NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH
Ephesians 4:25; John 14:6; Isaiah 53:9; Matthew 5:37 & Various
Read at beginning of service:
Ephesians 4:25 (NIV)
25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
INTRODUCTION
Some of us may be able to sympathize with the fellow who received a call from his wife just as she was about to fly home from Europe. "How’s my cat?" she asked."Dead."
"Oh, honey, don’t be so honest. Why didn’t you break the news to me slowly? You’ve ruined my trip.""What do you mean?"
"You could have told me he was on the roof. And when I called you from Paris, you could have told me he was acting sluggish. Then when I called from London, you could have said he was sick, and when I called you from New York, you could have said he was at the vet. Then, when I arrived home, you could have said he was dead."
The husband had never been exposed to such protocol but was willing to learn. "OK," he said. "I’ll do better next time.""By the way," she asked, "how’s Mom?"There was a long silence, then he replied, "Uh, she’s on the roof." (Just like Jesus, by Max Lucado, p. 108)
Acts 5:1-11 (NIV)
1 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet. 3 Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God." 5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6 Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. 7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?" "Yes," she said, "that is the price." 9 Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also." 10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
Today, I’d like to speak with you about something that I think all of us are challenged by at one level or another. We all have times where we’re faced with the choice of being honest or being dishonest. Oh, but to be honest (!) we don’t really call it a lie, after all it causes no real harm does it? We merely call it, an exaggeration, a story, or a joke.
I remember growing up that there was the phrase we tossed around a lot that I guess hasn’t really gone away. When you finished telling another kid about something really out of this world the conversation would go something like this:
They would say: "No Way!"
You would say: "Yup!"
They: "C’mon you’re kidding right?"You: "Nope, it’s the honest truth! I’m not lieing!"They: "Yeah, right"
You: "I swear, it’s true!!""I swear it’s true!" We live in a world where it is becoming increasingly difficult to take someone’s word as truth! In fact, it is expected that a person is lying (oh sorry, I mean kidding) unless they indicate by some adamant exclamation that what they are saying is honest.
Is it no wonder, though, that we have this expectation? From television ads to politicians we’re inundated with a mindset that schemes, manipulates, and, yes, lies to convince us of something we should believe. Daily on television we are confronted with commercials that would convince us of the validity of their product in solving all life’s problems – from the perfect automobile to weight loss we’re swamped with the message that buying this product will magically increase your satisfaction in life. But what is the truth? The truth is – that there is really nothing magical about their particular product at all – all it really does is empty your wallet. I find myself sometimes laughing at the lengths commercials will go to in trying to convince me to buy their product!
But then, it’s always easy to pin the blame on the other guy – after all we’re never dishonest right? And if we are, it’s always for a good reason! The truth is folks, there is never any good reason for lying, and the voice that is telling you otherwise in your head is itself lying!
This too, then, is where a transformation needs to take place in our lives. If we are to have lives as God intended them to be then we need to be transformed into honest people. But remember, as with all the other things we’ve talked about in this series, the key is that this transformation can only be supernatural in nature. It is not something that we can work in of ourselves. To become and continue being honest people we must seek to exchange our lying heart with the honest heart of Christ.
As it usually happens, the unfolding of this message to you involves the asking of a question. The question is an obvious one of course. "Why the need for honesty?" or in other words, "What is so important about not lying?". This question is perhaps the most important one. Answering this question provides the foundation for the answering of so many other questions about honesty that also will arise such as, "Surely there is nothing wrong with the little lies that protect someone?" or "Is telling only half the truth lying?"
To answer this question we will look today at the standard for truth that is found in the Bible. The answer is only found there. I’d like to formulate the answer to this question under three important observations. We begin with the first… the case for truth
As we have discovered in this series, Supernatural Transformation begins to take place when we uncover the heart the Christ has and regret the difference between His heart and ours. It then proceeds when we freely admit to God that our heart needs to be changed – even more, exchanged – with the heart of Christ and that we WANT it to happen.
