was gonna save a people for his own possession. Both Jew and Gentile. That he would deliver us from the penalty and power of sin by sending his son into the world who would die bearing the sins of many who would rise from the dead. And Paul says all of these great promises come true in Jesus. Jesus is the culmination of all of the hopes and expectations of the Old Testament. And in Jesus, God says yes to sinful people who deserve nothing but his rejection and fury. Through Jesus, the Father draws sinners like us to his free gift of salvation, which we receive by repentant faith. In Jesus' deity, death, the resurrection. So it is in Jesus that believers come to God. That's true of us today. That was true of the Corinthians back then. And it's in Jesus that we pronounce the amen. If we say amen when we pray, right? It's a verbal affirmation. It's a way of saying yes to God. That's why sometimes people say amen in the middle of a sermon. We are affirming what we just heard. And so friends, just as God has been faithful to us in Jesus, just as God says yes to us in Jesus, we say amen. That is we say yes to God also through Jesus. And that is to say that we are to respond appropriately to all that God has done for us. By believing and approving and living in line with all that God has done for us in Christ. And suppose big point here is that everything that happens, that passes from God to believers or from believers to God, it all goes through Jesus. We stand in Jesus. We worship through Jesus. We give glory to God in Jesus. And you say, well, that's great, but how's that connect to what Paul's talking about here? How's God's faithfulness in Jesus prove Paul's sincerity? Was the Corinthians worshiped God and trusted the gospel and lived their Christian lives in Jesus? The question is where did they hear about Jesus from? From Paul, they built all their lives and hopes on something Paul told them. So on some level, their whole spiritual experience is based on the fact that Paul told them the truth. So on some level, they know he's not a liar because they're living out the things that he told them to do. In fact, Paul continues, look at verse 21. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. It was God who brought Paul to the Corinthians. It was God who saved the Corinthians through Paul's message and God poured out his Holy Spirit on the Corinthians and anointed them and seals and guarantees their eternal life like a down payment secures our house. Now if the Corinthians enjoy fellowship with God and the indwelling Holy Spirit because God brought Paul to them and used Paul to convert them, should they be so quick to think Paul is a liar and a fraud? If their church is worship and their own spiritual lives and their eternal destinies were all hinging on what Paul had told them, why should they be so quick to slander Paul and think the worst about him, just 'cause he made a little change to his travel plans. Paul's own ministry and the Corinthians own spiritual lives all testified to the genuineness of Paul's ministry. They're even very patient 'cause that's a lot of material we've gone through to get to some application. But what should we take from all of this defense of Paul's genuineness? Let me make two applications here. Number one, friend, people are watching you. People watch how you behave and what you say and it all matters because it builds or destroys your credibility. Paul knew the Corinthians were watching him and that they had preconceived notions about what a religious leader or a philosopher should be like. And Paul knew they would compare him to those expectations. So Paul lived and spoke in such a way that showed he was different from those expectations to build credibility with them so that they would listen to his gospel message more receptively. Just like the Corinthians had expectations about Paul, I want you to know, believing for him today, people in our world have expectations about you when they hear you're a Christian and that you wanna talk about spiritual things with them. And what are the world's expectations that were hypocrites, that we are insincere, that we are looking for a way to control their lives or part them from their money, right? People's expectations of Christians, especially evangelicals today, are that we live lives and say things and approve of things that contradict the message we profess. And in so doing, we give them a reason not to believe. And it is tragic that this is how so many people see us today. And it is tragic that the world has been given so many reasons to see us in this way. But friends, it is what it is. And we have to be aware of that. And like Paul in Corinth, we must be extra careful in the eyes of the watching world to live lives of simplicity and sincerity so that we do not become the latest excuse why someone says, I don't believe. Friends, this is especially true as we try to evangelize the lost, as we get to know people and bring them into our lives. We don't wanna have a public persona that they meet first. And then later, as we let our guard down, they