Speak No Lies
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Our text this morning is taken from Proverbs 6:16-19:
There are six things that the Lord hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that make haste to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies,
and one who sows discord among brothers.
May God bless this the reading of His holy and infallible Word.
As we look at the Ninth Commandment, I once again want to begin with looking at God.
The Father of Truth and the Father of Lies
The Father of Truth and the Father of Lies
In Isaiah 65:16, God is called “the God of truth” and in Hebrews 6:18 we read that “it is impossible for God to lie”. Truth is one of the attributes of God, it is who He is. This is way Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
In contrast, Jesus teaches us this about Satan:
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
Notice what Jesus is saying. He is saying that you can tell who a person’s spiritual father is by their relationship to truth and lies. Most people today view lying as a small sin, but God includes it in His “Top Ten List”!
Why is this?
It is because those who lie are serving Satan and his agenda!
What a scary thought! I am sure no Christian wants to further Satan’s agenda, but unwittingly, that is what we are doing when we lie. This is why we need standard of truth, and thankfully Jesus provides it for us.
God’s Word is Truth
God’s Word is Truth
On the night He was betrayed, Jesus purposely prayed out loud in order that His disciples could hear what He was praying, and this is what He said:
Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”
Notice what Jesus is saying, it is very important. He is saying that He has giving His disciples the truth by giving them God’s Word. By this He is referring to Scripture, but especially Himself. I have already cited John 14:6, where Jesus says He is the “truth”. In the first chapter of John, we read that Jesus is the Word:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God and the truth. If you what to know what truth looks like, look at Jesus. In a very well know and beloved verse, Jesus reveals us His heart:
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
I the Hebrew culture, when a person speaks of their heart, they are not just speaking of the seat of their emotions, but their entire inner person, including their will and intellect.
Therefore, what does the truth look like? It is “gentle and lowly”, in other words it is not prideful and arrogant. Pride is at the heart of all lies. In the Westminster Lager Catechism, we are reminded that lying includes, “vain-glorious boasting and thinking or speaking too highly or too meanly of ourselves or others”. This is unexpected, we tend to equate pride and arrogance with confidence. This is why we are often attracted to such people. Consider the politicians and celebrates of our culture, are they “gentle and lowly of heart” or are they prideful and arrogant?
There are a number of other unexpected ways in which we lie, rather than looking at the more obvious ways in which we lie, I once again want to look at three...
Unexpected Ways in Which We Lie
Unexpected Ways in Which We Lie
The first of these is what the WLC calls “unseasoned” truth.
Speaking “Unseasoned” Truth
Speaking “Unseasoned” Truth
As a proof text, the catechism cites Proverbs 29:11:
A fool gives full vent to his spirit,
but a wise man quietly holds it back.
Another place this is taught in Scripture is Ephesians 4:15:
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
What these two texts remind us of is that we can be “wrong” even when we are “right”. Jesus taught that “the truth will set you free” (John 8:22). The truth is not to be used as a battering ram to destroy your opponents, but rather as the key that sets them free from the bondage of Satan.
One of the reasons that social media has become so toxic, is that it is a place where people us the “truth” to destroy other, rather than “set them free”.
Now this does not mean we are not to reprove ourselves or others. Scripture teaches us that failing to reprove is also a way of lying.
Failing to Reprove Ourselves and Others
Failing to Reprove Ourselves and Others
In 1 Kings 1:6, we read of the sad account of David’s son Adonijah. Here is what we read:
His father had never at any time displeased him by asking, “Why have you done thus and so?” He was also a very handsome man, and he was born next after Absalom.
David was a failure as a father, not only Adonijah, but all his children he failed to reprove. In the book of Proverbs we read:
Whoever spares the rod hates his son,
but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
Why is it a lie to fail to reprove others? It is a lie, because we are lying to ourselves as to what the outcome of sin is. The “wages of sin is (always) death” (Rom 6:23). This is reflected in what Proverbs teaches elsewhere:
Do not withhold discipline from a child;
if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.
If you strike him with the rod,
you will save his soul from Sheol.
In the verse we looked at earlier from 1 Kings, both Adonijah and Absalom are mentioned. Why did the author include Absalom?
He included it to remind us that both these men died because David failed to reprove them!
There is one final way in which we lie unexpectedly:
Making False Associations with Evil
Making False Associations with Evil
In their desperation to stop Jesus, the Pharisees said this:
But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.”
Notice that they are doing:
Everyone agrees that demons, especial Beelzebul, the prince of demons, is evil. So what do they do? They associate Beelzebul to Jesus, in order to discredit Him.
There is a little book I want to recommend to you. It is called The Fallacy Detective. It is a children’s book, but adults will benefit greatly from reading it. This form of lying is under the category of propaganda. Other examples of propaganda are Appeals to Fear, Appeals to Pity, Bandwagon, and Repetition. All of these are not only logical fallacies, but lies.
We you hear politicians calling their opponents Nazis, racists, terrorists and homophones, you know that you are dealing with a liar.
Unfortunately, too many Christians join in these lies. In Exodus 23:1, we read:
“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness.
Brother and sister, we live in a toxic political environment and too many of us are “joining hands with wicked men”. This should not be so. Let us not “join hands” with them!
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn lived under the brutal totalitarianism of the former Soviet Union. It was a regime built and sustained by lies. While imprisoned, he came to realize that the best way of resisting evil was to not live by the lies he was being feed.
This is not a new insight, it is what the Ninth Commandment and Jesus teach us. The Kingdom of Satan is built and sustained by lies. The best way to resist Satan and his agenda is to not live by lies.
Do you want to be a change agent for good in this world?
If so Speak No Lies!