Major Sins of the Tongue: Lying

Introduction: The Sermon Series and Setting Up the Questions

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, November 24th, 2002, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, one of the passages to which we will turn in the course of our study this morning is Proverbs chapter 6. And I want to read this portion before we pray and then take up our subject for the morning. Proverbs chapter 6.

0:33 And I shall read verses 16 to 19.

0:51 There are six things which the Lord hates. Yes, seven, which are an abomination unto him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that devise wicked purposes.

1:15 Feet that are... That are swift in running to mischief.

1:20 A false witness that literally breathes out lies. And he that sows discord among brethren. Let us pray together.

1:40 Our Father, it is a sobering thing to read that you hate anything. But when we read of the things that you hate, and the things that are...

1:52 An abomination unto you. And they touch so closely who and what we are. We tremble before you. And we pray this morning that your word will come as a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.

2:11 As a two-edged sword that cuts and divides. Lord, we ask that none of us will sit here this morning thinking that we are but mere spectators. Engage our hearts. Engage our minds.

2:29 Engage our affections. Engage our wills. And have dealings with us in grace and in mercy we plead. For Jesus' sake.

2:42 Amen. Last Lord's Day morning I indicated that I would be preaching several brief series of topical messages under the general heading, Now Conscious. Concerning. Following the pattern of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians, in which he addressed several specific pastoral concerns relative to the Corinthian church, introducing each of those unrelated issues with the words, Now Concerning, I will be doing a similar thing.

3:22 I don't do so because I think I'm an apostle, but simply because I find the apostles precedent a helpful framework within which, to work. Now the first of these brief series I've entitled, Now Concerning the Use of Our Tongues. And in the first sermon last Lord's Day dealing with that subject, I sought to do but one thing. And that was to demonstrate from the scriptures the profound significance of this issue of the use of our tongues, or subterfuge, the use of our tongues, and the use of our tongues, and the use of our tongues, what's the big deal.

4:05 And in seeking to demonstrate the big deal, in seeking to lay out the profound significance of this issue of the use of our tongues, I laid before you five categories of indisputable biblical truth. Number one, according to the scriptures, the pattern of the use of our tongues, constitutes an incisive revelation of the true state of our hearts. Matthew 12, 34 and 35, Romans 3, 13 and 14. Secondly, according to the scriptures,

4:46 the pattern of the use of our tongues constitutes an accurate test of the reality of our professed Christian experience. James 1 and verse 1. Verse 26. Thirdly, according to the scriptures, the pattern of the use of our tongues constitutes an accurate index of our general progress in practical godliness.

5:13 James chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. Fourthly, according to the scriptures, the pattern of the use of our tongues constitutes a significant part of our evangelical keeping of the law. And I did a brief survey of commandments 3 through 9, demonstrating that the tongue is vitally involved in the keeping of those specific commandments. And number five, according to the scriptures, the patterns of the use of our tongues will constitute a major factor of our judgment in the last day.

5:55 Matthew 12, verses 36. Matthew 12, verses 36. Matthew 12, verses 36. Matthew 12, verses 36.

5:58 And I trust with these five categories of biblical truth that I have persuaded your judgment that this matter of the use of your tongue for our deaf and hearing impaired people, the use of your hands to express the thoughts of the mind and of the heart, the use of our tongues is indeed a matter of profound importance the use of our tongues is indeed a matter of profound importance to each one of us. Not a one of us, from the youngest to the oldest, can afford the luxury of being indifferent to this subject, unless you are indifferent to where you stand before God right now,

6:43 unless you are indifferent to the true state of your heart right now, unless you are indifferent to whether or not you have true religion right now, unless you are indifferent to the law of God right now, and unless you're indifferent to the day of judgment, and unless you're indifferent to the day of judgment right now, and if you're in that condition, may Almighty God have mercy upon your poor, dead, blind, indifferent soul.

7:11 Now assuming, assuming, I trust that none sitting here this morning are in such a wretched and pathetic condition, but that I'm speaking to those who have varying degrees of genuine concerns with respect to those five categories of religion, categories of biblical truth, I want to begin to consider with you from the scriptures the major sins committed by our tongues. And as we begin this aspect of our study, I want to ask you several very pointed questions. Question One What sin of the tongue do you think is addressed most frequently in the Bible?

7:56 What sin of the tongue do you think, is addressed most frequently in the Bible. Secondly, what sin of the tongue most clearly reveals the true condition of our hearts, according to the Scriptures. If our tongues reveal our hearts, what sin of the tongue most clearly reveals the state of the heart, according to the Bible. Third question, what sin of the tongue is most destructive of meaningful, stable, satisfying interpersonal relationships?

8:39 Husband, wife, child, child, parent, child to teacher, sheep to shepherds. According to the Scriptures, what sin of the tongue is most destructive of meaningful, stable, satisfying, human, interpersonal relationships? Question four, what sin of the tongue most readily exposes us to the wrath of God and to the punishment of hell?