So as we look at the heart of Christ in regards to honesty there is something astounding that can be noted. Jesus Christ NEVER lied. In a prophetic word regarding Jesus, Isaiah wrote,
Isaiah 53:9 (NIV)
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
In fact, as you look through the New Testament you’ll find seventy-eight times where Jesus says the phrase, "I tell you the truth…" Clearly, honesty is something the Jesus placed a great emphasis on. His every word was accurate, His every sentence was true. He didn’t cheat on any tests, He didn’t ever stretch the truth or shade it or avoid it. He simply told the truth. No deceit was found in his mouth.
Folks, if God has His way with us, no deceit will be found in our mouths. His plan is that we would all be supernaturally transformed and in the process He seeks to not decrease or minimize our deceptive speech and deceptive ways but to ELIMINATE them! Looking through His word you find that God is blunt about dishonesty,
Psalms 101:7 (NIV)
7 No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence.
From the beginning of His word to the end, from Genesis to Revelation, the theme is the same: God loves truth and HATES deceit. It’s interesting to find that among the people listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 who will not inherit the kingdom of God are those who lie about others. Included amongst those who sin sexually, worship idols, take part in adultery, sell their bodies, get drunk, rob people are LIARS.
It is important we realize that fibbing and flattering stir the same heavenly anger as adultery and aggravated assault! God views fudging on income tax the same way he views kneeling before idols, look at some of the other things His word says about His opinion on dishonesty:
Proverbs 12:22 (NIV)
22 The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful.
Proverbs 6:16-17 (NIV)
16 There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
Psalms 5:6 (NIV)
6 You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the LORD abhors.
It’s easy to ask, "Why? Why is there such a tough stance taken on this? The answer is very simple: Dishonesty is absolutely contrary to the character of God.
Hebrews 6:18 (NIV)
18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.
(Note: see vs. 13 which indicates that when God made His promise to Abraham since there was no one greater than Himself to swear by – he swore by Himself that His promise would come true!)It’s not that God has chosen not to lie – God cannot lie. It is NOT his nature. For God to lie is for a dog to fly and bird to bark. It just can’t happen.
Titus 1:2 (NIV)
2 a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,
We need to grasp that our understanding of the need for honesty MUST begin with the fact that our God is an honest God and He is TRUTH! From that we can begin to discern the reason why dishonesty is so detestable to God. A lie keeps the presence of God away. Or maybe I could rephrase that a little better – a lie cannot be exist where God is and will be destroyed by his presence. Perhaps this would make more sense if I was to tell you a little story:
This story is about a cave which lived under the ground, as caves have the habit of doing. It had spent its life in darkness. It heard a voice calling to it: "Come up into the light; come and see the sunshine." The cave retorted: "I don’t know what you mean; there isn’t anything but darkness." Finally the cave ventured forth and was surprised to see light everywhere. Looking up to the sun cave said: "Come with me and see the darkness." The sun asked: "What is the darkness?" The cave replied: "Come and see." And so one day the sun accepted the invitation. As it entered the cave it said: "Now show me your darkness." But there was no darkness! (Autoillustrator.com, TRUTH)Get the picture?
the cage of dishonesty
There is another point to be made however. God’s nature contrasts very sharply with that of satan. Whereas God is truth and cannot lie – satan finds it impossible to tell the truth and is called the "father of lies" (John 8:44). If we go back to Genesis and drama unfolding in the Garden of Eden we find satan using deceit as the first tool out of his bag. If you urn to Genesis 3:1-4 you find that satan wasn’t discouraging Eve, he wasn’t seducing her, he wasn’t twisting her mind. He, very simply put, lied to her.
Genesis 3:1-4 (NIV)
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, ’You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ’You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’" 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.
With his lie, satan cast the first seeds of doubt, and as those seeds blossomed the fruit which was sin (disobeying God) entered the world.
