" THE GOD OF TRUTH INSTRUCTS HIS PEOPLE TO SPEAK THE TRUTH."

112. Q. What is required in the ninth commandment?
A. I must not give false testimony against anyone, twist no one's words, not gossip or slander, nor condemn or join in condemning anyone rashly and unheard.[1] Rather, I must avoid all lying and deceit as the devil's own works, under penalty of God's heavy wrath.[2] In court and everywhere else, I must love the truth,[3] speak and confess it honestly, and do what I can to defend and promote my neighbour's honour and reputation.[4]
[1] Ps. 15; Prov. 19:5, 9; 21:28; Matt. 7:1; Luke 6:37; Rom. 1:28-32. [2] Lev. 19:11, 12; Prov. 12:22; 13:5; John 8:44; Rev. 21:8. [3] I Cor. 13:6; Eph. 4:25. [4] I Pet. 3:8, 9; 4:8.

Scripture Reading:
Ephesians 4:17-5:2

Singing:  (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 12:1,2,3
Psalm 63:4 (Nicene Creed)
Psalm 120:1
Psalm 52:1,2,3
Psalm 119:17,19

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

The element I want to focus on this afternoon is specifically the second sentence of our Lord’s Day: "I must avoid all lying and deceit as the devil’s own works." I choose to lift out this particular aspect of the ninth commandment because of where things are at in our society. For our society –you know it well- thinks in terms of there being no God, thinks in terms of evolution, of people being glorified tadpoles, the intelligent human race just the product of chance. But now consider, beloved: if we’re but far-developed tadpoles, on what grounds could lying really be wrong? Sure, you can say that lying is destructive, and you can say that society has decided to punish those who get caught lying, but that’s something different than saying that lying is morally wrong. So lying has become increasingly common. Society today says: as long as you don’t hurt others through your lying, nobody can really condemn you for telling a fib, or a whopper. That development puts pressure on the Christian to adopt the thought that lying isn’t so bad after all – as long as the lie isn’t too big, and we don’t get caught.

The matter becomes worse when we realize that lying has consequences. When we think of lying, our thoughts go first of all to lying to the neighbor. But you know, congregation, once you get used to lying to the neighbor, you end up lying to yourself also, deceiving yourself, living in denial. And that in turn can lead to all manner of addictions – as our society experiences. In the end you lie to God also.

As it is, God the almighty has created us; we are not the product of evolution. In His care for His creatures He has also told us what is good for us, and what is not. Lying, He says, is bad for us. So He condemned all lying.

I summarize the sermon with this theme:

Lying and deceit were not part of the world of Paradise. When God finished creating the world, He declared that His handiwork was "very good," and that included the human race. In fact, the Lord had fashioned people to be His "image". That’s to say that Adam and Eve imaged what God was like, reflected His characteristics. And the Lord is clear as to who He is. To Moses He said that He was "the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in … truth" (Ex 34:6).

Precisely this identity of God as God of truth, brothers and sisters, is the source of so much comfort for God’s people. We sat today at the Lord’s table, where God extended to us through the hand of the minister the tokens that His body was broken for us and blood shed for us. But how can we be sure that God means what He says here? Think, beloved: suppose that in the Bible there was evidence that God had lied, even just once. Could we then count on it that His word to us in the sacrament today was really true? We understand: if God is not a God of truth, if His every word is not trustworthy, we’d have no assurance that our sins of this past week are really washed away. What makes the Lord’s Supper celebration today so comforting is God’s revelation of Himself as the God of truth. He does not lie, and so we can take Him at His word.

God, then, is characterized by truth, and He made the human race in His image, able to image His truthfulness perfectly. Where, then, does lying come from?