see the real us and see they're two different people. We need to have integrity, which means you're the same person in public, you are in private. Nothing will undermine our credibility and discredit our message more than the insincerity that comes from a lack of that kind of integrity. That's especially true for church leaders, but friends, it's true for all of us. As we try to point the loss to Christ, we've got to maintain a good testimony before the watching world and before our friends and especially before our families. Nowhere is hypocrisy, more evident or damaging than when our family members see it in us. Your kids say, oh yeah, you believe in Jesus? Yeah, right. I don't want any part of that. Friends, that must not be us. We must watch ourselves everywhere, but especially at home. We must be very careful about this. Application number two. We must be characterized by verbal straightforwardness and honesty. In our world today, dishonesty is so commonplace. Many people today struggle to keep even the most basic commitments because everybody also always wants to keep all of their options open. Okay, something better comes along. Oh, why should I get married today when someone better might come down the road tomorrow? Why should I keep my scheduled dinner plans with Daniel tonight if I can later find something that might be even more fun? Sorry, brother. Loyalty to an employer or to a spouse. These are quaint concepts in our world today decreasingly connected to how people actually live. But if we claim the name of Christ, friends, we must not live like the world. Colossians 3 9 says, do not lie to one another. Seeing you have put off the old self with its practices and put on the new self. If you're a believer in Jesus, you're a new creation. We shouldn't be living like we used to. Unregenerate people make a regular practice of lying and wiggling out of commitments and disloyalty. Friends, that shouldn't be us if we know Jesus. Have integrity in your speech. James 5 12 says, "Above all my brothers, "do not swear either by heaven or by earth "or by any other oath. "But let your yes be yes and your no be no "so that you may not fall under condemnation. "We should not be the people playing word games "and prevericating, like politicians." I'm reminded here of President Clinton, who famously tried to get out of legal trouble by claiming that the truthfulness of a sworn statement he made depended, quote, "On what the meaning of the word is is." That kind of verbal games playing must have no part in our lives. Friends, we should practice simple and straightforward speech like Paul, because God does not smile on cunning and dishonesty. Proverbs 6, 16 says, "There are six things the Lord hates. "Seven are an abomination to him. "Arrogant eyes, a lying tongue." That's the number two thing God hates on this list. In fact, Psalm 1017 says, "No one who practices deceit "shall dwell in my house. "No one who utter lies shall continue before my eyes." God judges this. Listen to Jesus on like the last page of the Bible, Revelation 21, 8. As for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable. As for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars. Their portion will be in the lake that burns the fire. Jesus says in the end, some people will be in hell forever, just because they were liars, and it's appropriate. Because Matthew 25 tells us hell is the fire that was prepared for Satan. And in John 8, Jesus tells us Satan is a liar and the father of lies. So we need to know if we walk in Satan's methods, we will end up where Satan does. What about Jesus? On John 14, 6, Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, "and the life." No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus is the truth. And if we claim the name of Jesus, then we should resemble him and be people characterized by the truth. The first part of the armor of God, which the church uses to withstand the attacks of the evil one, is according to Ephesians 6, the belt of truth. Believers are to be people passionately committed to the truth and vigorously opposed to every form of falsehood. And yet I can't tell you how many times, over the last few years, I've seen people claim in the name of Christ, pushing obviously false wacky conspiracy theories about all kinds of crazy stuff. Lizard people and the Illuminati, all this junk princess is not cute. It's not defensible. It reflects terribly on Christ and it destroys our gospel witness before the world. Ephesians 4 says we need to put away falsehood and we need each one of us speak the truth to our neighbor. Friend, is this something you need to make a change about in your life? Have you been living in deception? Are you dishonest with your spouse or with family members? When you're on social media, you just push stuff, you know it's fake, but you think it'll aggravate other people? Uh-huh, forward it or whatever they do now. Are you dishonest in business practices? Are you dishonest with your friends? Are you dishonest with the IRS? Is dishonesty a regular part of your speech? Right now as I