Embracing Truth: The Foundation of Christian Unity

 

Summary

In Ephesians 4:25, Paul urges believers to put away lying and speak truthfully to one another, emphasizing that we are members of one body. This call to truthfulness is not merely a moral directive but a profound spiritual principle rooted in the very nature of God and the essence of the Christian life. The Christian life is characterized by truth, contrasting sharply with the deceitfulness of the sinful world. Understanding and living in truth is essential because it reflects the nature of God, who cannot lie, and aligns us with His holiness and righteousness.

The Apostle Paul places truthfulness at the forefront because it is foundational to our new identity in Christ. As Christians, we are called to live in the light of truth, having been delivered from the realm of lies and darkness. This transformation is not just about personal integrity but about embodying the truth of the Gospel in our relationships and community. Lying, in any form, is incompatible with the Christian life because it aligns with the nature of the devil, the father of lies, and contradicts the truth of God.

Moreover, lying disrupts the unity and fellowship within the body of Christ. It undermines trust and creates division, which is contrary to the unity that the church is meant to embody. The call to speak truthfully is a call to live out the reality of our salvation and our new life in Christ. It is a call to reflect the character of God in our interactions and to build a community that is marked by honesty, trust, and love.

Key Takeaways:

- Truthfulness is foundational to the Christian life because it reflects the nature of God, who is truth. As believers, we are called to live in the light of truth, having been delivered from the realm of lies and darkness. This transformation is essential for embodying the Gospel in our relationships and community. [09:12]

- Lying is incompatible with the Christian life because it aligns with the nature of the devil, the father of lies. As Christians, we are called to reject deceit and embrace truth, reflecting our new identity in Christ and our fellowship with God. [11:01]

- The unity and fellowship within the body of Christ are built on trust and truthfulness. Lying disrupts this unity and creates division, which is contrary to the purpose of the church. Speaking truthfully is essential for maintaining the integrity and unity of the body. [39:11]

- The essence of sin is self-centeredness, which often manifests in lying. By seeking to impress others and maintain a facade, we fall into deceit. As Christians, we are called to put away self-centeredness and embrace truth, reflecting the selfless love of Christ. [30:04]

- Lying is a universal sin that reveals the depth of human depravity. Despite despising deceit, humanity is often guilty of it, showing the power of sin over human nature. As believers, we are called to overcome this through the transformative power of the Gospel. [35:05]

Youtube Chapters:

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:11] - Introduction to Ephesians 4:25
[00:52] - The Importance of Applying Doctrine
[02:07] - The Practicality of the Gospel
[03:17] - The Structure of Paul's Exhortation
[04:16] - The Significance of Truthfulness
[05:18] - The Nature of Falsehood
[06:30] - Truth as a Christian Characteristic
[07:49] - The Realm of Truth vs. The Lie
[09:12] - God's Nature and Truth
[11:01] - Lying and Fellowship with God
[13:28] - The Devil as the Father of Lies
[16:32] - The Consequences of Lying
[19:13] - The Origin of Sin and Deceit
[22:33] - Lying as a Common Sinful Trait
[30:04] - Self-Centeredness and Deceit
[35:05] - The Depth of Human Depravity
[37:42] - Lying and the Doctrine of the Church

Study Guide

Bible Study Discussion Guide

Bible Reading:
- Ephesians 4:25: "Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another."

