======================================================================== GOD DESIRES TRUTH IN THE INNERMOST BEING by Steve Gallagher ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of embracing truth in the innermost being, highlighting the prevalence of deception in various aspects of life and the need for repentance and a deep work of God to uproot falsehood. It calls for a genuine desire for truth, humility, and a willingness to allow God to expose and remove all deception within, ultimately leading to a transformation towards living in alignment with God's truth and developing godly convictions. Topics: "Embracing Truth", "Transformation through Repentance" Scripture References: Psalms 51:6, Matthew 15:8, Psalms 139:23, 2 Thessalonians 2:10, Ecclesiastes 3:3, John 8:32, Proverbs 12:22, Ephesians 4:25, John 14:6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of embracing truth in the innermost being, highlighting the prevalence of deception in various aspects of life and the need for repentance and a deep work of God to uproot falsehood. It calls for a genuine desire for truth, humility, and a willingness to allow God to expose and remove all deception within, ultimately leading to a transformation towards living in alignment with God's truth and developing godly convictions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Things in there that just kind of caught my attention, and I wanted to, yeah, take that further today. So the title of my message comes from something David said in Psalm 51, God desires truth in the innermost being. God desires truth in the innermost being. But before I get into talking about that, I need to say something about why it's important for him to do that inside of us. And that is this, that you guys have no idea, you know, it would do you guys a lot of good if you would just repeat that. We have no idea, go ahead. Not all of you said it, let's try it again. We have no idea. All right, thank you. What? What is this, some kind of cult here or what, you're just going to go along with whatever I say? No, it's not a cult. If you're new. We have no idea how much falsehood remains inside of us. And I'm hoping to convince you of that at some level, hoping really that the Lord will do that, at least show you the reality of your inner man, at least give you a sense of it. I hope I would be happy, more than happy if my message is a total flop, but that the Lord would come in in spite of my lack of preaching ability and make something real inside of you today because you desperately need it. You know, one of the things Pastor Ed said last week that I really appreciated, he was talking about how God's ways are higher than our ways and how the natural man is opposed to the things of God. They don't come naturally to us, they don't make sense, they don't always add up logically to our normal way of thinking. And because of that, that's one of the reasons why the enemy has been able to instill within us and to erect within us a system of falsehood because that is more in line with the way we naturally think. We have more of a tendency to think along the lines of the way Satan sees things. My wife amened me and hardly anyone else did in this place. Well, I don't really care about amens, what I do care about is that you guys are hearing what the Word is saying today. So you've got this fallen nature that's already susceptible to deception. Can you say amen to that? Amen. Me too. But on top of that, we live in a culture that is steeped in falsehood, deception, and lies. The father of lies controls the atmosphere in this world, the spiritual atmosphere. And it comes through our culture very strongly. For instance, take the academic system that you guys were raised in. How many of you are under 30? Wow. Man. Do you know you guys weren't even born when this place was established? Man, how could you argue with me about anything? No one can argue with me unless you're over 30. From now on, that's a new rule. I asked you about your age because the academic system really has gotten worse and worse and worse over the years. It is laden with socialistic beliefs. It's permeated with a whole evolutionary concept and foundation. You guys are taught sex education, I believe. I was never taught it. I had to learn it on my own. But you guys have had people come and tell you in the school system how you should think of these things. Is that right, you guys, younger guys? Is that true? You have been lied to by the academic system when you were in your formative years, just young and innocent. Yeah, you were innocent at one time. So was I. And they were pumping stuff into you, a way to view life that affected you and corrupted you. Commerce lies to you. Every time you see a commercial or you see an ad in a magazine or you see an ad on the internet, it is full of half-truths and exaggerations. Isn't that true? They're lying to you. I mean, I wish I had taken the time to really give you some of them. Mendacious whoppers that they spew out. How many knows what mendacious means? One guy, he knew, I knew you knew, because he got a big smile on his face. Mendacious means, what does it mean? No. It was a great try, though. Mendacious means deceptive. Deceptive whoppers, right? I still like mendacious better, though. It's great. Great word. Commerce, big business, lies to us all