speak, do you know that you have been maintaining a lie, a false persona to mislead or defraud someone else? Or maybe you're just known for hyperbole and exaggeration? Oh, there's another fishtail, whatever it is friend, if you claim the name of Christ, you've got to put that lying away. Because of such things, God's wrath is coming upon the world. Because of such things, unbelievers ignore the gospel, believing friends, we must speak the truth because people need to hear the truth. And if we live lives marked by falsehood, people won't believe us when we try to tell them the most important things that we know about Jesus and his gospel. What did Jesus say in John 3, 12? If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Friends, if we because of our sinful dishonesty caused people not to believe us about earthly things, they certainly will never believe us when we try to talk to them about spiritual things. Why don't we try to point them to the gospel? So friend, what part of your verbal life needs to change today to build more credibility before the watching world? Now, I had a whole 'nother second point that I had prepared today, but I wanna stop here and I'll preach that part next week. And if this has been hard to follow because of Paul's material on his travel, I apologize for that, but I wanna ask really clearly here. Let us think about our lives. Let us think about how we are representing ourselves to those in our orbits. Many of us may say, oh, I'm a Christian, I want people to know I'm a Christian. Is your life showing that before unbelievers? Do you have credibility with them? Or have you flushed it? If that's the case, I wanna give you some good news. It is possible to regain your credibility is very hard. There is mercy in Christ. And you can confess, hey, I used to be doing this and God has shown me mercy and I'm gonna follow him. And people, it may take a long time for people to trust you again, but I don't want you to despair if this is an area of failure in your life 'cause there's always hope in a gospel. But I want you to know that this is so important and the world is watching us friends and the people that are closest to our lives and are watching us. And I suppose I wanna say this as well. We need to keep short accounts with the Lord in this area. When we know we have been failing, we need to go back to the gospel, we need to go back to the cross. Friends, I want you to know Jesus died to forgive us of this sin. And there's a lot of lying in life, right? Even when we're little kids, like we lie in school, like lie happens all the time. But it's not a small deal. People go to hell for this, but Jesus died to free us from the penalty of deception. And we should rejoice in that, but that means we need to change. Holy people walk in holiness. If we're in Christ and we have been declared holy and we have been washed in Him, then we need to walk in the manner that is consistent with what He has declared us to be. And that means we must put an end to deception in our lives. So I'm going to pray now, I want us all to really think very carefully about how are we representing ourselves at home? As our kids watch us, as we interact with our spouse, how are we representing ourselves at work to our coworkers, to our bosses? How we represent ourselves in our social group? Let me ask this too, not just about your public persona and the face you show other people, but how does your life speak out the gospel? I mean, if you say I'm a Christian and you're out there living like the world, and you're lying at the gospel, you're telling the lie about Jesus. The Christian life is okay with this. You're misrepresenting the one and only path of salvation. Friend, we must be very careful because God has put us here to represent Him to unbelievers, to call them to faith. And if we are misrepresenting the gospel and if we are destroying our testimony before them, by how we live, friends, I think that is grievous sin. And it will not please Christ. So I'm gonna pray now, let us do some soul searching, especially because in a moment we're gonna take from the table. So let us truly, when Joe calls on us to confess sin today and reflect upon our lives, let us take that very seriously and let us leave here as people that are committed to wearing the belt of truth, to being people that love the truth, even if the truth is not popular, even if the truth is not what we want it to be. Right, I mean, how many, how many, you know, in the news and political things, people just saying all kind of crazy stuff because they want it to be true. Friends, we need to hold to what is true. Again, I don't wanna go too far away here from what I've said already, but let me say this. Friends, there are no alternative facts. Christians are not relativists. We're the people that believe in absolute truth. And yet for many years now, for many years there is a great openness to relativism in the church because it satiates our cultural and political preferences. And friend, if you have been walking in that, you need to repent of that as well. Now let's pray.