9:17 Now, have you been thinking as I've been asking the questions? If you've reflected upon these questions and have answered in your mind, well, pastor, it must be the sin of, and I was almost tempted to say everyone say it in unison, and I think we'd have almost complete, it is the sin of lying. It is the sin of dishonesty, the sin of misrepresenting or shaving the truth in our speech. And if you were thinking in terms of lying, dishonesty, misrepresenting or deliberately shaving the truth with your words, you are right.

10:01 For the answer to all four of those questions is, indeed, the sin of lying.

10:10 So as we begin to examine the teaching of Scripture concerning the specific sins of the tongue, we will focus our attention this morning simply upon, exclusively upon, the sin of lying. In the subsequent message, or two at the most, I'm going to collect together a number of other sins and not deal with them in such detail because the Bible doesn't. But because of the emphasis of the Word of God, there's going to be a disproportionate emphasis upon lying because the Bible gives what we would call a disproportionate emphasis upon the sin of lying. And to think our way through the subject this morning, we have four simple questions.

Question 1: What Does It Mean to Lie?

10:52 Question number one. What does it mean to lie? What does it mean to lie? What must a person do with his tongue in order to be justly charged with the sin of lying?

11:07 Well, the dictionary definition is quite simple and uncomplicated. To lie is to deliberately make a false statement. To lie is to deliberately make a false statement. We could go further and say that to lie is intentionally to deceive another person with our words.

11:32 Or again, to lie is to speak in such a way as to mislead. To lie is to deliberately misrepresent the truth. Now, we must think clearly on this point. Not all false statements or misrepresentations of the truth are lies.

11:49 They may be simply mistakes. But when they are deliberately made as false statements, when one knowingly misrepresents the truth, that constitutes a lie. Let me illustrate. Someone goes out, buys a...

12:09 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?

12:16 It's a scale. And we get a bathroom scale. All right? And so you've weighed yourself on your bathroom scale.

12:23 I'm assuming this is a man. And so the scale says 175 pounds. So the next week, after he's gotten his bathroom scale, and the reason he got it, he's going to have a general checkup with the doctor. He goes to the doctor, and the doctor asks him to write down on that form, it's your first visit, and you've got to fill out all this stuff, all of that history.

12:44 And so when he says height, weight, etc., you put your weight, 175 pounds, that's what your bathroom scale told him. All right? Well, in the course of your thorough exam by the doctor, you get on a real scale, you know, with the sliding things and all the rest.

12:57 And lo and behold, it's the bad news for you. It tells you you're 185.

13:04 Now, question. When you put down 175, were you lying?

13:10 It wasn't a statement according to truth. It wasn't a statement according to fact. But you weren't lying. You were misrepresenting the truth unwittingly.

13:22 Right? You didn't know it. You really thought you were 175, put down 175. You weren't lying when you put down 175.

13:29 However, now you know you're 185. And the doctor says, for your height and your body build, you ought to be real sure, you're not 175, not 185. And I'm going to put you on a regimen of both diets and exercise and the rest, that in the next three months, we get you down to 175 on my scale, not yours. Okay?

13:56 So, you're kind of cheating on the doctor's directives. The time's coming up. One month goes, oh, I got two months yet. Two months goes, oh, I got another month yet.

14:04 I can crash dive, blah, blah, blah, blah. And lo and behold, your scale still says 175. But you know it's 10 pounds under. That you're really still 185.

14:16 And you go in and the doctor's nurse says, how you doing with your weight? What do you weigh now?

14:22 Now, if you put the exact thing you did three months before, now you're lying. See the difference? You're putting exactly the same numbers on the paper. But now it's a lie because you are deliberately, knowingly misrepresenting the truth.

14:40 All right? You with me? So, what is it to lie? To lie is to deliberately make a false statement.

14:48 To lie is intentionally to deceive another person with my words. It is to deliberately, knowingly misrepresent the truth. And that definition or those descriptions of what a lie is fit precisely the first lie that we encounter in our Bibles. Now, you know where that first lie is?

15:15 It's in Genesis chapter 3. Let's see if the definition of the dictionary and the definition illustrated in this rather homey way fits. Genesis 3 verse 1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

15:33 And he said to the woman, Yea, as God said, you shall not eat of the tree of the garden. And the woman said to the serpent, Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden God has said, You shall not touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die. That's the first introduction of a lie.

16:03 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.

16:34 Here was a deliberate making of a false statement. Here was an intent to deceive another person with his words. And when we pick up our Bibles in the New Testament, we read in 1 Timothy 2, the woman was utterly deceived. She embraced the lie as though it were the truth.

17:00 That's what a lie is. It is a false statement made deliberately by the one who makes it. It is a statement that has an intention to deceive another person with words. It is a knowing misrepresentation of the truth.

17:18 Now, are we clear on what a lie is? All right, that's critical. And it's critical for a number of reasons, not the least of which is you and I live in a society that has a seared conscience about the moral nature of deliberately misrepresenting the truth. In every realm of the fabric of our society, we have an epidemic of lying.