the time. Media, full of deception. Now, you know, the worst part about it, I mean, it's bad enough. A talking head, you know, whether it's on Fox News or somewhere else or whatever, a talking head, if a talking head, you sat there and you're watching TV and he says Christianity is nothing but a fairy tale. Okay, you would dismiss that. You would reject it. You know, this guy's an idiot. I'm not going to listen to him, that kind of thing. Never go on beside me, but would you, maybe? But anyway, the problem is that the enemy has brilliantly created a scheme to get around your natural defenses, and that is storylines. So, they create storylines in sitcoms and dramas that are laced with a lie, an illusion that you can have this fulfilling and wonderful life without God. And so, your defenses are down and the lies are streaming forth to you and you're just taking it in. And it's influencing you more than you realize. Guys, something was wrong. I just spit on the pulpit. That must have meant it was a great point. Something was wrong why you had to come here, right? Something was wrong, and this was part of it, that you have been heavily influenced by the culture to believe things and to diminish the importance of the things of God. You know, when we were singing one of those songs, I was sitting there thinking as we were singing about the reality of standing before God. Do you know that when you stand before God one day, and you will stand before Him, you are not going to have the slightest thought, man, I wish I wouldn't have put so much effort into following the Lord. Man, what a waste of time it was spending all that time seeking God and trying to live up to the biblical standards and all that. Who is going to be thinking that way when you're standing before a holy, awesome, fearful God? Nobody. That's reality. That is truth. But all these things that come to us through the culture are trying to diminish that in our minds and our hearts. The internet is full of lies. For instance, Google and Facebook. Do you know why they exist? You thought they existed just so they could provide you with this nice little app to make life easier for you, right? And, well, what a blessing it is. I can share pictures with people and stuff. I've never had Facebook, so I don't know anything about it, really. But, you know, just these nice little things. No. They are in it to make money and to gain power. And Zuckerberg and whoever the guy is in charge of Google, these people are the most powerful people on the planet. More powerful than Donald Trump. More powerful than Putin. More powerful than anyone you can think of. Those two men. They are constantly watching everything you do through their systems and they are accumulating data on you and storing it away. They have a complete profile on every one of you. They know every website you've been to. They know exactly who you are by the kinds of things that you're into. If you've got Gmail, they have all your emails. Actually, anyone that you have corresponded with that has Gmail, they have gotten all your information that way. And they're selling that information. That's why they are multi-billionaires. That's how they do it. It's all a lie. And then of course, the internet is full of all kinds of trash, right? Liars. The political system, speaking of liars, right? The political system is rife with deception. You know, even a good man, quote unquote, a good man who really wants to serve his country, but you cannot get elected to public office without telling exaggerations and half-truths. Because our country will no longer accept someone who tells the truth. For instance, let's say that I have a friend who's running for sheriff of a pretty, whatever, a county in a state, of course. And, you know, it would be great if he could just come right out and say, hey, there was a time that I was addicted to pursuing women. But do you know what they would do? They would crucify him. So he can't come clean with all that. Now, I know this guy, and he's got a lot of integrity, and if anyone asked him, he'll tell them the truth. But he's not going to, you know, come out with it. Because our political system, in fact, it is so bad that the pundits actually applaud people for how good they tell their lies. I'll never forget when, what's his name? William, I want to say Sapphire, is that right? From New York Times. Sapphire? Yeah. William Sapphire. You'll remember this, Jim, back in the 90s. You remember? I remember, yeah. Back in the 90s, he called Hillary Clinton a congenital liar. I'll never forget that. You remember that? It was like, whoa, that was something. You know, and it was true, of course. Someone said, well, how do we know if a politician's lying? And they said, well, just watch his lips. If they're moving, they're lying. And not just the politicians, but their surrogates also. You know, listen, I'm a conservative for the most part. I'm a conservative, and I definitely believe that conservatives are on more, by far, on most issues are, you know, on the right side of things. They believe in justice and so on. So I am a conservative, but even the conservatives, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, all those people, you know, all your favorite media darlings and stuff, they are constantly stretching the truth and twisting things and giving you