Proverbs 19 9 a false witness
shall not be unpunished and He that speaketh lies shall perish Now this verse may sound familiar
and we've considered before how Amazing it is that many of these
proverbs are very similar To one another they speak many of
them of the righteous and the wicked, of the wise and the fool,
and say different things about them. And though many of them
are similar, and there's so many of them, yet each teaches a different
aspect of the gospel. And this one's like that, very
close to verse five. If you'll notice verse five,
we just saw a few weeks ago. Only the very end of the verse
is different from verse five. Verse five says that liars shall
not escape, and then our text this morning that they shall
perish, that word means they'll be destroyed. And so God very
plainly declares his hatred and wrath upon liars, which we know
that all of us by nature are liars. We're born speaking lies,
the scripture said. As soon as we know how to lie,
we lie. And we lie about everything. And we lie because we're selfish. We lie for our own self-interests. We lie to hide our sin. We lie always for selfish reasons. And this, of course, is among
the 10 commandments given on Mount Sinai. This is basic. God's law is not limited to the
10 commandments. We know that everything God says
is law. It's his law. But expressed on
those tablets of stone was the character of God. Paul said we
love the law of God after the end of man. Law can't save us.
All the law can do is condemn us. It exposes our evil, but
we can't despise the law. That's an expression of who God
is, his righteousness, his holiness, his justice. We love the law
of God after the end of man. We just don't look to the law
for salvation. We look to Christ who fulfilled
the law for us. for salvation, but the very 10
commandments in the beginning, listen to Exodus 20, 13, thou
shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not
steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. And that's our text, a false
witness shall not be unpunished. And as also this is listed in
Proverbs 6, among the things that the Lord specifically hates.
Now, you know the list is longer than this, but really, most of
what God hates springs from these things. Proverbs 6, 16, six things that
the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him, a proud
look, a lying tongue. Hands that shed innocent blood,
look at the things that lying are listed among. Pride, hands that shed innocent
blood, and heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that
be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh
lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. Now, question
is why? Does God hate specifically lying
so much? But really the question is, how
can God not hate lies when he is himself the truth? Truth is intrinsic to the character
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I am the way, I am the
truth, I am the life. It's contrary to the very character
of God to say something that's not true. And consider this. We know why God has a world.
Why are we sitting here this morning? Why did the sun come
up this morning? Why does God have a world? Why
does he have a universe? He didn't need any of that. He's
self-sufficient. But he has a world and a universe
because he has a people. The kingdom of heaven is like
unto a king that made a marriage for his son. And that's his people,
his bride, his sheep, his elect. So God is saving his people.
That's what this is. It looks like man is busy with
all sorts of things, but I'll tell you what God is doing with
this world and in it. He's saving his sheep. That's
what he's doing. Are we in on that? Or are we
just, everything else is just window dressing now. Are we in on that? He's in the
business of making a marriage for his son. He's in the business
of saving his people from their sins. And scripture's pretty
clear that when that business is finished, when that business
is done, when the last sheep is called home, God's gonna burn
this world up and make a new one. wherein dwelleth righteousness." Well, so if God is saving sinners,
how's he doing that? The truth. The truth. That's why he hates lies. Not
only is it contrary to his very character, but it's contrary
to his purpose in this world. It's the truth. Listen to what
the Savior said. Turn with me, if you will, to
John 18. Let's look at it together. John 18, 37. Pilate therefore said unto him,
unto the Lord, art thou a king then? Jesus answered, thou sayest
that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth. You see what we're saying? The
truth is the point of everything. The reason the Lord Jesus came.
