Liar, Liar
CCCAG May 28th, 2017
Scripture- Exodus 20:16
There was a Rabbi that moved into a small community to minister to the Jewish population there. In his congregation, he had a man who was known to be very confrontational and difficult to deal with. Within a few weeks of the new rabbi being there, something was said during a teaching moment that rubbed that man the wrong way, and he started to loudly complain about it around town to anyone who would listen. The stories started to morph into accusations of misconduct by the rabbi that spread into neighboring towns, and for years the rabbi had to fight against these stories and rumors that kept him closed out of other Jewish congregations as well as being respected by the other faith communities around him.
One day, the man who had started the whole mess had a major tragedy happen in his life, and even though he had trashed the rabbi to the community, the rabbi still came and helped him through this very rough time. The man was stricken in his heart by the rabbi’s actions, because he knew that his words had deeply hurt the man on a personal level, as well as call into question his professional life. The man asked the rabbi for forgiveness and asked if there was any way he could make amends.
The rabbi told him- “I want you to go home and find an old feather pillow. Take it out to a field this evening and cut it open and shake out all of the feathers. When you are done with that, please come back and see me.”
The man was confused, but out of genuine remorse for his actions and gratitude for the rabbi’s support he did what he was asked- and feathers flew everywhere and covered a few acres of land. The man went back to the rabbi and told him he had down as he was asked.
The rabbi said, “Now I want you to go down to the field and pick up every single one of those feathers and get them back into the pillow and sew it up again.”
The man protested and said, “Rabbi, that would be impossible- most of those feathers have flown away and can never be found”
The rabbi replied, “Yes, it is impossible. Those feathers are the words we speak. Once we release them to the wind, we can never know where they will fly, and we can never find them or put them back into our mouths ever again.”
This story introduces us to our message on the 9th commandment today it’s found in-
Exodus 20:16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
Prayer- loose lips sink ships, words thrown casually hurt the most
Today we are going to study the 9th Commandment and the reasons that God gave it to the Hebrews at Mt. Sinai and what it means for us today.
Today we are going to break this truth down into a few parts. The first part of the message will cover the theological side of giving false testimony which is the biblical phrase for lying, then follow it with how lying damages us on a spiritual level, and then end it with lying about other people.
Buckle in…this one might be rough. I almost came down and used the small podium again because this message is just as convicting to prepare and preach as it will be for you to hear it.
The modern way to say the 9th Commandment is simply “Do Not Lie”. With any of the commandments, you can also speak it’s opposite to show that it’s true-
Do not murder. Support Life
Do not Steal. Protect and cherish private property
Do not commit adultery- be completely Godly and honorable in your heart dealings with each other
This one is do not lie, which means to Always speak the truth.
Why is this important to us today, and ultimately, why is this important to God?
I. Lying is the anthesis or opposite of the nature of God
Deut 32:4 as well as dozens of other scriptures describe God as a God of truth.
But what is truth? Truth is a word that has undergone some serious damage in our world today. If you make a truth claim to someone on the street, they might reply to you- “Whose truth are we talking about?”
In this age of relativism and situational ethics, truth is a very questionable word.
I was talking with an atheist recently about the truthfulness of the bible. She said, “Well, that’s your truth. My truth is that the bible is a collection of writings by primitive people who didn’t understand natural occurrences so they made up some sky-god and formed a religion around him. She quoted Arthur C Clarke, a science fiction writer who wrote the book that became a movie called “2001, a Space Odyssey”.
Clarke wrote-
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic (or the supernatural).”
Primitive man saw things he couldn’t explain and therefore thought it was magic or supernatural and attributed it to a being called god.
That was her truth.
Obviously we as biblical Christian understand this differently.
So lets define what is truth from the biblical and spiritual perspective- My favorite definintion you’ve heard me say many times before comes from the “The Truth Project” which defines truth like this-
“Truth is reality as seen through the eyes of God”
Think about that for a moment. Our society and culture want us to believe there is more than one truth, but that is logically impossible for there to be more than one truth. Anything other than THE truth is a lie.
Since God is the only one in existence that knows and sees everything that is, that was, and that ever shall be, He is the only one who can tell us what truth is with any degree of certainty.
Therefore, God is truth, and there is no lie found within Him.
So we have established that truth comes only from God, let’s explore why lying is so bad.
II. Why lying is bad
Lying is the exact opposite of who God is. In fact, the bible says that satan is the father of all lies and that when he lies he is speaking his native language. Satan is a created being who rebelled against God and became evil personified. However, he is not the “evil god”, he is a created being who rebelled- and therefore is not God’s equal.
