ACCEPTABLE SINS (#1)
Today we’re starting a new four-week series of messages entitled, “Acceptable Sins.” You might be wondering, “Are there ‘acceptable’ sins? What is an’ acceptable’ sin? Well, let me explain: There are some sins that everybody would agree are ALWAYS WRONG—they’re always bad! They are the sins like murder, rape, adultery, stealing—they’re always going to be wrong! But, unfortunately, in our culture, there is another category of sin that some people would say, “Well, these are more acceptable—they’re a little more understandable! But even though they may be more acceptable in our culture, that doesn’t mean that they are right in God’s eyes!
So, over the next four weeks, I would like to have us look at four of the more ‘ordinary,’ or ‘acceptable’ sins that many people rationalize, “This is kind of just a part of doing life!” But we’re going to look at them from God’s perspective. There is a powerful prayer that David prayed in Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24—“Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends You and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”
To introduce our topic for today, let me relate a story I read a while back. There was a young man who sat is a service and when the preacher came to the end of his sermon, he said, “I want to give you some homework for next week. I want you to read Mark, chapter 17 before you come back next Sunday.” Well next Sunday came and he asked how many had done their homework and read Mark, chapter 17. The young man wanted to impress
everyone, so he raised his hand—along with a few others. Then the pastor asked them to stand. Not as many stood, but this young man did! He thought he would impress the pastor and the congregation.
However, the pastor informed him and the few others that were standing that there IS NO Mark, chapter 17! And he informed the congregation that his topic for his sermon that day was ‘Lying!” Well, I’m not that conniving! But my topic for this morning is Lying! And I believe lying is one of our culture’s ‘acceptable’ sins today! So, to begin, let me ask this question: How many of you have ever told a lie? Put your hand up. Now look around at those who don’t have their hands up and say, “Are you lying right now?”
The truth of the matter is, lying is one of the first things we learn to do! You never have to sit your child down and say, “Today we’re going to have some lying lessons. I’m going to teach you how to lie!” There’s no need! Your kid will just come in with chocolate all over his or her face and you can ask them, “Did you get into the chocolate cake?” And there answer will no doubt be, “No, I didn’t eat any cake!” You don’t have to teach that! It’s just kind of wired into our sinful nature! We can even laugh about a story where we got caught lying because a little white lie doesn’t matter, right? But hear me this morning: Just because lying may seem acceptable in our society today, does NOT mean that it’s acceptable to God!
In fact, the Bible says that God HATES lying! Proverbs 12:22 says, “The Lord detests lying lips. But He delights in those who tell the truth.” The word in the Hebrew translated as
‘detest’ means ‘something disgusting,’ ‘an abhorrence,’ it means ‘to make nauseous.’ So—we may not think much of our lies—but it makes God want to vomit! That’s how much God hates lying! In fact, God’s archenemy, the devil, is referred to in Scripture as ‘the father of lies!’ No wonder God hates lying!
I’m afraid too many professing Christians don’t look on lying as the grievous sin that it is! Like the store manager who overheard one of his clerks tell a customer, “No, ma’am, we haven’t had any for a while, and it doesn’t look as if we’ll be getting any soon.” Horrified, the manager came running over to the customer and said, “Of course we’ll have some soon. We placed an order last week.” Then the manager drew the clerk aside and said, “Never, never, ever say we’re out of anything—say we’ve got it on order and it’s coming in soon. Now, what was it she wanted anyway?” The clerk said, “She wanted rain!”
God included lying as one of the Ten Commandments—and I believe He takes this sin (which it is, by the way) very seriously! Rev. 21:8 says, “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.”
How do we lie? Let me share with you three ways that we lie. The first way we lie is obvious—we lie to other people. Jeremiah 9:5 says, “Friend deceives friend and no one speaks the truth.” Ladies, research says that you lie an average of three times a day! That’s an average of a thousand times a year! That’s pretty bad! But men, before you get all proud, research says you lie twice as much! The average man lies six times a day! Six times a day! Instead of saying, “I overslept,” you say something like, “the traffic was really bad today!” And people laugh about those little ‘white lies.’ And God wants to vomit!
Another way we lie is that we lie to God! The story of Annanias and Sapphira, in Scripture is a perfect example of this. They claimed that they sold their property and were giving it all to the church, but they had actually held back part of it for themselves. Peter confronted them, and asked, “What made you think of doing such a thing? You’ve not just lied to human beings but you’ve lied to God!” We think we can fool God, but who are we kidding? And the more we learn to lie to others and lie to God, before long, we’re not just telling lies, we’re actually living a lie!
The third way we lie is we lie to ourselves. We deceive ourselves. I love David’s prayer in Psalm 119:17, when he appears to be grieving over something and he prays, “Help me understand the meaning of Your commandments and I will meditate on your wonderful deeds.” Then he says, “I weep with sorrow. Encourage me by Your word.” And then in vs. 29 he says, “Keep me from lying to myself. Give me the privilege of knowing your instructions.” Too many times we deceive ourselves and start to believe our own lies! Have you ever had a friend approach you and say, “You know what? You have a problem with such and such.” But you’ve said, “Ah no—I don’t have a problem!” Everyone else may see it but we lie to ourselves—we deceive ourselves. How many individuals in a marriage with say, “I’m not the problem—it’s all
her!” Or “I’m not the problem, he’s a ‘you know what!’ And we deceive ourselves into believing a lie!
