Gospel Prism

“You shall not bear false witness.”
Exodus 20:16

Just how powerful is a lie? When I was in seminary, I took a class entitled, “Spiritual Warfare,” where a question raised to the professor, “Where do psychics get their power, especially when they are able to foretell events?” My professor’s answer was one that made me think and continues to do so. He stated that Satan’s greatest weapon is the lie, especially since he is the father of lies. And the lie is a most underrated weapon. If a demon whispered into someone’s ear, “You wife is cheating on you, doesn’t love you, and is flaunting this fact,” then that lie can destroy a family. Pushed further, it can even lead a person to kill another and himself. Movies abound with people who live in some sort of alternative universe (like The Matrix), where truth is murky and lies flourish. We must never underestimate the power of the lie to destroy. Therefore, we must never deem the lie as nothing more than “a little sin.” The lie scoffs at the very character of our God as the God of truth.

And this is why this commandment is reflective once again of that most important first commandment. To worship one God as the only true God is only right if that statement is true. If God’s Word, His promises are nothing but half-truths, then nothing He says can ever be counted upon. His words are no better than Buddha’s or Mohammed’s or the Dali Lama or even Donald Trump’s. This commandment is critical in the worship of God because Jesus, God the Son, is the embodiment of Truth. So I’d like to explore this commandment by looking at first, ‘Why we lie.”

Why We Lie

Lying, that is bearing false witness, has been around since the first days of sin. Remember Satan’s first appearance in the world. Listen to his first words: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” Actually, God didn’t say this at all. He said Adam and Eve could not eat of only ONE tree from the Garden, not ANY tree. Also, Eve does no better when she herself begins to distort God’s Word. These are the first words ever recorded, and sadly, the first words are a lie, “God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree…lest you die.’” But God did not tell Eve ‘lest you die,’ but “surely you will die.” Eve counters Satan’s lie with her own lie. Why would Eve do such a thing? Eve knows full well that she cannot have what she ultimately wants which is to be her own god.

If we think about why we lie, it is to get what we want, to have control when there seems to be a loss of control. We lie to save our reputation. If I arrive late to an important meeting, I will tell the attendees I was late because of traffic, whether there actually was traffic or not. We lie to save ourselves from dealing with the consequences of our actions. When my wife asks me if I took out the trash when I didn’t, and I tell her I did, I tell her such because I do not want to face the consequence of discord in my marriage. We lie to get what we want, regardless of whether it honors God or not. That was Eve’s reasoning or when Jacob lied, pretending to be Esau to get Isaac’s blessing. We lie to gain some perceived advantage. We lie on our resume to get the position we want thinking that the money or status of such a job will make us happy.

Lying is a means of control, to assure that you run your own life, even if it is at the cost of others, and even if it is at the cost of a life of worship to God. Thus, when Jesus describes Satan in John 8:44, he says: “He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Within the very nature of Satan is the lie because inherently, the lie is one’s attempt to control life apart from God. And again in that same verse, Jesus says, “You cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.” Liars are children of the devil because they can’t bear to live by the promises that the Gospel of Christ gives to people. Liars refuse to believe that trusting in the truth of God’s Word will actually lead to more joy than a lie would ever bring. Liars do not want to wait on God’s promise because lying simply seems more tangible, more in control of one’s own destiny.

Remember the story of David and Bathsheba. While David never outright lied verbally, he certainly bore false witness. He made it seem as though Uriah died in battle, for the sole purpose of saving his reputation before others. He went through this sham of integrity for many months, and his lies and deceptions were so great that he couldn’t see through this thickness of his own deception. He was self-deceived.

And here we must always remember that sometimes we can be so caught up in our own lies that it will even appear that the lie that we are living is actually the truth. I saw an expose where a doctor who received no medical training and falsified his medical degrees, was actually practicing surgery. When the authorities were closing in on him, he couldn’t see how close they were because he really believed he was a trained doctor and that blinded him to his eventual discovery. When Nathan confronted David with his parable of the poor man and his sheep, David was so seeped in his lie and deception, that he simply could not see that he was the scoundrel. We so desperately need a Nathan in our life who will love us enough to show us truth when we are caught in self-deception.