17:53 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.

18:02 I never once had anybody call me up and ask my opinion about anything, so I'm a little bit suspicious at times about these surveys. But I'm giving you conservative estimates that the average adult American says more than a dozen lies a day, more than a dozen times throughout the day. Words are spoken that are deliberately false, spoken intentionally to deceive another person, spoken consciously in misrepresentation of the truth.

18:46 And my Bible says we are not to be conformed to this age, but transformed by the renewing of our minds that we may prove what is the good, acceptable, and the perfect will of God. And we must, as God's people, and you who are not Christians, if you allow society to condition your conscience, you'll slide into the hell made for liars. Believing a lie that God doesn't take lies seriously. And all the while, He does.

19:21 So we're going to work with that simple definition. Lying is any deliberately made false statement, any attempt intentionally to deceive another with our words. Now we come to question number two. Having ascertained what does it mean to lie, question number two, how does God look upon lying?

Question 2: How Does God Look Upon Lying? — Old Testament Survey

19:44 In other words, what is God's moral assessment of lying? And when we turn to our Bibles, is there any consistent witness to the evil of lying? Or is it viewed as a kind of human constitutional weakness with no real moral significance? People will sneeze when they have allergies.

20:10 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?

20:23 Of course not. Do you get upset when people cough and sniffle with their colds? Well, only if they sniffle on you and pass their cold on. But otherwise, you don't see any moral culpability in sniffles with the cold.

20:37 Are we to look upon lying as sort of a moral cold that people have, and people will sneeze and sniffle and people will lie? I mean, what's the big deal? Well, let's find out what the big deal is. Does the Bible give us any consistent testimony of how God looks upon lying?

21:00 And what we're going to do is make a brief survey from the Old through to the last book of the New Testament in order to catch a flavor of the consistent testimony of the Word of God with respect to how God looks upon lying. White lies, gray lies, polite lies, blatant lies, lies of any kind, any shape, any color, any deliberate misrepresentation of the truth is a lie. And we want to know whether or not the Bible consistently states the mind of God with respect to lying.

21:43 So we take up the Bible that's in your lap, in your hands. I hope you've got a Bible somewhere. Don't come to this place without a Bible. All right?

21:52 Hope you've got a Bible. Well, it's conveniently put into two major sections, Old Testament, New Testament. All right? And in the Old Testament, the way our English Bibles are put together, we have the first five books, the books of Moses, God's legislation primarily for His ancient people, Israel, with the preface of their history, how they came to be His nation from creation to the call of Abraham and the patriarchs and then God's deliverance of them out of Egypt and then making them His own people, on into the historical books and then into the books of poetry, Job through the Song of Solomon and then into the prophets, the minor and the major prophets.

22:34 And we're going to just take a specimen, one or two texts out of each of these major sections in order to ascertain is there a consistent revelation of the disposition of God towards lying? Well, let's look at the Mosaic legislation. Leviticus chapter 19 and verse 11. Leviticus chapter 19 and verse 11.

23:02 Buried in the midst of these sundry laws to the nation of Israel by which they were to govern their religious and national, interpersonal life with each other as God's covenant people. Look at Leviticus 19, 11. You shall not steal, neither shall you deal falsely, nor lie one to another. You shall not take the property of another.

23:35 It's His property in the providence of God. Embrace divine providence that it's not yours. Don't take it. It's His.

23:44 Don't steal. Secondly, don't take advantage of another by shady dealings. You shall not deal falsely. That is, don't seek advantage with respect to your brother by shady dealings.

23:59 If anything's in the fine print, it ought to be in the bold print to make the deal upright and honest. Then make sure it's in the bold print. And then thirdly, he says, you shall not lie one to another. In all of your interpersonal dealings within this covenant nation, I, Jehovah, am holy.

24:24 Notice the introduction in chapter 19. Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, you shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. And woven into the very texture of God's nature as a holy God, He is the God of truth. And He said, in my nation, you are to reflect my character.

24:44 You are not to lie one to another. You are never, under any circumstances, to knowingly, deliberately, misrepresent the truth in your dealings one with another. Lying is nowhere to be found among the covenant people of God. And then, of course, in the moral law recorded in Exodus chapter 20, and again in Deuteronomy chapter 5, we have this clear commandment, the ninth commandment, Exodus 20 and verse 16.

25:19 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. As Duma renders it, you shall not be a lying witness against your neighbor. And in the parallel passage in Deuteronomy 5.20, a little bit different vocabulary is used.

25:36 You shall not be a false witness against your neighbor. And as Duma points out in his masterful treatment of the Ten Commandments, A Guide to Christian Ethics, he points out that this has, as its primary reference, the judicial system in Israel. Remember, it was a system with no forensic science, no bugged phone lines, no DNA testing, no fingerprints, and all of the other things. No judge and prosecuting attorney and attorney for the defense, and no jury.

26:09 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.