half truth on Fox News and on Rush Limbaugh because they're in a, what, a social battle, and they're just trying to win the battle, win the debate. And so they're using basically the same tactics that the liberals are using. Now, you know, there's a whole lot more honesty on the Republican side than the Democrat side, but whatever. They are all telling lies and stretching the truth, all of them. Adult entertainment, packed full of lies, based on a lie. The great lie in adult entertainment is that pleasure is the reason for life, and sexual pleasure is the epitome, the best, the greatest pleasure you could ever possibly have. That's what the whole industry is built on, is that lie. And it is a lie. Sexual pleasure, or sex can be in the right setting with your wife, can be a wonderful thing, a pleasurable thing, but it is only a part of life. It's not supposed to be everything. But that's the way they make it seem, right? Any of you have been involved with any of that? You're not acting like you're with me here this morning, guys. They're riveted. Your favorite fantasy, and all of you have probably a half a dozen. I did. You had certain types of people or situations or whatever. That fantasy that has been lodged in your mind is a liar. It's some unclean spirit that has been just dangling a carrot in front of you for years, and you've been chasing this thing. It's nothing but an illusion, and you chase and you chase, and just when you think you catch it, there's nothing there. It's a puff of smoke, right? You guys are the world's experts on this. It's all lies. Now, most of this you have willingly subjected yourself to. I won't say it about the academic systems. You didn't have much choice in that. But the rest of it, you're the one that watches television. You're the one that's all into the Internet. You're the one that's giving yourself over to pornography. You're the one that's been involved with all this stuff. You subjected yourself to it. Kathy and I, we were talking about this. I think it was at the planning meeting. Kathy and I went 15 years from the time we, I guess it was a year before we started Pure Life. From then, that was 85, to, that would be 2000, right? 15 years without television of any kind. Now, we end up getting a television DVD player, and we're very selective how much, what we watch, all that kind of stuff. Extremely disciplined. But we went 15 years with no television. And when you do that, when you separate yourself out like that, it gives you a clarity in the spiritual realm. You can see the reality behind these things. But when you're constantly filling yourself with it, it just feels normal to you. I know that that is not the norm. You know, 150 years ago, there was none of this stuff. 100 years ago, not even. There wasn't television until the 50s or 40s or something like that. You have chosen. You've taken your heart. You know, that part of your, the core of who you are, your innermost being. You've taken that thing that God has purposely made it to be very susceptible to influence. Why? So you can subject it to this, his word. But you've taken it, and you've given it to Satan, and you've said, do your worst. Because I want what you are offering me. Am I telling you the truth or not? It's not just media and so on. People. People you work with. People, relatives. People you know. People you meet. They lie to you. They regularly lie to you. They tell half-truths. They exaggerate. They tell downright falsehoods. They present a false image to you and so on. You can't trust people anymore. You know, you older guys, there's not many of you in here, but you remember a day when basically, I'm not saying it was across the board this way, but basically a man's word was good. You could pretty much trust what a guy would tell you. Right? Jim, are you listening to me? He's down here playing video games. I'm not sure what's going on. Getting bored with my sermon. He's looking something up. But you know, there was a time when you could pretty much trust people. Those days are long gone. Those days are long gone. The psalmist said, They delight in falsehood. They bless with their mouth, but inwardly they curse. Man, treacherous. People are treacherous in their hearts. Jeremiah said, Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. With his mouth, one speaks peace to his neighbor, but inwardly sets an ambush for him. People say one thing to your face and something else inside or to their friends or to who knows what. The evangelical system, at some level, lies to you. At some level, lies to you. I asked, I sent an email out yesterday morning to the staff, and I asked, especially the counselors, tell me some of the things that you guys are hearing. You know, and I got a lot of good stuff from everybody. But there was one thing across the board. And I'm going to read some of the things, because this is the stuff that our counselors hear from you guys or from guys before you or whatever. So many of you, if not most of you, came in with this mindset, came to Pure Life with this mindset. I'm just reading exactly what they said. God is love. He forgives me. I deserve this, meaning sexual sin. I've been saved for years and know that I'm going to heaven while in blatant rebellion to God and his word. One of the biggest lies myself and other guys have dealt with, believe, is