A Lying Tongue Series

SEVEN SINS TO AVOID

A LYING TONGUE

Sermon 2 of 7

The book The Day America Told the Truth says that 91 percent of those surveyed lie routinely about matters they consider trivial, and 36 percent lie about important matters; 86 percent lie regularly to parents, 75 percent to friends, 73 percent to siblings, and 69 percent to spouses.

Lying is indeed an accursed vice. We are men, and we have relations with one another only by speech. If we recognized the horror and gravity of an untruth, we should more justifiably punish it with fire than any other crime. I commonly find people taking the most ill-advised pains to correct their children for their harmless faults, and worrying them about heedless acts which leave no trace and have no consequences. Lying is, in my opinion, the only fault whose birth and progress we should consistently oppose. It grows with a child’s growth, and once the tongue has got the knack of lying, it is difficult to imagine how impossible it is to correct it.

I. A LYING TONGUE IS EASY TO JUSTIFY. LUKE 16:15

A) Everybody does it. It was only a little white lie.

“Austin O’Malley said “those who believe it is alright to tell little white lies soon grow color blind.”

B) Psalms 116:11 All people are born with a sin nature. That is not justification for continuing in that sin. It is used to open our eyes to the need of a Savior.

C) Well, Rahab did. We could argue the points of Rahab’s lie all day long and not come to an agreement. The Bible is perfectly clear when it says that a lying tongue is an abomination to God.

II. A LYING TONGUE WILL LEAD TO MISERY. PSA 120:2

A) A lie has no legs. It requires other lies to support it. Tell one lie and you are forced to tell others to back it up.

B) Bob Harris, weatherman for NY TV station WPIX-TV and the nationally syndicated independent Network news, had to weather a public storm of his own making in 1979. Though he had studied math, physics and geology at three colleges, he left school without a degree but with a strong desire to be a media weatherman. He phoned WCBS-TV, introducing himself as a Ph.D. in geophysics from Columbia U. The phony degree got him in the door. After a two-month tryout, he was hired as an off-camera forecaster for WCBS. For the next decade his career flourished. He became widely known as "Dr. Bob." He was also hired by the New York Times as a consulting meteorologist.

Forty years of age and living his childhood dream, he found himself in public disgrace and national humiliation when an anonymous letter prompted WCBS management to investigate his academic credentials. Both the station and the New York Times fired him. His story got attention across the land. He was on the Today Show, the Tomorrow Show, and in People Weekly, among others. He thought he’d lose his home and never work in the media again. WNEW-TV gave him a job. He admits it was a dreadful mistake on his part and doubtless played a role in his divorce. "I took a shortcut that turned out to be the long way around, and one day the bill came due. I will be sorry as long as I am alive."

III. A LYING TONGUE IS CONTRARY TO THE CHARACTER OF GOD.

A) God desires truth in our life. Psa 51:6

B) God is a God of truth Psa 31:5

Jesus said I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man cometh to the Father but by me.

I Cor 13 tells us that true love rejoices not in iniquity but in the truth.

C) The truth should be combined with Love. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: Don’t use the truth as a battering ram. Just as a lying tongue is contrary to the character of God, so is a vindictive or intentionally hurtful attitude.