26:48 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.

27:19 You shall not be a false witness against your neighbor. The primary reference there has to do with their dealings with one another within the very simple elementary judicial system established among God's covenant people. However, surely it has a much broader application with respect to the sin of non-truth speaking in all of our dealings. For the scripture makes it abundantly clear that our lies to one another have great negative effects upon others.

27:55 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.

28:32 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.

29:00 Well, what about the poetic literature? The Psalms and the Proverbs? The book of Job? Well, let's look at three passages very quickly.

29:08 Job chapter 27 and verse 4. Again and again you will find Job protesting his integrity when he's being slammed with people's words that he must be a hypocrite because no godly man gets zapped by God the way he has been zapped. And now in one of those sections where Job is protesting his integrity we read these words. Job 27 and verse 4.

29:35 Surely my lips shall not speak unrighteousness neither shall my tongue utter deceit. And the words my lips shall not could be rendered my lips do not speak unrighteousness neither does my tongue utter deceit. As he is protesting the validity of his integrity before God he says these lips do not indulge in unrighteousness and deceit. They are lips of truth.

30:09 Let's speak only the truth. And then when we turn to Psalm 120 the Psalm of the righteous king who lets us inside his heart to see what his desire is before God. I'm sorry in this song of ascents I was thinking of another passage I had thought of using in which David speaks as the righteous king and his determination to cut off all deceit within his kingdom. But here is the picture of the pilgrim going up to Jerusalem.

30:42 And here he is conscious that there are around him those that are unsympathetic to his God. And notice how he describes them. In my distress I cried to the Lord and he answered me. Deliver my soul O Lord from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue.

31:02 He says O God I am weary of dwelling in the midst of a climate of lies and of deception and I long to be delivered from it. The clear indication being that I am no part of that context in which lies and deception are part and parcel of common experience. And then two verses in Proverbs. Proverbs 12 and verse 22.

31:27 Proverbs 12 and verse 22. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord but they that deal truly are his delight. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. You know what that word abomination means?

31:50 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.

32:19 And after he's dealt with homosexuality and bestiality and every form of perversion he said these things are an abomination to me. What does God think and feel when he looks upon creatures leaving the natural use of heterosexual intimacy and sees them in their vile perversion? What does God feel? He says it is an abomination to me.

32:48 He feels the same way when your lips speak lies. You become so contrary to what he is and what you were made for. God feels to you with lying lips the same way he feels when a man consorts with a beast. You say pastor that's crude.

33:08 That's biblical. And you kids need that. You need to start thinking like God. It's an abomination.

33:20 Lying lips are an abomination unto God. But when he finds truthful lips those who deal truly God smiles. He says they make me happy. Why?

33:36 Because they're like me. I'm the God of truth. And I speak truth. And when I see creatures made in my image reflecting my image it makes me happy.

33:45 They're my delight. When you speak the truth even when it costs. Even when it gets you in trouble. You know what that means.

33:53 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.

34:25 Abomination and the delight. Your lips are one or the other to God. Proverbs 26, 28 which is trying to get a feel for the Bible's witness concerning the sin of lying. Proverbs 26 and verse 28 A lying tongue hates those whom it has wounded the marginal reading those whom it has crushed.

34:57 And a flattering mouth works ruin. A lying tongue hates those whom it has crushed. I love you, Mommy. Your lies are crushing her.

35:12 Don't say you love her when you lie to her. Love you, Dad. Not if you lie to Dad. You crush them.

35:22 Your stuff. Well, what happens when we come to the prophets? Well, let's look at the witness of two major prophets. Isaiah chapter 59.

35:33 The nation is being judged by God or has been judged by God. And Judah has been sent into Babylon. And God is in these chapters rich with comfort, nonetheless reminding the nation why she is where she is. Isaiah 59, 1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save.

35:57 Neither is ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God. And your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear. Your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity.

36:11 Your lips have spoken lies and your tongue mutters wickedness. Look at the family of sins surrounding a lying tongue. Hands defiled with blood. Fingers with iniquity, crookedness and perverseness.

36:33 And your lips have spoken lies. And in verse 13 of this very chapter, transgressing and denying the Lord and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. As God is continuing the litany of Israel's sins, He says, conceiving and uttering falsehood from the heart. Is there any consistent disposition of God to this sin?

37:16 Turn to one more major prophet, Jeremiah chapter 9, verses 4 and 5. Jeremiah 4 to 9, 4 and 5. Take heed, every one of his neighbors. Trust not in any brother.

37:30 What a strange command from God. Don't trust one another. Don't trust one another. Why?

37:37 Let me tell you why. For every brother will utterly supplant and every neighbor will go about with slanders and they will deceive every one his neighbor and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves to commit iniquity.

37:59 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.

38:31 Here's the problem with the rising tensions between labor and management. It's assumed dishonesty on both parts. The insurance company assumes fraud in the claims that are submitted. So to cover itself and still make a profit and cover the billions swallowed up by fraud, its prices keep going up.