In fact, the reason that you and I are sitting in church today is because of a lie that satan told our ancestors.
Let me clarify that statement a little in explaining one of the reasons why these commandments were given-
Every society has what is called a meta-narrative. Meta-narratives help us understand why a people think, believe, and behave the way that they do.
For example, America’s meta-narrative is that our ancestors came to this country to escape persecution or to find a better life than that where they emigrated from.
As Americans, we are rebels by nature, rugged individualists, and very self-centered in the way we view the world. Most of us believe that America is exceptional among the world’s nations, and we are the envy of every other culture on the planet.
That is short version of America’s meta-narrative.
At the time the commandments were given, there were 8 major events that defined the Hebrew Nation, culture, and way of thinking-
1. Creation,
2. the Fall,
3. Noah/flood,
The lives of the patriachs, in particular
4. Abraham,
5. Jacob,
6. Joseph,
7. Egyptian slavery,
8. and the Exodus.
The commandments were given within those metanarratives in such a way as to reveal more completely the character and nature of God, as well as to contrast humanities complete moral downfall.
It began with that first event- creation and the fall of man- with Eve, then Adam believing 4 big lies about God-
The lie began with a question- “Did God Really Say” to cast the shadow of doubt in Adam and Eve’s minds before Eve replied
Gen 3- And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,
but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Look at the big 4 lies and how subtly they were given
Lie #1: God is not loving.
Satan planted that seed of doubt, and wanted Eve to believe God was withholding goodness from her; therefore, God Himself was not good. The doubt that was cast made her view God as cruel, harsh, and unloving.
Lie #2: God is not truthful.
By casting doubt on His truthfulness, Satan wanted Eve to believe God had lied to her. His question mark at the end of what God said implies God’s Word cannot be trusted.
That lie continues today
Let me be very clear-
Any person, be it teacher, professor, pundit or pastor, who causes skepticism about the authority, accuracy, infallibility, and authenticity of the Word of God is doing the work of Satan. Satan’s efforts to destroy God’s truthfulness in the minds of people introduced the philosophy’s of relativism, rationalism, pragmatism, post-modernism—all based on lies about God.
Lie #3: God is not righteous.
With his “you shall not surely die” response, Satan wanted Eve to believe God would not really hold Eve’s sin against her. Some today think, “God is too good to punish sin.” The truth is- He’s too good not to punish sin. He is holy and righteous and all sin has eternal consequences. One way or another, every action follows you into eternity. It either affects our destination in deciding between heaven and hell, or affects the reward we will be given for eternity.
Lie #4: God is not gracious.
Satan’s temptation was is for Eve to believe God’s plans for her were not good, and she should look out for herself. He tells Eve, “If God is not gracious, then you’d better become your own god and take care of yourself. Have your own way.”
How much damage has been done to our world because of these lies? With Adam and Eve the damage was immediate upon acting on these lies- humanity losing the very Holy Spirit of God living within them, suffering in life and risking eternal hell if they didn’t repent, and most importantly-
These lies caused Jesus to have to go to the cross to pay the penalty for humanity believing the lies of satan.
That’s our metanarrative about how evil lying is.
Let’s bring it home to us today
Lying starts a progression in our spirits that will destroy the image of God within us. Let me show you this morning
In my studying for this message I found a great resource in Christianity today that describes the descent and damage caused by living a life of lies
III. Progression of lying
1. You lie.
A single lie can become a match that lights a bonfire. Unless we confess the truth about our lie, we are probably on our way to Level #2.
2. You self-protect.
That is, you lie about having lied. If you lie about one thing, it is likely you will lie about another or tell more lies to support the original lie. As Professor Budziszewski, a expert on ethics and professor at the University of Texas puts it, "Lies are weaklings; they need bodyguards." Lies, give life to more lies to support the original lie.
3. You develop a habit of lying.
A liar at this level might, just out of habit, lie about something trivial for no benefit.
4. You self-deceive.
You now believe the lies that you are telling others. We can lie so effectively that we even lie to ourselves. We self-deceive.
Have you ever seen a news story about a person who callously lied about a situation in order to proclaim their own innocence and then the lie was discovered and they have that confused look on their face when confronted? They self-deceive themselves to believe their lie.
Take note: Just because we are self-deceived—does not mean we are innocent or exempt from the need to repent. On the cross, Jesus said, "Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Jesus' prayer suggests that sins committed unknowingly are still sins in need of repentance and forgiveness. Lying is sinful even when we do so subconsciously.