Observation Questions:
1. What does Paul instruct believers to do in Ephesians 4:25, and why is this important for the Christian community? [00:11]
2. According to the sermon, why does Paul emphasize truthfulness as the first practical application for believers? [03:57]
3. How does the sermon describe the nature of lying and its impact on the Christian life? [05:18]
4. What are some ways mentioned in the sermon that people can lie without using words? [05:03]

Interpretation Questions:
1. How does the call to truthfulness in Ephesians 4:25 reflect the nature of God, as discussed in the sermon? [09:28]
2. In what ways does lying disrupt the unity and fellowship within the body of Christ, according to the sermon? [39:11]
3. How does the sermon connect the act of lying to the nature of the devil, and what implications does this have for believers? [13:28]
4. What does the sermon suggest about the relationship between self-centeredness and deceit? [30:04]

Application Questions:
1. Reflect on a recent situation where you were tempted to lie. What motivated that temptation, and how can you address that motivation in the future? [30:04]
2. Consider your interactions within the church community. Are there areas where you struggle with honesty? How can you work towards greater transparency and truthfulness? [39:11]
3. The sermon highlights the importance of embodying the truth of the Gospel in our relationships. How can you actively practice this in your daily interactions? [09:12]
4. Think about a time when you witnessed or experienced a breakdown in trust due to dishonesty. What steps can you take to rebuild trust in that relationship? [40:27]
5. Identify a specific area in your life where self-centeredness might lead to deceit. What practical steps can you take to align more closely with the selfless love of Christ? [30:04]
6. How can you encourage others in your small group or church community to embrace truthfulness and reject deceit? What role can you play in fostering a culture of honesty? [39:11]
7. Reflect on the sermon’s message about the transformative power of the Gospel. How can you rely on this power to overcome the tendency to lie in your own life? [35:05]

Devotional

Day 1: Truth Reflects God's Nature
Truthfulness is foundational to the Christian life because it mirrors the very nature of God, who is truth. As believers, we are called to live in the light of truth, having been delivered from the realm of lies and darkness. This transformation is essential for embodying the Gospel in our relationships and community. Living truthfully is not just about personal integrity; it is about aligning ourselves with God's holiness and righteousness. By embracing truth, we reflect God's character and demonstrate the transformative power of the Gospel in our lives. [09:12]

"Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another." (Ephesians 4:25, ESV)

Reflection: In what ways can you intentionally reflect God's truth in your interactions with others today?


Day 2: Rejecting Deceit, Embracing Truth
Lying is incompatible with the Christian life because it aligns with the nature of the devil, the father of lies. As Christians, we are called to reject deceit and embrace truth, reflecting our new identity in Christ and our fellowship with God. This call to truthfulness is not merely a moral directive but a profound spiritual principle rooted in the essence of the Christian life. By living truthfully, we reject the deceitfulness of the sinful world and align ourselves with God's holiness. [11:01]

"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 knowledge after the image of its creator." (Colossians 3:9-10, ESV)

Reflection: Identify a situation where you are tempted to be deceitful. How can you choose to embrace truth instead?


Day 3: Unity Through Truthfulness
The unity and fellowship within the body of Christ are built on trust and truthfulness. Lying disrupts this unity and creates division, which is contrary to the purpose of the church. Speaking truthfully is essential for maintaining the integrity and unity of the body. As members of one body, we are called to live out the reality of our salvation and our new life in Christ by reflecting the character of God in our interactions. By building a community marked by honesty, trust, and love, we embody the truth of the Gospel. [39:11]

"Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor." (Romans 12:9-10, ESV)

Reflection: How can you contribute to the unity and trust within your church community today?


Day 4: Overcoming Self-Centeredness with Truth
The essence of sin is self-centeredness, which often manifests in lying. By seeking to impress others and maintain a facade, we fall into deceit. As Christians, we are called to put away self-centeredness and embrace truth, reflecting the selfless love of Christ. This transformation requires us to reject the lies of the world and live in the light of truth, embodying the Gospel in our relationships and community. By embracing truth, we align ourselves with God's holiness and demonstrate the transformative power of the Gospel. [30:04]

"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." (Philippians 2:3-4, ESV)

Reflection: What is one area of your life where self-centeredness leads to deceit? How can you embrace truth and humility in that area today?


