The Father Of Lies Fell Series

I SAW SATAN FALL! Series

1. The Accuser/Adversary Fell

2. The Pride Example Fell

3. The Ruler of Darkness Fell

4. The Father of Lies Fell, John 8:44

Lies are a big problem these days. Statistics are showing that more and more youth think it is okay if you lie, and if you get caught it just means you need to become a better liar, not that you’ve done something wrong!

Now how many of you have ever lied? Go ahead and put your hand up, because this may have been the 2nd time you’ve ever lied!

The Bible tells us in Col. 3:9, “Do not lie to each other…” Eph 4:25 says, “Put off falsehood and speak truthfully” to each other. So we all know lying is wrong. We wouldn’t want people lying to us, would we? Well then, the Golden Rule helps here, that as we’d want others to do to us, we do that to them: So we don’t to others because we wouldn’t want to be lied to.

But when are you tempted to lie the most? I believe I am tempted to lie the most when (1) I think I am going to get in trouble and so I get afraid, or (2) I think I can get more than I have so I stretch the truth. Do you ever find yourself tempted in those situations to lie just a little bit? Because you are afraid something really bad is going to happen to you OR you become greedy? Fear and greed fuel our temptation to lie to people. We literally sacrifice OTHER PEOPLE when we lie! When we lie, we are saying, “I’d rather YOU live without the truth than for me to live with the truth.” Lying is another form of hate…and that’s pretty strong if you stop and think about it. Proverbs 26:28, “A lying tongue hates those it hurts...” I didn’t say it, God did.

If you struggle with temptation to lie and I struggle with temptation to lie, perhaps knowing how this whole lying thing got started might help us to see our way out of it.

JOHN 8:42-47

I want to point out a few things about what John is telling us Jesus is saying here:

Satan wants to rid the earth of you, he was a murderer from the beginning (shown in his temptation of Adam and Eve in bringing DEATH upon the whole human race and upon the earth; and then also in Cain when he killed his brother Abel). Satan wants you and all people dead! How does he do it? What is one of the most effective ways he destroys people and takes their life away from them?

Murder: All out physical attack upon your body. He tries to get someone, somewhere, somehow to kill you. And he is setting up death traps all over to do it. And if he can’t KILL you quickly, he uses other means; they are slower, but still effective. One of those ways is LYING.

Let’s say Satan has a death trap set over here for you; he has been studying your life from before you were born and he knows all of your weaknesses; so he is scheming, plotting, writing out assignments against you and sending them off to his demons about how to get you to go in this direction. He has a DEATH trap setup for you.

LYING leads people to believe everything is safe and all right so they will keep heading in the direction of the trap!

Satan is called what in this passage, besides a murderer? A liar and the FATHER OF LIES! A parent has children and those children often look like their parent, act like their parent, even talk like their parent.

So when we lie, we are literally acting like what? Children of Satan.

This is not just a new thing in the NT, but the OT actually has much to say about LYING and LIES. Another word for LIES is FALSEHOOD. When you speak something that isn’t true or truthful, you have shared a false representation of reality and you’ve lied—whether by mistake or not. In the Psalms and Proverbs, a person who is known to do this—who has a reputation for speaking things that are not true—is called a fool, and is doing things God himself hates!

Proverbs 6:16–19; There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: and one of them is a lying tongue, and it sits among things like “Haughty or prideful eyes, hands that murder the innocent, a wicked scheming heart, feet which run fast to evil—what is needed is a godly chiropractic adjustment!

In the OT law, in the Decalogue or the TEN COMMANDMENTS, what is commandment #9? Clue: It has to deal with lying. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”