The Sin of Lying By Sam Sprunger
``A true witness delivereth souls: but a deceitful witness speaketh
lies.'' (Proverbs 14:25)
``Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.'' (Exodus
20:16)
``I hate and abhor lying but thy law do I love.'' (Psalm 119:163)
As best as I knew how when I was in the fifth grade, I trusted Jesus Christ as
my Savior when Dr. M.R. DeHaan came to my hometown. I went back to school, and
during the fifth grade schooling time, my heart began to burn within me. I
became deeply convicted about having lied to my teacher back in the fourth
grade before I was saved. I lied to her about having read a book which I had
not read. I saw the other kids go up to the desk and say that they had read
the book, and I did not read as fast as everybody else. (I still don't.) I
said to myself, ``Brother, you had better get with it.'' So I leafed through
the book, looked at the pages, and told her that I had read the book. I had no
more read that book than I could have given aspirin a headache.
So in the fifth grade I become deeply convicted about that, and,
finally, I went back to that teacher and told her what I had done. I told her
that I was sorry, and I apologized. Little did I realize what I was doing.
From that day on, I never wanted to cheat in school again. I never wanted to
cheat on an exam. All the way through high school and all the way through
college, I never wanted to have to go back and tell somebody that I had lied
to them.
To some of you who have the problem of being truthful, I will give you
an early clue on how to cure yourself. Go confess to those to whom you lied.
Henry Lou, the one-time editor of Time, Life, and Fortune magazines once said,
``The most dangerous fault in American life today is the lack of interest in
the truth.''
Now Jesus is the Truth, and the devil is the liar and the father of
lies. The conflict through the ages is the conflict between the truth and the
liar, between honesty and falsehood, and between dependability and deceit.
The greatest use of speech today is to tell the truth the Truth is Jesus
and the Gospel story and the worst use of speech today is to tell a lie.
Through his sneaky, slithery, subtle lie, the serpent, Satan, brought
all sin into the world. I want you to sense today how terrible a lie can be.
A lie killed Uriah. A lie caused Peter to deny Jesus three times. A lie killed
Ananias and Sapphira. A lie led to the death of Abel by his brother Cain. A
lie brought God's Son to His death. And through lies, the world, the flesh,
and the devil imply that all the sin in the world is God's fault.
God gave us the power of speech to communicate. Oh, the power of a
word! It can communicate truth or lies. Now a half-truth is the skin of a
reason stuffed with a lie, and a half-truth is a lie, like Joseph Smith,
Mormonism, Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Science, Herbert W. Armstrong, and all
the others.
Words are seemingly endless and unperishable. There are lies from Bible
characters recorded in the Word of God that will live for eternity and will
never be erased. Do not think for a moment that your dishonesty goes untouched
just because people have not been discerning. God knows about it. No other
human being was there when Satan lied to Adam and Eve, but all of us know
about it. Do you realize that your lies could be magnified like those of the
serpent? Yes, words are powerful!
It gladdens our hearts when a lover says, ``I love you,'' or the jury
says, ``Not guilty,'' or the boss tells us that we have a raise, or our
mother-in-law says that she is going home. It gladdens us that God says,
``Today is the day of salvation.'' On the contrast, it saddens us and our
heart breaks when the telegram says, ``Your loved one has passed away,'' or
the boss says, ``You're fired,'' or the broker says,``You have lost all of
your money in your investment,'' or the policeman says, ``Your son is in
trouble.''
The conflict of the ages is the conflict between the truth versus a
lie. I want to ask you today on whose side you are. Now I know, for the
most part, most all of you tell the truth most of the time. But let me tell
you, you only need to tell one lie to really hurt. The words that you speak
and the suggestions and insinuations that you make tell the world where you
stand. ``For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.'' If you
are not concerned about being honest concerning a grade on a test, then you
are not concerned about your future influence.
Our words reveal our inward nature. Jesus was perfectly right in heart,
so all of the words that He spoke are perfectly right. People judge us by our
words as they judged Peter when he denied Christ. If our speech is true, pure,
and clean, the world will know that we have something of the nature of Christ
in us. Our words reveal our inward nature.
One of the things that makes it so easy for me to believe the Bible is
Jesus. Jesus believed it, and He endorsed the writings of Moses. Jesus
endorsed the prophets. Jesus endorsed the Psalms. He rose from the dead, and
He was there when everything happened, so He ought to know.
This thought has been cooking in my mind in relation to the problem of
dishonesty and slander. It amazes me the way people will believe slander and
lies and will turn around and doubt the Word of God.
Look what the Bible has to say about our words. Psalm 19:14 says,
``Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in
Thy sight, O, Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer.'' The Psalmist says again,
``Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.'' Proverbs
says, ``The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life.'' Again the Proverbs
writes, ``Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to
the bones.'' I want you to catch today the definition of a lie, the
damnation of a lie, and the divine cure of lying. First, the definition what
is a lie? A lie is a designed attempt to deceive. Any species of designed
deceit to try to make impressions contrary to simple truth is a lie. To cheat
on a test is a lie. To deceive by false impressions whether by appearance, by
statement, or by mere influence is a lie. To lead astray and to lure to deceit
is a lie.
Some say that it is all right to tell a white lie. There is no such
thing as a white lie in God's eyes. Some say that we have to do a little bit
of lying in business, or we will starve. Then it is better off to starve! We
lie by slander. What does it mean to slander? Slander means to accuse falsely,
but another definition of slander is to tell the truth about someone with the
intent to hurt them. I Timothy says concerning the pastors, and the deacons'
wives that they are not to be slanderers. II Timothy tells us that in the last
days there will be slanderers and false accusers spreading innuendos and
criticism and reporting things unjustly about others. Scorpions carry poison
in their tails, snakes carry it in their cheeks, and slanderers carry it in
their tongues.