Some might even deceive themselves into thinking, “I’m okay with God”—but they’re really not! They’ve deceived themselves. John said in I John 2:4—“Whoever says, ‘I know God,’ but does not do what He commands, that person is a liar and the truth is not in that person.”
How we lie is the relatively easy part—the ‘why’ is more difficult. Why is it that three or four or five or six times a day we feel it is necessary to lie? Sometimes we lie because we don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. Sometimes we lie because we want to make ourselves look better—or help us get ahead. And we all know that lies typically begin to snowball! The more a person lies, the more they are tempted to lie—and the more they can’t find the truth— until their life has very little integrity left, if any! You cannot build a life of integrity on a
foundation of lies! You cannot have real relationships built on lies!
Mark Twain once said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world, while truth is still lacing up her boots!” There is something about our sinful nature that enjoys lying. We enjoy lying and listening to lies. If you don’t believe me, why do you enjoy reading the headlines of those tabloids at the checkout counter? We love a little gossip (but we’ll talk more about that next week!) Lying is easy, but the truth is oftentimes hard!
How about it this morning—Are you known to be a truly honest person? Do you have a reputation as a liar, or do people know what you say is always going to be the truth? Is your word as good as your signature? Do you do what you say you will do?
The Bible really has a lot to say about lying. Proverbs, chapter six lists lying as one of the seven things that the Lord hates! Folks, we ought not to take lying lightly! There is no such thing as a little white lie! God is truth, and anything less than truth is wrong—it’s sin! Let me share with you seven ways the people often lie—often without even thinking about it…
#1—Through SLANDER. Slander is lying with the intention of doing harm to someone else’s reputation. Psalm 101:5 says, “Whoso privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I cut off.” The truth is that some sins are worse than others in terms of damage done. If I steal from you I can return the item. But if I spread lies about you, I may not be able to ever undo the far reaching effects! When we slander someone’s reputation, we do irreparable damage. And we’ll answer to God for it!
#2—TALEBEARING. This is the person who loves to tell things—they love to share ‘news.’ But they don’t always care if their facts are correct or not! This is gossip! It’s rumors. Don’t spread it! And try to stop others from doing it! Don’t ever repeat gossip. Make it your job, instead to remove those malignant rumors. I Timothy 5:13 says, “And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about form house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and
busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.” Next time you’re enjoying listening to someone gossip, remember this fact: Anyone who will gossip TO you, will also gossip ABOUT you!
Every church seems to have people who are always in the ‘know’…they always have the supposed ‘inside scoop.’ They are the ones who come up and say, “I thought you should know that people are saying…” First of all, I want to know who these ‘people’ are! Don’t accept anonymous criticism. If someone is unwilling to put a face on it, it stops right here! Often when people say that ‘people’ are saying, it’s just a cowardly way of saying what that person wants to say! What I want to know is why is it that it’s always the same handful of people who always hear these things? I’ll tell you why: It’s because they send off a signal that says, “I’m willing to listen to any garbage you want to drop off!” The Bible says for us to direct people to the source! If you have a problem with someone, go to them—and only them! We should never be as worried about forces from without harming the church of Jesus Christ—we should be more worried about forces within!
#3—Then there is lying by INSINUATION. In other words, you don’t say it, you just suggest it. What if I said, “Today was a good day…Pastor Kellen was sober today!” Is it true? Sure it is. But I’ve suggested something else, haven’t I?” We can assassinate someone’s character by insinuation, just like we can through gossip. Be very careful what you’re saying. Make sure you’re not saying something that you don’t want to be saying by your insinuations.
#4—There is also lying by FLATTERY. All flattery is is insincere praise! Psalm 55:21 says, “The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.” When someone starts buttering you up, remember that they are probably about to have you for lunch!
#5—HALF-TRUTHS are also a form of lying. Not telling the whole story can be a form of lying. This is why in court, you swear to not just tell the truth, but ‘the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” Guard against telling half-truths! Half the truth equals a whole lie!
#6—EXAGGERATION can also be a form of lying. It’s like the pastor who was brought before the church board for exaggerating so much. They confronted him, and he said they were right! He said, “I’ve cried a barrel of tears over it! And I promise, I’ve tried to quit a million times!” Sometimes we exaggerate without even thinking that we’re not really telling the truth. This definitely has become far too ‘acceptable’—even amongst professing Christians today!
#7—EXCUSES! Someone has said that excuses are just “dressed up lies.” That’s often pretty accurate, isn’t it? Be careful of your excuses that they aren’t just lies dressed up to make you look better!
How can we overcome lying? Well, first off, we need to love the truth! This involves a heart change for most people. A person is not a liar because they tell lies…they tell lies because they are a liar! We need an inward change—a change of the heart!
Secondly, we need to learn the truth. Phil. 4:8 says, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virture, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” In other words, saturate your mind with good things, like the Word of God. The truth sets you free!
Thirdly, we need to live the truth! Eph. 4:25 says, “Wherefore put away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor.” Be accountable to others. Be open to others stopping you when you gossip or slander. And then immediately confess and immediately correct yourself when you have succumbed to any form of lying in your life.
Let’s pray: “Father, I pray today that by the power of Your Holy Spirit, that You would do a healing work in our lives. Forgive us for our sin—and we are thinking of the sin of lying especially, today, God. Make us new—transform us! Help us to overcome the lies that bring bondage to our lives. Help us to be people of truth, God. We admit and confess today that we have lied, we have deceived. And we thank You for Your grace through which we find
forgiveness. Help us, God, to conform to the image of Your Son, Jesus. Help us to love the truth, to learn the truth and to live the truth! Amen!”