that salvation is a one-and-done kind of deal. The idea that I prayed my prayer when I was young, that forgave all my past, present, and future sins, and now I just have to do my best, and when I die, I'll be welcomed home pretty much regardless of how I live my life. Listen, this is pretty much politically correct stuff in the church world today. Jesus' blood covers all my sins, past, present, and future. My salvation is secure even in my sin. My life, in heart and in deed, doesn't have to match up with what I profess to be. Because of God's grace and forgiveness, he accepts me just the way that I am, and I don't have to change who I am. Just because I have a habitual, glaring sin in my life, in other words, sexual sin, doesn't mean that it's affected my relationship with the Lord. What? Everyone struggles. I'm close to God. I just struggle with this one issue. What kind of delusion is that? I wonder if one of you said that. A twisted understanding of salvation by grace and faith. It's grace, not works, so I just sit back and do nothing. In other words, I don't have to seek the Lord. I don't have to put forth any effort or strive for anything. Those are the things that you guys are saying when you come in here. Obviously, we are saved by grace. We're saved by faith. But what does that mean if there's no life change? It doesn't mean anything. It's just a bunch of hot air going out, with no reality behind it. Some of the evangelical system is lying to you. Not all. Mostly what you get is solid biblical truth out there. But not all. You can't just swallow it all. You have to have discernment to know what people are telling you. I'll tell you this, just a good barometer for you in the future. If it's giving way to my flesh, I better be very suspicious and cautious. If it feels good to my flesh, just be careful. And on top of all that, you guys have been liars. Right? How many married men? Every one of you guys have lived a lie to your wife before you came here. Is that true or not? I did too. I did the same thing. So no one's pointing the finger down, although I'm up and you're down. I did it. But not just that. Beyond that is the lie we put on at church. We sat in church. Who got up in front of your church and willingly, without anyone telling you you had to do it, just got up and confessed what you really are when no one's looking? Did anybody ever do that without being told to do it? You did it? Okay, good. Well, that was the first step in the right direction for you, young man. And Josh did. But that's not the norm, is it? That's not the norm. You know, Jesus dealt with the religious system of His day. And the leaders of it, this is what He said to them, For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they're full of dead man's bones. Man, scathing, piercing truth and all uncleanness. Even so, you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. You know, guys, I'm not trying to beat up on you, but you're not going to hear this kind of stuff when you go back home. Right? You've got to get it all while you're here. You know, I'm sorry we can't give balanced, you know, week after week. Okay, one strong message every three or four months. No, you need strong messages that's going to last you the rest of your life. And I plan on giving it to you as much as I can. Listen, we are living in a miasma of deception. And the enemy has established a stronghold of deception inside of you. First, simply because you've been subjected to so much falsehood coming at you from everywhere you turn in the culture, even in church. But also because of the deceitfulness of sin. Because when you give yourself over to sin, you can't help but be deceived. You can't help it. Okay, so there's that. But there's a second thing that worries me even more for you about how deception has affected you. Would you like to know what it is? You don't seem very concerned. It creates a deep-seated cynicism. You know, it just does. We're being lied to all the time. You know that you're being lied to. I mean, you may not sit and think about it with the clarity we're talking today, but you know. You know you're being lied to out there in the world. And it creates this deep skepticism of everybody to where you don't believe anyone ever. And part of that, guys, is because of the... Well, let me say this first of all. It's good to be cautious. It definitely is in this culture. With all the deception flying everywhere, you should be cautious. You should have some skepticism about what people tell you. But not to the point that you don't trust anyone. And that's what concerns me for you. Because you've come into a ministry that is not built on lies. You have come into a ministry that is built on truth. And what I mean by that is I'm not saying that we are the end-all of all doctrinal truth and, you know, we know everything, and anyone that disagrees with us has some lesser degree. That's not what I'm talking about. Truth... Okay, just off the cuff, I'm going to try to give you a definition of truth. Truth is the reality as... What? The reality that God communicates. That's truth. Truth equals reality as God sees it. Not as man sees it, but as God sees it. That's truth. Okay. What we are bringing forth to you week after week after week from this pulpit and in your counseling and in all the stuff you read, as best as