Friends from the moment Eve entertained the lie (and later on, her husband Adam) a cage was closing down on them. It is the cage of dishonesty. Notice that only a few verses later we read that Adam and Eve heard the sound of God walking in the garden (this is significant: they could HEAR God walking in the garden – their relationship with God up to this point was such that He actually physically interacted with them) and ran to hide from Him. Why? Because they feared what God would do! In fact they knew the truth – of what God had told them, "If you eat of the fruit from this tree YOU WILL DIE!" They were afraid of what would happen. Isn’t it ironic that they were willing to believe the lie of satan only moments before – yet the same lie didn’t carry any weight when they heard God?
It’s probably good that they ran in one sense because they probably would have been destroyed had they not hid. But here we have Adam and Eve cowering in a bush and God making His way through the garden when another significant thing happens.
Genesis 3:9 (NIV)
9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
Do you think for one moment that God did not know where Adam and Eve were? And yet, He called out this question! Well there is much can be said about this incident I’d like to focus on one thing this morning. In the asking of this question we see confirmed the fact that God cannot be in the presence of a lie, lest the lie be destroyed. In this question we find the first instance of the terrible gulf that would from that day forward separate man from an intimate relationship with God. All because of a lie! God could have gone where Adam and Eve were hiding. But he stopped and called out. Here too, then is a wonderful example of the love God has for us. For He chose to refrain from destroying Adam and Eve by His presence.
But here we have illustrated the most terrible consequence of dishonesty. It puts a cage around us that keeps us from the presence of God. However, what is even sadder perhaps is that this cage is not limited to our relationship with God. Lies ruin relationships in marriages, relationships in families, relationships with friends. And then lies put cages around more than relationships – lies effectively sear off our conscience (The tragedy of the second lie is that it is always easier to tell than the first. [Just Like Jesus by Max Lucado, p. 109]) they can destroy a career (Just ask the student who got booted out for cheating or the employee who got fired for embezzlement if the lie wasn’t fatal [Just Like Jesus by Max Lucado]) Truly, dishonesty is fatal! So, why do we tolerate it? Why do we find ourselves justifying lying?Well perhaps its because, we don’t like the truth. Seemingly a contradiction, but can be based in the reality of the lives we live. Remember Adam and Eve ran away and hid away from God because they knew the truth – even though they had believed a lie! They didn’t like the truth and in fact, they were afraid of it!! We still find that today.
There is a silly story about an elderly Scottish couple who had never flown before, but who decided they were going to visit their children in New York and see their grandchildren for the first time. They were on a charter flight in a Lockheed TriStar (3 engines). They were about half-way out over the Atlantic when their pilot’s voice came over the intercom, "This is your captain speaking. Ladies and gentlemen I feel I ought to let you know that one of our three engines has failed. There is, of course, no need for alarm. This plane is entirely airworthy flying on two engines but I regret to say we will be one hour late in arriving in New York."
One half hour later, inevitably, with that desperate calm that is reserved by air pilots and astronauts for conditions of extreme emergency, the pilot of the TriStar spoke again: "This is your captain speaking. I regret that we have lost the second of our engines. But I would like to reassure you that we have every expectation of making a normal and safe landing at JFK Airport. We shall, however, be three hours late in arriving."
At this, Grandma turns to Grandpa and says…"My dear, if that third engine goes – we shall be up here all night." (Autoillustrator.com, TRUTH)As Max Lucado says, "Our credo is You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you squirm" (Just Like Jesus, by Max Lucado, p. 108). Everyone of us can probably think of a lie we told to keep from getting caught in something!
So, we don’t like the truth – but also, we don’t trust the truth. We live in a society that seems to hint that telling the truth is no fun and won’t get you what you want. In one sense, it is considered inadequate for what is wanted and/or needed.