Well, the consequences for David once he owned up to the truth were staggering. His family was thrown into disarray. One son, Amnon, raped David’s daughter. One son Absalom rebelled against David and was killed by David’s leading general. It would seem that owning up to the truth was not worth it at all. But Matthew 1 is the conclusion of David’s story, a story of redemption and the promises of one who clung to truth ultimately, despite the consequences. David’s story does not end in rebellion and adultery. Through that adulterous affair, David bore another son through the woman he committed adultery with, and that son, Solomon, would bear another, and so on, until there was born “Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.” (Matt. 1:16) Even when lies abound, when truth overcomes the lie, there is grace despite the lie. So if this is why we lie, what are some ways we lie?

Ways We Lie

First, there is the most obvious way we lie, bearing false witness, that is not speaking the truth to manipulate circumstances for our benefit which is ultimately no benefit at all. I can’t stress how much God detests lies and liars. Proverbs 12:22 says: “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.” Like John 8:44, Rev 22:15 reminds us what lying should be equated to: “Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” The blameless person, according to Psalm 15:2 is the one who “speaks truth in his heart.” Thomas Watson has this to say about lies and liars: “The furnace of hell is heated for liars.” (Thomas Watson, The Ten Commandments, 170)

The second way we lie is slander. Alistair Begg notes that slander is when “we defame others and seek to exalt ourselves.” (Alistair Begg, Pathway to Freedom, 197) It’s self-protectionism which is in actuality self-worship. Once, again, you can see that slander not only breaks the 9th commandment, but the 1st as well. If you have ever made a remark to another about someone else, and there was even a hint of deception or a subtle twisting of the story, perhaps to make you look better or make her look a tad worse, that is slander. As you can see, slander and gossip, and false witness are usually intertwined. And all go back to the heart of self-worship. Thomas Watson aptly describes this heart: “He that raises a slander, carries the devil in his tongue, and he that receives it, carries the devil in his ear.” (Watson, 169) Proverbs puts it this way: “The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body. (Prov 26:22)” Oh, how we crave gossip, lies, and slander as one craves a juicy steak or a delectable chocolate mousse. In Paul’s letter to Timothy in 1 Tim 6:2-5, he tells Timothy that the person who teaches a doctrine contrary to what he has taught, that is a doctrine that does not understand sinners saved by grace alone, will be evident by “an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of truth.” This makes sense. If I am not continuously humbled by the wretchedness of my own sinful heart, my own deceptions, and my own desperate need for the freeing work of Christ, then I will tear down others to make me feel good about myself. To keep up my propped up reputation, I will make sure no one else shares my pedestal and so dissension and slander is a means to that end. Oh how God-glorifying, Christ-worshipping, Gospel-focused and centered teaching can free us to great gain.

There are other ways we lie, exaggeration, false oaths, but generally, these lies are offshoots of these two fundamental lies. So rather than focus on lying and the obvious ways we fail to live in the way God would have us, I’d like to look at truth with a question, “What is truth?”

What Is Truth?

When Jesus was being questioned by Pontius Pilate, he let the governor know that His sole purpose for his birth into a world that despised him was to bear witness to the truth. And I can only imagine, the scene, Jesus stands before Pilate with swollen eyes and lips from beatings, blood still flowing and some of it crusting over still sore wounds. With Jesus’ statement, as Pilate stands staring at this bloodied Jewish man, Pilate responds in John 18:38, “What is truth?”
For Pilate, perhaps there is no truth. Or perhaps truth doesn’t really matter. Or perhaps even wistfully Pilate merely comments on the now absence of any truth. Or perhaps Pilate really doesn’t know, but is unwilling to find out because the cost for truth seems to be too great. Pilate exhibits what every human being does with truth: We exchange truth for a lie as Paul writes in Romans 1:25.