we can, I'm not saying we're perfect at it, okay? But as best as we can, we try to bring forth true reality of the spiritual life to you as best as we can. And the reality is this. It's not a religion. If you want the Christian religion, okay, go forth. Hope it works out for you. But you're going to find out when you stand before God that He never had any concern about you and your religion. You might as well be a Hindu. It would be a whole lot easier than being a Christian, at least in this country. No. Here's reality in the spiritual realm. God wants a loving relationship with you. That's what it's all about right there. And for years He has pursued you in tremendous, unimaginable humility as you have flouted His rules and laws and so on. And yet every time you turn to Him, there He is. There He is. It's amazing. All He wants is for you and Him to have a real relationship. You know, relationship, giving and taking. I have a relationship with my wife. And as long as I obey the rules, everything's good. That kind of deal. But, you know, it's true, though, because you cannot have a relationship with the Holy God and be living in defiance of His law. It is not possible. I don't care what radio preacher or television preacher or author tells you or tries to water that down, compromise it down, dumb it down. It's a lie. You cannot have a relationship with God without living in obedience to Him. I'm not saying that, you know, we all make mistakes. We all have a sin nature. And, you know, I sin in different ways and different times. I'm not talking about perfection. I'm talking about the reality of my relationship with God, that my heart is to obey Him and to please Him and to live in His will. That is truth. And that's what we're trying to give you guys. Do you agree with that? You guys that have been here for a while, would you say that's true? So when, you know, well, I have a note here. Pastor Ed, I remember him saying this. This has happened at least on two different occasions. Jordan would know better. At least a couple of different times, guys have sat across the desk from him. I hope that none of, neither of these guys are here now or whatever. Said to him, I don't believe anything you people tell me. Now, the problem with that is that that is cynicism that has got to the place of tremendous arrogance. That, the statement there is, I am the end all of all truth, and I don't believe anything you say. You know, and let me tell you, whoever made that statement does not know the Lord. There's no way. There is no way you could be at that level of cynicism and unwillingness to humble yourself and to be open to hearing truth and know the Lord. There is no way. No way. And, you know, if that is where you're at, you're in a very dangerous place. Because it's unbelief that condemns people to hell. And unbelief doesn't mean just having a nice little orthodox doctrinal system, you know, in your mind. That's not belief. Belief is relationship. That you really know this God, and because you know him, you love him. And because you know him, you trust him. That's faith. Trust, faith, it's the same word. You believe in him. And it all starts with truth. Truth in the innermost being. Wow. I've got a long ways to go, and I just got started. God desires truth to reign inside you guys. He desires your whole inner being to be taken up with truth. Defined by truth. Controlled by truth. Led by truth. He wants all the deception cleared out of there. So there can be an open communication between you and him. You know, God desires truth for one thing, because it's a major attribute of the Lord. The Bible says God is truth. The God of truth, he's called. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth. And he called the Holy Spirit the spirit of truth. God loves truth and honesty and sincerity. And God hates deception, pretense, and insincerity. He hates it. He wants to undeceive you guys. He wants to tear out all the falsehood that's been built up inside of you. He wants to establish truth in your innermost being. It wouldn't be such a bad thing, would it? All right, so I'm going to give you four things to go through here. Four ways, four things that will have to happen for that to happen. Number one, you must renounce all deception. That would make sense, right? It has to start with repentance, doesn't it? You must be done with fake, superficial, outward religion. And what I mean by outward religion is image, facade, fake. You know, where you're acting the part, but there's no reality going on inside you. And let me tell you, if your spiritual life is nothing more than the image you put forth to other people, because you are so concerned about what people think about you, you're a fake, and you don't even know the Lord. You've got to get to the place where you are done with lies and half-truths. You're done covering sin. You're done with hypocrisy. No more hiding who you really are. No more, you know, glossing over what's really going on inside of you. No more going to meetings and putting on this facade that everything's great when it's not. You know, all of our social lies, all of our falsehoods and different ways that we practice deception, it all needs to come under the light of God. We have many ways of saying untrue things. You know, I just want to mention, let me see, I've got two of them