Lying Is Always Wrong!

Exodus 20:16: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."
See also Matthew 5:33-37.

Lewis Smedes wrote about truth or the lack of it in his book, Mere Morality.
He wrote: "The "credibility gap" that once alienated the public from people in high places
now seems to separate us from one another in all walks of life.
Many Americans lie on their income tax returns to the tune of millions of dollars a year.
Doctors fake reports in order to profit from Medicare patients.
Prize athletes at great universities are kept eligible for competition through bogus credits
and forged transcripts of their academic records.

Children soon acquire the cynical assumption that lying is just for TV advertisers.
In the words of a Time magazine essay, "Ours is a huckstering, show-bizzy world,
jangling with hype, hullabaloo, and hooey, bull, baloney, and bamboozlement."

After a while, people tend to expect not to hear the truth anymore;
in 1976, a national poll showed that 69 percent of Americans believed
that the country's leaders had, over the last decade, consistently lied to the people."

Leonard Sweet, in his Soul Cafe newsletter had a top ten list of the "Top 10 Liars' Lies":
Number 10 is "We'll stay only five minutes."
Number 9 lie is "This will be a short meeting."
Number 8 is "I'll respect you in the morning."
Number 7 is "The check is in the mail."
Number 6 is "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you."
Lie number 5. "This hurts me more than it hurts you."
Coming in fourth is "Your money will be cheerfully refunded."
Number 3 is "We service what we sell."
Coming in second is "Your table will be ready in just a minute."

And the number 1 lie is "I'll start exercising (dieting, forgiving, ...) tomorrow."

In the Talmud, the story is tongue of a king who had two jesters.
He sent one of them out to bring to him the best thing in the world,
and the other to bring back the worst thing in the world.
Sometime thereafter both jesters returned, and each had a package.

The first bowed low, opened his package and exclaimed, "The best thing in the world, sire!"
Before the king was a tongue.

The other jester begin to laugh and quickly unwrapped his bundle.
"The worst thing in the world, O king!" He said.
And he opened his package to reveal another tongue.
And so it is!
The tongue is the most awesome power in all the world.

With a word, armies march and men die.
With a word, fortunes are gained or lost.
With a word, men are exalted or debased.
With a word, the course of a nation is determined.
With a word, God is praised or denied.
With a word, a man shall be eternally condemned or glorified.

I read of a teacher in a Sunday school who was trying to impress her students
about the result of telling lies, and in summing up the lesson said:
"Now, when little boys who lie grow up, where do they go?"
One little boy, who had evidently been around, held up his hand and said,
"To the golf courses."

They also go to church and to the office, and to places of business, and to school,
and everywhere that people go.
With this in mind, there are several questions that we ought to ask ourselves.

Why does a person lie?
Why does a person bear false witness?

When I was younger there was a comedian on television named, Flip Wilson.
He made the phrase, "The devil made me do it!" popular.

That always got a good laugh.
It was not only good comedy, but it is also good theology.
We lie because the devil is in us, and he tempts us to lie.
The devil is a liar from the beginning, and he is the father of lies.
Lying began in the Garden of Eden, and will continue until Jesus comes again.

But we all know that the devil doesn't "make" us lie.
We choose to lie.
We choose to deceive.
We choose to bear false witness.
This is a sin of our own making.

God hates lies.
Proverbs 6:16 says, "They are an abomination to Him."
He hates a lying tongue.
Lying, deception, hypocrisy, duplicity, double-talk, as they call it,
also excuse making, and attempting to cover up our sins.
Maybe it doesn't bother some people, but it does bother God.
"Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor,
for we are all members one of another. . . . Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth,
but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment,
that it may give grace to those who hear" (Eph. 4:25, 29).

Why would people choose to lie?
There are many motivations that we have in lying.
People will lie when they can profit by it -- that is, when they have something to gain
by misrepresenting the truth.

A New Hampshire farmer took his horse to see the veterinarian.
He complained about the horse: "One day he limps, the next day he doesn't.
What should I do?"

The vet advised him, "On the day he doesn't limp, sell him!"
The advice of the veterinarian was for the farmer to misrepresent (lie) the condition of his horse
for personal gain.
Have you ever known someone who would do that?

Another reason people are less than truthful is when they want to avoid some pain
and cause someone else pain.
People lie when they feel that they need to make excuses for their actions.
Listen to two of those crazy excuses.

