I just want to read this text
again in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 25. Wherefore, putting
away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are
members one of another. And I don't know how to look
at this except just to begin with what lying is. The word
here is falsehood. put away falsehood. Anytime that
we represent something, or we misrepresent something, it's
a falsehood. We lie. When we speak something
that's false, that's not true, it's a lie. There are so many
ways to lie. This is why the sin of lying
so often trips us up, because there are so many ways to lie.
We can just flat out lie. Just tell something that is not
true. A falsehood. And have people to believe it.
But sometimes we call it, we have a real pretty word that
we call a story that we tell over and over again, but every
time we tell it, it gets bigger. We call that embellishing. It
sounds so nice, don't it? Exaggeration. What happens when we tell a story
and it gets bigger and we exaggerate it? And our conscience whispers
to us and says, you know that's not so. You know that's not the
way it happened. But we tell it. What is that? It's falsehood, isn't it? It's
lying. There's many ways to lie. If
you and I have opportunity, or we're put in a position to speak
the truth in the face of falsehood, in the face of a lie, and we
keep silent, then that's lying. But our silence, we lie. We let that lie that's being
promoted stand. And though we're put in a position
and have the opportunity to speak the truth, we don't. Our silence
becomes a lie. I was watching Glenn Beck's program
a couple of months ago, and he had two fundamentalist preachers
on there, some kind, I'm not sure what kind they were. But
Glenn Beck is a Mormon, and he asked these two fellas, said,
in the light of me being a Mormon, he said, can you fellas still
fellowship with me? When he said that, you could
see it on their faces. Here's a man, and I like Glenn
Beck's politics. It doesn't have anything to do
with politics. I like Glenn Beck's politics. But he doesn't know
a thing about the gospel. And he doesn't believe that Jesus
Christ is God. Well, here's these two preachers
that pretended to be gospel preachers. And he said, can you fellows
go along with this? You know what they said? Nothing. Their silence was a
lie. Their silence allowed His lie
to exist and be promoted. Open your mouth and judge righteously
and plead the cause of the poor and needy. If a truth, if a lie
has been promoted, and we don't open our mouth to defend the
truth, then we lie. If there's oppression and we
don't open our mouth to defend those who are being oppressed,
we allow the lie to stand and even be promoted. I remember
when World War II, when Hitler went in to Poland and took over
Poland and set up his concentration camps and killed so many of the
Jewish people. The U.S. troops went in there
and liberated Poland. And when they did, they found
all these concentration camps, all these dead bodies, hundreds
of thousands of dead bodies. And they went to those Polish
people and got them out of their houses and said, did you folks
know what was going on? Did you realize that all these
people were being exterminated and slaughtered? Yes, they did. Yes, they did. Why didn't you
say something? Their silence was a lie. We lie
when we keep silent in the face of any truth that's being covered
up by a lie. Many ways to lie. Consider this
about lying. First of all, simple scriptures. How does God feel about lying? What does he say in his word
concerning lying? Let me read you some passages.
If you want to just jot these down, we won't turn there. But
in Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 16, six things doeth the Lord
hate, yea, seven are an abomination to Him, and He lists them, a
proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, than
a heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that are swept and run into
evil, a false witness that speaketh lies, and him that soweth discord
among brethren." The Lord hates lying. Proverbs 12, 22, lying
lips are an abomination to the Lord, but they that deal truly
are His delight. God hates lying. Consider this about lying. What
the Godly, the most Godly of the saints have said in the Scriptures. Listen to what they said in Psalm
119, 29. I hate and abhor lying, but thy
law do I love. A righteous man hateth lying,
Proverbs 13. But a wicked man is loathsome
and comes to shame. And listen to what they say in
the light of that. Remove far from me the way of lying and
grant me your law graciously. Deliver my soul from lying lips
and from a deceitful tongue. What does the godly think of
lying? They hate it. What does the righteous think
of lying? They abhor it. Consider secondly, thirdly, something
else concerning lying is this. Consider its origin. I want you
to turn with me to John. If you'll hold Ephesians and
turn with me to John chapter 8. The origin. Where did the lie come from? Look in John chapter 8, and here
in verse 44, Here we are told several things concerning the
devil and this fallen humanity, an unregenerate humanity. Look at these several things
here that are said about him. John chapter 8 and verse 44.
You are of your father the devil. The devil is the spiritual father
of unregenerate people. He is the father of them. Read on. "...and the lust of
your father you will do." The unregenerate possess the nature
of their father. And they act out his deeds. The lust of your father you will
do. Something else that's said of
him here. He was the first murderer. He was a murderer from the beginning. Who did he murder? He spiritually
murdered our first father and our first mother, Adam and Eve.