here. I've got two guys here, Michael and Mark. There's hardly anyone I know better than Mark, but I look at him, and what in the world's his name? See, I'm being honest with you. These two guys regularly send me emails and tell me what's going on inside them. The negative, always. Always negative. I just got one from Mark this morning. He was saying how much he hates everyone around him. That was a mendacious whopper. I did get an email from, it was this morning, wasn't it? Yeah, just sharing some stuff he's been struggling with. But I appreciate that. Not that I really, you know, half of me just wants to tell these guys, okay, I know, you don't have to tell me everything like that. But they want to. They want to be in the light. I didn't ask them to do that. You staff members, have I ever asked any of you to do that? To tell me everything? But they do it because they just want to be living with a pure heart. They want to be in the light. And you must repent of this cynicism. You know, if you've got that going on inside you. Guys, listen. It kind of brings me to the next point. Which is, you need to start humbling yourself and acknowledging truth. But here's what I was going to say. You're in a place where you can trust people. You can trust us, guys. You know, this isn't out there in the world. It's not even the church world here. No one's going to take something you share in secret and go spread it around or something. In fact, whatever you tell your counselor, the only time it goes past him to Jordan or Nathan or Pastor Ed or something, is if it's something that needs to be dealt with or something like that. You know, all I'm trying to say to you is no one wants to hurt you. We're not here to hurt you. There's nothing inside of us. We don't want to, like, exalt ourselves, you know, at your expense or something. That's not what we're in. You're in a trustworthy place. You really are. You can come clean. In fact, I want to tell you guys something. It would do you so much good to come to your counselor and tell him the worst thing you've ever done, the most shameful thing you've ever done. You know, because that's where the devil lives, is in the darkness, in that private place that you don't let anyone in there. It would be so good for you to take that filthy, disgusting thing you did that time and come to your counselor and say, Listen, I want to ask you, please don't repeat this to anyone under any circumstances. You counselors, if they come to you and ask you that, will you honor that? Okay. It would just do you so much good to free you up and get the devil out of having an in. As long as you keep that stuff in secret, have a whole secret life going. Now, I'm not telling you to go out into the church world or go out in the world and just blab all you know and blab everything you've ever... I'm not saying that. You've got to use wisdom. I'm not telling you to be absolutely transparent about everything in life. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying when you have someone you can trust, like your counselor, you should take advantage of it while you've got it. It would do you a lot of good. And when your counselor... Okay, here's the problem. Because we are so defensive by nature, all of us, we're just that way. It's part of the fallen nature. It's pride. It's what the devil has gotten into us. And we don't like to be told. You know? We don't like to be corrected. We don't like someone to point out what's wrong with us. Guys, there's a process that happens here for nine months of your life. It's a process where you have someone or a group of people who are going to come inside of you, so to speak, and say, Listen, here are the things that are keeping you from a life of victory. And you've got to deal with these things. What, would you rather we lied to you? Would you rather go into a counseling session, get nothing but a bunch of hot air and flattery and pats on the back? Just get you through the program, collect your money and send you on your way? Is that really what you want? You've got to make a commitment inside or to the Lord. Lord, I'm going to trust these people. Now, if you see something in us, well, let's backtrack down to your counselor. I'll make a deal with you. If there's something about your counselor you feel like you can't trust them, then make an appointment to talk to Brother Nathan. And he will work through that with you. Okay? He'll work, he'll figure it out. If there's something going on with your counselor that isn't right, we will deal with it. I promise you that. Because that's one thing I won't tolerate, is any of our counselors doing anything to abuse you guys in the slightest way. Because God sent you here. And we love you. We're here for you. And I won't put up with that. I mean, I'm not saying I'll fire the guy. But I would talk to him. And I better not hear about it again. But that's not these guys. They wouldn't have been put in that position if we thought that of them. You can trust these guys. But if you have an issue, sometimes, you know, sometimes the enemy, and he's done it to me many times with people, put something in my mind, some distrust. Maybe they say something, am I taking it wrong, or I'm misinterpreted, or maybe they were just cranky that day, I don't know, but, you know, just something. And it's created a thing between