38:56 And on the other hand, because the person using the system assumes that as he's dishonest, they're dishonest, and when they give us the reason they can't give this coverage and that coverage, they're not dishonest. They're not telling the truth. They're just trying to make themselves fatter tats at my expense. And when the fabric of honesty is gone, it's gone, folks.

39:16 We're living with it. We're living with it. Trust not anyone, his neighbor. Why?

39:24 They have taught their tongues to lie. They've instructed themselves to be efficient, perpetual, ubiquitous liars. What about the minor prophets? Hosea?

39:42 What is the witness of Hosea? Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, chapter 4 and verse 2. Listen to the witness of this prophet. There is naught but swearing and breaking faith, that's lying, and killing and stealing and committing adultery.

40:02 They break out in blood, touches blood, nothing but swearing, bringing down curses upon one another. God damn you for this, and God damn you for that. It's come in parlance now in primetime family hour TV. Lying!

40:22 And we call it women's rights. I defend a woman's rights. A woman's right to what? To her body.

40:33 To do what with her body? What's sucked out in the sterile operating room isn't her body. It's the body of an unborn baby. Lying!

40:49 Telling lies to themselves, lies to one another. Nought but swearing, bringing curses down upon others, lying, killing, stealing, committing adultery. They break out in blood, touches blood. Book of Micah.

41:08 Hosea, Joel, Amos, Jonah, Micah. Chapter 6 and verse 12. Beginning at verse 9, the voice of the Lord cries unto the city, and the man of wisdom will see your name, hear the rod and who has appointed it. God is speaking.

41:26 God is dealing with his people. For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. Todd looks down and says, I can't find mouths in which tongues speak truth. Lying tongues are the order of the day.

Question 2 Continued: New Testament Survey

41:51 Well, what happens when we come to the New Testament? Is this witness consistent with the old? Well, again, I give you just a brief survey. How do we divide up our New Testament?

42:01 Gospel, Acts, Epistles, and Revelation. Right? And I'm doing this again for the sake of some new converts, just to give them a feel for how their Bibles are put together. What does our Lord say in the Magna Carta, in the manifesto of the kingdom that He's come to establish in the hearts of men?

42:19 He says in that manifesto, He says in that marvelous manifesto that we call the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, verses 33 to 37. He says you shouldn't have to go around saying, I swear to God and hope to die, and then speak something. We find that all the time. People having to take the form of an oath to be believed.

42:38 The Lord said, no, no, not in my kingdom. Don't go around having to swear by this, swear by this. Why? Let your yes be a yes.

42:46 When you say yes, mean yes, and yes is yes. When you say no, let your no be no. In other words, He says, in my kingdom, you speak the truth. You do not intentionally shade the truth.

42:57 You do not speak with crossed fingers behind your back. Well, I say yes, but I have my fingers crossed. I don't say yes with mental reservations, the doctrine of the Jesuits. No, no.

43:09 When you say a yes, and you know that people will interpret your yes as a clear, unequivocal affirmation, He said, now you give them a yes, and you mean yes. Not yes plus, yes minus. Yes, yes. When you say no, no is no.

43:23 Not no but, not no, no. No is no, yes is yes. That's the way you're to function in my kingdom. You're to speak the truth.

43:31 I abominate lies. My kingdom is the kingdom of righteousness and light. I have come to establish a kingdom in which the subjects of my kingdom will reflect the character of my heavenly Father. You should be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

43:47 He is perfect in truth. And we are to reflect truth in our speech. And then it's interesting when you come to the book of Acts. What's the first case of church discipline in the book of Acts?

43:59 Remember what it is? What's the first case of church discipline? Chapter 5. And God himself is the disciplinarian.

44:14 Not Peter. Not the other apostles. God himself disciplines two people in that flourishing church. A flourishing church in Jerusalem.

44:25 And what are they disciplined for? Remember? Acts chapter 5. Ananias and Sapphira.

44:32 They lie. And we read in Acts chapter 5 in verse 4. Peter says, While it remained your own, wasn't it in your power? How is it that you have conceived this thing in your heart?

44:44 You have not lied unto men but unto God. And Ananias hearing these things fell down and gave up his spirit in great fear and pain upon all that heard it. And the young men arose and wrapped him round and carried him out and buried him. And three hours later they carried out his wife.

45:02 Why? Because they lied. Have you ever asked yourself why did God put such an emphasis upon this matter so early in the history of the church? That he killed two professing Christians that deliberately misrepresented the truth with regard to a few shekels.

45:27 Peter says, Hey, you sold the land for this? Oh, yeah. And we're bringing all that? Well, yeah.

45:33 They were just exaggerating a little bit to look a little more spiritual. We sold it for 10,000 bucks. When in reality they sold it for 15,000. They kept back 5,000.

45:44 Peter says, How much did you sell it for? Oh, 10,000. How much did you bring in? 10,000.

