The Ninth Commandment

After the feast last year, after the feast last year, that we began a series on the Ten Commandments. And at that time, I said we would take one, one at a time, and by the time this feast rolled around, we would have the Ten Commandments completed. So, we're very close. We're very close to the Feast of Tabernacles. So today, we're going to continue with that series, and we're going to get to talk about the Ninth Commandment. And as I was, as I was, you know, putting this together, I was, you know, reviewing the commandment, and I thought, well, I wonder how you give a whole sermon on lying.

Everyone knows it's wrong to lie. We teach our children from very young, it's lying. But as I contemplated and meditated and searched the scriptures on this, there's an awfully lot to be said about lying. And it's fitting that we talk about this as we lead into the Feast of Tabernacles, because as we look at that time, it's God's people that have perfected, that have allowed God to perfect them, that are going to be part of that kingdom.

They're going to be part of the first fruits that are there. So as we go through these commandments, this eighth that we've already gone through, the ninth that we'll go through today, we need to examine ourselves and see, do we measure the standard that God has set for us? Not the measure that the world has set for us, which has a lot of compromise involved in it. But let's look at the picture that God has set for us, and are we working toward that goal and that picture of what a person should be that's going to be in his kingdom? Back in Deuteronomy 31 verse 10, there's a verse there that says, at the Feast of Tabernacles, every seven years, the children of Israel were to read the book of the law.

They were to remind themselves of what was in there and read through it. So as we go through this today and as we go through the 10th commandment, remember that. And as we go to the feast, we picture the kingdom, but what the people are going to be living at that time is perfectly the law that we talk about. You don't have to turn to Exodus 20 verse 16. You can all recite it to me.

The ninth commandment is, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You know, if we look back at the time that Israel was there when this commandment was given, they had a system of justice, and it was much reliant on people telling the truth about each other. You can't have justice if you don't have people telling truth. Today we have a justice system, and much of it is based on truth, too. We watch trials that go on, that bear publicly, and we see things that happen, and we may even know that something is being said that's a falsehood.

And you can kind of see things unravel. You know, there was a very notable trial in Orlando last summer, I guess it was, and there were things that were said that were misleading and false that led the jury to a verdict that many people questioned. To have perfect justice, you've got to have truth. And without truth, there is no justice. So God told his people, you shall bear no false witness. You tell the truth when you're talking about people. When there's matters at hand, you talk about the truth. Now let's turn back to Leviticus 19, because God expanded on the commandments.

And here in Leviticus 19, you see the commandments repeated again, not in the same manner that they are in Exodus 20 and New Deuteronomy 5. But in talking about them and laying out the law, you see many of the 10 commandments listed here in Leviticus 19. As we come down to verse 11, we find this ninth commandment talked about. It says, you shall not steal in verse 11, nor shall you deal falsely, nor shall you lie to one another. Don't lie. Don't bear false witness. Don't lie. Back in Leviticus 6, it talks about another element of this commandment.

Leviticus 6, verse 1, it says, the eternal spoke to Moses, saying, if a person sins and commits a trespass against the Lord by lying to his neighbor, about what was delivered to him for safekeeping, or about a pledge or about a robbery, or if he is extorted from his neighbor, or if he has found what was lost and lies concerning it and swears falsely in any one of these things that a man may do in which he sins, then it shall be because he has sinned that is guilty that he'll restore what is stolen, etc.

What he's talking about here is deceiving someone, kind of misleading them into what you want them to think, not telling them the truth, but giving them partial answers. If someone gives me something for safekeeping and they come back six months later and ask where it is, and I tell them, I don't have it, you took much longer than I thought you were going to leave it with me, anything that is other than the truth, I'm misleading them for a purpose. What God is talking about here in the newer translations actually use the word deceive here in chapters 6 and verses 1 through 4.

Don't deceive. When we're talking about the ninth commandment, we're talking about don't bear false witness, don't lie, don't deceive. This commandment is about truth. And this is a commandment that we can all relate to because every single one of us have lied, every single one of us have deceived, every single one of us has spoken things that have been misleading about other people, every single one of us. Not one of us can pat ourselves on the back and say, well, this is one I haven't done.

We might look at thou shalt not murder and those of us in the room, we haven't physically murdered, although when we went through that commandment, we realized we've broken that commandment too. But every single one of us have broken this commandment and probably do so to this day. Not willingly, but then words slip out and then when we realize later, you know, we've said something that was misleading, in a while we'll see for what purpose. Well, God hates lying. Let's go back to Proverbs 6. Proverbs 6 and verse 16.

Proverbs 6 and verse 16.