me and them. Any of you know what I'm talking about? Sure would be nice if you'd act like you're listening to me occasionally. Sometimes that happens. And sometimes, like, one of our counselors may say something that's not the right thing to say. Or they didn't handle something right. Okay, we understand. Sometimes we're human, that happens. But their heart isn't in that. That's all I can tell you. But, you know, that's what I'm saying. Nathan can figure that out. He'll get in there, and he'll figure out what happened. And, you know, if there's just like, you know, you want a divorce because of incompatibility or something, we'll find another counselor for you, maybe. And the other thing I'll say to that is if you don't feel like you can trust the leadership of this ministry, then this is not the place for you. Go somewhere where you feel like you can trust the people. Okay? That's honest, that makes sense, doesn't it? I'm not trying to offend you, I'm just saying you need to be somewhere where you can trust people. And if you're not believing what I'm saying, that you can trust us, then you should probably go somewhere where you can trust people. I hope that doesn't happen for you, because you can trust us. All right, number three. You must allow God to expose and root out all the falsehood out of you. That falsehood, those lies that you have believed in the past and false perceptions and stuff like that, they keep a crank in your armor, and the enemy can just slip through in and out all the time. Just in and out, bringing more lies, more suspicions, more everything, foul. You need to get the falsehood out of you, eradicate it completely, be purified, have the truth reign inside you. God wants to undeceive you. He wants to unravel the web of deception that's been built up inside you over the years. Years in this devil infested planet. There's so much that has gotten inside of you. Me too. But the only difference between you and me is that I've been in this process for a long time, and I have allowed God. I've humbled myself. I can't tell you how many times I've had to humble myself, repent in public, repent to people, hundreds of times. How many times God has broken me thoroughly, painfully, and I needed all of it, I need more of it. I hate to say, because it's painful, and I don't like going through it. You know, you've got to get to the place where you really desire for the Lord to get it all out of you. Solomon said, the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord searching all of the innermost parts of his being. The innermost being. You know, the spirit of man is, the Lord uses that to get in and search. I don't even know how it all works. I just know it does. And I know this, we have to ask for it. Brother Jordan brought up this morning, Psalm 139, but I have Psalm 26, it's David also, and it's the same basic prayer. Examine me, O Lord, and try me. Test my innermost being and my heart. Test it. This was David. Test it. You know, what test means is, a test means that you're trying to, like a scientist performs a chemical test, he's trying to figure out if something is the right parts or whatever to create the reaction he's trying to get or something. I didn't do so good in chemistry. But that's what the Lord wants to do. He wants to find out what's inside of you that is still false. To find it and get rid of it. Make it your prayer, just make it your prayer. Lord, get it out of me. Lord, search me out, not just falsehood, but any kind of sin or darkness or anything inside me that's against your kingdom, against your will. Lord, search me out and get it out of me. You know, if you have any illusions, God's going to go after them. If you have any falsehoods, any lies that you tell and believe, he's going to go after them. Every inconsistency, every bit of deception, he is going to go after it. Because he's constantly wanting to undeceive us. He wants you to hate falsehood and to love the truth. That is his desire, is to bring you to that place. All right, number four. You must allow God to tear down the false structure that's been built inside you. To tear it down, to rip it out. Now, you know, David had been faking it for a long time. As I shared with you last week about that one year period, or whatever it was, something like about a year between the time that he committed adultery with Bathsheba and the time that Nathan confronted him. It was about a year. Well, that period of time, but also probably years before that. I mean, he was on a downward trend for some long period of time before he fell with Bathsheba, right? We talked about this last week. And increasingly over that whole period of time, and it's certainly after the thing happened with Bathsheba and Uriah and all that, certainly for that year. You know, when he was saying this, when he was on his face before God repenting, what you see in Psalm 51, he must have just been dying inside, remembering how many times he had gone to the great altar at the temple and sanctimoniously offered up his sacrifice before all the people, and they all see him as a godly leader of the nation. He must have just wanted to throw up remembering what he had been like. What a fake I was! So he says in verse 16, he says, for you do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it. You're