And He murdered us in them. He was a murderer from the very
beginning of creation. And look what else is said about
Him. And He abode not in the truth, because there is no truth
in Him. There's nothing good in the devil
at all. There's not one spark of good in him. He's all falsehood. He is all darkness. In Him is
no truth. And notice this about Him. When
He speaketh of His own, when He speaketh a lie, He speaketh
of His own, for He is a liar and the father of it. Where did the lie come from?
It came from Satan. He is the inventor of the lie. The first lie that was ever told
was told by Satan. You shall not surely die. That's
a lie. And the lie is where Satan is where lying came from. Everything that the devil is,
everything that he invents, is evil. It's a lie. Ain't that
right opposite to what God is? God is truth. Christ is truth. He speaks the truth. The Spirit
is the Spirit of truth. But the devil is a liar and the
father of it. And here is one of the dangerous
things about lying. You remember when Ananias and
Sapphira in Acts chapter 5, they were members of the early church
and they sold some property. And they brought it to the apostles
and laid it down at their feet and said, we got so much money
from this property and we want to give it to the church. But
they kept back part of the prize. And the Lord revealed that to
Peter, but here's the amazing thing that happened. Peter said,
Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie? I doubt seriously
if Ananias knew that Satan was the author of that lie that he
just told. And Peter said, you've not lied
to me, you've lied to God. You've lied to the Holy Spirit.
So see, behind lying is a greater principle. There's a greater
danger than probably you and I never realized. The devil could
very well be involved in it. And we may not be lying to men.
but lying to God. That's an awesome thing to think
about. That's a fearful thing to think about. The devil is
the father of the lie. And consider this also about
lying. It comes from corrupt self. It comes from our old nature. When we lie, it comes from the
old man, the old corrupt man. There's a passage in Colossians
3 and 9, Parallel passage to our text,
putting away lying. And listen to what Paul said
in Colossians 3.9. Lie not one to another, brethren,
seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds. What is lying? It's the deeds of the old man.
It comes from self. That's one of the awful things
about lying. It's self. It comes from self. Not only
self, but corrupt self. Why do people lie to promote
self? Every lie is to promote self
in one form or another. Why do people lie? To protect
self. Why do people lie? To increase
self one way or another. Every lie that we consciously
tell comes from corrupt self. Put away lying. Cast it off. as a filthy rag. There's no good
in lying. How could it be good if it comes
from our corrupt self? Lie not one to another, seeing
you have put off the old man with his deeds." Think about
this concerning lying. It may expose something that
is hid in our heart. It may be something more than
lying. Why did we lie? It may expose the malice or the
hatred towards somebody that we've lied against. Listen to
what Proverbs 26, 28 says, A lying tongue hateth those that are
afflicted by it. How many times has someone told
a lie with a secret intent to make somebody look bad or to
ruin somebody's reputation? We see it in politics all the
time, don't we? But we see it in religion all
the time. We see it in the pulpit all the time. This is the hype,
the apex of lying, to lie to make Christ look bad, to lie
to make God look bad, to make us look good. It could very well expose malice
or hatred in the heart. Look back over in Ephesians again.
Lying. What is it? It's a falsehood.
It's a falsehood. Anytime we represent something
that is not true, it's a falsehood. No matter how we represent it.
By our speaking, by our silence, by our actions. So many ways
to lie. And when you and I consider its
origin, and it comes from this old man, then put away lying. But he says something else here
in our text. He not only says, put away lying, but speak every
man truth with his neighbor. And notice that, speak every
man the truth. No child of God is exempt from
this command and this exhortation. I told you this morning, this
epistle was written to all different classes of people. parents, dads,
moms, businessmen, employers, employees, all sorts of men. And now he says, let each and
every one of you, none of you don't think that you're exempt
from this command to put away lying and speak every one of
you truth with his neighbor. Every one of you will leave here
this evening. And you'll go to your houses. You'll go to your
families. And when you do, each one of
you, speak truth in your family. You husbands, tell your wives
the truth and don't lie to them. You wives, speak only the truth
to your husband and don't lie to him. Speak the truth to your
children, and you children speak the truth to your parents. Every
man speak the truth. Every woman, every boy and girl
speak the truth and lie not. When you talk with your neighbors,
when you stand out in the street and talk with them, or they come
in to your garage or your house, speak the truth with your neighbors.