There are seven things that are listed that specifically says that God hates.

These six things the Lord hates. Yes, seven are an abomination to Him. A proud look.

A lying tongue. Hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that devises wicked plans.

Feet that are swift and running to evil. A false witness who speaks lies.

And one who sows discord among brethren.

Specifically, two of those seven, and we could make a case for more than two of those seven, speak about lying. Being deceitful. Bearing false witness. Saying things that aren't true.

There's more than just speaking lies that we can do as well that we'll talk about.

But you know, as I was looking at this commandment, I was reminded of the third commandment. And we have the first and second commandments to talk about there is no other God or we're to have no other God except God. We talk about not having any graven images, no idols that we bow down to. And the third commandment is don't take the name of the Lord in vain. Don't take God's name in vain. And we talked about how we do that and that that commandment has a dual application. One of them is we don't speak God's name in vain.

We don't use the words, the names that we use to identify God. God, Jesus Christ, just Jesus, just Christ. Lord, we don't use those. God says don't make my name plain. Don't make it common. Don't use it in everyday language. It's a name to be revered when we use God's name.

And we can break it by speaking it. And all we have to do is go outside this hall, we'll turn on the TV, and we can hear people doing that all the time, taking God's name in vain and just making it common. God said don't speak His name except in reverence. When we speak of it, speak of Him. Don't make it a common everyday thing that we do. And the other way that we can break that commandment is that we can take His name in vain by living different than what He called us to. When we take God's name, when we say, I'm a member of the Church of God, when we're baptized and we're baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, when we're begotten and He puts His name on us, there's a responsibility, a tremendous responsibility that we all have to live up to that name and not to allow ourselves to get lax, not to allow ourselves to be at ease, not to allow ourselves to go off and do something other than that. That family name is important. That family name that we have, we have to live up to. And the way we live up to it is by every word of the Bible. We take His name in vain if we say that we're Christians and we do something different than what the Bible says. So we look at that commandment and we can break it by speaking God's name in vain and we can live. We can break it by living God's name in vain and taking His name and not living the way we should. It's the same thing with this ninth commandment. We speak lies. Speaking a lie is something we've all done, but we also can live a lie. And when God talks about this commandment, it's deceit and how we live and how we speak that He's looking for us to do. And this is a tough, tough commandment to live up to. And we can't live up to it. We can't reach the goal that God wants us to without His Holy Spirit.

Because when words are involved, we know that we need God's Holy Spirit in order to direct those words. Let's just turn back to James for a moment. James 1 and verse 26.

James talks about the peril of the tongue in the words that we speak.

It says in verse 26, if anyone among you thinks he's religious, if you think you're in the church, if you think that you're doing God's will, if anyone among you thinks that he's religious and doesn't bridle his tongue, he deceives his own heart. And this one's religion is useless.

We don't bridle our own tongue. We deceive ourselves. Over in chapter 3 and verse 1, he says, My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we'll receive a stricter judgment. For we stumble in many things. If anyone doesn't stumble in word, he's a perfect man.

Not one of us are perfect yet. Every single one of us stumble in words.

When I read this, I know it's talking to me. You know, many times I'll go home and I'll think, What did I say exactly in that sentence when I was maybe not thinking? And I realize many times something has snuck in that shouldn't have. When we all stumble in many things, if anyone doesn't stumble in word, he's a perfect man. We're all working toward perfection. We all have to get control of our words as God gives us that. And that perfect man is able also to, or when we are able to bridle the tongue, we're also able to bridle the whole body.

And then he goes on in this chapter to talk about how difficult it is to control the tongue. With one time we can praise, and then another time we can condemn someone.

One time we can tell the truth and the whole truth, but then the next minute we could be telling something that's false and misleading by someone. The goal in life is to have, or let God have control of your tongue. Let God have control of your mind so that the words we speak are truth. And it's a lifelong process. In this lifetime we will never perfectly keep this commandment, but that doesn't give us an excuse not to be ever working toward it and working toward that goal. Let's look at what people in the kingdom are going to be like. Over in Revelation 21, we know that God hates lying. We didn't have to turn to the verse there, but you've seen it in the Bible now. But over in Revelation 21, as it talks about that new city that God will set up, the city that all of us want to be part of, the kingdom that all of us want to be part of, he talks about people who will be there and the type of people who won't be part of that part of that kingdom. Verse 8, "...but the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." No liar will be in the kingdom.

No liar will find himself there.