Day 5: The Power of the Gospel Over Deceit
Lying is a universal sin that reveals the depth of human depravity. Despite despising deceit, humanity is often guilty of it, showing the power of sin over human nature. As believers, we are called to overcome this through the transformative power of the Gospel. By living truthfully, we reject the deceitfulness of the sinful world and align ourselves with God's holiness. This transformation is essential for embodying the Gospel in our relationships and community, reflecting the character of God in our interactions. [35:05]

"For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit." (Titus 3:3-5, ESV)

Reflection: Reflect on a recent situation where you were tempted to lie. How can you rely on the Gospel's transformative power to choose truth in similar situations in the future?

Quotes

"All that has been done for us in Christ has been done for us to Deliver us from our sins to Deliver Us from all iniquity and that he might separate unto himself for peculiar people zealous of good works now we must maintain the order of course we must always start with our Doctrine we must always see why the kind of thing the Apostle tells us in this verse we're looking at this morning is quite inevitable there is no greater motive to Holiness than an understanding of the truth but it's obviously equally fatal to be content with a mere theoretical understanding and grasp of the truth and to imagine that because we have an understanding we have everything there is no point in understanding in the love of God in Christ in the atonement unless it has an effect upon us and teaches us to love not only to love God but also to love one another." [00:01:32]

"Now surely the first question we all must ask as we come to this first of the particular injunctions is this why does he put this first why does he start with this this exhortation to cease from lying and the positive exhortation to speak the truth one with another and to another now there must be some good reason for this and therefore it seems to me always as a principle of Bible study which we must never fail to apply we must always remember in this way to ask our question these things are never done at random they're never done haphazardly the Apostle didn't just put down the first thing that came to his mind there there's always a system here there's always a reason and if he puts one thing first rather than another he's got a very good reason for doing so so the first thing you see he puts at the top of the list is lying or falsehood." [00:03:43]

"Well it seems to me that there are many many reasons for this the Apostle gives us one which in a sense sums them all up here in this verse but let me divide it up and show you how the apostle was in a sense driven to put this in the first place well why then well there is one reason which seems to me to be almost a mechanical one you remember what he's been saying in the previous verse correctly translated that he put on on the new men which after God is created in righteousness and Holiness of the truth that's the last thing he said this is the character of the new men that's why we put on the new men he's been created new after God after the image of God in righteousness and Holiness of the truth very well he says now then as you come to do this in detail what do you start with well this question of truth because this is the great characteristic the most essential characteristic of the Christian Life." [00:05:27]

"God cannot lie that is God God is the father of Lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning what a tremendous stat there is one thing that God can never do God can never lie God cannot lie it's impossible it will be an essential country contradiction in his very nature and being God is light and in him is no Darkness atone he cannot be tempted with sin neither can he tempt anyone God is essential Everlasting and eternal truth and to be a Christian means that we have been brought into fellowship with God so you see the Apostle is bound to start with with this you see when the Apostle says that we mustn't go on lying he's not interested in it as the moral moralists are and the humanists just just say you know lying is a terrible thing oh well of course lying is a terrible thing but this is the reason we we claim to be Christians we say we've been reconciled to God we say we know God we say we are in fellowship with God and in communion with God." [00:10:01]

"Now you see this is how the New Testament deals with a matter like speaking the truth and refraining from lying we've got to see what it means and what it involves not just for the sake of being a gentleman and being a man of his word and so on and being no no that's all right the world can do all that that's not Christianity this is Christianity we've got to see the thing in all its hideous foul vile character and you can only do that as you put it into the Christian context so that all the moralizing that passes in the name of Christianity is finally the greatest denial of Christianity it does away as I was indicating last Sunday morning with its uniqueness which is its Central Glory." [00:14:16]

"To lie is to indicate that we have an affinity with the devil and a liar an habitual liar is a man who belongs to the kingdom of the devil his whole being is a lie he's the father of Lies there is no truth in him that is the very essence of sin you see there he is he's the embodiment of it all and that is what he teaches others to do so says the Apostle in the light of all I've been teaching you I've been reminding you he says of Christ dying for you and reconciling you to God I've been telling you about the new life and the new nature that your new men and women that you must put on the new men that is now in you why will you must and in this respect first and foremost stop lying and speak every man truth with his neighbor because if you don't you're conveying the suggestion that you still are in the grip of the devil and that you belong to his kingdom but that isn't true of us as Christians." [00:16:36]

