The Sin of Lying Will Send You to Hell — E.A. Johnston

I have many books in the library written by the Puritans, and often I will go to a shelf and search for a certain book by a Puritan writer and immerse myself in it and enrich my soul by it. A constant theme of the Puritans was the doctrine of the sinfulness of sin.

They preached much about it and wrote wisely upon it, but today in our pulpits you won't hear many sermons on the sinfulness of sin, friends. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to hear the word sin even mentioned from the pulpit these days.

The Sin of Lying in Everyday Life

But there is a grievous sin that is commonplace in our day, and that is the sin of lying. People lie to us all the time. There's a gas station in my neighborhood, and one day a man in a pickup truck walked up to me, and he said he had an emergency, and he looked upset, and he gave me a sad sob story, said he needed $15, and I believed him and gave him $15.

And three months later at the very same gas station, this same man approached me and asked for $15 and gave me the exact same story he'd told me before. I rebuked him for his bad memory and informed him I'd already given him money for that phony story in the past.

That man was nothing but a liar. He lied to people to get their money. And people lie to us all the time. Politicians lie to us. Big business lies to us. The government lies to us. Sometimes it seems this whole nation is just filled with lawyers.

But if only people knew what a grievous sin the sin of lying is, friends. This nation doesn't know what sin is anymore because the church has failed to cry out against it and it is silent about it, silent about sin.

Even some good church people don't see the blackness of sin. Listen friends, this sin of lying is commonplace even in church today. I was in a Sunday school class talking to an old friend, and I asked him a question about his job, and he looked me in the eye and lied to me.

I knew he wasn't telling the truth because I knew why he had lost his job. This church member just bold-faced lied to me and thought nothing of it. How many times have Christians lied to me through the years?

Confession, Conviction, and Repentance

And I must confess, I lied too in church years ago. Back then, I taught a Sunday school class, and one of the members in that class was a racquetball-playing buddy of mine. Well, one day while we were playing racquetball, he asked me where I graduated college, and at the time, I had not yet graduated college, and I was embarrassed about it.

So I lied to him and told him that I had. Here I was, a Sunday school teacher, lying to one of my members. I was a liar, friends. Well, that whole week I just felt awful, as the Holy Spirit convicted me of that terrible sin of lying.

I knew I had to do something about it, and by next Sunday, I grabbed that man in the hallway and confessed my sin of lying to him. He looked startled, but he forgave me. I fear many of us today just lie through our teeths throughout the week until we get to church on Sunday.

Jesus' Teaching on Lying and the Judgment of Liars

But listen, friends, this sin of lying is a great sin. Listen to what Jesus Christ said about lying, as seen in John chapter 8 and verse 44. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.

He was a murderer from the beginning, and a boat not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it. When we tell a lie, friends, we are more like Satan than we are like Jesus.

This is serious business, and a habitual liar will surely go to hell. Listen to this terror-filled verse from the book of Revelation. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

Friends, if that verse doesn't send terror to a heart, nothing will. Lying is placed right alongside murder, and sorcery, and grievous sins against God. For all sin is against God, friends. When we sin, we sin against God, and when we lie, we sin against God.

And let me tell you something, friend, there is no such thing as a white lie. A little lie is just as black as a big lie. We tell lies to one another like it's no big deal. We lie about one another, but it is a big deal to God, friends.

Jesus Christ shed his precious blood for every rotten lie that falls from our lying tongues. And we evangelists need to be more careful, too. How many evangelists will come from a meeting and brag on how many people got saved?

They'll say something like, I held a crusade last week, and a thousand people got saved. How does that evangelist even know that? He doesn't know if one of those people truly got saved. He only knows one thousand people responded to his invitation.

Only God knows whose hearts he changed. We have to be careful. We don't lie about the people who respond to our gospel invitations by calling them saved when the God of heaven may not even recognize them as saved.

False Claims and the Church's Silence About Sin

And churches will lie about their membership. How many Baptist churches will brag that they've got so many thousands of members on their membership roll and report that number publicly? But the fact is, if they sent a search party out to find the majority of those so-called members, they couldn't hunt them down with hunting dogs if they tried.

