Introduction:
A. Jim Harte sent me a story this week, and it is a perfect story to begin with.
B. The story is told of a teacher who asked her elementary school students what their favorite animal was.
1. One little boy said, “Fried chicken.”
a. The teacher said that he wasn't funny, but she couldn't have been right, because everyone else in the class laughed.
b. The little boy’s parents told him to always tell the truth, and he did. Fried chicken was his favorite animal.
c. Anyway, his teacher sent him to the principal's office.
d. The boy told the principal what happened, and he laughed, too.
e. Then he told him not to do it again.
2. The next day the teacher asked the students what their favorite live animal was.
a. The same little boy told her it was chicken.
b. She asked him why, and he told her it was because you could make them into fried chicken.
c. She sent the boy back to the principal's office.
d. The principal laughed, and told him not to do it again.
3. The little boy still didn’t understand.
a. His parents taught him to be honest, but his teacher didn’t like it when he was.
4. The next day, the little boy’s teacher asked her students to tell her what famous person they admired most.
a. The same little boy told her, “Colonel Sanders.”
b. Guess where the little boy was sent?
C. We say that honesty pays off, but actually it often costs.
1. Nevertheless, doing right is its own reward. Honesty is always the best policy.
2. Are you known for being a truly honest person, or do people have to wonder if you are telling the truth?
3. Honest lips spring from an honest heart.
D. We are called to be Jesus’ witnesses.
1. Like a witness in court, we are called to tell the truth.
2. There is, however, one difference between the witness in court and the witness for Christ.
3. The witness in court eventually steps down from the witness chair, but the witness for Christ never does.
4. Our court is always in session, and we always remain under oath.
5. For the Christian, deception is never an option.
6. It certainly wasn’t an option for Jesus.
I. Jesus and Honesty
A. One of the most astounding assessments of Christ is this summary from Isaiah 53:9: “though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.”
1. Jesus was staunchly honest.
2. His every word was accurate, and his every sentence was true.
3. Not once did Jesus stretch the truth.
4. Not once did Jesus avoid the truth.
5. Jesus simply told the truth – no deceit was found in his mouth.
B. Our God has been clear about honesty.
1. Psalm 101:7 says: “No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house…”
2. From Genesis to Revelation, the theme is the same: God loves the truth and hates deceit.
3. Prov. 12:22, “The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful.”
4. Prov. 6:16-17, “The LORD hates…a lying tongue.”
5. Psalms 5:6, “You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the LORD abhors.”
6. Revelation 21:8, “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.”
7. You know the children’s song based on that verse…revelation, revelation, 21:8, 21:8
C. Why is it that God takes such a hard line on honesty?
1. One reason is that dishonesty is absolutely contrary to the character of God.
2. According to Hebrews 6:18, “it is impossible for God to lie.”
a. It’s not that God will not lie or that He has chosen not to lie – He cannot lie.
3. The book of Titus echoes the same words as the book of Hebrews: “God does not lie.” (1:2)
D. God always speaks truth.
1. When He makes a promise, He keeps it.
2. When God makes a statement, He means it.
3. When God proclaims the truth, we can believe it.
E. Satan, on the other hand, finds it impossible to tell the truth.
1. According to Jesus, the devil is “the father of lies” (Jn. 8:44)
2. If you remember, deceit was the first tool out of the devil’s bag.
a. In the Garden of Eden, Satan didn’t discourage Eve, or seduce her, he just lied to her.
b. Satan said to Eve, “God says you’ll die if you eat the fruit, but I’m telling you that you will surely not die.” (Gen. 3:1-4)
c. Eve was suckered, and the fruit was plucked, and her husband followed suit, and the innocence of the garden was lost.
3. The devil is still spinning his deceitful webs and we are still falling into his traps.
II. The Wages of Deceit
A. Look at some of the results of a Psychology Today survey:
1. More people say they have cheated on their spouse than on their tax returns.
2. More than half say that if their tax returns were audited, they would probably owe the government money.
3. About one out of three people admits to deceiving a best friend about something within the last year.
4. Nearly half predict that if they scratched another car in the parking lot, they would drive away without leaving a note – although 89% agree that would be immoral.
