Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Big Lie.*

*Intro – “my life”* Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Life – we come hear to church to hear the truth!

Well, I want to talk today about lies!

In fact, really only one lie.

But it is a biggy!

I want to talk about “the big lie” *[P]*.

[John 8:44] tells us that satan is the father of lies, and when you speak (or for that matter believe) a lie, then satan is your father.

Jesus upset some fine religious people of His day by calling them: “sons of the devil” [*John 8:44* /You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.

He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies/.].

So, if I said that I am going to speak about “the big lie” – what do you think that I have in mind?

You might like to consider that – but don’t worry, I am not going to keep you in suspense.

Do you know what I think the big lie we have been sold is?

And we almost universally have “bought it” – it is: *[P]* “MY LIFE!”

We say: “It is my life and I can do with it as I choose.”

“I have my rights.”

“I have this plan for my life” “my goal is” ….

I have trouble when I talk to the banker or when I have an annual review at work – they ask: what are my goals?

It is assumed that our life is our own and our destiny our own to plan and determine and work out.

It starts young – I remember adults asking me (I always found it awkward talking to adults, I haven’t got much better at it) – they would ask: “What are you going to do with your life?”

It is assumed that our life is our own!

And it is a lie!

I don’t really want to focus on the lie; the way you deal with a lie is to focus on the truth!

*[P]*

*I AM NOT MY OWN!*

And the truth is: *[P]* I AM NOT MY OWN! [*1 Corinthians 6:19* says: /you are not your own/!]

That is what the Bible says, that is the truth and I am going to show you some reasons from the Bible that show why this is the case.

Reasons that expose the lie and demonstrate why your life is not actually yours: I am not my own *[P]* .

You belong to God – your life is His!

#. *His by creation* *[P]* – a while back I spoke out at the prison on Psalm 24, we know it well from Robin’s song: [*Psalm 24:1-2* /The earth is יהוה’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it.

For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers/.]

And I used an illustration with the prisoners: at that time there were several inmates who were quite taken with the guitar that Robin had made.

In fact one guy, who made ukuleles, came along just because he’d heard that Robin made guitars.

They liked to play his guitar after the meeting, in fact a few probably would have quite liked to take it back to their cells.

But they didn’t because it was Robin’s guitar.

Nobody disputed that.

I said to them, “Why is it Robin’s guitar?

He didn’t buy it, it wasn’t given to him.”

– but no one disputed that it was Robin’s – why?

Because he made it!

If you make something, then it belongs to you – creation confers ownership.

What does Psalm 24 say – that the earth is יהוה’s and all those who dwell in it (that includes you and me), why?

Because He created it!

We are not our own.

We belong to יהוה because He made us.

Job said: [*Job 33:6* /Behold, I belong to God like you; I too have been formed out of the clay./]

– He belonged to God because He formed him out of the earth.

[*Isaiah 43:7* /Everyone who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed, even whom I have made/.”]

– says יהוה created us, not for ourselves, for us to have a life of our own; but for His glory!/ /[*Revelation 4:11* /Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honour and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created/.]

God created us, we are His, it was by His will that He created us (the old KJV says “for His pleasure”) – we were created for Him.

My life is not my own because God created me.

“By His will” suggests another reason why we are His ……

#. *His by sovereignty* *[P]* – יהוה has a will – He does as He chooses.

He is sovereign.

He made us; He can do as He chooses with what He made.

[*Psalm 115:3* /But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases/.]

Now this is something that I have found that people resist, they don’t like it.

People like to think that their life is their own, that they are in control, that they make decisions about what happens.

But the Bible tells us that God is sovereign, that He is in control and that He does as He likes with what He has made.

He determines what happens.

It is like some great heavenly drama – He is the Playwright – He creates characters and has them carry out the plot he has determined [*Proverbs 21:1* /The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of יהוה; He turns it wherever He wishes/.].

We may chafe at this idea but it doesn’t alter the fact that God is sovereign.

[*Romans 9:17-18* /For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.”

So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires/.

*Romans 9:21* /Does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honourable use and another for common use/?]

You see? God made Pharaoh to play a part (moulded him out of clay), for His purposes, to demonstrate His power.

We are pawns that God directs on His chessboard – we are not in control of our lives [*Jeremiah 10:23* /I know, O יהוה, that a man’s way is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps/.

*Proverbs 20:24* /Man’s steps are ordained by יהוה, how then can man understand his way?/].

Our lives belong to God and He does with them as He chooses.

Men do not like this, and there was a king, long ago who also resisted this.

He thought that he had become great by his own doing.

God had to take severe measures with Nebuchadnezzar – he was humbled and lived like a beast in the fields, until: [*Daniel 4:34-35* /I raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honoured Him who lives forever; for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation.

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?/’]

My life is not my own because God is sovereign, in control of me; my life is His to do with as He chooses.

#. *His by His choice and calling* *[P]* – These first two reasons are true of all that God has made – but there is even more reason why we are not our own.

He has called us to Himself.

We are not our own, we are His people; we belong to Him because He has chosen us for Himself and called us to be His people.

God is sovereign, and He made a sovereign choice of a people to be His own [*Deuteronomy 7:6* /For you are a holy people to יהוה your God; יהוה your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth/.]

This was true of Israel but it is also true of us – He chose us [*Ephesians 1:4-6* /He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.

In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved/.

*Ephesians 1:11* /also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,/ (God is sovereign, He has a will and a purpose, and in that purpose He chose us to be His own – His possession) [*Ephesians 1:14* /the Holy Spirit is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory/.]

The chosen belong to God – they are His possession, not their own [*1 Peter 2:9* /But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light/;] Those whom God chose He called to Himself [*Romans 8:28-30* /And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined /(that is the choosing process)/, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified/.]

Jesus has called us to follow Him – those who respond to that call, those that follow; no longer live for themselves – if we go after Him we lay down our life – say “No!” to what we want and walk the road of death to self [*Luke 9:23* /And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me/.] – we don’t live for ourselves, we deny our own will, voluntarily lay our life down.

Those whom God has called are not their own – they are His! [*Isaiah 43:1* /But now, thus says יהוה, your Creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine/!]

Whose?! We are His! [*2 Timothy 1:9* /He saved us and called us to be His own people, not because of what we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace/.]

Not your own!

My life is not my own because God has chosen me for Himself and called me to Himself.

How wonderful to be chosen by God!

For Him to call you to belong especially to Him! What an honour and a privilege!

#. *His by redemption* *[P]* – Everything belongs to God by right of creation and His sovereignty.

But the trouble is that we resist this – we have rebelled.

We have claimed that our lives are not God’s, but our own.

We have rejected our rightful Master, and instead become enslaved to a tyrant.

We have bought his lie.

That is what happened in the Garden of Eden – instead of being dependent upon God; satan deceived man into becoming independent of Him.

Man who was made for God, now no longer existed for Him.

So God had a great plan to buy back that which was originally His.

They used to tell us a story in Good News Club years ago of a boy who made a toy yacht.

It was his – why?