not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise. God wants to do a deep work inside of you guys. It's your only hope. You know, it's your only hope. I'm not talking to a 17-year-old who hasn't really been involved in sin and pretty decent kid and stuff. No, you guys have given yourselves over. Right? You've given yourself to evil, just like I did. Gave yourself to evil. And God's got to plunge the scalpel deep to carve that filth and that garbage and the lies out of you. And a big part of this process of sanctification that we're talking about, really, is tearing down. You know, Solomon said, there is an appointed time for everything, a time to tear down and a time to build up. And look, the Lord doesn't tear you down because He enjoys hurting you or causing frustration or humiliation in your life. He doesn't put you through things just to make you miserable. He knows that in order for Him to accomplish what He wants to accomplish inside of you, He must first tear down the rotten, filthy structure inside of you so that He can build something godly inside of you, so He can build truth inside of you. Jesus Christ came for this purpose. What was it? My mind just went blank. To destroy the works of the devil, thank you. Do you believe that? We're running out of time here. Let me just wrap it up. If you do any serious study on the end times like I've done, probably, I would say, at least 12,000 hours of serious Bible study on this subject. 6,000 hours in Revelation and at least that much in the other portions of Scripture. Everywhere that it's talking about the end times, deception is in there. It is by far, by far, the predominant theme about everything to do with the end times. Deception. 2 Thessalonians 2 is one of those passages where the Lord is dealing with it. He's showing you what to watch for. He's telling you this is what you've got to do. And He says that people will be destroyed because they did not have a love for the truth. But the whole point was all the deception going on. We live in a miasma of deception. A miasma is like a swamp with noxious fumes. That's what a miasma is. And we're breathing this stuff. It's just in us. It's like everywhere we turn, it's just contaminating us and polluting us and twisting us inside. We've got to have a bulwark of truth inside of us. And that begins with repentance over falsehood. Every bit of it. And then there's other things you do, and the Lord will lead you in those, not the least of which is just immersing yourself in Scripture. Guys, I'm telling you, you better take this serious, this subject that I'm bringing to you this morning. You better take it extremely seriously. It's not a small thing. Lord, I just bring these men to you. Every soul in this chapel here today is of inestimable, inestimable value to you. Every soul means so much to you that you have worked in their lives, in the circumstances of their lives. You've worked through people. You've done, man, everything you could within the framework that you established for yourself when you created mankind with a free will. You've done everything you could without crossing that line. They have to make that choice. They have to make that decision. But you have surely and certainly done your part. You have done your part. None of these people, none of us, anybody ever who has ever lived will stand before you on judgment day and find any fault with you because you have made the truth known, and especially in this country. And the judgment is going to be so severe because of all the truth that we have received and discarded and treated as trash. Lord, I pray. I pray for these men. I pray, Lord, that they would take this subject seriously and respond to you in their hearts, that they would truly repent of just everything to do with falsehood, that they would repent of cynicism, they would repent of just resisting what you're trying to do for them in this place. Help them, Lord. Help them. It's a battle inside of us. For years, they've allowed the enemy to just run ramshot over the top of them, and they just don't realize how much it's affected them and their perspectives and opinions and attitudes. They don't understand very clearly, Lord, because they're not outside of themselves. They live their entire life inside of themselves where all that stuff is having its way. But I pray that you would cut through it all with truth and deeply, profoundly, powerfully overthrow that falsehood and bring them to a place of repenting from the depths of their being, repenting of anything that would resist your will or your truth and allow you to have your way inside of them. Lord, I pray that by the time they leave this place, they would see the world for what it is, that they would build safeguards around themselves, that they wouldn't just go out and give over because they can't wait until they just glut themselves with entertainment. Help them, Lord, to develop godly convictions, a godly determination to walk in the truth, to live for the truth, to speak nothing but the truth. I pray, Lord, that you would get that into them in a very powerful way. In Jesus' name. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/yvJz-vsp7gU.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/steve-gallagher/god-desires-truth-in-the-innermost-being/ ========================================================================