5. I heard a story about a guy who hit someone’s car in a parking lot.
a. Because many people were watching, the man took a piece of paper and wrote some things on the paper and put it under the windshield wiper of the car he hit.
b. The people watching assumed he had wrote his contact information, but all he wrote was: “Sorry I hit your car. People are watching me write this note, but I can’t give you my contact information, sorry.”
B. Why do we tolerate such dishonesty?
1. How do we explain our dishonesty?
2. Jeremiah was so right when he announced: “The heart is deceitful above all things.” (Jer. 17:9)
C. If we are honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that we often don’t like the truth.
1. Maybe you have heard the story of the man who received a call from his wife while she was on a business trip.
a. She asked, “How’s my cat?”
b. He said, “I’m sorry to say, your cat is dead.”
c. She was upset with him. “Why were you so bluntly honest? Why didn’t you break news to me slowly?”
d. “What do you mean?” Her husband asked.
e. She explained, “When I called today, you could have said that my cat was on the roof and wouldn't come down. Then when I called the next day, you could have said that he had fallen off the roof and the vet was working on patching him up. Then when I called the third day, you could have said he had passed away.”
f. Her husband apologized.
g. Then his wife asked, “So how's my Mom?”
h. Her husband hesitated, “Well, She's on the roof and won't come down.”
2. As I said, we don’t like the truth.
3. Our credo is “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you squirm.”
4. Our dislike for the truth began at a young age when mom walked into the room and asked, “Did you hit your brother? Did you hit your sister?”
a. We knew then and there that honesty had its consequences.
b. So we learned to try to avoid the truth.
c. “Did I hit baby brother? That all depends on how you interpret the word ‘hit.’ I mean, sure I made contact with him, but would a jury consider it a hit? Everything is relative, you know.”
d. Or we might respond, “Did I hit baby brother? Yes, I did, but it’s not my fault. Had I not been born with such aggressive chromosomes, or if you had not permitted me to watch so much television, then it never would have happened. So, you can say I hit my brother, but it’s not my fault.”
5. The truth, we learn early, is not fun.
D. Not only do we not like the truth, we don’t trust the truth.
1. Often the truth seems inadequate to do what we need done.
2. We want our boss to like us, so we flatter. We call it polishing the apple. God calls it a lie.
3. We want people to admire us, so we exaggerate. We call it stretching the truth. God calls it a lie.
4. We want people to respect us, so we live in houses we can’t afford, and charge bills we can’t pay. We call it the American way. God calls it living a lie.
E. Ananias and Sapphira are a good example of what I’m talking about.
1. They sold a piece of property and gave half the money to the church.
2. They lied to Peter and the apostles, claiming that the land sold for the amount they gave.
3. Their sin was not in holding back some of the money for themselves; it was in misrepresenting the truth in order to impress others.
4. Their deceit resulted in their deaths.
5. The Bible says, “Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.” (Acts 5:11)
F. Often after reading that story, people say with a nervous chuckle, “I’m glad God doesn’t still strike people dead for lying.”
1. But I’m not so sure He doesn’t – not the death of the body, but the death of other things.
2. The death of a marriage – falsehoods in marriage are like termites in the foundation of a house – they lead to its collapse – it’s death.
3. Or the death of a conscience – the tragedy of the second lie is that it is always easier to tell than the first.
4. Or the death of a career – just ask the employee who got fired for falsifying reports if the lie wasn’t fatal.
5. We could also list the death of intimacy, trust, credibility and self-respect.
6. But perhaps the most tragic death that occurs from deceit is the death of our witness.
a. The court won’t listen to the testimony of a perjured witness, and neither will the world.
b. Certainly God won’t and can’t use us as a witness if we won’t tell the truth.
