Major Sins of the Tongue: Lying

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines lying precisely as a deliberately made false statement intended to deceive, distinguishing it from honest mistakes through a vivid bathroom-scale illustration, then…

A man buys a bathroom scale, reads 175 lbs, and writes that on his doctor's intake form. The doctor's scale reads 185. Three months later, after failing to diet, he writes '175' again knowing the real number — and now he is lying. The same digits, two moral situations. Used to distinguish honest mistake from deliberate deception.

Why do we say a set? I don't know. I was thinking of that when I was working on the illustration. Why do we say a set of scales?

12:09 - 12:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Use the precise definition of lying to audit your own speech: a deliberately made false statement is a lie; an honest mistake is not. Stop dismissing conscious deceptions as mere personality quirks or social lubricant.

The serpent tells Eve 'You shall not surely die' — a statement the devil knows to be false, made with deliberate intent to deceive. Martin notes Satan's own fall proves he knows God means his threats, making the lie entirely conscious and malicious, fitting perfectly the definition just established.

The serpent, the instrument of the devil, that old deceiver as he is called in the book of the Revelation, he knows that when God makes threats, threats God means it. His own present condition was the result of God being true to his character and to his word. And now he says to the woman, You shall not surely die. Here was a deliberate misrepresentation of the truth.

16:03 - 16:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Use the precise definition of lying to audit your own speech: a deliberately made false statement is a lie; an honest mistake is not. Stop dismissing conscious deceptions as mere personality quirks or social lubricant.

Martin references a national survey reporting that the average American adult tells more than a dozen lies a day, offered as evidence that society has developed a seared conscience about the moral nature of deliberate misrepresentation.

I recently heard a survey that made national news. Now, who was surveyed? I don't know. I've been around North Jersey for 40 years, and I hear all these surveys.

17:53 - 18:02 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin rejects the secular view that lying is a morally neutral constitutional weakness, then surveys God's consistent condemnation of lying across the OT: Mosaic legislation…

Martin raises the secular view: people sneeze with allergies, sniffle with colds, and lie when it serves their purpose — so what is the moral big deal? He uses this reductio to expose the cultural attitude that treats lying as an inevitable constitutional weakness rather than a serious sin.

People will have runny noses when they have colds. People will lie. People will lie when they're interacting with others, when the lie will serve their purpose. Do you get upset when people sneeze with allergies?

20:10 - 20:23 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin rejects the secular view that lying is a morally neutral constitutional weakness, then surveys God's consistent condemnation of lying across the OT: Mosaic legislation…

Israel had no forensic science, DNA, fingerprints, bugged phone lines, or jury. Two living witnesses could decide life or death, so the commandment against false witness was existentially critical. A lie in court was a murder weapon.

The elders acted in the capacity of judge and jury and legislators of law. And if two people came before the elders in Israel and said, we saw this guy do in another guy and kill him, you could be killed on the basis of two witnesses agreeing about what you did. You remember that poor man in 1 Kings chapter 21 called Naboth, he had a vineyard, and that wicked man Ahab coveted his vineyard. And his wife said, don't get too upset about it, we'll fix this thing.

26:09 - 26:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin rejects the secular view that lying is a morally neutral constitutional weakness, then surveys God's consistent condemnation of lying across the OT: Mosaic legislation…

Jezebel hired two men from the street to falsely testify that Naboth cursed God and the king. On the strength of their two lying tongues, an innocent man was executed and his vineyard stolen for Ahab. The ninth commandment's deadly practical stakes made vivid.

So he went out and found a couple of dudes in the street, a couple of the rabble, and said, look, say you heard Naboth curse God and curse the king, and that would be the end of it. And sure enough, the false witnesses came before him, and they said, yes sir, we heard him curse God and curse the king. He was killed. So in a system where living verbal witnesses were crucial, you can see why God was protecting so much by saying, you shall not be a lying witness against your neighbor.

26:48 - 27:19 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin rejects the secular view that lying is a morally neutral constitutional weakness, then surveys God's consistent condemnation of lying across the OT: Mosaic legislation…

Abraham's lies about Sarah being his sister left her vulnerable to adultery and exposed another man to capital offense before God. Used to establish that there is no such thing as a benign lie — even a self-protective lie harms others in ways the liar does not intend.

Abraham's lies left his wife vulnerable to adultery and another man to capital offense. And when we read through the scriptures, we see that there's no such thing as a benign lie. And so the God who is concerned with truth in this more limited context of the interpersonal dealings of his people in a judicial setting is concerned for truth in all of their dealings one with another. Joseph's brothers by their lies caused a man to weep a bucket of tears for years.

27:55 - 28:32 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin rejects the secular view that lying is a morally neutral constitutional weakness, then surveys God's consistent condemnation of lying across the OT: Mosaic legislation…

Joseph's brothers' lie that Joseph was dead caused Jacob to weep buckets of tears for years, mourning the weight of a broken heart. All that grief rested entirely on the vicious lies of his sons — showing the long-term human cost of deception to the innocent.

He really believed that his son was dead. And he mourned for years the weight of a broken heart. All of that because of the vicious lies that Joseph was dead. So you see, God speaks with one voice in the Mosaic legislation that lies are to have no part among his people.

28:32 - 29:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Receive both sides of Proverbs 12:22: lying lips are an abomination to God, but truthful lips are his delight. Let the promise of being God's delight motivate truth-telling even when telling the truth costs you something…

Martin traces the word 'abomination' to its first OT occurrence in Leviticus 18, where it describes homosexuality and bestiality. He argues God feels the same revulsion toward lying lips as toward those sexual perversions — making Proverbs 12:22's 'abomination' the most serious possible moral condemnation.