Put away lying. Speak every man the truth with
your neighbors. Tomorrow, some of you will go
on the job, and you'll work for an employer, and you'll talk
to your co-workers. Don't misrepresent. Don't present a falsehood. Speak
the truth to your co-workers. Don't lie in any way to your
employer. Speak the truth. If you have
a business, you have employees, you do transactions with the
public, Put away lying. Let every man speak truth with
his neighbor. This command is to each and every
child of God. In all our relationships, in
every situation that we find ourselves in, every one of you,
put away lying and speak the truth with his neighbor. Buy
the truth and sell it not. We live in a day, and we often
hear about this, compartmentalizing. Religious people have all these
different rooms, and they can stick something in that room
and close the door on it until it's time to open the door and
use it. They have their religion, and
on Sunday, they can come to church, and then they've got this little
compartment that they put their religion in. And they shut the
door on it until next Sunday. But then, they've got a job. And that job requires of them
to do things that's unethical. It's dishonest. It's a lie. So
what they do, they stick their job in that little compartment
and they live out of that compartment. They have friends, but to keep
these friends, their bosom buddies, they cannot tell them what they
believe. So they said, we'll just stick
them in this compartment. They've got all these compartments,
and they justify living that way with all these compartments.
But what is that? That's a lie. That's a lie. That's why the apostle comes
here and says, you're believers. God has done a work of truth
in your heart, so every one of you, the Spirit just comes here
and He breaks all these silly petitions down. He just destroys
them. And there's one big room, and
nothing's done in the corner. It's honesty. It's integrity. It's sincerity. The Lord Jesus Christ tore down
the petition. And we're not allowed to build
any petitions. We're not to compartmentalize
anything. Our lives are to be lived in
truth. You remember the seed that was
sown in that person's heart that brought forth fruit? Remember
the kind of heart that was? That honest, And he said here in chapter 4
and verse 21, you have been taught of Christ as the truth. The truth
is in Jesus. And notice this in our text,
lastly, and here's another good motive he gives for us to put
away lies. and speak of a man the truth
with his neighbor. For you are members one of another."
See how he does that? Paul is always looking to our
motives. You're members of Christ. You're
members of His body, of His flesh and of His bone. We being many
members are one body in Christ. We're members. We're members
of His family, aren't we? Who is my brother? Who is my
sister? Who is my mother? Those who do
the will of my Father in Heaven. Those who believe in me. That's
my family. We're members one of another.
All of us know what it is for a member of our family to lie. Haven't we all had it to happen?
A straying child? Someone lies, and what does it
do to the family? How does it affect the family
when a member of the family begins to lie? Don't it break the sweet
fellowship of the family? We lose confidence. The sweet
communion is often lost, a loss of confidence. You know what holds the church
together? Truth. Truth. And if we begin to lie one to
another, begin to deceive one another, and not be honest one
with another, I don't know of anything else that will hold
us together. Doctrine won't do it. Truth will. Truth will. Brothers and sisters, you and
I are a family. We're a family. Lie not one to another. We don't
want to sweep communion broken, do we? We don't want to lose
confidence one in another. Mistrust. Lie not one to another,
seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds. May God bless His Word. Lord, we thank You tonight again
for Your Word. Oh, Lord, we're so thankful that
You're God, that You know better than we know. You're wiser than
we are. Oh, we bless You that not only
did You save us, but You make better people of us. You delivered us from lying Lying
lips, falsehood, deceitful heart. You make us honest. You make
us hate falsehood. You make us to love the truth.
Oh, we bless you for how you change us. Oh, put in grace in
our hearts. Put in truth in us. Oh, Lord, we bless you for your
salvation. Oh, and truly, Lord, deliver
us from falsehood. not to make a show, oh, and certainly
not to brag, but because we're born of the truth. The God of
truth abides within us. The spirit of truth teaches us. We pray this afternoon, Lord,
for all your little children, those in other places like ours
that are so few. We pray for those churches who
are without a pastor and discouraged. Lord, would you raise up a pastor
after your own heart to preach the gospel to them. Father, would you reward the
Lord Jesus in our day by increasing Him. Increasing His glory in
our hearts, in our thoughts. Increasing Him in numbers. the
add-in to Him. Lord, if you have any elect people
here in this area, oh, and we hope that you do, call them. Save them in this place. Watch over us this coming week.
Keep each one of us from evil. Keep us from falling. When trouble
comes, help us to cast ourselves upon you. When we're going through
trials, give us grace to wait and to be patient, patient in
our families, patient with our spouses, patient with our children,
our neighbors, our jobs. Oh, grant us to be loving and
kind and tenderhearted. Don't let us compromise the truth,
but don't let us be hard and harsh. Keep us from self-righteousness
and a judgmental attitude. Watch over Bill and Diana as
they go home. Be gracious to them. Thank you
for blessing us with their presence. Watch over them, Lord, and keep
them. Bless their hearts and bless
their home. We ask all of these things for
the glory of our Lord Jesus. Amen. Any word before we leave?