45:49 Wouldn't you think the Lord might have said, Now look, I understand. You want to appear a little more spiritual? It's very commendatory that you were given two-thirds of it in the first place and I don't want to deal with you too harshly. Give him a little tap on the back.

46:06 No, no. God put his hand right on their ticker and he squeezed it once and said, You've had it, Ananias. You've had it, Sapphira. Take them out and bury them.

46:17 My ecclesia, my called-out assembly will be a people that reflect my character as the God of truth. Lies will not be tolerated in my special presence. I want to ask you, if God killed this morning every child in this place that told a deliberate lie this week, how many funerals would I be attending to? And the fact that God doesn't kill liars like he did then doesn't mean

47:01 that his heart is any less disposed in holy abomination against lying lips. He's long-suffering and he's patient. He's made his statement clearly in Acts chapter 5. But don't mistake his long-suffering for a relaxing of his holy anger against lying lips and the one who possesses them.

47:29 And when we come into the epistles, Colossians 3 and verse 9, Colossians 3 and verse 9, do not lie one to another, seeing you have put off the old man with his doings and have put on the new man that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him. He says to the Colossian Christians, do not under any circumstances lie to one another. Do not under any circumstances misrepresent the truth one to another. Why?

48:05 Because untruth and lying were part of what you were when you were in Adam. You were old man. You were under the dominion of sin. You are now in Christ.

48:15 You are new man. You are united to Christ, indwelt by the Spirit. You're in the new age, the new age in which truth and righteousness reign. Parallel passage, Ephesians 4, 25, very similar language.

48:32 And then we come to Titus chapter 1. There was an epidemic of mixed sin in the isle of Crete. And what was it? Verse 12 of Titus 1.

48:47 One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons. This testimony is true. I'm not quite sure who this particular person in history was, and it's debated. But someone in the pagan world had identified one of the crowning sins of the Cretans as being liars.

49:14 And apparently, those who were being called out of such a society still had some of the barnacles on their hull. And he said, this testimony is true. Cretans are known to be liars. For which cause?

49:25 Reprove them sharply that they may be sound or healthy in the faith. If someone is still given to lying, he's sick, morally sick. He's not healthy in the faith that is in Jesus. And therefore, lying is to have no part in a healthy assembly of God's people.

49:49 And then the final testimony of the New Testament is Revelation 21 and verse 8. Revelation 21 and verse 8. And here we read these sobering words. Revelation 21 and verse 8.

50:05 After describing the glory and the beauty of the new heavens and the new earth and the redeemed that are in it, in all of their privileges. But, but for the fearful and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and fornicators and sorcerers and idolaters. What a company. Unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually unclean, sorcerers, idolaters.

50:43 But look. And look. And all liars. And all liars.

50:52 And all Christian homes. Liars reared in Christian homes. Liars schooled in the Christian context. Liars schooled in Trinity Christian school.

51:15 All one of them. Without exception. Young or old. Underprivileged.

51:26 Liars. Their part shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. That's God's crowning witness to what we've seen from Leviticus clean through our Bibles concerning God's clear, simple, unified disposition to the sin of lying. We've answered the question, what is it to lie?

51:58 We've answered the question, what is God's disposition towards lying? Is there a unified Biblical witness of how God reacts to lying? The answer is clear. And then we come to the third question.

Question 3: What Is God's Attitude and Action Toward the Liar?

52:19 And that is this. What is God's attitude and action towards the liar and his lying lips? We've seen his disposition. But what is his abiding attitude and action to the liar and to his lying lips?

52:41 And I want you to consider just four or five texts very quickly. Psalm 5, verses 4 to 6. Let the Bible answer these questions. Psalm 5, verse 4.

52:56 You are not a God that has pleasure in wickedness. Evil or the evil man shall not sojourn with you. The arrogant shall not stand in your sight. You hate all workers of iniquity.

53:11 You will destroy them that speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. God will deal with you as a liar the same way he'd deal with a murderer. He abhors both of you.

53:32 And he will destroy you. And he'll destroy you in that place that was described in Revelation 21, in verse 8. Psalm 52, verses 1 to 5. Psalm 52, verses 1 to 5.

53:46 What is God's attitude and action towards the liar and his lying lips? Why do you boast yourself in mischief, O mighty men? The loving kindness of God endures continually. Your tongue devises wickedness like a sharp razor working deceitfully.

54:05 You love evil more than good, and lying more than to speak righteousness. You love all devouring words, O deceitful tongue. God will likewise destroy you forever. He will take you up and pluck you out of the tent and root you out of the land of the living.

54:26 That is R-rated, violent language, my friend. And your lies and your lying lips provoke God to be violent towards you, because you are denying all that you are to be as His image, as the God of truth. We read the Proverbs 6 passage. We just look at it briefly.

54:53 Proverbs 6, 16. There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue. Verse 19.

55:05 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.

55:24 I haven't seen anyone sitting there with a look of struggle on your face. If you were, we know you were having a heart attack or some serious physical problem. We've been sitting here breathing effortlessly. And there are children, and young men, and perhaps some teenagers.

