Lying To God Series

Lying To God

Sermon Scripture Acts 5:1-4 (KJV)

Acts 5:1-4 1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, 2 And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, Ananias, why Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? 4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast though conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.

We need to stop lying to God.

Many times when we are faced with difficult situations and we really don’t understand how to fix them, we do what we think to be safe.

For instance, if someone confronts us about something we have said and we did not have a reason to say what we said neither did we know what we were talking about, we tell “little white lies” as if that is acceptable.

Lying is not acceptable by man or God because a lie is a lie no matter whom tells it or why they told it. So even when we tell what we think are small harmless lies we are not only lying to man but to God as well.

Another mischievous practice that we have is in our financial situations. When dealing with our finances we often find ourselves writing “bad checks”. We are willing to go as far as to use our signature (a personal official sign swearing that all that we have wrote before our signature is true) even when we are certain that we are writing a bad check. If the check is for two hundred dollars and we know that there is only fifty dollars in the bank at the time we sign it then we have just told a lie. We have lied to the person receiving the check, the bank, ourselves but most importantly we have lied to God.

Saints in case you did not know, I have been sent to tell you that lying to God is punishable by death.

There are many people in today’s society that live only by the grace of God. Though it is certainly true that even if we had never sinned we would still be living only by the grace of God (II Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.).

Not only have we sinned but we are bold enough to think that no one sees us in our wrong doing. Some of us are like rivers.

Illustration:

From (Wayne Field - SermonCentral.com)

Have you ever seen a straight river? Canals are straight, but all rivers seem to be crooked. We call it “meandering.” Why are rivers crooked? Because the natural tendency of a river is to take the easiest way around any obstacle. So rivers are always crooked, and they always run downhill.

Some people are like rivers. They are too lazy and immature to put forth much effort into walking with God. For them it’s easier to watch TV than to pray and easier to read their newspaper than to read their bible. They even think that it is easier to lie to God rather than tell him what is true.

Many of us live by the promises that we have made to God. In times of need we may often find ourselves making promises to God about what we would do for him if he would deliver us out of our situation.

For instance, we may tell God that if he would only save us from jail this one time, we will serve him for the rest of our lives. Or if he would help to feed our family this one time, we will tithe for the rest of our lives. There are various ways that we make promises or covenants with God only to find ourselves often straying away from those words after deliverance.

Let’s go back to our bad check situation. What if someone from your church worked in the bank that received your check and they saw the check that you wrote? This person really looks up to you because God sent you to them to witness and through your witnessing and testimonies they were drawn to Christ. However, now because of your lies their perception of God has changed. Some may think that this is acceptable and that God understands but the punishment for such an action is death because truly what we are doing is lying to God.