So we lie because we think truth doesn’t matter or we are unwilling to deal with the consequences truth. Like Pilate, we’d rather be non-committal about truth. We’d rather not think about truth at all, assuming that knowing THE truth really makes no difference in the way we live. But what a sham of a life that is. The truth does matter and it is a matter of life, death, and eternal life. John Piper comments on Pilate’s question:

The point is this, Pilate may say—you may say—”I don’t know what absolute truth is, and I don’t think I can find out.” But the truth is, when your own personal interest is at stake, you won’t act as though you don’t know what truth is. We have very strong convictions when our life and property are at stake, don’t we? Strange how agnosticism and relativism are blown away when our rights and our life are on the line!

As most of you know, a bridge in Minneapolis, very close to John Piper’s church, collapsed killing many. I couldn’t help but think about what it would feel like to have the very ground from under you give way. It would be terribly, tragically unnerving to place your trust in something you considered to be so strong, and then all of the sudden, to have what you trusted in be nothing more than a façade. Pilate had staked everything on the idea that there really is no absolute truth at all, and thus, to crucify Christ, though troubling, was still better than face an angry Jewish mob claiming he was no friend of Caesar. That lie was much more convenient in the present than the possibility of truth. But what happens when that bridge you never thought would ever collapse, suddenly gave way? What if there really is a God who sent His Son to take the place of sinners who placed their faith in Him? What if there really is a hell where those who exchanged the truth of God for a lie would receive their just punishment?

There is nothing more powerful than a person who stands on the truth of God and lives by this truth, than Christ himself as the embodiment of Truth (John 14:6). This person believes that the course of human history and its complete rebellion against God because of self-worship and self-centeredness have been defeated by God’s plan to bring rebels to repentance. This truth is about God the Father forsaking God the Son, Jesus Christ, to bear the punishment of rebels, so that those who wished to displace God as God would instead be welcomed into His royal family. And when such a person believes in such truth, Jesus says in John 8:31: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and the truth will set you free.”

Thus far, people have strived so much to be somebody, to mean something to society, to gain stature and prominence, to have value and worth in their existence. And people are inclined to think that even to lie to get to that place is worth it because only then will they be happy. But Jesus tells us here, that abiding/living/trusting/exalting in/ enjoying His Word, the promise that God sent Him to welcome people into a divinely royal identity that nothing in this world comes close to matching, is freedom. Jesus’ Word is Truth and it promises true freedom to be the very person that God created us to be. And Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1:25: “The Word of the Lord remains forever.” Thus, to combat the lies of the Enemy and the lies that come from our own rebellious hearts to overthrow God as God, we must:

1. Passionately Pursue Truth: One cannot follow truth if one does not know the truth. And in John 8:31, Jesus tells us that freedom in truth comes when we abide in his word. I have been reading Robert Murray McCheyne’s Memoirs, and one statement thus far has stuck out for me. In it, he is repenting to God for his sins and he says, “Lord, for the little I have read your Word it is as if I have never read your Word.” That statement has pierced my soul because it is far too easy for me to have read my daily Scripture reading and pat myself on the back and say, “Sam, you’re really good about reading the Bible.” Oh, how little I know of this great treasure. Perhaps the number one reason we believe in constant lies about God (He’s not good, He’s not fair, He’s not listening to me), about ourselves (You’re not good enough, you’ll always fail, you’re better than she is, you don’t deserve to be treated that way), about others (she’s taking advantage of me, he doesn’t deserve to be forgiven, she’s such a loser) is our failure to abide in God’s Word. The psalmist says it all in Psalm 119:11, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” When we fill our hearts with God’s Word, it leaves no room for the pangs and urges to believe in lies and speak lies. So once again, I urge you, if you haven’t done so in a while, pick up your Bibles, and read and meditate on His Word.

