Sermon Tone Analysis

*ALWAYS BE HONEST*

* *

*Exodus 20:16*

 

We live in a society that accepts lying as the norm:

·         Advertisers lie to sell products

·         politicians lie in order to get votes

·         Lawyers twist the truth to confuse the jury

·         coaches lie to psyche out the opposition

·         The press lies to increase ratings

·         Some preachers lie to get the message across

 

But against all of this stands the 9th Commandment which says*, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”*

Now this commandment against lying is based on one of the most fundamental principles of all, the sanctity of truth.

Remember when Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate?

Pilate asked,* “What is truth?”*

Everybody assumed that questions had a genuine answer.

But in our age of relativism, everyone is asking, /“Is there any truth?

Are there any absolutes?

Is anybody being honest?”/

Well, it’s the purpose of this message today to encourage you to be people of integrity; to tell the truth all the time.

You see, we have a tendency to take this command rather lightly.

In the back of our minds, we have the commandmetns categorized.

We think the worst commandment to break is murder.

After that is adultery.

After that is stealing.

And after that is taking God’s name in vain.

And then in our minds, way down a the bottom of the list, is lying.

It’s kind of an insignificant sin, we think.

Everybody lies on occasion.

So we use euphemisms to cover it over.

·         We talk about telling “white lies”.

·         Or, I told a little story.

·         I fibbed.

·         I embellished the truth a little.

·         When politicians lie, they misspeak, or, they fail to disclose all the facts

 

*I.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT LYING*

 

But the bible does not treat lying lightly.

In Deuteronomy the 19th chapter there was a rule set forth that if a man dared to give false testimony in a courtroom, if he committed perjury, then whatever penalty would have been given to the innocent party, the liar would receive.

Talk about a deterrent!

In fact, the end of that portion of scripture says,* “The rest of the people will hear this and be afraid and never again will such an evil thing be done among you.”*

Proverbs the 6th chapter lists 6 things that God hates, 7 that are detestable to him.

And one of them is *a lying tongue*, and another *is a false witness that pours out lies*.

Of the 7 things that are detestable to God, two have to do with the misuse of our tongue.

Or listen to this passage from Revelation 21:8, it’s sobering.

* “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.

This is the second death.”*

In Acts the 5th chapter when Annanias and Sapphira lied to the apostles about the amount they were giving to the church, God struck them dead.

The church was to be a place of integrity.

The church was to be a place where people spoke the truth in love.

Now, why is the truth so important to God?

One reason is, lying alienates us from God.

It is God’s nature to be true.

In Romans 3:4 Paul said that if every human being on earth were to found a liar, God would still be true.

John 14:6 Jesus said, *“I am the way, the Truth, and the Life.”*

In John 16:13, the Holy Spirit is called *the Spirit of Truth*.

In John 17:17, the bible is called *the Word of Truth*.

On the other hand the bible says that Satan is a liar, the Father of lies.

So when you and I lie we are of our father, the devil.

When we tell the truth, we demonstrate our desire to be identified with God.

Another reason that lying is so wrong is that it undermines our relationships with other people.

Ephesians 4:25 says, *“Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.”*

Relationships are built on truth.

Truth is the core of communication.

Once you lose confidence in another person’s honesty, the relationship deteriorates.

You don’t believe them any more.

You lose respect for them.

Another reason God takes lying so seriously is that we hurt ourselves when we lie.

Lying is almost always an effort to cover over some other sin in our life, have you noticed that?

Instead of honestly facing ourselves as we are and repenting of our sins, we try to cover it over with a heap of lies.

·         Cain murdered Abel and then he lied saying that he didn’t know where he was.

·         David committed adultery with Bathseba, then he lied to her husband and covered it up.

·         Sarah doubted God’s promise that she was going to have a child in her old age and she laughed at the messenger.

When the messenger asked her, */“Did I hear you laugh at God?”/*  Sarah lied and said,*/ “Oh no.

I didn’t laugh.”/*

·         Annanias and Sapphira lied to cover up their greed.

·         Peter lied to cover up his cowardice.

Lying covers over sin in our lives.

God want us to confront it and repent of it.

And have you noticed that lying always gets progressively worse?

It gets addictive.

Once you tell the first lie, you usually will have to tell another one to cover it up.

And then you’re forced to tell another to cover that one.

And if you’re a liar, you’d better have good memory.

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to worry.

But you can eventually become so involved in lying that you don’t know the truth from a falsehood.

I heard about a golfer who lied so much that when he got a hole in one, he wrote a zero down on his card.

And lying is contagious, too.

If you lie, you encourage others who look you up to you to lie; especially your children.

Do you remember back a couple of moths ago when we started this series on the 10 commandments, in Exodus 20:5, right in the beginning God said*, “I’m a jealous God punishing the children for the sins of the fathers to the 3rd and the 4th generation of those who hate me.”*

Now that doesn’t mean that if you sin God is going to come down and zap your great grandchildren to punish them for your sin.

What it means is, that our children have a way of emulating our sin and even magnifying our character flaws in their lives.

If you have your O.T. with you, would you turn to the book of Genesis for a minute?

Look with me in the 12th chapter and I want to show you what happened in the life of a good man by the name of Abraham.

And I want you to pay particular attention to the results that his lie had on future generations.

Genesis 12, beginning with verse 10 reads, *“Now there was a famine in the land and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for awhile because the famine was severe.

As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, I know what a beautiful woman you are.

When the Egyptians see you they will say, This is his wife.

Then they will kill me and will let you live.

So say you are my sister so that I’ll be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”*

Talk about a caring husband!

What a nice guy.