Proverbs 6:16-17; Exodus 20:16; Deuteronomy 32:3-4; Psalm 109:1-4; Revelation 21:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12; Ephesians 6:13-14.
This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 22, 2021.
Today, we will continue our look at the seven things that God hates. Proverbs 6 lists a lying tongue as the second thing that God hates.
Let’s get into our passages.
The word translated as “lying” in Proverbs 6 can be translated as: an untruth, a lie, a sham, falsehood, fraud, and deceit. The phrase is literally “a tongue of falsehood,” or “a tongue of lies.” It is like the tongue is the offspring of lies and belongs to them. Of course, the tongue is not the real problem. Even if God had not given us a tongue, we would still be capable of misleading and lying to one another. The tongue is just a powerful tool for those whose hearts are inclined to mislead others.
At its core, a lie is a refusal to face the truth, to face reality. This is precisely why we see much of what we see in these last days. Mankind is in league with fallen spiritual beings, and are rebelling against truth and reality itself. Of course, to rebel against reality is to rebel against the One who created it.
Many people object to a God. They may never say it this way, but they feel that reality is a straitjacket that restricts them. Only a liar would call reality a straitjacket because it is their own perversity that restricts them. It is their own life of pursuing pleasure that leaves them shackled and bound to sin. This is what we all would be, if it weren’t for the love of God calling us back from the precipice, saying, “I love you. Why will you die? Choose life!”
The ninth commandment in Exodus 20:16 tells us not to bear false witness against your neighbor. Of course, it is wrong to bear false witness against anyone, but the neighbor part is added to intensify the command. It is not setting the limits of the command, but rather intensifying it. How could you do such a thing to your neighbor, or even your brother? If neighbors do not live truthfully with one another, if we lie against those we depend upon for mutual protection, then no society can last long in such circumstances.
There are different reasons why people lie. Some people really will say anything in order to protect or promote themselves. Others lie because they believe the ends justifies the means. Lies are told to conceal activity from others, and in some cases, lies are told to protect others from harm.
Regardless of the reasons why we may lie, such reasons are only the superficial motivation. There are deeper reasons that go to the core of our human nature, which brings us to the rub.
In Deuteronomy 32:3-4, Moses declares the nature of God. He is something that is like a large Rock. It cannot be moved and can be trusted. You can build your life upon Him and it will hold up, as opposed to sand, which looks solid at first. I mean, isn’t it just broken up rock? However, sand is not dependable between sinkholes and liquefaction. God doesn’t change, yesterday, today, or forever. The words Justice, Truth, Righteous, and Upright are woven together to highlight God’s nature. God by His nature is truth, but we are not. Even when we speak of justice, truth, and righteousness, we are not generally being completely honest. We just want the justice that is in our favor, and not that which hurts us. Moses reminds Israel, and us, of just who God is, so that they will do the hard work of fighting against their own sinful nature.
Lies come too easy for us, and only a person who keeps their eyes upon God and has a healthy fear of Him, can be transformed into His image. The choice is always to conform to the perversity of this world, or be transformed into the truth of who God is. Titus 1:2 tells us that God cannot lie. Why? He cannot lie because He is Truth. It is His nature. Whereas, lies are contrary to the nature of God and the reality He created.
In Psalm 109:1-4, David was able to take his prayers, his cries to God, and put them in poetic form. Always remember that songs which move us deeply are crafted from the difficult things and the anguish that they have gone through.
David speaks of how the wicked have lied against him, that is within society. Saul is a good example of what David is talking about. Saul continually defamed David as a rebel insurrectionist, a usurper, but the truth is that Saul was the true rebel. He was in rebellion against the path of God, and though he was not usurping the throne, he was usurping God’s place of leadership within Israel. Still, Saul deflects the truth and paints David as the bad guy. David also mentions that the wicked do this without cause. Even their feigned reason for coming after him is a lie. He has done nothing to them, but good!
Like the cry of Israel rising up from the mud pits of Egypt to God, the cry of the righteous reaches God’s ears. Even people who lie against others often complain about those who lie against them. However, notice what David’s answer is to all this frustration. “…but I give myself to prayer.” David appeals to The Power that is higher than King Saul, or anyone else on this planet, or in this cosmos, for that matter.
If you are not convinced that God will deal with all liars, then read Revelation 21:8. There, we are told that “all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone…” It may not look like it in this world, but God is committed to destroying those who give themselves to lies, and to lying. This passage uses inheritance language. They will have their part, their portion, their lot, in the Lake of Fire. It becomes their inheritance. They will not be allowed to enter into the new heavens and the new earth.
Any time a person complains that a good God should not allow so much evil on earth, remind them that they should be more careful. God has set a day of recompense, but will you survive? Will I survive and come through the coming Great Filter of God?
Let us not fool ourselves. God hates lies and false causes. He will bring to destruction everyone who embraces them, and He will separate them from His creation.
The flip-side of hating lies is that God loves truth. I could have said that He loves a truth-telling tongue, but there is a deeper issue here.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, Paul reminds us that part of what God is trying to do is to give us a love of the truth. Think about that. What is God doing right now? He is working to help us learn to love truth. To love truth is to love God because He is truth by nature. You can’t separate these two. This includes our wrestling with our sinful nature, and learning to cooperate with the lessons of truth that God is trying to teach us.
Paul pictures the end times as a time in which God quits trying to convince the world to love truth, and He hands them over to a strong delusion, a great lie that the whole world will believe hook, line, and sinker.
In fact, we should recognize that salvation itself, the Gospel, is all about asking people to embrace truth. I am a sinner, that is the truth. God’s judgment hangs over my head, that is the truth. Yet, God doesn’t want me to be destroyed, that is the truth. If I will throw myself upon His mercy, die to self, and put my trust in the person and the way of Jesus, then I will be spared. Truth! If you don’t love that truth, then something is very wrong with your heart. Something is wrong with all of our hearts, but God can help us if we will trust Him. Many today keep pushing away the love of God that continues to reach out to them. However, one day it will come to an end because God loves others too much to give you eternity of choosing lies over truth.
In Ephesians6:13-14, Paul reminds us that Truth is part of the armor of God. Like Saul with David, this world offers us all kind of armor that it says will protect. Lies and deception are the protection of the wicked. David knew that he would not survive using this world’s armor. His trust was in God and the truth. The truth is that God has either sent Goliath and the Philistines to chastise Israel, or that God is looking for someone with enough guts to trust that He would be with them. David was that man.
Of course, Jesus also trusted in truth, and it got him killed. At least, that is what the world, and your flesh, wants you to think. The truth did not get Jesus killed. They were actually killing truth when they killed him. He willingly laid down his life for us, that is the truth! To overcome the attacks of this world upon our faith, we must love truth more than life itself. This is the real battle.
As we close, I bring to our remembrance the warning of Jesus himself. Perhaps Matthew 24 and the Olivet Discourse is what Paul had in mind when he wrote 2 Thessalonians 2. There, Jesus gave his disciples a look at what lay ahead of them from the first century to the end of the age and his Second Coming.
Jesus emphasized and warned against deception, false prophets, false christs, and lying signs and wonders that are coming to convince the world of The Big Lie. It will be convincing to those who have not clung to the truth of God and loved it. Many who claim to be believers in Jesus will become believers in the anti-Jesus because they let themselves use lies as a defense instead of repenting before Christ.
Today, let us not only hate those lies that are told against us, but to hate the deceptive cause that is dripping with a false coat of righteousness and appeals to our sinful nature. May God enable us to love truth because He is truth, and without Him, we will not survive what lies ahead of us.