Over in verse 27, again, as it's talking about the new Jerusalem, it says, "...there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie." Only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

No lies in the kingdom. Kind of hard to even imagine a society where there isn't any lies going on. No deception. We look around us today and they're everywhere, aren't they? We look at advertising. We know that what we're getting there is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

We look at the political arena that we've got going on around us and we can see some truth, some error, all designed to mislead, all designed to deceive, and have people think that they have the right answers. It's hard to even imagine what life would be like if every single person that we came in contact with was telling the truth all the time. I don't know that our minds can even conceive of that because it's such a universal sin. You know, when kids grow up, I wonder if that's the first sin that most children make. I know they can be rebellious and cry, but, you know, there comes a point in time when your child is young and they're talking and you ask them a question and they give you an answer that you absolutely know is a lie. And you sit there and you kind of marvel that this little person can sit there and tell you something that you know is a lie.

Satan uses lies very early on and puts that in our minds that even from the very in the very beginning of our lives, this sin is there. I was reading a little study that I quickly stopped reading because the man was way off base and was talking about childhood development and then that he was talking about lies and how it's a natural process, a natural process when a child lies and parents shouldn't be upset about that. Parents should just realize that's what the child does and just accept it and go on. I thought that's all I need to read. That's all I need to read. We know it's a natural thing, but it's certainly something we should address. It'd be teaching about telling the truth, but that was his take on it and I don't know where he went where he went from there. Here in the last chapter of the Bible, chapter 22 and verse 15, well, let's start with verse 14. It says, "'Blessed are they who do his commandments, who keep those ten laws, that way of life, that those ten laws, those ten commandments to find. Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, eternal life, that they may live and be with God forever, that they may enter through the gates into the city, but outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie.'" Crystal clear. No liar will be in the kingdom.

No one who hasn't been overcoming that tendency that we all have will be in the kingdom. So it's implicit on us as we look toward the Feast of Tabernacles that were there, even more to increase our resolve to live the way that God wants and to allow him to purge out from us these seeds of sin that are in us. Let's go back to Psalm 15.

Psalm 15, we have the picture of the type of person who will be in the kingdom. This is what God wants to develop in you. This is the type of man God wants to develop in us.

Psalm 15, verse 1, Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? Who's going to live with you?

Who do you welcome into your home and into your kingdom? Who may dwell in your holy hill?

He who walks uprightly and works righteousness? He who lives the way of life he's been called to and speaks the truth, it says, in his heart. He speaks truth in his heart.

You know, Christ said, what comes out of our mouth is an indication of what's in our heart.

Jeremiah said, the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things.

The heart is deceitful above all things. That's the natural man.

Without God's Spirit, without his cleansing, without his changing, without his spirit flowing through our mind and through our bodies and through our lives, that heart stays deceitful. Only with God's Spirit do we develop a heart that's filled with truth that would speak truth. And then as it goes on in verse 3, it talks about some of the other characteristics of a man that's going to live with God will be like. He doesn't back back with his tongue. He doesn't do evil to his neighbor. He doesn't take up a reproach. He despises the actions of vile people, honors those who fear the Lord, and swears to his own hurt and doesn't change. When he makes a commitment, when he says he's going to do something, he does it, even if it hurts him. Because when we make a promise and when we tell someone we'll do something, and then later we just don't have the time to do it, or it's going to cause us a lot of pain or cause us a lot of problems, we back off of that. That's a violation of the ninth commandment.

Let your word stand, even if it causes you pain. That's the type of people that God will have in his kingdom. That's the kind of people he wants you and me to become. There's a verse over in John 1 that for some reason has always inspired me when I read it. And in John 1, Christ is beginning to call some of the people to be his disciples. And it talks about him calling Peter and his brother. And in verse 47 there's another man. That's going to be his disciple. In verse 47 it says this about a man named Nathaniel. Jesus saw in Nathaniel coming toward him and he said of him, Behold, and Israel liked indeed, in whom is no deceit. What a nice thing! What a great thing to have someone say about you. Here comes Nathaniel. In him is no deceit.

And that's what Christ said about him. That's what we want God to say about all of us.

That's what we want others to say about us. That when we say something, they can trust it. That our yes is yes. That our know is no. That our commitments stand firm. God says, You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Don't lie. Don't deceive. And when people see you, let them see that what they see is what they get. In you is a heart of truth that they don't need to think. Are his words be lying what's really in his heart? Are his words be lying what really what really he means? Nathaniel wasn't that way. Over in Revelation 14, verse 5, speaking of the first fruits again, verse 1 says, I looked and behold the Lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him 144,000 having his Father's name written on their foreheads. Father's name written on their foreheads implanted in their minds. It doesn't mean that there's a name written literally on our foreheads, but what they live by, what they're guided by, what they're known by, what guides them is the Word of God. What guides them is God's will, God's law, God's name.