The Scriptures would have us know that lying comes from the devil. Genesis 3 relates that the serpent told the woman that God had it all wrong when God said that eating from that one tree would result in death. That’s wrong, said the serpent, "for God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (vs 5). That was blatantly a lie, worse, it was making the God of truth out to be a liar. How it was possible for sinless Eve to fall for Satan’s lie is more than I can comprehend, but that’s what God says happened, and so we accept it for fact. The result is that lying and deceit have received a place in the nature of every human being. The psalmist even says that people "go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies" (Ps 58:3; cf Rom 3:10ff).

Lying, I said, comes from the devil. It’s important that we have this clear in our minds. Jesus was once in a conversation with the Jews, and He told them that "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do." What sort of desires does this ‘father’ have? Jesus continued, "He was murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it" (Jn 8:44). Jesus’ point is clear: lying comes from the devil. So Peter, when Ananias came to him with proceeds from the sale of his house, said to him, "Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?" (Acts 5:3). Notice: Peter connects lying to Satan. Yet was Ananias’ lie such a whopper? Not at all. He’s sold his land for, say, $100,000, then brought $95,000 to the apostles with the statement that this was the money he got for his land. Was he wrong in keeping $5,000 for himself? No, that wasn’t wrong at all, Peter says in the following verse. The wrong lay simply in the fact that Ananias said that he donated the whole proceeds, while in fact he donated 95%. We say: who would argue on the 5%; you can’t make an issue out of everything! But Peter says, "Why has Satan filled your heart to lie?"

The point is this, brothers and sisters. We call ourselves children of God, and so we are – children of God by covenant, children of God through faith. But what, now, if we give ourselves to lying? What if we, in the words of our Lord’s Day, "give false testimony against" someone? What if we twist someone’s words so that we make someone out to have said something different from what he actually said? What if we gossip or slander, pass on material about a person that we know to be not quite factual, or is damaging to his honor or reputation? Then, beloved, we have let Satan have a place in our heart! I know: to say it this way sounds enormously overdone. But Scriptures do not permit any other way of looking at the matter. I drew your attention already to Gen 3, where the Lord tells us how lying came into the world. I drew your attention to Jn 8, where Jesus tells the Jews that lying is of the devil. I reminded you of Acts 5, where Peter tells Ananias that Satan filled his heart to make him lie. We also read together Eph 4, where the apostle contrasts the conduct of the Gentiles and the conduct of the regenerated. The Ephesian saints, he says, have put off the old nature that gave itself to deceitful lusts, and have put on a new nature "which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness" (vs 24). And what’s the very first consequence flowing from this change that the apostle lists? Indeed, beloved, it’s the subject of lying! Vs 25: "Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor.’" The apostle is emphatic: the people redeemed from Satan’s power may no longer lie. They may no longer lie since lying comes from the devil. It’s because of all this material that the church in Lord’s Day 43 says that "I must avoid all lying and deceit as the devil’s own works." Do I say it too strong, then, when I say that when we lie we have let Satan have a place in our heart? That, beloved, is not too strong! That is how the Bible speaks.

That reality, congregation, gives so much reason for self-examination. Have you, brothers, lied this past week to your wife, lied about why you were late home from work, or lied about the size of your pay packet this week? Have you, sisters, lied to your husband about how you spent your money this week, or what you did with your time? Have you, young people, lied to your parents about where you were Friday night? I ask the question because by lying we gave room in our hearts to the devil. Yet that is precisely what Paul tells us in Eph 4 not to do. Vs 27: "nor give place to the devil." The world around us minimizes the evils of lying, sees the evil of it only in its consequences; if you can get away with it, good for you. But the Lord tells us something different in His word. What makes the lie so evil is not first of all its consequences (whether you can get away with it), but its source. Lying has its source with the devil, and God would not have His children associated with His archenemy. Christ came to defeat Satan, and He has defeated him too. Why, then, should we give place to the devil in our hearts?!

Now we also understand why the Lord reacts so vehemently to lying. Through Solomon God declared that "lying lips are an abomination to the Lord" (Prov 12:22). In fact, says Solomon, "he who speaks lies shall perish" (19:9). Recall what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. Liars will have no place on the New Earth. Rev 21: "the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable…, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" (vs 8).