55:42 You've become so adept at lying, it's as easy for you as breathing. You can breathe out your lies. God hates your lies and the lips and the person who has the lips of the liar. That's serious stuff, kids.

56:11 Before you go home today and lie, you better think for a minute. I lie, I provoke the hatred of God. I want to contend with God. Then let me go on being a liar.

56:24 Proverbs 12, 22, we already looked at. Proverbs 19 and verse 5. The final text under this heading. A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that utters lies shall not escape.

56:40 Oh, yes. You've escaped mom. You've escaped dad. You've calmed them well.

56:48 You've escaped the teacher. Nobody knows. Nobody knows. When did God become absent-minded and carnival?

57:03 He knows.

57:06 Every idle word you speak, you'll give an account. One of those idle words are lying words. And God knows them. Every one of them.

57:17 You think you've fooled mom. You've fooled dad. You've fooled your teacher. You've fooled everybody.

57:23 Almighty God says you will not be unpunished. And he that utters lies will not escape. God's attitude is one of active, passionate hatred toward lying lips and the person who possesses them. God says you as a liar are an abomination unto him.

57:45 Now, some of you are going to be very offended. Oh, you tell the children God hates them. Yes, my Bible says it. You've got a problem with the Bible?

57:52 Go tell God to rewrite it, my friend. Tell God to rewrite it. In your mushy sentimentality, tell God you don't like the way he wrote his Bible. Until then, don't accuse me of speaking untruth.

58:04 My task is to speak the truth. And I've quoted sufficient verses to convince a pagan jury who don't believe the Bible, that the Bible teaches God's attitude to liars is one of righteous, positive hatred and abomination. Settle it as an indisputable reality that a liar with his lying lips will be dealt with by a holy man. By a holy and a righteous God.

Question 4: God's Remedy for the Sin of Lying

58:41 So we come in closing then. Question number four. What's God's remedy for the sin of lying? What's God's remedy?

58:49 I can't stop where I've stopped. I'm sorry, as far as I've come. What's God's remedy for the sin of lying? Well, there are two categories of liars.

58:58 And God's remedy for both is different. The one category of liar is the person that I'm describing in which you are held in the grip of a reigning sin of lying. In other words, lying has become a way of life to you. It's not that you are occasionally tempted to lie and you succumb to the temptation of lying, but lying is a reigning sin in your life.

59:29 You are not one who occasionally tells a lie, but you are a liar. In other words, when God says all liars have their way, they're part in the lake of fire, He is not speaking of the true earnest believer who because of remaining sin and by peculiar problems and situations in his life may be particularly prone to lying as a besetting sin. No, no. He's not a liar who will be cast into the lake of fire.

59:59 A liar is someone in whom the lie is a reigning principle. Dishonesty with your lips is a pattern of your life. What's God's remedy for you? Well, it's this.

60:14 Face the fact that your pattern of lying is conclusive evidence that you're an unregenerate sinner on your way to hell. Face the fact that your pattern of lying is conclusive evidence that you're a stranger to the grace of God and on your way to hell. Jesus said to the Jews, the Pharisees of His day, in John 8, 44, You are of your father the devil, and the lust or desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and a liar, and he abode not in the truth.

60:50 You are never more like the devil than when you lie. And you prove your spiritual parentage when lying is a way of life to you. Don't you tell me or anyone else, Oh, I'm a Christian, I'm trusting Jesus. I must be a Christian.

61:06 No, if lying is the pattern of your life, you're unconverted. You are of your father the devil. Face that reality and then repent of your sin of lying and cast yourself upon a gracious Savior who promises to pardon all of your sins, including your dozens and hundreds of lies. Repent, Jesus said, and believe in the gospel.

61:35 Paul said he preached repentance toward God, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Come to the God of truth and say, Oh, God of truth, I've been so unlike you. I've been a liar and a deceiver, and I'm helpless to change my lying heart and my deceiving lips. But, oh, God, I desire to be delivered and I desire to be taken out of this pattern of being a liar.

62:02 And, Lord Jesus, you said, Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Your apostle said that in your name there is forgiveness and forgiveness from all things from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses. Lord Jesus, forgive me, cleanse me, purge me of my lies. Then cry to God to give you a fundamental change of heart, for remember Jesus' words.

62:29 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. The evil man out of his evil treasure. You need an honest heart.

62:41 That's why God says in Psalm 15, 3, the one who has access into his presence is the one who speaks truth in his heart. You're never going to have truth-speaking lips until you have a truth-framed heart. And God says, I will take out the heart of stone. I will give you a heart of flesh.

62:58 I'll write my law upon it. I'll give you my spirit. I'll give you a disposition that wants to be truthful. Think of it, kids.

63:07 Some of you for whom lies have been a way of life. God can change all of that and make you love the truth and speak the truth. Face your true state. Repent and flee to Christ.