"Is there anything I asked which is more characteristic of the non-Christian sinful life is this element of lying deceit and lying shame and pretense I would say are more obvious in the life of the world this morning than anything else have you ever looked into that life of sin have you ever analyzed it look at a company of people a group of people on what is meant by the world to be some happy occasion some reception or some party look at the affability and the friendliness but then just watch the glances just listen to the whispering a the camaraderie and the US how delighted they are to me and oh how fond they are of one another and they're muttering beneath their breath isn't that the life of society what if people rarely spoke the truth to one another and told one another what they rarely think of one another and what what they rarely believe is it not obvious that the whole life of society in any real real or level I don't care how polite it is I don't care how exalted it is it is run on this principle of Deceit and of lying and we all know it to be so but the pretense goes on the Sham goes on the play acting goes on this is I say the most characteristic thing about the life of sin." [00:23:36]

"Self self is the ultimate cause of sin and it manifests itself in self-regard self-centeredness and selfishness well you say what's all that got to do with lying oh I can tell you we express ourselves most profoundly in our speech we express ourselves more in our speech than in anything else at all it is the one thing perhaps of all things that differentiates men from the animal the animal can express its nature in its Behavior can have a quiet dog or a fierce Angry Dog same with all other animals but man has this unique capacity of speech and it is in the sense his glory there is nothing through which a person expresses his or her personality more profoundly than in speech very well then put these two things together this essential self and self-regard and self-centeredness and uh selfishness well what does that lead to well it leads to a desire to be highly thought of it leads to a desire to be pray it leads to a desire to impress people it leads to a desire to be important that self isn't it we want everybody to think well of us we want everybody to praise us we want to be important we want to cut a figure very well then how do we do this well the way to do that in the world as it is in sin is to lie because the whole time you're building up this personality that you think you are and that you want to be and that at in it you want other people to think you are you've got to build it up the whole time well how do you you do that well you've got to be important so sometimes you make deliberate misstatements you invent facts the anatomy of sin the anatomy of lying I'm dissecting this morning and isn't it a foul and a horrible and a terrible thing well why am I doing it well in order that we may so see it that we'll put it away once and forever as the Apostle is exhorting us to do so we make our deliberate misstatements and uh inventions or we may do it by as I said just saying nothing we just conceal the truth we withhold the truth and then another very common way exaggerations you've got a story to tell and it's quite a good story but you rather feel that if you embellish it a little it be still more wonderful makes you still more so we exact it and every time we tell this we told it the first time and it produced a good response ah we thought that's good we add a bit to it still better response and on and on it goes in the end what we are now saying really has never happened at all it's been so exaggerated it's nothing but a lie but the very first exaggeration was a lie it wasn't factual we added to it but now why why does mankind do this why exaggerate why add to things why withhold why fabric it why invent or you trace it out you you pick it up at any point in yourself or in anybody else and we'll always find that it's just a minister to this self and this self-importance and the good opinion of others and to be praised and to be highly thought of so the whole time I say we are lying and building up this facade putting on this camouflage appearing to be something that in reality we are not there is nothing I say that finally shows the real horrible base foul character of sin so much as lying because speech is ultimately the Supreme way of manifesting our personality." [00:28:59]