So it’s so imperative, brothers and sisters, that we repent of all lying. For the sake of our own salvation it is essential that we avoid lying, that we avoid giving false testimony about anyone, that we avoid twisting anyone’s words, avoid gossip and slander like the plague. And where we’re guilty, where we’ve permitted Satan a place in our heart so that we speak what is not true, it is essential that we acknowledge the wrong of it, repent. We sat at the table of the Lord today, ate the tokens of His forgiving grace, and the point is that there is forgiveness for every sin – including this sin that Scripture associates so directly with Satan. Let that be encouragement, brothers and sisters, that we fight the inclination to lie to our neighbor.

And let no one say that the fight against lying is too much for us. The Lord has given us His Holy Spirit so that we are made able to resist this sin, are made able to make progress in the struggle to speak the truth. We’re not on our own I the struggle; the God of truth is present with us in His Holy Spirit – Immanuel!

We’ve drawn out in this first point where lying comes from, why God hates all lying. That can be applied directly to the neighbor, as our Lord’s Day words it: "I must not give false testimony against anyone…, I must … do what I can to defend and promote my neighbor’s honor and reputation." But this material can be applied to the self also. That’s our second point:

We don’t readily think in terms of lying to oneself. Yet we do it. Allow me a very simple illustration to point up what I mean. The sign on the side of the road posts the speed limit as 90 kph. The road is smooth, the shoulders wide, visibility good, and there’s not a car in sight. What do we do? We move the car along at 100, 110 kph. We’re grateful there’s no police around, for we know we’ll have a fine to pay. But we quiet our conscience by telling ourselves that the speed limit includes a measure of personal responsibility, that is, this is a straight piece of road, and there’s not a soul in sight, and so it’s perfectly OK to let ’er go. The thing is now: we let ourselves believe a piece of deception, and so we sin against the fifth commandment. Does the example ring a bell, brothers and sisters? We tell ourselves that speeding on this piece of road, in these conditions, is OK, and we silence the conscience by believing the lie.

Now, that may be a relatively innocent example. Here’s another one. Statistics tell us that the big majority of young people in our society ‘experiment with drugs’ – as it’s politely called. Drugs are easily available for those in the know, and there are Free Reformed youth too who use drugs. What happens now? You’re at a party of a fellow youth-club member, and someone offers you a toke. Your conscience tells you: don’t do it. But there’s all those eyes looking at you, friends you’ll see at club next week again…. So how do you silence your conscience so that you can justify that toke? You tell yourself: ‘it’s only once, and once won’t hurt me, I won’t do it again.’ And all those eyes looking at you convince you to believe yourself. So you accept the offer…. But who are you kidding, beloved? You’re kidding yourself. You can tell yourself whatever you want, but none of it does away with the fact that drug use is against the law of the land; taking a toke is sin against the fifth commandment – even if the police refuse to lay charges. But the matter is more sinister than that. For your conscience serves as a wall, a barrier, between yourself and sin. By rationalizing to yourself that this is only for once, and once won’t hurt me, you’ve lowered that barrier. Then, by jumping the wall and doing the sin, you’ve shown yourself that it’s all quite manageable; you can do it and even get away with it. And you can muffle the conscience that keeps trying to tell you that you sinned by repeating to yourself that, look, this was just once, and once can’t hurt…. You believe that lie, and so you let that sin against the fifth commandment stay there without repenting of it. So it’s no surprise that once you’ve given yourself to drugs once you’re likely to accept a toke again, and again. And doing drugs becomes a habit, and the habit becomes an addiction.

