|
"CHEATING OTHERS"
TEXTS:
Ex. 20:16; Deut. 19:15-19; James 4:11-12; Matt. 18:15-17
INTRO
The 9th
commandment affects the whole world whether they are Christians or not.
In fact,
that is the marvel of the 10 commandments, they stand alone as truth
whether people believe in God or not. Since God is the author of all
truth, it doesn't matter what the world thinks about His Word, it is
still truth!
The
whole of humanity suffers when truth is sacrificed for lies.
It has
become a way of life in our culture, too many believe it is "normal"
to tell lies:
ILLUS:
In the
July 15, 1993
Boardroom Reports, Peter LeVine writes: "When the Port Authority of New
York and New Jersey ran a help-wanted ad for electricians with expertise
at using Sontag connectors, it got 170 responses--even though there is
no such thing as a Sontag connector. The Authority ran the ad to find
out how many applicants falsify resumes."
-- Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 1.
It is
tragic to realize just how easily we accept bending the truth.
Since
the adults of our society have modeled falsehoods so well it has even
become the second language of our youth:
ILLUS:
On a beautiful fall day, four of my granddaughter's friends decided to
go for a drive instead of showing up to class on time. When they did
arrive, the girls explained to the teacher they had had a flat tire. The
teacher accepted the excuse, much to the girls' relief. "Since you
missed this morning's quiz, you must take it now," she said. "Please sit
in the four corner seats in this room without talking." When they were
seated, the teacher said, "On your paper write the answer to one
question: 'Which tire was flat?'"--
Clara Null,
Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma, Christian Reader, "Lite Fare."
The only
thing preventing a meltdown of human society are these words:
"Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth, so help you God?"
A
failure to do this could mean the destruction of innocent lives and a
level of distrust within our culture that would prevent the truth from
ever ruling.
PROP. SENT:
The Bible calls us to guard our hearts against the damage that comes to
both us and others when we bear false witness or lie.
No
society will long endure, nor will any human relationship that is not
founded on truth.
I.
BEARING A FALSE TESTIMONY Ex. 20:16; Deut. 19:15-19; James 4:11-12
A.
Types
1.
The Obvious Lie - when truth is altered to say something that
is simply not true.
ILLUS:
Lincoln was trying to make a point. His hearer was unconvinced and
stubborn. So Lincoln tried another tack. He said to the disputer, "Well,
let's see now. How many legs does a cow have?" The disgusted reply came
back "Four, of course."
Lincoln
agreed, "That's right. Now, suppose you call the cow's tail a leg; how
many legs would the cow have?" The opponent replied confidently, "Why,
five, of course."
Lincoln
came back, "Now that's where you're wrong. Calling a cow's tail a leg
doesn't make it a leg!"
--James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House
Publishers, Inc, 1988), p. 483.
a. No
amount of telling the falsehood will change the truth, but it will
change the relationship we have with the person we lied to or about.
b. When
truth is not given, everyone loses.
2.
Libel - this is using the truth in such a way as to hurt
someone, sometimes in a court of law it is called, "malicious
intent."
a. While
this is not an actual lie, it is the use of truth to still bear a false
witness in such a way as to do damage to someone.
b. Even
the truth must be used in a righteous way!
The editor of a small-town newspaper grew tired of being called a liar,
and announced that he would tell the truth in the future. The next issue
contained the following item: "Married--Miss Sylvan Rhodes and James
Collins, last Saturday at the Baptist parsonage, by the Rev. J. Gordon.
The bride is a very ordinary town girl, who doesn't know any more about
cooking than a jackrabbit, and never helped her mother three days in her
life. She is not a beauty by any means and has a gait like a duck. The
groom is an up-to-date loafer. He has been living off the old folks at
home all his life and is now worth shucks. It will be a hard life."
--James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House
Publishers, Inc, 1988)
3.
Slander - This is a lie intended to damage someone or protect
self. It is a direct violation of the 9th commandment.
ILLUS:
A school principal received a phone call. The voice said, "Thomas
Bradley won't be in school today." The principal was a bit suspicious of
the voice. He asked, "Who is speaking?" The voice came back, "My
father."
--James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House
Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 288.
a. It
was this particular type of lie that God's Word warned against.
b. In
fact, so serious was the danger of this type of lie that God's Word
declared that all such facts must be established by more than a single
witness or the person should not be held for punishment.
c. The
breach of relationships is a serious issue to God, and lying destroys
all such relationships.
4.
Exaggeration - this kind of stretching the truth can leave
casualties also.
a. When
truth gets stretched damage can occur to the relationships as well.
b. After
a while it will be difficult for people to take at face value what is
said, and it can create false impressions of others that can lead to bad
relationships.
c.
Unfortunately, exaggeration comes too easily for most people.
ILLUS:
In
Boston a minister noticed a group of boys standing around a small stray
dog. "What are you doing, boys?" "Telling lies," said one of the boys.
"The one who tells the biggest lie gets the dog." "Why, when I was your
age," the shocked minister said, "I never ever thought of telling a
lie." The boys looked at one another, a little crestfallen. Finally one
of them shrugged and said, "I guess he wins the dog."
--James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House
Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 287.
5.