is to tell the truth about God, about himself, about you, about
how a sinner can be saved by his precious blood. That's why
he came. Every one that is of the truth,
heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, what is
truth? Everybody that's of the truth
by the grace of God Here's what The voice of Christ
He's the truth what he says is truth He himself is the truth
we'll talk about that a little bit in a minute What is truth People, you may have noticed,
do not like the truth. People hate the truth. Even in earthly things, they
don't want to hear the truth. They want to be lied to, they
want to be agreed with, they want to be confirmed in their
own perceptions of things, but it's just not the truth. We trust lies. We believe lies. We depend on lies. We're full
of lies. Think about it. And especially
with regard to spiritual things, people don't like the truth about
themselves. They don't like that. If you
tell people the truth about themselves, they're not gonna like you because
they don't like him who is the truth. You tell people your problem
is not that you do bad stuff. Your problem is not that you
stole that candy bar when you were a kid. You stole that candy bar because
you're a sinner. The problem is not what you do,
it's what you are. As long as the problem is what
you do, you might think that, well, I can do better. But the scripture says when the
Ethiopian changes his skin, and when the leopard changes his
spots, then you'll do something good. It's not fixing to happen,
is it? That's the truth about you. Evil
is not what you do, evil is what you are. and you can't do anything
about it. You're at the mercy of God Almighty
in that. Create in me a clean heart, David
cried. There's nobody that can create.
You say, well, you know, these pieces of art are my creation.
You didn't create anything. You took what God created and
made something out of it. Mothers that don't know God say,
I created you. No, you didn't. Mothers are wonderful. They're
a great blessing and gift from God, but they can't create. Neither
can fathers or anybody else. Create in me a clean heart. That's the truth now. You being
saved is not a decision that you make. It's a miracle, a creative
miracle of God's grace. People don't like to hear that.
They like to hear, you know what they like to hear? You know,
a religion, you turn them on for 10 minutes and you'll hear
them say, it's up to you. That's what people like to hear.
It's up to me. Oh, okay. I'll decide. I'm God
then. No, the truth is, who then can
be saved? With men, it is impossible. But
with God, all things are possible. And look, we're not mad at people
for believing lies. I don't want you to believe a
lie because you can't be saved until God reveals the truth to
you. And this is how he does that.
from his word through the gospel. They don't like the truth about
God. If you tell people that God does
what he wants to do, he's never tried anything. He's never wanted
to do anything. He does as he pleases in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and
none can stay his hand or even question him. You can't even
say, what are you doing to God? He's doing what he wants to do,
that's what, and he doeth all things well. David said, my God, they said,
where's your God, David? He could have said a lot of things
about God. You know what he said about it?
He's in the heavens and he does whatever he pleases. People don't
like that. Well, he can't violate my free
will. You better hope he does. You better pray that he violate.
What did he do with Saul of Tarsus? That's what you need. You need for God to put you in
the dust. People don't want to hear that. They don't like the
truth about how sinners are saved. Well, it's a decision. It's up
to you. You walk an aisle and repeat
a prayer. No, no, that's not the truth. That's a lie. That's
a lie. That's not how it happens. So sinners, especially religious
sinners, have set themselves in direct opposition to God and
his truth. That's not a good place to be. God says in our text, they'll
be destroyed for it. That's the consequence, that's
the problem. When you believe a lie, It's curtains for you. So what's
the solution? Is there hope for a liar that
believes lies and loves lies? The solution's the truth. The truth, that's why God hates
a lie. Because the only, he's in the
business of saving sinners now. He delights to show mercy. And only the truth. Can set you
free John 8 31 now. I want you to turn up. We got
about five minutes Let's turn over there. I want to look at
some Some things in the context of this if we don't see anything
else this morning in this lesson. I Want to see some things In this passage John 8 31 John 8, 31. Then said Jesus to those Jews,
which believed on him. They believed what he was saying,
but listen to what he said. If you continue in my word, then
you are my disciples indeed. In other words, we're gonna find
out where you got your faith from. If you got it from him,
You're never gonna lose it. You're never gonna lose it. And
you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And they didn't understand that.
They didn't understand it. Listen to what they said. We
be Abraham's seed, verse 33, we're never in bondage to any
man. How sayest thou you should be made free? Jesus answered
them, verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin
is the servant of sin. Religion says the same thing.
We're not in bondage, we have a free will. Have you ever sinned? When you're in bondage, you're in bondage to the sin,
Scripture says you're in bondage to Satan by nature, taken captive
by him at his will. Not your will, not free will,
his will. Scripture says you're in bondage
to the law of God. How say you that we'll be made
free? Whosoever committed sin is the
slave of sin. That's what that means, slave.