It's firmly implanted up here and that's what guides us. In verse 5, it says of this group of people, in their mouth the first fruits was no deceit. In their mouth was no deceit.

The first thing he says about them, remember what James said? If we're able to bridle our tongue, we're able to bridle our whole body. It's key. It's important to gain control of the words we speak and make sure they're truthful. In their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God. Well, it's no wonder that God hates lying so much. You don't need to turn back to Genesis 3, but you know that the first spoken lie in the Bible was uttered by Satan. When he was in conversation with Eve, he looked at her and asked her, what did God say about the tree in the garden? And he said, did God tell you that you can not eat of that tree? Did God tell you that you would die? And Eve repeated, yes, he told us that if we eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden, in the day we eat of it, we shall surely die. And Satan looked at her and said, you shall not surely die. You shall not surely die. And Eve believed Satan. Eve believed that serpent.

The first lie, and look what happened after that lie, was uttered on earth.

All the harmony, all the peace, all the unity, all the joy, everything that was there in that garden of Eden disappeared. It was all gone with one lie and someone who believed that lie.

Eve made the wrong choice. Now when she made that wrong choice, everything they knew and everything they could have been disappeared in their lives. That first lie eventually led to them being put out of the garden of Eden. No longer the access to the tree of life, because the only access to the tree of life is to those who learn and who let God lead them that they don't practice a lie.

They don't lie. And eventually the first murder occurred on the earth and the world became wicked. It all started with one lie. God hates lying. He sees what it does. He sees what it did back to the creation that He put on earth. Everything He wanted for mankind was now put on hold for 6,000 years until the time that Jesus Christ would return and establish His kingdom and then become a world that was based on truth and not on lie. Where people would be people who speak truth and that lies. A land in which people could develop, the world could develop, and all the potential that God had for mankind and the earth could be revealed. That lies ahead of us. That lies ahead of us. All of mankind between Eve and us don't know what that world is like except for those that God has called and given them visions of it. We know what Satan said was a lie, and there are just flat-out lies that we tell and that people tell us. They can look us in the face and tell us something that is absolutely false. And we know. We know that that's wrong. And a lot of times we know when someone is telling us something is absolutely false, and we know for a fact that what they've said has absolutely no truth in it. And those lies are easy to reject because we know that what we're being told is not right. But the way Satan did it in Genesis 3 was kind of clever because Satan is a clever, cunning person whose purpose is to take us away from God, to get us to believe the lie. First Thessalonians 2 tells us in the end times, people believe the lie just like Eve did. He told Eve, you won't surely die.

Now, she might have thought, I don't know, I'll speculate a little, that if they ate that fruit, they would immediately die. Kind of like the poison fruit that you eat. You eat it. Isn't there a cartoon character, right? That eats the fruit and dies immediately? That you eat it and you die.

Eve ate the fruit and she didn't die immediately. God said in that day, and of course we didn't die today, and of course we know he means in within that the day what to God is like a thousand years. Certainly they died within that thousand years, but she didn't die. And Satan may have played on that and put a little doubt in her mind. And when she ate and she didn't die immediately, and he knew she wouldn't die immediately because God had a plan worked out, there was a little half-truth that was there, perhaps. And half-truths, when we hear half-truths, they can take us for a loop for a minute. We may have to stop and look at it when there's a little bit of truth mixed in with something that we believe to be false. The Bible has a lot of half-truths in it. A lot of examples, the Bible has examples of half-truths. I have to watch my own words here, what I'm saying. Examples of half-truths. You know, we can think back to Abraham. Remember when Sarah and he were there and he said that Sarah was his half-sister? Well, that was true. The king, though, he did the king, thought that Sarah was fair game because Abraham didn't bother telling him. She's also my wife. He kind of left that part out. And if God hadn't intervened, there could have been difficult circumstances. Let's turn over to Genesis 37 and see another example of a half-truth.

In Genesis 37, we have the story of Joseph and his brothers are selling him into slavery.

And of course, they don't want the father Jacob to know what has happened. Let me see. Verse 28 of Genesis 37 says, "...the Mid-Unite traders passed by, so the brothers pulled Joseph up, lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver, and they took Joseph to Egypt." Now the brothers had to explain to Jacob what happened to Joseph. Verse 31 says, "...so they took Joseph's tunic, killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood.

Then they sent the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father and said, We found this. Do you know whether this is your son's tunic or not?" Pretty clever. Jacob immediately recognized Jacob immediately jumped to the conclusion that Joseph had been killed by wild animals. He didn't have all the story. They intentionally looked to deceive Jacob to get away with what they had done. A half-truth. It never occurred to Jacob to ask the follow-up questions. What was here, he just believed what they had to say.