"Nothing shows more clearly the utterly despicable character of sin and of the nature of sin as lying now what I mean is this if you were to Canvas the opinion of any group of people you may like to meet and ask them what you think of a men who's Al liar and they'd be unanimous there is is nothing that human nature even in sin so despises in its judgments as a liar will excuse a men many things but a man who's a liar we have no use for him and the whole world is unanimous about that there's nothing too bad to say about the man who is a liar now the whole of mankind I say even fallen and debased and in sin agrees about that a li is the most despicable kind of men we all agree about that in theory and yet as I've been suggesting to you though we all agree about that in theory lying is the commonest of all sins it's the most universal of all sins there are many sins that many people do not commit they commit other sins that the first group doesn't but here is something that is common to the whole of men in sin though we hate it and despise it and denounce it we are guilty of it because of this radical nature of sin because it isn't merely a matter of actions on the surface it's an expression of that which is the essential being and personality of a man since the fall and it's all revolving around this self oh what a terribly Deep thing sin is how subtle and that is where I must again denounce these mere moralities who treat them on the surface of life and say that you just apply a code and you just follow a fashion or you just put on a uniform as it were no no this is a thing that comes out of the depths of a man's being and what a hateful foul and terrible thing it is there is nothing I say that shows what a terrible hold sin has upon human nature doesn't matter how refined doesn't matter how culture go up to the highest circles and you'll find it there you'll find it everywhere go the way in which it's done differs you can lie as it were with your horny hands of the sons of tile but you can lie softly with kid gloves the weight done isn't the thing that matters as it becomes more refined it becomes more subtle and to me more hideous and hateful and foul because it's much more hypocritical the more refined it becomes There is almost something to be said for the barefaced liar rather than the one who so cleverly hides it and conceals it but it's there and thus I say lying shows more clearly perhaps than anything else the depth of sin the hold and the power of sin though with our minds we despise the thing we do it and thus not only show that sin has made us contradictions and introduced this dualism and this false dichotomy into us but it proves that we are slaves and S." [00:33:39]

"Is there anything that is so destructive of that as lying lie not one to another says the Apostle but speak every man truth with his neighbor because we are members one of another and I believe he was thinking particularly here about the church there are those who think that he was thinking in a more General manner I'm not persuaded of that it's equally true true in the general but it is particularly true of the church and here he's dealing with the whole thing in the context of the life of the church we are all members one of another very well then if you tell a lie to another member you are really damaging yourself you're lying in a sense in a sense to yourself there is no such thing as an independent existence no man liveth unto himself no man dieth unto him himself says the Apostle to the Romans so that to lie to another member of the same body of Christ is to be lying to yourself you're doing harm to yourself because you're doing harm to the body to which you belong in other words you can't say well now that finger of mine well that's just a finger I can cut that without myself doing any damage to myself but you can't you cut your finger you'll suffer it isn't your finger that suffers you suffer the whole suffers we are members one of another yes but think of it like this how can there be fellowship if there is lying it's the exact opposite isn't it what makes Fellowship possible is trust Mutual trust Mutual Reliance a feeling that you can trust one another and therefore you can speak and speak freely and speak openly but the moment the element of lying comes in Fellowship is destroyed you're no longer free you don't know how much you can believe or what you can believe you don't know how much you can trust that other person and fellowship is already gone you're in a kind of police state in which everybody's spying on everybody else you say no I wonder whether it really means that I wonder whether it is really true there's no fellowship at that point you've Destro it lying is destructive of fellowship and what happens to us as Christians is not so much and not only that we are saved individually we are all saved and made members together of the body of Christ or we're like a building that's going up which is a habitation of God and we're all individual stones in this wonderful building but it's the unity of the building that matters and this lying makes it impossible it cuts at the very root of the whole doctrine of the Christian church at its most essential point." [00:38:42]

"Where for putting away lying speak every man truth with his neighbor for we are members one of another we do hope that you've been helped by the preaching of Dr Martin lyd Jones all of the sermons contained within the mlj trust audio library are now available for free download you may share the sermons or broadcast them however because of international copyright please be advised that we are asking first that these sermons never be offered for sale by a third party and second that these sermons will not be edited in any way for length or to use as audio clips you can find our contact information on our website at mlj trust.org that's mlj t.org." [00:45:04]

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Transcript
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