And the slave abideth not in the house forever, but the son
abideth forever. If the son therefore shall make
you free, you shall be free indeed. Now he said the truth will set
you free and the son will make you free. That's not two things. That's one thing, that's one
person. Christ is the truth. And he makes
sinners free. Free from their lies, free from
their sin, free from Satan, free from the bondage of the law,
free indeed. If the Son shall make you free,
you'll be plum free. That's how we'd say it in the
South, plum free. A couple of things in that, what
we're in bondage to is our sin in that particular place that
he mentions there. As I said, it's mentioned elsewhere
in scripture, we're taken captive by Satan at his will, by nature.
Truth will set you free from him too. And that we're under the bondage
of the law by nature, we're responsible. to God's law, we're condemned
by God's law. Christ will set us free, and
the way that he does that is with the truth. Listen to 2 Thessalonians
2.13 very carefully. Paul said to that church in Thessalonica,
we are bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. Through sanctification of the
spirit, a setting apart of the spirit of God, the wind blows
where it pleases, and so it is with everyone that's born of
the spirit. He makes a difference. He sets his people apart. He
sanctifies them through faith in Christ. Salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. That's how God saves sinners. What truth are you talking about?
Whereunto, the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. What's
happening right now, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. Somebody who lies about earthly
things, is an abomination. There's nobody more worthless
and despicable than somebody that you can't trust a thing
they say. An unfaithful spouse, what a
terrible thing to live with somebody under the presumption that you're
committed to them, that you love them. that much that you're committed
to them and it'd be a lie, that's a horrible, horrible thing. To
pretend a self-serving politician, is there
any more thing more hateful than a corrupt politician? We're gonna
fix this, and we need to do this, and we need to do that. You know,
so they're always saying we need to do something, but they never
do it. That's a horrible, that's despicable,
isn't it? They don't care about anybody
else. They want power, they want prestige, they want money, that's
what they want. And preachers are the same way. a teacher with an agenda that'll lie to your children
to turn little puppets and robots out of them. But someone who lies about spiritual
things, what can God's hatred be for
such who not only refuse to enter into the kingdom of God, but
prevent those who would enter with their lies about God. And it's very common and open
for religion to lie about God. They're not really that subtle
about it. They just make it sound good. It's what people want to
hear. God loves everybody. That's a
lie. That's a really bad lie. Christ
died to redeem everybody. That's a big lie. That's a horrible
lie. That's a satanic lie. To pretend
to absolve someone of their sins, to make them think they're forgiven
of their sins because you say so. What a horrible lie. You've circumvented the need
for Christ and his precious blood. How despicable must that be to
God? Come down an aisle and say this
prayer and you'll be saved. God will destroy. God will destroy. That's what our text says. The
truth though is powerful. It's so powerful, isn't it? The
truth. And the truth is simple. It's
not complicated. How many times have we said,
when things get complicated is when you try to reconcile the
truth with what you think. Then it gets real dicey. But
the truth is simple. God's sovereign. He's on the
throne. He does what he wants to. That's what David said. Did
that go over anybody's head? That's not complicated. He saves
who he wants to save. He said, as the father quickeneth
whom he will, he's given authority to me to quicken whomsoever I
will. That's not complicated. It's
not complicated to say that if the son of God died in order
to save somebody, then he saved him. He saved him. That's not complicated. The truth
is powerful and the truth is simple. And the truth is a person. Always remember that. The truth
is a person. We said that God loves everybody
is a lie. What is the truth about that?
Christ. God's love is in Christ. Nothing
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. One of our past presidents quoted
that scripture one time, and he read all of that wonderful,
passage that says that nothing shall be able to separate us,
but he stopped here. He said, nothing shall be able
to separate us from the love of God. That's a lie. That's a lie. Unless you finish
that and say, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, you've lied. We said that Christ died for
everybody is a lie. And you know what the truth of
that is? What the answer to that? Who
did Christ die for? The answer is in him. If he's
who he said he was and is, then he redeemed everybody he died
for. He doesn't try, he doesn't fail. People don't go to hell,
but he redeemed on Calvary. We talked about men absolving
other men of sinners of sin. There's only one who has power
on earth to forgive sins, that's Christ. Coming down an aisle,
what's wrong with that? Christ said, come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Come unto
me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I'm God. and there's nobody else, there's
nobody else. A lie is so abominable because
the truth is so precious. Let God be true and every man
a liar. Let's pray.