Over in Exodus, we find Aaron, the high priest, doing the same thing after the Israelites came down to after Moses was up on the mountain for 40 days, and they made the golden calf. Let's go over to Exodus 32. Verse 4. When they saw that Moses wasn't coming down, they collected the gold that they had. It says in verse 4, He, Aaron, received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded calf. They said, This is your God, Israel, that brought you out from the land of Egypt.

Aaron took it. He fashioned it. He used the tool to make it. But then when Moses came down from the mountain, and Moses was incensed at what had happened, in verse 24, this is what Aaron said.

Verse 24. I said to them, Whoever has any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and lo and behold, this calf came out.

Aaron. Aaron. Moses was a little too smart to know that that isn't what happened.

Haptrudes. And Aaron was looking to get himself off out of a sticky situation. Over in the New Testament, we have a very harrowing example of this and what God's retribution for Haptrudes is over in Acts 5. Let's turn over to Acts 5 and find Ananias and Sapphira.

As the New Testament Church began, the people lived together. They enjoyed being with one another, and what they did, many of them were sell their property and combine it together so that they could all live in one place. And I guess they felt good about that. Ananias and Sapphira may have had some substance to their name, but they wanted to be part of the group and to be seen as someone who was giving it all to the group as well. Chapter 5, verse 1, a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession. And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostle's feet. Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? Ananias came and he said, listen, we've sold what we had, here's what we got from it, we want to give it all to you. Peter knew exactly what was going on. Why are you lying?

Ananias, why are you saying you sold it all? Yes, you sold it, but why are you inferring that you're giving it all to us? And he says, while it remained, wasn't it your own? You owned it, you had control of it, and after it was sold, was it under your control?

There was no commandment, no edict that went out here that said, you have to sell everything you give and give it to the church at that time. It was a decision they made that many of them had done.

After it was sold, wasn't it under your control? Why did you conceive this thing in your heart? You haven't lied to men, but you've lied to God. I have truth. Making himself look like something he wasn't. And all he had to do was say, we sold the property, here's what we want to donate.

And you know that would have been perfectly fine. But he tried to make himself look like something he wasn't. Later on, you know the story his wife came in. And in verse 8, she doesn't know what has happened to her husband. Oh, well, God's retribution on Ananias, he immediately dropped dead. Peter answered when Sapphira came in, and he said, tell me, Sapphira, did you sell the land for so much? He was giving her an option and the opportunity to tell the truth. Did you sell the land for this amount of money? She said, yes, we did. Peter said to her, why did you agree together to test the Spirit of God? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they'll carry you out. And immediately she fell dead. Half truths are not truth.

A half truth is a lie. Whenever we look to deceive, whenever we look to mislead, whenever we give a wrong reason for something that we're doing to try to lead others to a different conclusion, it's a lie. Satan tried to use mixed good and evil and confuse people by, well, this has a little bit of good in it. But if it's not all of God's Word, if it's mixed with a little bit of air, then it is error. Good is only good if it's pure good. If it has evil mixed into it, it's evil, and it's not of God, because God is pure. If a statement, if a story that we tell is mostly truth, but we throw a little bit of error into it, or a little bit of lying, it's a lie. It's only the truth if it's 100% true. You know, in our courts, we affirm the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That's what God is looking for us.

Now, we've all embellished stories. I'm not a fisherman, but you know the story about fishermen, right? This fish becomes this fish. We've all done that in our lives and exaggerated things.

And the substance of what we're saying is true, but the results of it are exaggeration. You know what it becomes when we exaggerate? A lie. The whole truth and nothing but the truth. 100% true.

Some people will say, you know, I only said that lie to protect this person. And if I had told the truth, then it would have hurt them. It's a lie. God said, don't bear false witness. Tell the truth.

Some people say, and it's just a little white lie. There's no problem with a little white lie, right? There's a problem with a little white lie. God's not looking for people who are 95% truthful. He's looking for people and to develop people that are 100% truthful.

Even white lies are lies because God is truth and God doesn't lie. Let's look over at Numbers 23.

Numbers 23, verse 19. God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent.

Has he said and will he not do, or has he spoken and will he not make it good?

God can't lie. It's not part of his nature. And it says, if he blesses, he will bless. That's why we can rely on him. He's made promises to his people. When Christ ascended into heaven, he said, I will return and I will establish my kingdom.