III. Facing the Music
A. I’ve read several explanations of the phrase, “facing the music.”
1. An interesting explanation says that many years ago a man conned his way into the orchestra of the emperor of China even though he couldn’t play a note.
2. Whenever the orchestra performed, he would hold his flute against his lips and pretended to play without making a sound.
3. He received a modest salary and enjoyed a comfortable life.
4. One day the emperor requested a solo from each musician.
5. The flutist got nervous because there wasn’t enough time to learn to play the instrument.
6. He pretended to be sick, but the royal physician wasn’t fooled.
7. On the day of his scheduled solo performance, the impostor took poison and killed himself.
8. The explanation of his suicide led to a phrase that found its way into the English language: “He refused to face the music.”
B. The cure for deceit is simply this: to face the music.
1. We need to simply tell the truth – to ourselves, to God and to others.
2. When we examine our hearts do we find that we are living with deceit?
3. We need to ask ourselves: Will God bless my deceit?
4. Will He, who hates lies, bless a strategy built on lies?
5. Will He, who loves the truth, bless the business of falsehoods?
6. Will God advance the career of a flatterer or cheater?
7. We know the answer to those questions – It is emphatically “NO.”
C. Let’s examine our hearts and ask ourselves some tough questions.
1. How honest am I being with God?
2. How honest am I being with my spouse and children?
3. Are my relationships marked by candor?
4. Am I honest in all of my dealings?
5. Am I trustworthy and reliable?
6. Do I tell the truth always – the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
D. Sports Illustrated once carried this powerful story about honesty.
1. One day a baseball game was played in Wellington, Florida.
a. In it, a 7 year-old first basemen, Tanner Munsey, fielded a ground ball and tried to tag a runner going from first to second base.
b. The umpire, Laura Benson, called the runner out, but young Tanner immediately ran to her side and said, “Ma’am, I didn’t tag the runner. I missed him.”
c. The Umpire reversed the call and sent the runner to second base.
d. Young Tanner’s coach gave him the game ball for his honesty.
2. Two weeks later, Laura Benson was again the umpire and Tanner was playing shortstop when a similar play occurred.
a. This time Benson ruled that Tanner had missed the tag on a runner going to third base and called the runner safe.
b. Tanner looked at the umpire with an upset expression, but without saying a word, tossed the ball to the pitcher and returned to his position.
c. Benson, the umpire, sensed something was wrong, so she asked Tanner, “Did you tag the runner?”
d. Seven year-old Tanner replied, “Yes I did.”
e. The umpire then reversed her call and called the runner out.
f. The opposing coaches protested until she explained what had happened two weeks earlier.
g. She said, “If a kid has been that honest in the past, then I have to believe him.”
3. We should live in a way that that can be said about us.
E. Look again at our Scripture Reading: Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. (Eph. 4:25)
1. We are all members of Christ’s body.
2. Jesus has an honest heart, and since we are a part of Him, we must be like Him.
3. We must not delay cultivating an honest heart. We must put off falsehood.
4. The ripple of today’s lie is tomorrow’s wave and next year’s flood.
F. Remember: Satan wants to sell us a lie.
1. Satan tells us that we can’t trust God or the truth.
2. Satan is telling us that there is no heaven, no hell, and there is no hurry.
3. But we know better than to believe Satan.
G. Jesus is the way and the truth, and we can trust Him.
1. Jesus has told us that we can know the truth and that the truth will set us free. (Jn. 8:32)
2. Let’s learn the truth, love the truth, live the truth, and speak the truth.
3. The Apostle John wrote: 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. (1 Jn. 1:8-10)
4. Let’s turn to the Lord and be truthful about our sins and our need for His grace.
5. Let’s ask God to help us to have a more honest heart just like Jesus.
Resources:
“Just Like Jesus: Learning to Have a Heart Like His,” by Max Lucado, Thomas Nelson, 2008
The Lying Tongue, Sermon by Jerry Shirley, SermonCentral.com
Damaging the Truth – That Ain’t Right, Sermon by Jeff Strite, SermonCentral.com