Shakespeare writes, ``Slander, whose edge is sharp, sharper than the
sword, whose tongue of venoms all worms in the Nile.'' He was trying to make
the impression of how terrible it is. If the devil has any servants that he
values the most, are they slanderers or gossips? I believe they are!
Spurgeon said, ``A lie will go around the world while truth is still putting
on its boots.'' Think of it!
To show you just how terrible gossip and slander really is, when
Charles Spurgeon was just a teenager, he went into his house with his friend.
He said, ``Mother, can I eat a few eggs?'' His mother said, ``Sure, but
remember to put the money in the box.''
His friend went out and told everybody that the Spurgeons were really
tight. He said that they were so tight with their money that Charles had to
pay for the eggs that he ate in his own home by putting money in a box. Little
did he know that the Spurgeons had a little program in their home that
promoted missions. All of their egg money went to missions, and they even paid
for their own eggs and put the money in the box to send that money to
missionaries. That came out years and years later after the neighbor had
spread his garbage, his talebearing, his slander. How wonderful and how
comfortable it is to just tell the truth and live with it.
So many times we lie by evil insinuations. It is not an out-and-out
accusation but just to insinuate and suggest. It is just a deceit. John
Wesley said, ``(1) Listen or enquire after no ill of others, (2) be not quick
to hear or speak of others (just don't listen to it), and (3) if absolutely
necessary, speak or write to the individual involved about it rather than
spreading it.'' What a simple little formula. It is so comfortable to live
with that kind of an atmosphere.
Let me ask you. Are you telling the truth to the people with whom you
live, and to your parents? Are you truthful on your exams?
Gossip can be a lie. What is gossip? I was an adult out of college
before I ever really learned what gossip is. Someone said that gossip is
saying nothing and leaving nothing unsaid. That is kind of humorous, but it is
not really what gossip is. Gossip is sharing private information with someone
who has nothing to do with the problem or the solution. You get
short-circuited. You get all frustrated because you cannot do a thing about
it.
Let's consider condemnation what is the punishment for lying?
``A lying tongue is but for a moment; deceit is in the heart of them that
imagine evil and lying lies are an abomination to God.'' (Proverbs
12:19b-20a) Do you want to get your prayers answered? Be truthful. Again
Psalm 63:11, ``The mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.'' Again the
psalmist says, ``Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off. .
. he that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies
shall not tarry in my sight.'' (Psalms 101: 5a, 7) No wonder many people run
away from church. I will be honest with you. I am 61 years old, and I have
been going to church all of my life. I need church desperately as much now as
ever before. You know, you tell those little lies, and before very long, you
want to slither away from God's people. You do not want to be in God's house.
That's what it says here, ``. . .he that worketh deceit shall not dwell within
my house.''
Proverbs 6 tells us that these six things ``the Lord doth hate.''
Would you like to know the damnation on a lie? God hates it, and God will
judge it! It says, ``A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed
innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imagination, feet that be swift
in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies.'' Twice in that
list it mentions lying, and it also says ``he that soweth discord among
brethren.'' It also will shorten your life. Listen to this in Psalm 55. ``But
thou of God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and
deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee,''
says the psalmist.
Again Revelation 21:8 which we use in the Romans' Road says, ``. .
.liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and
brimstone: which is the second death.''
You know it pays more than it costs to be honest. It may cost a little
bit at the moment to be honest, but the long-range program pays well. What's
the cure for lying? Confess your lying. Cry about it. You are ten times better
doing that than holding it in. It will give you ulcers.
It will give you disease psychosomatic disease. ``If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.'' (I John 1:9)
You say, ``Well I thought that I just needed to confess it to God.''
Well, I am glad you did, and He forgives, doesn't He? But He keeps
prodding on you to confess it to the person you wronged. Oh, the therapeutic
value of confessing. Genuine confession means to admit it and to agree with
God that it is sin. I mean some of you even have the problem of agreeing with
God that some of your lying is sin. Confess it, admit it, and agree with God
that it is sin. Then adjoin in alliance with God. True confession says,
``Hey, God. I can't handle this sin myself.'' Trust Him to give you victory.
Make it right. Go to that person you wronged and say, ``Would you
forgive me?'' ``For what?''
``I lied to you. I just flat out lied to you.''
Now I am not talking about going to some meeting where you say that the
room was full, but there were a few chairs empty. In essence you were giving
the atmosphere of the meeting. A lie is a designed attempt to deceive.
If I tell my wife that it was around 9:00 when I got home when really
it was about 10 minutes till, it was not designed effort to deceive. A lie is
a designed effort to deceive.
Confess it. Make it right. Jesus said that if you offend your brother,
go to him. Ephesians 4:25 says to put it away or stop it. ``Speak ye every man
the truth to his neighbor.'' (Zechariah 8:16)
Be helpful to those whom you know have the problem. ``If a man be
overtaken in a fault, go to him.'' (Galatians 6:1) Restore him.
Before giving a test, Dr. Madison Surret, who taught mathematics at
Vanderbilt University for many years, would always admonish his class
something like this, ``Today I am giving two examinations: one in Trigonometry
and the other in honesty. I hope you will pass them both. If you must fail
one, fail Trigonometry. There are many good people in the world who cannot
pass Trig, but there are no good people in the world who can't pass the
examination of honesty.'' If you want to mount up with wings as eagles,
if you want to run and not be weary, if you want to be the kind of godly wife
that you ought to be, the kind of godly husband that you ought to be, and the
kind of servant of God that you ought to be, then let's be honest.
``The most dangerous
fault in American life
today is the lack
of interest in
the truth.''
Our words
reveal
our inward
nature.
``A lie will go
around the world
while truth is
still putting on
its boots.''