When former U.S. President Cleveland’s second child was born – or so the story goes – the doctor asked Cleveland for a scale to determine the baby’s weight. Cleveland searched through the house without success. Finally, he remembered that he had an old scale in the basement which he always used on his fishing trips. He got it and brought it upstairs. Carefully, the doctor placed the infant on the scale and was amazed to learn that the newborn weighed 25 pounds. (Autoillustrator.com, TRUTH)
We want our others to like us, so we flatter. We call it buttering them up. God calls it a lie.
We want people to admire us, so we exaggerate. We call it stretching the truth. God calls it a lie.We want people to respect us, so we live in houses we can’t afford and charge bills we can’t pay. We call keeping up with the times. God calls it living a lie! (Just Like Jesus, by Max Lucado, p. 108-109)So we tolerate dishonesty because we don’t like and don’t trust the truth – but friends, we must come back to the harsh reality of the consequence of deceit. Lying places us in a cage of its own making that cripples our relationship with God, our relationship with others, and quite simply OUR LIVES!
the cure in Christ
So we find ourselves with a fairly gloomy picture. God demands honesty because He is truth. Yet we are dishonest and this deceit is ingrained into us because of its entrance into the world in the Garden of Eden. Because of the deceit in our lives we are surrounded by a cage that is seemingly impenetrable.
Think about it for a moment. I know there have been times in my life (and are even now) where I catch myself telling a lie. In fact, there are times where I lie without even thinking and only realize it after a significant amount of time has gone by. I tell myself. Okay – no more lying - I know its wrong and I’ll refuse to lie! Yet, no sooner than that statement is seated in my mind then I find that it too is proved a lie with the deceit that makes its way out in my life.
Folks, there is only one way out of the cage of a lie and that is best illustrated by this story,
Many years ago a man conned his way into the orchestra of the emperor of China although he could not play a note. Whenever the group practiced or performed, he would hold his flute against his lips, pretending to play but not making a sound. He received a modest salary and enjoyed a comfortable living.
Then one day the emperor requested a solo from each musician. The flutist got nervous. There wasn’t enough time to learn the instrument. He pretended to be sick, but the royal physician wasn’t fooled. On the day of his solo performance, the impostor took poison and killed himself. The explanation of his suicide led to a phrase that found its way into the English language: "He refused to face the music." (quoted in Just Like Jesus, by Max Lucado, p. 110-111)Quite simply – the cage of a lie is destroyed by truth, when we "face the music". It’s power over us is broken only by truth! Tell the truth! When you are faced with a dilemma of whether to tell the truth or not you need to remind yourself of the answer to the following questions, "Will God bless my deceit? Will he, who hates lies, bless a strategy built on lies? Will the Lord, who loves the truth, bless the business of falsehoods? Will God honor the career of the manipulator? Will God come to the aid of the cheater? Will God bless my dishonesty?" (Just Like Jesus, by Max Lucado, p. 111)
But then, as I found myself doing, you say "I just can’t help it – no matter how determined I am – I still lie! So now what am I supposed to do?" The answer is still the same – the power of the lie is broken only by truth. And this is where we return to our first observation. Where do we find truth? In God! And more specifically as Jesus Christ puts himself,
John 14:6 (NIV)
6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 8:32 (NIV)
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
Folks, the TRUTH of the matter is that the CURE FOR THE LIAR is THE TRUTH found in JESUS CHRIST!!
To be honest, we need to first recognize and come to grips with our dishonesty and repent of it – make the decision to TELL THE TRUTH – but secondly, and more importantly we NEED TO KNOW THE TRUTH found in Jesus Christ!
CONCLUSION
Are you ready to be honest? Friend’s God wants to supernaturally transform you into an honest person! Away with the lies and on with the TRUTH? This morning Fix your eyes on the TRUTH! And witness as you are set FREE from the cage of your lie!
This sermon was preached by Darren Ethier at Hanover Pentecostal Church on February 11, 2001. This message is Part 6 of the sermon series: Supernatural Transformation. It is recommended that the book, Just Like Jesus by Max Lucado be read as it served as the inspiration for much of this series. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, Copyright © 1873, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.