There's probably just a third of their membership actually attending their church on a regular basis. I've had more so-called Christians lie to me more than anyone else. Why are we just one big pack of liars?

It's because we refuse to call sin for what it is today, friends. Sin. And we don't preach sermons on the sinfulness of sin anymore. The silence of the church in America on sin is what has led this nation down a pathway of sin.

Scripture's Warnings Against Lying

My message this evening is entitled, The Sin of Lying Will Send You to Hell. Listen, friends, the sin of lying is a great, grievous sin. I want to share with you what the Word of God says about lying.

Listen to Proverbs 19, 5, which states,. A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape. Paul in Colossians admonishes us not to lie. Colossians 3, 9 declares, Lie not to one another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.

And in Jeremiah 9, 5, we read,. And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongues to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity. When we see how God views the sin of lying, it should keep us from lying.

Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5

But the passage of Scripture which best displays God's just displeasure on the sin of lying is found in our passage this evening, friends. It's in the book of Acts. You may turn in your Bibles there now to Acts chapter 5.

We will be in verses 1 through 11, and pay close attention, friends, to how God will not tolerate the sin of lying. In fact, in this striking passage of Scripture, we see God kill two people because of the sin of lying.

He just removes them from this planet by death. God won't tolerate the sin of lying, friend, because it reminds Him too much of the devil who is the father of lies. Here now is the word of God from Acts chapter 5.

But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet.

But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?

Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto man, but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down, and gave up the ghost, and great fear came on all of them that heard these things.

And the young man arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me, whether ye sold the land for so much?

And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.

Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost. And the young man came in, and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.

The Fear of God and the Call to Repentance

Listen, friends, this sin of lying is detestable to God. If you have lying lips, repent right now. This is a great sin. These two so-called Christians experienced sudden death because of the sin of lying.

God just removed them. Peter reproves them with the words, Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And God did not take this sin of lying lightly, friends, for he killed both husband and wife for telling lies.

Does God have to kill you? Has great fear come upon you as you have heard these things? A great fear came upon the early church when they heard it. They were struck with the awe of God in his swift and terrible judgments.

But we today think God is just a God of love, and he wouldn't act that way anymore. God would never kill anybody today for sin. We've got such a low view of God, and are so desensitized to sin and hardened in sin, we cannot even fear the Almighty when we sin.

The fear of God, friends, should keep us from sin, but I fear it doesn't. But here in our passage, Peter shows them the evil of their sin of lying by both mocking God with it and tempting God by it. I like what old Matthew Henry, the Bible commentator, has to say on this passage.

He said, As Adam and Eve, who agreed to eat the forbidden fruit, were turned together out of paradise, so Ananias and Sapphira, who agreed to tempt the Spirit of the Lord, were together chased out of the world.

I want to ask you, friend, and be honest with yourself. In the last month, have you been guilty of the sin of lying? Do you treat lying lightly? Do you lie frequently? Have you lied lately? Go to God and ask Him by His Spirit to reveal to you if you have a lying tongue.

Ask the Holy Spirit to shine His spotlight of conviction upon your heart and grant you the grace of repentance so you will mortify this terrible and heinous sin. Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife, said she was his sister, and he did that twice.

Biblical Examples of Lying and the Final Call

His son Isaac followed suit and lied about his wife saying she was his sister. Jacob lied to his father Isaac by telling him he was his son Esau, and even the apostle Peter lied on one terrible night in a courtyard with curses and denials about his master Jesus.

When asked if he was a disciple of Jesus, Peter lied and said, I know not the man. So we have these sad examples in Scripture of good men who told lies, but those records are there to warn us, friends, not to imitate them and their sins.

Lying is a sin, and a great one at that, friends. The sinfulness of sin should be taught from our pulpits once again in this land, and the churches should be diligent in crying out against the sins of this nation and call the nation to repent before the God of all creation who hates sin.