And that kingdom will reign forever and ever and ever. He'll be king of kings and lord of lords. We rely on that promise because he didn't lie. When he was on earth, he didn't even make a little white lie. Truth, pure truth.

That's what God is looking to develop in us.

We all have a lot of work to do. I include myself in that.

Probably most of all myself, we all have a lot of work to do to reach the standard that God is looking. And it's only with his Holy Spirit that we're ever going to achieve that.

But in his kingdom, as we read, it will be people who speak truth. And there will be no lie or liar there. Let's look... that's the spoken. Spoken. Let's look a little bit of how we can live a lie. Let's turn over to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 14.

Scripture you all know, it says, no wonder, Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. We know he's not an angel of light. We know he's darkness. We know he's evil. We know he's the antithesis of God. We know that he's the father of lies. It says in John 8 44. He's not an angel of light, yet he makes himself look like light. When he was with Eve in the garden there in Genesis 3, if he had appeared as who he was, there's no way he would have had a conversation with him. No way Eve would have believed him. But he was very cunning, very coy, very friendly, and he appeared to her as someone that she could trust, a friend. Satan hears it, tells us in verse 14, that it is playing the part of a hypocrite. He's appearing as something he's not.

Hypocrisy is one of the things that Christ talked about a lot when he was on earth. And the New Testament has a lot to say about hypocrisy. Let's go over to 1 Timothy 4.

1 Timothy 4 and verse 1.

Now the Spirit, Paul writes, expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. They'll be led away from the truth by a false message, and then they will go out and they will speak lies in hypocrisy.

See, lying in hypocrisy in the same sentence there, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.

And after a while they don't even know they're lying anymore. They say things and they say it over and over and over. My psychologists say that it is a fact if we repeat the same lie over and over and over to ourselves, we will forget what the truth is, and that becomes truth to us.

And so we have a false perception of what life is like. That's why you can talk to some people, and you can have been in the same situation with them five and ten years ago, and they have a totally, totally different take on what happened than what you remember.

In fact, sometimes it's so dramatic that you think, are you kidding? I mean, that is not at all what occurred. But whatever they have come to believe, they repeated it in their minds so many times that they've lost what that was.

And I've seen that happen among some family members that we have. And they'll make a comment and they'll think, whoa, that's not even a half-truth. That's like only maybe 10% true.

But what's happened is they've seared their conscience. They say it over and over and over again, and they forget what truth is. It's a dangerous, dangerous place to be. And so Timothy, or Paul is talking to Timothy about people who will leave, and then they'll start talking things. And he goes on in verse 3 here to talk about some of the things they'll talk about and promote it as the Word of God. When it's not the Word of God, we have the Word of God. Back in Matthew, Christ talked a lot about hypocrisy. Let's turn to Matthew 6.

And verse 5, you know when we're called, we're called to worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

In the Faneuil, when Christ called Him, He said, Behold, an Israelite, in whom there is no deceit, in whom there is no guile. I think it says in the Old King James. Here's a man that Christ looked at and said, you know, He speaks, and He lives who He is. You know who He is by the way He lives. Here in Matthew 6, verse 5, Christ gives us some examples of people who are not living, who are playing the hypocrite. He says in verse 5, When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Verily, I say to you, they have their reward. They're going through the motions that they're praying, going through the motions, and that's what they want people to believe they're doing is praying, but that's not really what they're doing. They're out there to be seen by men. They're out there to promote themselves and to paint the picture that isn't really the case. And He tells us, who live in spirit and truth, and who to live in truth, when you go to pray, go to your room, and when you shut up, when you shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Don't live a lie! Don't act out a lie! When you're going to pray, pray to God.

Okay, let's go over to Matthew 15. Among many confrontations that Christ had with the Pharisees of the day, who were the religious leaders, who were teaching people the religion that they had, but they had departed from the true religion that was in the Bible. In verse 5... nope, let's go to verse 7. Christ is telling them, Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you saying, these people draw near to me with their mouth, and they honor me with their lips. Their words are good. What they say is okay, but what's in their heart is far from me. The words are good, but the heart has to be true as well.

In vain, he says, they worship me, teaching his doctrines, the commandments of men.

We know the commandments. We know God's law. It's here in the Bible.

There was a lot added on in Jesus' time, and in many cases, the people were taught that's even more important than the commandments of God. God says, worshiping in vain. Worship me in spirit and truth. Worship me in truth from the Bible, the Word of God, the way that he would have us do.