I’m spending some time on this point because it’s important to recognize this fact-
It's important to understand that self-deception is self-imposed. To be deceived by someone else or shielded from the full truth is not the same as self-deception. Self-deception is a vice.
Remember Pontius Pilate? When face to face with Jesus, Pilate cynically asked, "What is truth?" Pilate self-deceived by telling himself that truth is inaccessible, and therefore he was not bound to recognize truth when it was standing in front of him.
Pilate had a motive for not wanting to know the truth. Pilate wasn't willing to be seen in the light of the truth of his own cowardice. Pilate's very question was pitted against the truth of his own horrible character in contrast to the innocence of Jesus.
This is where it gets dangerous for us- lying develops callus’ against actual truth. Because at Level #4, a person enters into denial. He stops looking at his internal God-given moral compass and therefore ceases to feel guilty anymore.
5. You rationalize.
Now you not only believe the lies are not lies, you justify the lies as a positive good. Now the lying is not just part of normal life, but a virtue—
This is the type of thinking that contributed to the scandals at Enron and WorldCom, and to the 2007 subprime housing debacle.
Think about people stuffing voting boxes with false ballots, or registering dead people to vote to pad the numbers for their favorite candidate, and you see people that have achieved this level of living as a liar.
Level #5 lies happen in the personal realm too: An adulterous would say. "You don’t understand, My husband and I never had a real marriage. We have had 30 years of cohabitation and child-rearing, but nothing like what I have with my new lover. He and I are experiencing love for the very first time. This is not adultery. It is love."
It’s a lie you chose to believe to ease your conscience , but it is still a lie.
6. You develop your technique.
The main technique is to compartmentalize. You start isolating statements, ignoring what was said in other contexts. Many of us have met Level #6 liars in the upper echelons of bureaucracy or politics.
A Level #6 liar might smoothly move from one constituent to another, saying each of these things, swearing in each instance that he is telling the truth
I remember a few presidential elections ago I was watching the news one evening and a candidate was seen giving a pro-life speech in the south, and a pro-choice message in the north during the same news broadcast. When it was pointed out by the news media in a rare case of journalism, the campaign manager said, “That’s just politics”.
No, that’s just lying and it’s a window into the spirit of that candidate.
The last level we find is that-
7. You see it as your duty to lie.
Level #7 lying flips duty on its head, making lying mandatory.
For example, most dysfunctional families that operate at Level #7, grown siblings might kowtow to a parent for the sake of keeping dark family secrets hidden. This is also are how cults form, the reason child abuse stays hidden, and how people literally get away with murder.
The main point is this-
Lying is the devil’s language. If you are a born-again child of the King, you are a new creation, the old has gone, and the new has come. Let the life of Jesus change your heart and mind to that which reflect HIS life an character in every part of your existence, especially in the words you speak.
Finally, I want to look at the last part of the commandment- Against your neighbor.
Some lies simply exists to promote and protect oneself. The second part of lying that God is speaking about in this commandment are lies that deliberately destroy other people. We call it gossip.
Proverbs 18:8- The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts.
There is a word in popular culture for this- Schadenfreude. It means to take pleasure or satisfaction at the misfortune of another.
That’s what Gossip is- taking pleasure at someone else’s failure, tragedy, sin, or mistake.
And I’m touching on one of the sins of any small town, any workplace, or any organization. We all know who the gossips are, and it’s not only the woman so men quit elbowing your wives.
I’ve been around enough men drinking, in locker rooms, even in professional settings where men share salacious details about someone else’s transgressions to know men are just as guilty.
I ask you- Does that sound like the heart of Christ? Do we think Jesus is standing around with the angels whispering your darkest secrets and giggling about it? Does heaven offer the national enquirer at it’s news stands?
Does access Hollywood or Inside Edition plays on heaven’s cable networks?
Gossip maliciously destroys people made in the image of God. It destroys organizations, and it destroys church’s.
One of the promises I asked the board when I first came here as a pastor was that we keep short accounts with each other. What that means is that if something is bothering us about the other person, we go to that person and make it right. No to your family, not to the first 5 people you see after leaving the building. Not to people outside the church.
We talk with each other.
That’s the Jesus way of doing it, and what the bible spells out clearly to us.
All rise.
I leave you with one final thought this morning about the 9th Commandment-
Jesus said: “For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.”
What is in your heart this morning? Does it reflect the heart of your savior, or does it reflect the heart of Satan?
This is another bruising sermon, and it was hard to prepare because I had to look at my own heart as I wrote it so I stand in the same place you do- needing to repent and watch my words.
A scripture I try to use whenever I want to lash out verbally
“Where words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise”
Prayer time/altar call
