Pastor Cal Lord's Recent Sermons
Liar, Liar
Exodus 20:16 September 3, 2007
If we were to rank the commandments from easiest to comply with to the most difficult, the
ninth commandment would be the one that would trip up more people than any other. It is
routinely violated every day by people in every segment of society, intentionally and
unintentionally. Some of the most famous lines in history fall into this realm of breaking the ninth
commandment.
"Read My Lips, No New Taxes.” – George H Bush
“I did not inhale.” - Bill Clinton.
"The American people have a right to know that their president is not a crook. And I am not a
crook." - Richard Nixon
"I will be devoting the rest of my life to finding the real killer of my wife Nicole and Ronald
Goldman." - O. J. Simpson
You probably can’t find another topic so thoroughly covered in the Bible. You see God hates a
liar. It grates at his very being because he is all about truth. Look in both the Old and New
Testament and you will see God condemns the liar and lift up those who seek after and tell the
truth.
It goes right back to the beginning. In Genesis 3:1 – 13 we read how the serpent lied to Adam
and Eve and then they tried to cover it up.
We read in Proverbs 6: 16 - 19 a top seven list of the things God hates. "There are six things the
Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed
innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false
witness who pours out lies, and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers."
Nearly 30% of that list includes lying. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Sin has many tools, but a lie
is the handle that fits them all."
Now in case you think things changed after Christ, listen to what Paul has to say in Ephesians 4:
20 – 25. The freedom we have in Christ does not allow us to lie and manipulate the truth. He
says,
"You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught
in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former
way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made
new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true
righteousness and holiness. Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to
his neighbor, for we are all members of one body."
Now I don’t want you to get confused here. We have been talking about lying and I know there
are a few of you who are probably thinking, “What does this have to do with the ninth
commandment? Doesn’t that prohibit slandering your neighbor?” Well in the strictest sense you
are right, but like the other commandments, this one has broader implications. Bearing false
witness is legal terminology. It speaks to protecting the name of another. Solomon writes in
Proverbs 22:1, "A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than
silver or gold."
When we accuse someone of something they didn’t do, we have taken from them something that
cannot be returned. Ask anyone whose ever been accused of dishonest business practices if they’
ve ever lived down the false charge?
And its not just false testimony about someone’s character that robs them of their reputation.
Anytime we gossip about someone, even if it what we say is true, we are violating at the very
least the spirit of the 9th commandment. Gossip is simply the vice of confessing someone else’s
sins.
James 4:11 says, "Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against
or judges his brother or sister, speaks against the law and judges it."
There is no doubt that perjury and gossip are covered by the 9th commandment but so is good
old fashioned lying. There are many different ways to tell a lie.
1) Sometimes we lie by intentionally using inaccurate words.
Winston Churchill defined a lie as "terminological inexactitude." We need to be precise and
truthful with the very words we speak.
2) Sometimes we lie by what we don’t say or by what is inferred by our silence. John Ruskin
wrote, "The essence is in deception, not in words. A lie may be told by silence, by hedging, by
the accent on a syllable ... and all these kinds of lies are worse than a lie plainly told."
The clearest definition of a lie is simply this; a lie is anything we purposefully say or do that is
intended to mislead another person.
So does that mean that not telling everything you know a lie? Not necessarily. Honesty means
that everything you say must be true, not that everything that is true must be said.
If I think your new hair cut makes Phyllis Diller’s hairdo look good by comparison, I’m not
going to volunteer that opinion. Now if you ask me what I think of your new hairstyle, we are
both in jeopardy. I must be quick enough on my feet to give you an honest, but gentle answer
and you must be brave enough to accept the answer you asked for.
On the other hand, if you have information that you are morally obligated to share, your silence is
a lie. For example if you are asked to give a reference for someone you know has a history of
stealing from the company? The best way to handle that very difficult situation is to honestly
confront the individual and tell them, "Look, this is very painful for me, but I cannot give you a
good recommendation and I think we both know why." You have avoided gossip by going
directly to the person involved. You have avoided lying by courageously sticking with the truth.
And let me add this just here. Lies don’t come in colors. There is no such thing as a white lie.
What we mean by a "white lie," is one that doesn’t hurt anybody. One that doesn’t involve
important issues. One that simply spares someone some hurt feelings or avoids a potential
confrontation we have deemed unnecessary. But there is no such thing.