Christ said in John 14, verse 6, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. We're told, follow his example, live as he lived, walk as he walked, do as he did. He's the captain of our salvation. He's the one we emulate. And the same spirit that God put in him, he makes available to us so that we can have that same spirit flowing through our veins and through our mind, so that we live and worship God the way he wants to be worshiped, the way he tells us here in the Bible. You know, one of the things that I've noticed over the years in the church is young people pick up on hypocrisy. And there's been a number of people, a number of young people who have left the church because they say the way people live is hypocritical. And why would they be in the church living one way or saying they live one way but then living another way?

Well, we know none of us are perfect when God calls us. It's a lifelong process that we go through.

But you know, we don't want to live a lie either. We don't want to just come to church and think that that's all that God is looking for us. We don't want to just show up and say the right things in church but then have our lives back in our homes be a totally different picture than what they hear talked about in church, young people, than what they read about in the Bible.

God calls us to follow Him in spirit and in truth, not to live a lie, not to speak a lie, but to live and to show that we are committed to Him by closer and closer each day, each week, each month, each year, living to the standards that He set in the Bible.

Let's look at one more. Let's go back to Jude 16.

Jude 16. This is, of course, talking about the end times. If we pick up here in Jude 16, and Jude is talking about false prophets and people, and he says, these are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts, and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people, to gain advantage.

Well, I read that, you know, I can think about, I can think, I guess, about false ministers, because indeed that would be what they would do. But you know what I think about, I guess, in the current context of what we're living in? I think about politics when I read those. They mouth great swelling words, flattering people, to gain advantage. And you watch the speeches, you listen to the sound bites, and there's great flattering words that are out there. And so much error mixed with truth that you can pretty much discount it and just, you know, listen to it for what it's worth.

But there's a word in there, flattering. I want to talk about it a little bit, because flattery is something that can be an issue with some people.

Now let's look at flattery and politics, or a political nature in the same context here a little bit. I don't see it as a huge problem in the church, but I don't live with you every day, and I don't know what you do every day. But flattery can also be a form, a line of deceit.

You know, there's an old saying that says flattery will get you nowhere.

The sad truth is flattery does get people a lot of places, and it does get them what they want.

And having a political stance or paying the politics can get people what they want too often, and they say things and do things for one purpose, and that's to gain advantage for themselves. And I do see that, or I have seen that, I should say, even in church. And when I worked out in corporations, I never liked the politics. I remember one company I worked with is a little startup company that became quite successful over time. But one thing that I liked about that company was everyone there, there was really no politics. They were people that you know you could see. If they said something, they did it. And then as the company grew, we hired a guy in, nice guy, but you know he was a political animal from day one. And the whole demeanor of that company changed when he was there. He could just see things changing. And eventually I left, and I thought, no place for politics in work, no place for politics in the church, no place for these things to happen. Let's go over to Psalm 12. Psalm 12 and verse 1.

David writes, Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases. Where is a godly man? Where is one who speaks the truth? For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak idly, everyone with his neighbor, with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. They're saying something, but in their heart what they're looking for is something else. They're using words to gain an advantage for themselves. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips. You can say, may the Lord cut off all political lips and the tongue that speaks proud things. Who have said, with our tongue, we will prevail. Hey, if I say the right things, I'll get what I want. If I say the right things, I'll get that promotion. If I say the right things, I'll get where I'm going. With our tongue, we will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us?

And there are people who operate that way. You've worked with some.

You know the type of person I'm talking about. With our lips, we will prevail. It's for a different purpose. In verse 6, it says, the words of the Eternal are pure words.

They're pure words, not words spoken to get an advantage, not words spoken for a purpose in trying to move people to our way. They're words like silver, tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. True words. The same type of words that God wants us to begin or to be developing during our life. God doesn't flatter.

But you know, Satan has used something that God does do. That's pure, and that's good, and that's right. And Satan has taken that, and he's turned it into politics and flattery.

Compliment. A sincere compliment is something that we all enjoy. Something that we should give. Something that God gives. You know, when we look down at Jesus Christ and he said, this is my son in whom I am well pleased, that was a great thing to say. That's what he's going to say about you one day. In you I am well pleased if you allow him to lead you. It's a great compliment. It was a compliment when he told Nathaniel, here's an Israelite in whom is no deceit. True words he spoke. God gives compliments. Paul gave compliments. Let's go back to 1 Thessalonians.

1 Thessalonians 2.

And let's pick it up in verse 13. As he's speaking to the church there, he says to them, for this reason we thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God, or which are in Judea, in Christ Jesus. You suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans. And he goes on and on, and he pats the Thessalonians on the back, because what they were doing was good. They were setting a good example. He wasn't doing it to flatter them. He wasn't looking to get something out of them, and he even prophesies his comments back in verses 1 through 10 of this chapter, along that way, because he knew that in the hearts of some, if he said something nice, it was going to look to them like flattery. Let's look back at verse 1 of chapter 2. You yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. Even after we suffered before and were spitefully treated as vilify, as you know, we were bold in our God to speak to you, the gospel of God, in much conflict.