Silence or Innuendo - We can even bear false witness by
failing to speak the truth, sometimes by not saying something we can
hurt others or allow a false witness to exist on someone, or we can
create a false witness by holding back truth!
a. Such
comments like, "If you only knew what I knew about so and so,
but I
promised not to say anything…"
b. The
failure for many to speak up in World War II when Hitler did his
atrocities was a way to allow them to continue…this failure to speak the
truth can also be a form of bearing a false witness.
B.
Tragedy! Deut. 19:15-19; James 4:11-12
1. It
was so important to God that peoples' lives be preserved from false
testimonies or witnesses that He required that there be at least 2 or 3
others to speak the same thing before something should be regarded as
true.
a. This
is a good idea for today also!
b. Too
often things get passed around as "truth" on the sole testimony
of one person.
c. We
must remember that a single person can slant the truth in such a way as
to be viewed from their own framework, but coming through several
sources helps to make certain the truth will remain intact.
d. In
the Old Testament law someone guilty of a false testimony would be
punished with the same punishment that he intended for the person they
bore false witness against.
ILLUS:
It isn't the things that go in one ear and out the other that hurt as
much as the things that go in one ear, get all mixed up, and then slip
out the mouth.
--James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House
Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 256.
2.
People's lives are too important to God to tolerate false testimonies.
a. As
the Father of all truth, God is inherently against all lies!
b. Satan
however is called the "father of all lies"
- he is the "deceiver," when
we use lies we are aligning ourselves with Satan rather than our
heavenly Father.
c. All
lies yield more sin!
ILLUS:
"Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all."
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)
3. The
tragedy of lies is that both the one who told them suffers, as does the
person for whom they are about.
Ultimately, the entire society suffers and our relationship with God is
destroyed!
II. BEARERS OF FREEDOM & TRUTH Matt. 18:15-17
A.
Truth Matt. 18:15a
1. Truth
is designed to not only help us walk right in a crooked world, but to
set free the broken person as well.
a. If
there is something wrong in a relationship, the two parties involved are
to sit down and work it out with truth prevailing, but truth that is
designed to heal and not just hurt.
b. It is
God's truth about brokenness that will offer the greatest chance at
healing.
2. This
is so hard to do in a world that has become accustomed to lies as a way
of life!
ILLUS:
Leonard Sweet, in his Soul Cafe newsletter, included this list of "Top
10 Liars' Lies": 10. We'll stay only five minutes. 9. This will be a
short meeting. 8. I'll respect you in the morning. 7. The check is in
the mail. 6. I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you. 5. This
hurts me more than it hurts you. 4. Your money will be cheerfully
refunded. 3. We service what we sell. 2. Your table will be ready in
just a minute. 1. I'll start exercising (dieting, forgiving, ...)
tomorrow.
-- Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 4.
3. Such
a world where little lies are so common can make us cynical to the
truth.
a. Yet,
our goal should be to live in such a way before men to enable us to
trust one another, even with the process of healing our wounds with one
another.
b.
Matthew 18 prescribes a process for
dealing with brokenness in an honest way that will bring glory to God
and restoration to relationships.
4. We
are not to ignore the issues of sin that destroy peoples lives.
B.
Transformation Matt. 18:15b-17
1.
Should we learn to deal honestly with one another we would see a
transformation not only in the Church but in the society as well.
a. It
would become a "shame" again to speak falsely of others.
b. We
would find it less acceptable to permit lies to damage people lives.
ILLUS:
The "credibility gap" that once alienated the public from people in high
places now seems to separate us from one another in all walks of life.
Americans lie on their income tax returns to the tune of millions of
dollars a year. Doctors fake reports in order to profit from Medicare
patients. Prize athletes at great universities are kept eligible for
competition through bogus credits and forged transcripts of academic
records. Children soon acquire the cynical assumption that lying is the
normal tack for TV advertisers. In the words of a Time magazine essay,
ours is "a huckstering, show-bizzy world, jangling with hype,
hullabaloo, and hooey, bull, baloney, and bamboozlement." After a while,
people tend to expect not to hear the truth anymore; in 1976, a national
poll showed that 69 percent of Americans believed that the country's
leaders had, over the last decade, consistently lied to the people.
Lewis Smedes, Mere Morality --James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited
(Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988), p. 456.
2. To
return our culture to an honest one we must begin with the individual.
3.
Wholeness in relationships are a must for a culture to survive, and for
a soul to develop into the character of God that we are suppose to
maintain.
4. The
9th commandment calls us to honor God by honoring the truth in ways that
build up and not tear down.
a. Even
when such truth is required to deal with wrongdoing between people.
b.
Certainly our lives would experience God's fullness when we live the
truth rather than the lies so pervasive in our society today.
5. God
help us to speak the truth in love, to raise the banner of honesty to
the level of "normal" again.
Let it
begin with us as God's people!
CONCLUSION:
The fabric of all healthy relationships is woven with truth.
Lying tears this fabric apart and so destroys all trust and confidence
in one another.
Since "God is truth" we cannot
violate truth and still enjoy a relationship with Him also.
God help us to bear the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth - so help us God!
Symbols help us understand Him, but we must worship the God that He is
and not the one we have made Him to be in our own minds.
How big is your God?
|