Don’t believe me? Just watch some old I Love Lucy reruns. Lucy lied to Ricky in just about
every episode. They were always little white lies, but every time they exploded into a full scale
mess. On the old Lucy shows it was funny. In real life people’s feelings are wounded, their trust
in what we say is eroded, our relationships are cheapened.
Jesus said something haunting in Matthew 12:36, 37. "But I tell you that men and women will
have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by
your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned."
A year or so ago we studied John Ortberg’s book “God is Closer Than You Think.” In the study
he talks about Spiritual Habituation. Psychologists who deal with the study of perception refer to
a phenomenon called "habituation." The idea is that when a new object is introduced to our
environment, we are intensely aware of it, but the awareness fades over time. For instance, when
we first begin to wear a new wristwatch, we feel it on our wrist constantly, but after a while we
don’t even notice that it’s there. When people move into a new home, they generally have a list
of things they must repair or remodel because the sight of them is intolerable. Five years later,
they may still have the same list, but the lack of repair doesn’t bother them anymore.
One of the greatest challenges in life is fighting what might be called spiritual habituation. We
simply drift into acceptance of life in spiritual maintenance mode. We rationalize it because we
think, "I’m not involved in major scandalous sin. I haven’t done anything to jeopardize getting
into heaven. I’m doing okay." And we forget that Jesus never said, "I have come that you might
do okay." Okay is not okay. We have a kind of spiritual attention deficit disorder that God will
have to break through.
When life is on spiritual autopilot, rivers of living water do not flow through it with energy and
joy. Instead if we hate someone it’s OK, If we tell one white lie it will hurt no one, so what if I
have fantasies about someone who is not my wife or husband. Does it really matter if I don’t put
any money in the collection plate? God loves a cheerful giver and I would be cheerful if I could
go out and get a big juicy steak.
Spiritual habituation is in some ways more dangerous than spiritual depravity because it can be so
subtle, so gradual.
Dallas Willard writes about a two-and-a-half-year-old girl in the backyard who one day
discovered the secret to making mud (which she called "warm chocolate"). Her grandmother had
been reading and was facing away from the action, but after cleaning up what was to her a
mess, she told little Larissa not to make any more chocolate and turned her chair around so as to
be facing her granddaughter.
The little girl soon resumed her "warm chocolate" routine, with one request posed as sweetly as a
two-and-a-half-year-old can make it: "Don’t look at me, Nana. Okay?"
Nana of course agreed. Larissa continued to manufacture warm chocolate. Three times she said,
as she continued her work, "Don’t look at me, Nana. Okay?"
Then Willard writes, "Thus the tender soul of a little child shows us how necessary it is to us
that we be unobserved in our wrong.”
Any time we choose to break the 9th Commandment or any of the Commandments that we don’t
think of as a Big deal, we choose hiddenness as well. It may be that out of all the prayers that are
ever spoken, the most common one -the quietest one, the one that we least acknowledge making -
is simply this: Don’t look at me, God.
It was the very first prayer spoken after the Fall. God came to walk in the garden, to be with the
man and the woman, and called, "Where are you?"
"I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid... so I hid." Don’t look at me, God.
We don’t say it out loud, of course. We probably don’t admit it even to ourselves. But it’s the
choice our heart makes: Don’t look at me, God. After a while this prayer can become so
ingrained that we’re not even aware of it.
I suspect that there are some here this morning who need to speak the truth. Specifically, we
need to tell the truth that we have been living at times, a falsehood. We may have said all the right
words, but our actions have not been consistent with our language. We’ve claimed our faith in
Christ, but we have lived by a different standard. Truth is not reserved just for what we say. Its
clearest expression is seen in how we live. Has your life been a testimony to truth? Or do you
pray on an daily or hourly basis, Don’t Look at me God?
Well now he invites us to come to him, to put aside all the pretenses and confess our sins. Here’s
the good news. When we accept his invitation and come to the table, he forgives us and opens
the doors to heaven for us. That is what this table is all about.
So come, with full disclosure, confessing your failings, your sins, sharing with him the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth. As you come, know this, he is good and he will forgive
your sin and make you whole. So come and let the truth set you free from your burdens and
accept the gift of life.