George Shamblin insisted to police that he was trying to save his wife from drowning
when he threw rocks at her as she struggled in the Kanawha River.
He said: "I was trying to drive her back to shore."

A young man arrested for stealing a car, had the year's most unique excuse.
He explained that he found the automobile in front of a cemetery,
and thought the owner was dead.

There is a lot of creativity when someone is trying to excuse himself.
And although I'm sure none of those people actually believed their own excuses
there are people who engage in such self-deception – they lie to themselves.

One of the most common reasons for not telling the truth is to avoid the pain
or discomfort of being honest.

I remember hearing the story of four friends who, on a beautiful fall day,
decided to go for a drive that caused them to be late for their class.
When they did arrive, the girls told the teacher that they had a flat tire.

The teacher accepted the excuse, much to the girls' relief.
Then, the teacher said:"Since you missed this morning's quiz, you must take it now."
She gave them this instruction t"Please sit in the four corner seats in this room without talking."
When they were seated, the teacher said,
"I am going to ask one question and if you all answer correctly you all will get an 'A.'
On your paper write the answer to this one question: 'Which tire was flat?'"

Another reason that some lie is the desire to injure others.
A clinical psychologist once said, "Some achieve erotic satisfaction in hurting
the reputations of others.
They have a sadistic motivation."
Such people are emotionally sick and spiritually destitute.

Then, some lie because they desire to attract attention to themselves in order to feel important.
Is this really true?

Ask a golfer about his score, and notice a couple of strokes will disappear.
Ask a bowler his score and watch a few more pins fall.
Ask a fisherman the size of his best catch and watch him struggle to tell you how big it was.
Ask a preacher how many were in preaching services last Sunday, and hear a ministerial estimate.
Everyone wants to feel important and exaggeration is something they use to do so.

Then, there is the desire to rationalize their own actions or try to divert attention
from their own sordid lives.
Look in the background of a gossiper, and you will find more garbage than you can deposit
at the feet of his or her innocent victims.

Psychologists tell us that we are quickest to point out the faults in others
than those faults that exist in our own lives.
You can learn a person secrets, and find out something about his character
by the things he will gossip about.

How does a person lie or bear false witness?

One is by speech.
By perjury in a court of law.
That is a criminal offense, but it still happens.

An attorney in a large city in America retired, and was asked how often did he discover
people who committing perjury.
He answered, "After a broad and varied experience covering a period of 20 years
within the courts of this enlightened country, I'm able to report only two cases i
n which there was no perjury or subornation of perjury to be found or suspected."

A Supreme Court judge declared: "We have reached the point where we merely try
to find out which side is lying the most."

If this is true, then a most difficult problem faces our courts in the administration of justice,
and there is a serious defect in our national character.

Another way people lie is to gossip.
This is done when one repeats what he has heard, usually without regard
to its truthfulness or the lack of it, and without regard to the damage to the other person.
In addition, no regard is given to the context or circumstances of the story -- and it is usually enlarged upon.

One lady had been listening to a choice bit of gossip from another,
"Is that all there is to the story?"
The other replied, "I guess so, I have already told you more than I heard."

Four pastors were standing around after a meeting and begin discussing
some of their secret problems to one another.
One pastor said that he was terribly embarrassed to admit but he had stolen money
from his church.

Another pastor said that since this man had admitted his problem that he would admit
that he had committed adultery with a lady in his church.

The third pastor decided to admit that he loved whiskey, and that he would load up
on whiskey every night.

The fourth pastor said nothing.
The other three said to him since they had confessed their terrible sins,
that he should be willing to tell them his.
He said that he could not tell them his because his was worse than theirs.

They said that nothing he could say would be worse than theirs.
Finally, he answered, "I love to gossip, and I am the biggest gossip that you have ever known,
and I can't wait to get out of here so I can gossip about what all of you have said."

Others can lie by telling half-truths or distortion of the truth.
They have a way of twisting the truth or using only a portion of it in order to give it
an entirely different meaning.
Someone has said that the danger of telling a half truth is that you might tell the wrong half.
Alfred Lord Tennyson calls this "the blackest of lies."

False advertising is telling lies.
The advertising world ignores the ninth commandment as often and as deceitfully as possible.

