(Basics) 65. Lying — Zac Poonen

Lying as Humanity's Widespread Destructive Sin

And today we want to look at a characteristic of the human race, which is probably the most widespread and which causes such a lot of destruction and damage in relationships and something that without the help of God we can never overcome, but you can overcome it.

Every human being falls into this sin. Only God can deliver him. In John's Gospel, chapter 8, verse 44, Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, they believed intellectually, we read about that in verse 31, and he said to them, you are of your father the devil, verse 44.

Intellectual Belief and the Devil's Nature

It's really amazing when you think that Jesus could speak such words to people who had apparently believed in him, verse 31. There is a belief in Jesus which is intellectual. It still leaves a man as a child of the devil.

Of course, nowadays people are not bold enough to tell others that they are children of the devil, but Jesus said that. You are of your father the devil and you want to do the desires of your father. He wasn't insulting them or cursing them, he was just telling them a fact and showing them how they could be delivered from that situation to become children of God.

But they'd never be delivered until they first faced up to the fact of what they were. Until we acknowledge what we are, God cannot deliver us. And Jesus said further in John 8, verse 44, the devil was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

Here is one characteristic of Satan, there is no truth in him at all and he does not stand in the truth. And then he went on to say, whenever Satan speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature because he is a liar and the father of lies.

Lies as the Work of Satan

So, just like in an earlier study we saw God is love and Satan is hatred, in the same way we see that Jesus said, I am the truth and the devil is a liar. The devil does not stand in the truth and there is no truth in him.

And whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, that is his nature, to tell a lie. For he is a liar and the father of lies. All lies originate with Satan as the father. If you tell a lie, that lie is a child born through Satan being the father and you being the mother.

You have given your heart and your tongue to Satan at that time to produce a child called a lie. God never fathers lies. That is why it is so important to learn once you have become Christians and believers to always speak the truth.

Jesus' Command to Speak Truthfully

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 concerning this matter, he said, Let your statement, verse 37, be yes, yes or no, no. Anything beyond these is of evil. He said, you should not swear. Don't make an oath at all, he said in verse 34.

You don't need to make an oath because when a man is making an oath, he puts his hand on the Bible or swears by God or heaven or something like that. What he is saying is, well, most of the time I tell lies but right now I am speaking the truth because I am swearing.

But Jesus said, you shouldn't be like that. You should just speak the truth the whole time so that you don't need to swear at all. No statement made under oath should be more truthful than a statement made without oath.

It should be the same. Anything beyond these is of evil. What is the first thing God requires from us when we come to him? It is not perfection, it is not purity, it is not goodness, it is not love. It is none of these things.

Honesty as the Beginning of Repentance

There is only one thing God requires from us when we come to him and that is honesty. In Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 13 we read the Lord saying through his prophets, only acknowledge your iniquity that you have transgressed against the Lord, your God, and return and I am a master to you and I will take you and bring you to Zion.

I will bring you to the church if you will only acknowledge your iniquity. In other words, be honest. What did the woman caught in adultery have? Honesty. She had no other virtue. What about the thief who hung on the cross?

He said, I deserve this. He acknowledged that he was a criminal deserving death. The other thief, the unrepentant thief, he was not willing to acknowledge that. He told Jesus, get us down from this cross.

We don't deserve to die. And so he went to hell. Not because he was a criminal, but because he was dishonest. The other one on the other side was equally a criminal or perhaps a greater criminal than the one who went to hell.

But he was honest and he said, I deserve this. And he went to paradise. Paradise is not made for perfect people. It's made for honest people. It's made for people who are willing to speak the truth. The first sin mentioned in the Bible is lying.

Satan's First Lie in Genesis

We read in Genesis chapter 3 of the first sin mentioned in the Bible. And that's not the sin that Eve committed when she ate of the tree which God had forbidden. There is a sin mentioned in Genesis 3 even before that.

Not committed by man, but by Satan. When Satan came to Eve and asked her, as God said you shouldn't eat of any of these trees, and the woman said, well God has said if you eat from this tree which is in the middle of the garden, you will die.

The serpent said, verse 4, Genesis 3, 4, you surely shall not die. That was a lie. And that is the first lie and the first sin mentioned in scripture. You shall not die. You can disobey God, but you will not be punished.

You will not go to hell. Sin does not have a punishment. This is the lie with which Satan deceived Eve and has deceived the entire human race for thousands of years. Even today. There are preachers who comfort sinners in their sin.

There are preachers who comfort believers in their sin. Saying you've accepted the Lord, you'll go to heaven no matter how much you sin. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes in chapter 8, Ecclesiastes 8 and verse 11, that because sentence against an evil work is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully given to do evil.

Delayed Judgment and the Deception of Presumption

It's because God does not punish immediately that people keep on living in sin. And therefore the devil says, you're not going to be punished. Look at all these other people around you. Look at the sins they commit.

Look at the believers who do so many wrong things and they get away with it. They haven't got away with it. God's punishment, His judgment has not yet come. That's all. So there is a lie with which Satan is fooling people all over.

You can sin and you will not suffer. The Bible says that if you live according to the flesh, Romans 8, 13, you will surely die. And Satan says, no, you will not die. God is merciful, God is gracious. You ask Jesus to come into your life.

Even if you live according to the flesh, you will not die. That's a deception. If you live according to the flesh, you will die. There's no doubt about it at all. And if Satan is a liar, he seeks to transmit that nature to his children.

The Seriousness of Lying in Final Judgment

And it's very easy for a believer to be infected with that too. Whenever you tell a lie, you are offering yourself to Satan to father one more child. The last sin mentioned in the Bible is in Revelation chapter 22.

And there it says about those who will be outside the city of God in the final day. Revelation 22, 15. Everyone who loves and practices a lie will be outside the kingdom. Have you ever noticed this before?

That the first sin and the last sin mentioned in the Bible is telling a lie. Lying is a very serious thing. Lying to God, lying to people, and every lie is fathered by Satan. Peter told Ananias, why have you lied to the Holy Spirit?

That's why he was killed. The first sin judged in the early church, lying. It's extremely serious. And that's why as parents, one of the most important things we must teach our children is to stop telling lies.

Teaching Children Truthfulness by Example

Our children are born with our nature. They tell lies from birth. And unless we show them how serious it is, unless they can see in our lives as parents, that we take speaking the truth very seriously, that if we say something, we will do it.

If we promise to do something for our children, we keep our word. Or explain to them if some other circumstances came up that prevented us from doing it. But telling the truth is a quality, a virtue that we have to battle wholeheartedly if we want to acquire.

The Holy Spirit and Freedom from Lying

The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. And if you want to be truthful, you have to ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and to mortify this lying habit in all your speech. If we do that, we will find God gives us discernment on the lies with which Satan seeks to deceive us.