63:22 Cry to God to give you a change of heart. Well, what's the remedy for those of you for whom lying is not a way of life but you struggle with it? Perhaps it was a way of life before you became a Christian. What do you do?

63:37 What's the remedy for your remaining sin? What's the meaning of lying? Number one, face honestly the roots of your lying. Face honestly the roots of your lying.

63:49 Why do we lie? We lie almost invariably for self-protection, self-promotion, or a desire to take advantage of another or hurt another. You think about that. You get caught in a situation where if you tell the truth, the consequences may not be pleasant.

64:15 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.

64:29 You know the consequences. You don't keep the curfew. You get grounded for a month. So to protect your liberty, to take the car and go out with your buddies, they say, how come you're home at 10.15?

64:40 Oh, hit unusual traffic. Got a flat tire. You lie to protect yourself. You see, you've got to deal with the roots of self-protection that produces the lies.

64:49 Or you lie for self-promotion. You do with your lies what you can't do with your performance. You try to project yourself to be something you're not. And you use your lie to promote yourself or protect yourself.

65:03 And you see, the root of that is a problem with what it is to be a true disciple who denies himself. Not protects himself and promotes himself, but denies himself. Takes up his cross to follow Christ. Or, you tell lies to take advantage of another.

65:23 Somebody has something you want and the only way you can get it is to lie. Or, somebody is or has something you don't want and in your envy you want to hurt them and you hurt them with a lie. Deal, Christian, with the roots of your lying. And the fruits will dry up if you deal with the roots.

65:43 Love of self and the lack of love to others are the two main tap roots of the besetting sin of lying. In the life of a believer. And then secondly, you must lay hold of the promised grace to overcome lying. Lay hold of the blessed reality that I'm united with Christ and in union with Him.

66:03 I died to the reign of sin. I've been risen to newness of life. And on that basis, I will reckon myself dead to sin and alive unto God in union with Christ. And I'll present my members, including my tongue, as an instrument of righteousness.

66:18 And I will say, God, I'd rather die than use this tongue to speak a lie. And if speaking the truth means I must die, I've just chased up to heaven earlier than I thought I'd go there. That's the justification of martyrdom. Better to speak the truth than to spend a few more days on earth.

66:39 Christian, why do you lie? You want to protect yourself. You don't dare tell your wife that thing you know you gotta tell her. Go home today and tell her.

66:55 Say, honey, I've been protecting myself, but I have no right to keep this from you. I can't keep it from you. I must be honest with you and bare your heart to her. You kids, you've got some secrets.

67:06 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.

67:19 You know it! You can't get over it. Because every time you draw near for greater intimacy, you know if we're gonna come to that new level, you gotta come clean. Oh, kids, stop.

67:32 Stop. Stop tolerating the wall. Come clean. Oh, yeah.

67:37 Maybe a little smart. A little present, disciplined. What's the big deal? Don't you want to be having a close, open-faced, utterly transparent relationship with your mom and dad?

67:49 I speak as a parent who knows nothing, nothing is more destructive of a meaningful parent-child relationship than dishonesty. Nothing. Where were you? Your parents' heart.

68:10 One broken heart around here's enough. Break your parents' heart by lying. Their arms around you with tears of joy that you've come clean. If you're dealing with the besetting sin of lying, face its roots.

68:41 Go to Christ for forgiveness and cleansing and the grace to overcome it and then make the restitution. You've got to. You've got to. You've got to.

69:00 You've got to. You've got to. You've got to. You've got to.

69:05 You've got to. You've got to. You've got to. You've got to.

69:09 You've got to. You've got to. You've got to. Some of you are sitting here and you've got a warfare going on in your soul.

69:15 There are issues that have come before your mind. But I can't. You've got to. You must.

69:24 May God grant that before the day is over, whole new dimensions of genuine family intimacy will break in upon families in this place because the lies are driven out. And the light of truth has come in to our interpersonal relations. You want to make this old preacher happy? You come at the end of the day and take me aside and say, Pastor, I'm one of those families.

69:52 The truth is answered. The lies have been driven out. And then by the grace of God, keep them out. Well, we come around full circle to where we began.

70:04 What is the sin addressed more than any other? The sin of the tongue and the Bible. I believe it is the sin of lying. May God grant that that sin will be driven far from our ranks today by the power of the Spirit through the Word.

Closing Prayer

70:22 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.

70:52 And all the suffering and all the agony and all the rape and all of the bloodshed and all of the brutality and the sickness and every grave and every deathbed is a reminder that he's a liar. Oh, Lord, help us to hate the lie. Help us to love Him who said, I am the truth. And we beg of You today that You would have dealings with all of our hearts.

71:24 Especially, Lord, do we pray for those who are under the dominion of the sin of lying that You'll give them no rest until they know the truth of Jesus who said, whom the Son sets free is free indeed. God, don't let Your Word fall to the ground. But may it bear abundant fruit for our good and for Your glory. In Jesus' name.

71:51 Amen.