It's first occurrence in the Old Testament is found in Leviticus 18 where God is describing the vile sordid sins of the nations of Canaan. The nations to be dispossessed by Israel and God's warning them when you go in don't learn their ways. Don't do what they do. And when he says you shall not lie with man as with woman it is an abomination.

31:50 - 32:19 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are living a lie of silence — hiding infidelity, financial dishonesty, or moral failure from your spouse — find the moral courage to confess today. Continuing silence is itself a form of lying, and God smiles on h…

A husband who has been unfaithful and continues living silently as though he has kept his vows is 'living the lie' by his silence. Martin argues God smiles when the husband finds the moral courage to confess, even knowing it will break his wife's heart — because truth is an act of love.

Off to the bedroom and your backside whacked and grounded and privileges withdrawn. When a husband has got to speak the truth to his wife that he's been unfaithful that he's indulged in uncleanness and he knows it'll break her heart. God smiles when he has the moral courage to tell the truth and stop living the lie by his silence as though he's never violated it. His marriage vows.

33:53 - 34:25 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are living a lie of silence — hiding infidelity, financial dishonesty, or moral failure from your spouse — find the moral courage to confess today. Continuing silence is itself a form of lying, and God smiles on h…

Martin applies Proverbs 26:28 directly to family life: 'I love you, Mommy — your lies are crushing her. Don't say you love her when you lie to her. Love you, Dad — not if you lie to Dad.' A child's lies contradict and cancel the love they profess, making lying an act of hatred toward those they say they love.

And a flattering mouth works ruin. A lying tongue hates those whom it has crushed. I love you, Mommy. Your lies are crushing her.

34:57 - 35:12 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin rejects the secular view that lying is a morally neutral constitutional weakness, then surveys God's consistent condemnation of lying across the OT: Mosaic legislation…

When lying becomes systemic, mutual trust — 'my word is my bond' — disappears from society. Martin illustrates with the insurance industry: companies assume fraud in claims and raise premiums; policyholders assume company dishonesty and feel justified padding claims. Both sides lying spirals into a system that collapses under the weight of universal deception.

You see what God is saying? When lying becomes a way of life in any society, the fabric of that society that holds it together, mutual trust, my word is my bond, when it's gone, that society has sunk into a tragic and horrible state. And that's where we are as a society. I long to hear someone in the national scene say, look, here's the problem with our insurance system.

37:59 - 38:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Take the Ananias and Sapphira account as a permanent declaration of God's standard for the church: do not mistake God's patient long-suffering today for any relaxation of his holy abomination against lying lips in his as…

God himself struck dead two professing Christians in the flourishing Jerusalem church who lied about the sale price of their land — claiming to give everything when they secretly kept $5,000 of a $15,000 sale. Martin asks: why make this the first act of discipline? To permanently inscribe truthfulness into the DNA of the church.

Remember what it is? What's the first case of church discipline? Chapter 5. And God himself is the disciplinarian.

43:59 - 44:14 Read in full sermon

The point: Before lying today, pause and reckon the full cost: 'I lie, I provoke the hatred of God.' A child of God must not trifle with provoking the hatred of the Father who loves them.

Some people have practiced lying so long that it is as effortless as breathing — they literally breathe out their lies (Proverbs 6:19). Martin notes no one in the room has been struggling to breathe this morning, and some lie just as naturally, without effort or conscience.

A false witness. The marginal reading that breathes out lies. Some of you sitting here, you have learned to lie so well and so naturally, it's no more an effort than breathing. You've been breathing all the while you've been here this morning.

55:05 - 55:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Diagnose the specific root of your lying: Is it self-protection — avoiding the consequences of truth? Self-promotion — projecting a better image? Or envy — hurting someone by misrepresentation? Deal with the root and the…

A teenager comes home at 11:15 instead of 11:00 and lies to parents — 'hit unusual traffic, got a flat tire' — out of self-protection to preserve car and social privileges. Martin uses this to illustrate self-protection as the primary tap root from which most lying grows.

So out of self-protection, you lie. Dad and Mom give you curfew. They want you in by 11 o'clock. You stagger into 11.15.

64:15 - 64:29 Read in full sermon

The point: If covered lies are building a wall between you and your parents, recognize that wall for what it is. He that covers his sins shall not prosper. Come clean today — restoration and new levels of intimacy are waiting on th…

When a child covers sins with lies, a wall rises between them and their parents. Every time they draw near for deeper intimacy, they know the wall is there. To reach the next level of closeness they know they must come clean — but the lie has to be faced first. Martin pleads: stop tolerating the wall.

It's been covered over. Remember, he that covers his sins shall not prosper. That's why you can't go into new levels of intimacy with your parents. That thing's a wall there and you know it.

67:06 - 67:19 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin leads the congregation in prayer, expressing hatred of the lie as the instrument by which Satan floated his agenda in Eden and brought all human suffering, pleading for God…

In the closing prayer Martin articulates that all human suffering — suffering, agony, rape, bloodshed, brutality, sickness, every grave and deathbed — flows from the lie with which the devil floated his agenda in Eden. Every funeral is a monument to Satan's 'You shall not surely die.'

Let's pray. Our Father, we hate the lie. We hate it when we see it entering the beautiful Edenic paradise that You had made. And by the lie, the devil floats his agenda.

70:22 - 70:52 Read in full sermon