No, today is not the place is elaborate on evils of addiction – whether it be to drugs or to alcohol or to smoking, etc. Suffice is simply to say that the Lord told us to have dominion over creation, and that means that no created thing is to have dominion over us. And addiction is that we permit created things to rule over us. But that’s the topic for today; the point for today is rather that we come to understand the dynamics of how we give ourselves to sin – be it speeding or addiction to drugs, or whatever. So often it begins with a lie to the self, begins with the self believing the lie. But lying –whether it be to the neighbor or to the self- is not of God; lying is of the devil. When we permit ourselves to believe a lie we are doing precisely what the evil one wants – and the result will invariably be that we end up enslaved to some form of evil. More, when we permit ourselves to believe a lie we are in fact liars – and upon that must come God’s judgment.

That is why it is necessary that we pause of reflect on whether we are in fact truthful with ourselves, or whether we, on the contrary, let ourselves believe a lie. The heavy drinker, for example, may soothe his conscience by telling himself that he can stop at any time. Can he really? Or has he let himself believe a lie? The person tardy in paying his church contributions can tell himself (for the so-manieth time) that I’ll make my contribution next week. Really? Or is he letting himself believe a lie so that his conscience won’t compel him to act straightaway? The person who passes on gossip tells herself that she’s speaking in love and has the well-being of the church at stake, and so it’s OK to pass on the latest. Really? Or is that just a pious way to get around the command of our Lord’s Day to "do what I can to defend and promote my neighbor’s honor and reputation"?

Lying is of the devil, brothers and sisters. We are not to lie to the neighbor, and if we do he may well catch us out. But we’re not to lie to ourselves either, and if we do – who will catch us out? Even more than with the neighbor, it is our individual responsibility to examine ourselves that we do not permit ourselves to believe a lie – whether the lie be big or small, whether the consequence strikes us as big or small. Lying is of the devil, and children of God have been freed from the devil. Lying characterizes the old nature that’s dominated by sin, and not the new nature dominated by the Holy Spirit. "Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth’" – also to the self.

Here is a task for parents with regards to their children. How can parents teach their children not to lie to themselves? To ask the question differently: how can parents short-circuit the process that can lead to addiction? True, no recipe is foolproof, if only because there are more factors involved than self-deception. But to the degree, beloved, that the ninth commandment plays a role in protecting the next generation from addictions, it is imperative that parents teach their children to speak the truth in all circumstances. Where children can get away with lying to the neighbor, they will inevitably see nothing wrong with lying to themselves. Here the instruction and discipline of the parents is essential. And equally essential is the example of the parents on the point. Children are perceptive, and will certainly realize when parents give themselves to lies, be it in relation to the neighbor or in relation to the self.

We come finally to the third point:

What do you think, beloved: as long as we believe a lie ourselves, will we come to God in repentance of the sin of speeding or the sin of drug use or of drinking or of not paying our contributions readily and cheerfully? The answer speaks for itself.

So it is, congregation, with all self-deception. As long as we live in denial, we can’t see why we need to repent from the sins that follow from that self-deception. The result is that we chalk up a greater debt with God; we keep on speeding, keep on drinking, keep on abusing the other, etc, etc. That is why I say that we need to be truthful to God. Truthful not first of all in relation to the speeding or the drug use, etc, but truthful first of all in relation to our believing our own lies. And that’s to say that we acknowledge our transgressions on the point in repentance, seek His forgiveness, and then implore His grace to get away from the slaveries resulting from the lies we’ve embraced in the first place.

And I say it again: God has poured out His Holy Spirit, and so we can fight against the urge to believe our own lies – Immanuel!

In the world around us lying is acceptable behavior – at least if you don’t get caught. The Lord places lying within the realm of the devil. The gospel is that our Lord Jesus Christ has defeated the evil one, and paid for all the sins of God’s own; it’s the gospel the Lord impressed upon us at His table today. More, the Spirit renews God’s own so that we can speak the truth.

In a world of deceit, it’s for us –older and younger- to be different, to love no lie, to embrace only truth – be it with respect to the neighbor or to the self or to God. Today it’s a struggle, but the Lord comes soon to judge the living and the dead. Then we’ll be perfectly renewed, enabled fully to image our Creator and Redeemer again.  Amen.