For our exhortation didn't come from error. There was nothing wrong. What we were speaking to you was truth. Our exhortation didn't come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit.

What we were telling you was true. But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak. Not as pleasing men. Our words weren't designed to please you.

We weren't looking to flatter you to win some advantage for ourselves. We were speaking the truth of God. Our words were not what we speak was for God who tests our hearts. For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness. We weren't looking to get anything out of you. What we were saying is what you were doing was good. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ.

See, before he talks to them, he's got to explain, I'm not doing this for any selfish motive. I'm not doing this just to win favor among you. I'm telling you the truth.

Isn't it sad that Satan has taken truth that we even have to question what motives are, if someone says something to us? And we know as we raise children, as we work with each other, a well-placed compliment is a way of exhorting and giving people, motivating them to do well and to stay on the path. But Satan has taken that and turned it into flattery and a lie.

You know, the flatterer and the politician does himself no favors. There is nothing to gain from that. And people see it for what it is. So people that play that game, it's seen through. But he's also doing the person that he's flattering no good, either. He's not showing any kind of love toward that person by flattering or playing the political game, because we can deceive ourselves, can't we?

If a boss is there and all his people tell him is how great he is and how wonderful he is and blah, blah, blah, he can begin to believe that. And all of a sudden, he's got self-deceit going on.

All of a sudden, he believes things that aren't so and he's not looking at himself the way that he should. And we should all have a clear vision of ourselves. And the way we do that is remember that we're measured against the Bible. Go back to the Word of God and an antidote to any self-deceit is that. Let's look at Romans 12 in verse 3. Verse 3 says, I say, through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, to review himself, to examine himself, to measure himself against the standards that Jesus Christ and God the Father set. Think of soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

Do we do the things we do to gain advantage for ourselves? Or do we do them out of purity, to worship God and out of love toward one another to help each other along?

Do we do things and say things for our own motives because it makes our life better in some way?

Or do we really have the outgoing concern that Jesus Christ had and we're looking out for others and the things that we say are designed around that? So much of lying is the antithesis of love. 1 John 4 verse 8 tells us God is love. 1 Corinthians 13 verse 5 says that love doesn't seek its own. It's not looking to benefit self, but in all the examples that we've looked at today and all the examples of lying that we've done, is there anyone that benefits from lying except self?

There's no reason to lie unless we're looking to promote self, unless we're looking to cover up something that self did, unless we're doing something to help ourselves and make our lives better by deceiving someone else. It's the antithesis of the way of God, the exact opposite of it.

No wonder God hates lying. No wonder he set a standard for his people. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not lie. You shall not deceive. You shall walk in truth. Back in Zachariah, speaking of the time when Christ returns, when Israel is brought back to the land that he had promised, Christ is setting up the government, and he's setting the standards of how life will be in a world that produces everything that mankind wants. Zachariah 8, verse 1, says again, the word of the eternal of hosts came, saying, Thus says God, I am zealous for Zion with great zeal. Remember we spoke about Jerusalem? God is zealous for Zion with great zeal. With great fervor, I am zealous for her. I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth.

The city of truth. It's not that today. It will be when he is King of kings and Lord of lords. Jerusalem will be called the city of truth, the mountain of the Lord of hosts.

That's where the law will go forth. That's where truth will come forth. That will be the holy mountain. Verse 14, as you go through the verses, he talks about what it will be like in Jerusalem when he returns. Peace will return. A good life will return. People will be happy and enjoy there. In verse 14, God says, Just as I determined to punish you, when your fathers were both made a wrath, and I would not relent. Verse 15, So again, in these days, when I return to set up the kingdom, I am determined to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

Don't fear. These are the things you shall do, he says. These are the things you shall do.

Speak each man the truth to his neighbor. The first one he lists. Speak each man the truth to his neighbor. Give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace.

This is what you shall do. Let none of you think evil in your head against your neighbor. Don't love a false oath. Truth. For all these things I hate, says the Lord. And what he hates won't be part of the kingdom, because what he hates is the things that are worst for us.

As we look toward the day of trumpets, the day of atonement, the feast of tabernacles, the things that we're picturing here as we go through these holy days and the return of Jesus Christ, let's go back and let's look at ourselves and let's make sure with a renewed sense of zeal that we're letting God make us the people that he says will be in his kingdom.