Some years ago, a motorist pulled up at a Texas motel which advertised "Free TV."
The man asked, "How much are your rooms?"

The proprietor answered, "Eight dollars and ten dollars."
The man asked, "What is the difference in the rooms?"

The clerk answered, "The ten dollar room has the free TV."

The media also bears false witness.
Slanted and biased news reporting strikes at the very heart of the ninth commandment.
Freedom of the press does not mean freedom from responsible journalism.

A person can bear false witness by being silent.
A person does not have to open his mouth to be a party to a lie or to a false witness.
When you hear your church or friend is being attacked, and you know differently
and remain silent, you become party to the attack.
You consent to what is being told.

Dishonesty does not always occur through the use of words.
There are times that it happens without saying anything.
Sometimes we can be an accomplice to another's dishonesty by remaining silent
when we should speak.

Charles Stanley tells of a woman in his church who was married for only a short time
when she found out her husband was a homosexual.
Soon after, he left the marriage.

As Dr. Stanley talked with her, she said something that he would never forget.
She said, "After I was divorced, several of my friends came to me, and said that
they knew he was gay.
When I asked them why they didn't say anything to me,
they said, 'We didn't think it was any of our business.'"

The husband had been dishonest about his life and the wife's supposed friends perpetuated
the lie by remaining silent.
They just took the easy way out -- at least for them!
Silence is not always golden, it can also be yellow!

We can also bear false witness by our life.
His life can be a lie.
He may profess one thing with words and another by actions.
The world is waiting to be shown.

So, what are the results?

First, a person's spiritual condition is revealed.
Justin Martyr, a Greek father of the church, once said,
"By examining the tongue, physicians can gain insight into the health of the body.
Philosophers can also do so by gaining insight into the health of the heart."

In the second place, three people are injured when one is guilty of bearing false witness.
First, the person himself is injured.
He becomes a liar.
He has to live with that for the rest of his life.
He has to face himself and his conscience every day knowing what he has done.
He also becomes distrustful of all others.

There is an old proverb that says, "Unhappy is the man who tells a lie
because he can never believe that anyone else is telling him the truth."

In the second place, the victim is injured.
His reputation may be ruined, and many times it is ruined for life.

Years ago, a man in Florida had slanderous charges made against his character.
He had no alternative but to defend his name in court.
The case received much publicity during the months of preparation.
The trial extended over a period of weeks.

The slandered man fought to clear his name, not just for himself, but also for his family.
Finally, after a lengthy trial, the court cleared the man completely.
He received a large sum of money for the damage against his name.

When at last, the verdict was rendered in his behalf, the man committed suicide.
He had endured the pain of the trial for the families' sake.
But in the process, the smear against his name drained from him all desire to go on living.
For even a false witness leaves irreparable damage.

In the third place, the hearer is injured.
He becomes a party to the foul deed.
He is accountable to society, and he is surely accountable to the Savior.

Abraham Lincoln once asked a man he was debating, "How many legs does a cow have?"
The disgusted reply came back "Four, of course."
Lincoln agreed, "That's right. Now, suppose you call the cow's tail a leg;
then how many legs would the cow have?"

The opponent replied confidently, "Why, five, of course."
Lincoln came back, "Now that's where you're wrong.
Calling a cow's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg!"

The truth of a matter is not determined by how many people believe it.
We must know the truth, and we can do that through God's Word.

C.S. Lewis wrote, "A man can't always be defending the truth;
there must be a time to feed on it.

We must also understand that God knows all and sees all,
including the sinful depths of our hearts.
We cannot deceive God for He knows of all our attempts to deceive Him
even before we have the deception in our minds.
We cannot ever fool the God of the universe.

Finally, we must know that we will fail.
We fail because we are sinners by nature which means we put ourselves
at the center of existence instead of God.
That is, after all, why we really try to deceive.

But the good news is, that no matter how miserably we have failed, and will fail,
God's grace is sufficient to forgive our sins if we will only trust Him to do so.

So, how can the tongue be tamed?
Within ourselves there is no solution, but by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit
it can be done.

What is the antidote to the poison of the tongue?
The antidote is love.
Jesus said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

Paul tells us that love is the first fruit of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit:
"Love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up…seeketh not its own, is not easily provoked…beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."
Love does not bear false witness.

"We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
They will know we are Christians by our love."

Sermon adapted from several sources by Dr. Harold L. White