"The Truth About Lying"(9th Commandment: Sermon Series on the Ten Commandments)
Sermon Transcript for April 2, 2000
By Rev. Mike Beck
Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:1-6
As we’ve been looking over the Ten Commandments these past couple of months, I hope there are a couple of things that are being firmly impressed upon your consciousness. One is, the Commandments are deeply linked to the nature and the character of God. Let me repeat that. The Commandments are deeply linked with the nature and character of God. And then, secondly, because we are created in the image of God, God’s laws are deeply impressed upon who we are as persons and how we are to relate, as God designed, with God and also with our fellow man. Certainly these principles are true in the Ninth Commandment that we look at today where we are instructed, "Don’t bear false witness against your neighbor."
A pastor was leading a Confirmation Class and asked this question to his young students, "What are some things," the pastor said, "that God cannot do?" The students’ initial reply was to say that "God can do anything." But as they discussed together, the class began to realize there are certain things that God cannot do. God, because He is holy, cannot tolerate sin. If he did he would no longer be holy. God will not violate freedom of will that He has placed within his creation. And then another thing they came up with is this. God cannot lie. Jesus, who is God in the flesh, said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is spoken of in John 14:17 as the "Spirit of Truth". One who would lead us into truth. And Jesus, in referring to Satan, the opposite of God, said of him that "Satan is a liar and the father of lies".
For as we look around us, we realize that we live in a world filled with lies. Advertisers lie to make money. Politicians distort the truth to win votes. Persons in their relationships with others distort the truth in a 101 different ways for their own advantage. But in contrast to the lies we see in the world around us, the message of the Bible calls you and me to a life of truthfulness. Proverbs 6:16 says that God hates seven things; and two of those things on that list are "a lying tongue" and "false witnesses who pour out lies". Revelation 21:8 talks about those who will be lost eternally and it concludes with these word, "and all liars".
So as we look briefly at this Ninth Commandment today and how it is expanded throughout scripture, we see God’s call upon our lives:
1. Not to tell a lie.
2. Not to spread a lie.
3. Not to live a lie.
Let’s look at each of those briefly. Number one, not to tell a lie. When I’m counseling couples planning to be married one of the strongest pieces of advice I will give to them is this, "Don’t let falsehood enter into your marriage." Now I’m careful to say I’m not talking about surprise birthday parties. I’m not talking about digging every old skeleton out of your closet in the name of truthfulness. I’m simply talking about as you relate to one another, let it be the truth and nothing but the truth in your relationship. Because as the years go by, if that’s what you lived by when the husband or wife says something to the other spouse, it never even enters the other person’s mind that it might not be the truth because they guarded that trust between them. When we lie more often than not, we’ll be found out in our lie. And then, because of that, the next time we say something to the person, they’re thinking, "Well, they didn’t tell me the truth back here, I wonder if I’m getting the truth this time?" And if falsehood never enters in, you don’t have to fight that battle.
Some of you know persons who have been untruthful for so long they don’t even know when they are telling a lie any more. They tell so many that they aren’t even aware the truth isn’t coming out of their mouths. But many of us tell our lies in more subtle kinds of ways: through "half-truths", through "bragging", or by "withholding the truth". I’ll give you a little of the truth but not the whole thing. Allow the piercing light of the Holy Spirit to shine down upon your life. That’s a humbling thought isn’t it? Allow the piercing light of the Holy Spirit to shine down upon you so that your words are truthful.
Secondly, we are not to spread a lie. Scores of the most respectable Christians, who would never dream of murder or adultery or theft, but they engage constantly in the deadly sin of gossip. Now, let’s be honest with each other, gossip if a very pleasurable thing to do. Because what gossip often does, it makes us feel virtuous by talking about the vices of somebody else. And that makes us, we think, look better. But in the long run, friends, sins are measured by their effect on another person. And that old cliche, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me" are some of the most untruthful words that were ever spoken. Words have the potential to inflict great harm.
And the older we get the more we have the tendency to remember those things that our parents told us when we were growing up. I remember this one that my mom said to me over and over again. I haven’t always followed it. But how much the world would be a better place if we all did. She use to say to us kids, "If you can’t say anything good about somebody," tell me the rest, "don’t say anything." How much better the world would be if we’d bite our tongue instead of letting that juicy gossip go out. And do you know how it normally goes out? You normally say, "Now, I shouldn’t be telling you this..., Now make sure you don’t tell anybody else, but...", and then here it comes; and then the person to whom you passed it on, passes it on to somebody else with the exact same words, "Now I shouldn’t be telling you this, but so and so heard..." And friends, I would venture to say that more persons have been driven away from God’s church by gossip and idle conversation than by any other thing. Guard ourselves in this area.
And then, thirdly, one can live a lie as well as speak or spread a lie. And for many of us, this third point may be the most convicting of all. Here the words of our Scripture and let them speak to us in this area of living a lie. I John, 1:5-6, "This is the message we have heard from Him and declared to you. If God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. For if we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth." Let me repeat that. "If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth."
Sometimes the greatest of all lies are the ones we tell ourselves. We tell them to ourselves, not to harm others, but so that we don’t have to honestly look at who we are. In Psalm 51:6 are these probing words, "Surely God desires truth." Where? "In my innermost being." The prophet Jeremiah answered these words with glaring honesty when he said that, "the heart can be deceitful above all things." God desires truth in the inward parts and yet the heart can be deceitful above all things.
David Seamands, in the book from which these sermons have been derived, says this, "Our sins don’t hide us from God as much as do our attempts to hide them." Let me repeat that. Our sins don’t keep us from God nearly as much as our attempts to hide our sin. Because when we live a lie and we’re trying to hide our sin from God, well God knows it anyway. And our attempt to live that lie in private from God keeps us from discovering the forgiveness and grace that God freely wants to pour out on us.
So as we close this morning I want to ask you in this sermon series, has it just been an intellectual exercise that you might know a little bit more with your head about the Ten Commandments or have you been allowing these messages through the Holy Spirit to penetrate the depths of your being to show us our sin and our need of a Savior? We may not be guilty of telling or spreading lies, but are there areas within our day-to-day lives where we may be living a lie?
I leave you today with this word of grace and hope. It follows the words I read earlier, where John says, "This is the message that we have heard from Him and declare to you. That God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. That if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with God and with one another. And the light of Jesus’ Son purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
Let’s pray, "Oh Lord, it’s so easy to talk about the truth. So hard at times to speak it or to keep from speaking a false word against our neighbor or to keep from living a lie. You are truth and you desire truth within us as your followers. We know we fall short. Where we do we ask your forgiveness. And we also ask for your sanctifying grace to be poured out upon us that as others observe us they would see us as persons true to our word, kind to their neighbor, and so that Christ might be seen through us to them. Hear our prayer, oh Lord. In Christ’s name, Amen."
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