2. Make Your Heart Conform to the Truth: William Gurnall, the Puritan writer, described our hearts and truth this way: “A mighty power goes along with wedlock, two persons who have barely known each other can leave friends and parents to enjoy each other after their affections have been knit together by love and their persons made one by marriage. But a mightier power accompanies the mystical marriage between the soul and Christ, the soul and truth. This is the same person who, before conversion, would not have given a penny for Christ or His truth; yet now, knit to Christ by a secret work of the Spirit, he can leave the whole world behind for oneness with Him.” (William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armor, June 3) The Spirit has done this work in you. So when your flesh wants to believe in the lie that God is not good, or that your spouse is undeserving of your forgiveness, or your anger against your controlling parents are fully justified, remember how you came to believe in Christ in the first place. The Bible calls this killing your nature that wants to turn away from Christ. You will find that every day brings a crossroad of trust or rebel. Shall you believe in God’s truth that when you conform your heart to that truth, you will find joy or shall you believe in the lie that self-pity, anger, self-centeredness, unforgiveness, lust, greed feels so good so you will conform to the lie?

And oh the danger that lurks here. Gurnall adds: “God is severe to the enemies of truth. A dreadful curse is pronounced upon anyone who adds or takes away from truth…It is no wonder that God values truth so highly when we consider what it is—truth is the substance of His thoughts and counsels from everlasting to everlasting.” (Gurnall, June 4)

3. Examine Your heart Continually and Confess Sin to Receive Forgiveness: John’s words in his first letter give us such practical advice as to living as one who knows truth. He writes in 1 John 1:8-9: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” To combat lie and live in truth we must search our hearts honestly and recognize our fallenness, our rebellion against God, our sinfulness. Without this first precondition, there can be no truth in us. Unless like former slavetrader John Newton, author of the song, ‘Amazing Grace,’ we can say that God saved ‘a wretch like me/I once was lost but now am found/Was blind but now I see,’ God’s truth is far from us according to John. But even worse, without this truth, we will never know grace. We will never know how freeing God’s forgiveness is. We will never experience the full cleansing power of the finished work of Christ’s cross and the glory of His Gospel. So do not let a day pass without your active reflection on sin, to your active thanksgiving for His lavished grace.

People live this life without warring against absolute truth, railing and pontificating that it doesn’t exist, until the bridge collapses and that which seemed so solid is gone. I was reading John Piper’s reflections on the tragedy and his explanation to his daughter Talitha which exhibits much about the truth that must be believed than the lies that continue to fester in a sinful world:

We prayed during our family devotions. Talitha (11 years old) and Noel and I prayed earnestly for the families affected by the calamity and for the others in our city. Talitha prayed “Please don’t let anyone blame God for this but give thanks that they were saved.” When I sat on her bed and tucked her in and blessed her and sang over her a few minutes ago, I said, “You know, Talitha, that was a good prayer, because when people ‘blame’ God for something, they are angry with him, and they are saying that he has done something wrong. That’s what “blame” means: accuse somebody of wrongdoing. But you and I know that God did not do anything wrong. God always does what is wise. And you and I know that God could have held up that bridge with one hand.” Talitha said, “With his pinky.” “Yes,” I said, “with his pinky. Which means that God had a purpose for not holding up that bridge, knowing all that would happen, and he is infinitely wise in all that he wills.”

Talitha said, “Maybe he let it fall because he wanted all the people of Minneapolis to fear him.” “Yes, Talitha,” I said, “I am sure that is one of the reasons God let the bridge fall.”

Ah, the truthful words of a child, a child who sees life through the lens of a God who is absolutely true to His promises. But this is not so for much of the world, which has exchanged God’s truth for a lie. One day, that lie will come crashing down without warning. But for the believer in the glorious Gospel, the truth sets us free. And so obeying the 9th commandment is simply saying, “Lord, you are the one and only true God. My honesty and refusal to bear false witness is my way of saying, ‘You alone are God and your truth does endure forever.’” I hope you know this truth today.