Exodus 20:16 September 3, 2007
If we were to rank the commandments from easiest to comply with to the most difficult, the
ninth commandment would be the one that would trip up more people than any other. It is
routinely violated every day by people in every segment of society, intentionally and
unintentionally. Some of the most famous lines in history fall into this realm of breaking the ninth
commandment.
"Read My Lips, No New Taxes.” – George H Bush
“I did not inhale.” - Bill Clinton.
"The American people have a right to know that their president is not a crook. And I am not a
crook." - Richard Nixon
"I will be devoting the rest of my life to finding the real killer of my wife Nicole and Ronald
Goldman." - O. J. Simpson
You probably can’t find another topic so thoroughly covered in the Bible. You see God hates a
liar. It grates at his very being because he is all about truth. Look in both the Old and New
Testament and you will see God condemns the liar and lift up those who seek after and tell the
truth.
It goes right back to the beginning. In Genesis 3:1 – 13 we read how the serpent lied to Adam
and Eve and then they tried to cover it up.
We read in Proverbs 6: 16 - 19 a top seven list of the things God hates. "There are six things the
Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed
innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false
witness who pours out lies, and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers."
Nearly 30% of that list includes lying. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Sin has many tools, but a lie
is the handle that fits them all."
Now in case you think things changed after Christ, listen to what Paul has to say in Ephesians 4:
20 – 25. The freedom we have in Christ does not allow us to lie and manipulate the truth. He
says,
"You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught
in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former
way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made
new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true
righteousness and holiness. Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to
his neighbor, for we are all members of one body."
Now I don’t want you to get confused here. We have been talking about lying and I know there
are a few of you who are probably thinking, “What does this have to do with the ninth
commandment? Doesn’t that prohibit slandering your neighbor?” Well in the strictest sense you
are right, but like the other commandments, this one has broader implications. Bearing false
witness is legal terminology. It speaks to protecting the name of another. Solomon writes in
Proverbs 22:1, "A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than
silver or gold."
When we accuse someone of something they didn’t do, we have taken from them something that
cannot be returned. Ask anyone whose ever been accused of dishonest business practices if they’
ve ever lived down the false charge?
And its not just false testimony about someone’s character that robs them of their reputation.
Anytime we gossip about someone, even if it what we say is true, we are violating at the very
least the spirit of the 9th commandment. Gossip is simply the vice of confessing someone else’s
sins.
James 4:11 says, "Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against
or judges his brother or sister, speaks against the law and judges it."
There is no doubt that perjury and gossip are covered by the 9th commandment but so is good
old fashioned lying. There are many different ways to tell a lie.
1) Sometimes we lie by intentionally using inaccurate words.
Winston Churchill defined a lie as "terminological inexactitude." We need to be precise and
truthful with the very words we speak.
2) Sometimes we lie by what we don’t say or by what is inferred by our silence. John Ruskin
wrote, "The essence is in deception, not in words. A lie may be told by silence, by hedging, by
the accent on a syllable ... and all these kinds of lies are worse than a lie plainly told."
The clearest definition of a lie is simply this; a lie is anything we purposefully say or do that is
intended to mislead another person.
So does that mean that not telling everything you know a lie? Not necessarily. Honesty means
that everything you say must be true, not that everything that is true must be said.
If I think your new hair cut makes Phyllis Diller’s hairdo look good by comparison, I’m not
going to volunteer that opinion. Now if you ask me what I think of your new hairstyle, we are
both in jeopardy. I must be quick enough on my feet to give you an honest, but gentle answer
and you must be brave enough to accept the answer you asked for.
On the other hand, if you have information that you are morally obligated to share, your silence is
a lie. For example if you are asked to give a reference for someone you know has a history of
stealing from the company? The best way to handle that very difficult situation is to honestly
confront the individual and tell them, "Look, this is very painful for me, but I cannot give you a
good recommendation and I think we both know why." You have avoided gossip by going
directly to the person involved. You have avoided lying by courageously sticking with the truth.
And let me add this just here. Lies don’t come in colors. There is no such thing as a white lie.
What we mean by a "white lie," is one that doesn’t hurt anybody. One that doesn’t involve
important issues. One that simply spares someone some hurt feelings or avoids a potential
confrontation we have deemed unnecessary. But there is no such thing.
Don’t believe me? Just watch some old I Love Lucy reruns. Lucy lied to Ricky in just about
every episode. They were always little white lies, but every time they exploded into a full scale
mess. On the old Lucy shows it was funny. In real life people’s feelings are wounded, their trust
in what we say is eroded, our relationships are cheapened.
Jesus said something haunting in Matthew 12:36, 37. "But I tell you that men and women will
have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by
your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned."
A year or so ago we studied John Ortberg’s book “God is Closer Than You Think.” In the study
he talks about Spiritual Habituation. Psychologists who deal with the study of perception refer to
a phenomenon called "habituation." The idea is that when a new object is introduced to our
environment, we are intensely aware of it, but the awareness fades over time. For instance, when
we first begin to wear a new wristwatch, we feel it on our wrist constantly, but after a while we
don’t even notice that it’s there. When people move into a new home, they generally have a list
of things they must repair or remodel because the sight of them is intolerable. Five years later,
they may still have the same list, but the lack of repair doesn’t bother them anymore.
One of the greatest challenges in life is fighting what might be called spiritual habituation. We
simply drift into acceptance of life in spiritual maintenance mode. We rationalize it because we
think, "I’m not involved in major scandalous sin. I haven’t done anything to jeopardize getting
into heaven. I’m doing okay." And we forget that Jesus never said, "I have come that you might
do okay." Okay is not okay. We have a kind of spiritual attention deficit disorder that God will
have to break through.
When life is on spiritual autopilot, rivers of living water do not flow through it with energy and
joy. Instead if we hate someone it’s OK, If we tell one white lie it will hurt no one, so what if I
have fantasies about someone who is not my wife or husband. Does it really matter if I don’t put
any money in the collection plate? God loves a cheerful giver and I would be cheerful if I could
go out and get a big juicy steak.
Spiritual habituation is in some ways more dangerous than spiritual depravity because it can be so
subtle, so gradual.
Dallas Willard writes about a two-and-a-half-year-old girl in the backyard who one day
discovered the secret to making mud (which she called "warm chocolate"). Her grandmother had
been reading and was facing away from the action, but after cleaning up what was to her a
mess, she told little Larissa not to make any more chocolate and turned her chair around so as to
be facing her granddaughter.
The little girl soon resumed her "warm chocolate" routine, with one request posed as sweetly as a
two-and-a-half-year-old can make it: "Don’t look at me, Nana. Okay?"
Nana of course agreed. Larissa continued to manufacture warm chocolate. Three times she said,
as she continued her work, "Don’t look at me, Nana. Okay?"
Then Willard writes, "Thus the tender soul of a little child shows us how necessary it is to us
that we be unobserved in our wrong.”
Any time we choose to break the 9th Commandment or any of the Commandments that we don’t
think of as a Big deal, we choose hiddenness as well. It may be that out of all the prayers that are
ever spoken, the most common one -the quietest one, the one that we least acknowledge making -
is simply this: Don’t look at me, God.
It was the very first prayer spoken after the Fall. God came to walk in the garden, to be with the
man and the woman, and called, "Where are you?"
"I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid... so I hid." Don’t look at me, God.
We don’t say it out loud, of course. We probably don’t admit it even to ourselves. But it’s the
choice our heart makes: Don’t look at me, God. After a while this prayer can become so
ingrained that we’re not even aware of it.
I suspect that there are some here this morning who need to speak the truth. Specifically, we
need to tell the truth that we have been living at times, a falsehood. We may have said all the right
words, but our actions have not been consistent with our language. We’ve claimed our faith in
Christ, but we have lived by a different standard. Truth is not reserved just for what we say. Its
clearest expression is seen in how we live. Has your life been a testimony to truth? Or do you
pray on an daily or hourly basis, Don’t Look at me God?
Well now he invites us to come to him, to put aside all the pretenses and confess our sins. Here’s
the good news. When we accept his invitation and come to the table, he forgives us and opens
the doors to heaven for us. That is what this table is all about.
So come, with full disclosure, confessing your failings, your sins, sharing with him the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth. As you come, know this, he is good and he will forgive
your sin and make you whole. So come and let the truth set you free from your burdens and
accept the gift of life.
| Welcome to the First Baptist Church of Norwich 239 West Main Street Norwich, Connecticut Phone: 860-889-0369 |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |