Truth or Consequences

Last week I was tempted to give all of you a homework assignment to prepare for today’s sermon. It is the same assignment that had been given to one congregation some time ago. A pastor ended one Sunday morning service by instructing his people, "I would like all of you to read the 17th chapter of Mark’s Gospel before next Sunday."

The following Sunday, true to his word, he asked the congregation, "How many of you actually read the 17th chapter of Mark’s Gospel this past week?" Almost everyone in the pews raised their hands to signify they had indeed read that 17th chapter. The pastor then stunned his people by announcing, "Ladies and gentlemen, there is no 17th chapter of Mark." Then he proceeded to preach his Sunday morning sermon, which happened to be on lying.

Just like all of the others of the great commandments of God, the violation of this commandment is rampant in humanity. It is part of a human condition that has existed ever since Eve believed the lies of the serpent in the garden; it is simply sin. Each of us knows that we will be exposed to someone’s lies on a daily basis. It is incredible to think that one of the most beloved stories in our national folklore, you know, the one where George Washington tells his father he "cannot tell a lie," and it was he who cut down the cherry tree, it is incredible that the story itself is a lie because it never happened.

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. (The church leadership hears this from David before every one of our meetings!) 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.

Now I think most people believe lying is wrong, even those who are not Christians, and yet, so many people are dishonest. There are some people who cannot discern the truth or who will lie on an impulse, and they are mentally ill. But most people lie for a reason and the first thing I’d like to do this morning is talk about the reasons people are dishonest. What are the motivations for not telling the truth?

The first is malice. There are some people who will lie to do evil or harm to someone else. The story is told of a peevish old fellow who boarded a train, occupied the best seat, and then tried to reserve still another for himself by placing his luggage upon it. Just before the crowded vehicle started, a teenage boy came running up and jumped aboard. "This car is full," said the man irritably; "that seat next to me is reserved for a friend of mine who has put his bag there." The youth paid no attention but sat down saying, "All right, I’ll stay here until he comes." He placed the suitcase upon his lap while the elderly man glared at him in vain. Of course, the "friend" didn’t appear, and soon the train began to move. As it glided past the platform, the young fellow tossed the bag through the open window remarking, "Apparently your friend has missed the train. We can’t let him lose his luggage too!" With a horrified expression on his face the old gentleman began to fume and sputter. His lie had cost him his possessions and he had lied because of the malice in his heart!

The second motive for lying is fear. We all know that one; we all know of the little boy who leaves a trail of crumbs from the cookie jar and when confronted has no idea why the cookies are gone. It reminds me of the story of a young mother who encountered her son on the street when he should have been in school. When the boy finished explaining why he was not where he was supposed to be, the mother replied, "I’m not accusing you of telling a lie. I’m just saying that I have never before heard of a school that gives time off for good behavior." People will sometimes be dishonest because they fear the consequences of telling the truth.

People will also lie when they can profit by it; that is, when they have something to gain by misrepresenting the truth. A New Hampshire farmer took his horse to see the veterinarian. He complained about the horse: "One day he limps, the next day he doesn’t. What should I do?" The vet advised him, "On the day he doesn’t limp, sell him!" The counsel of the veterinarian was for the farmer to misrepresent the condition of his horse for personal gain. Have you ever encountered anyone who will do that?

Dishonesty does not always occur through the use of words; sometimes it happens through not saying anything at all. Or sometimes we can be an accomplice to another’s dishonesty by remaining silent when we should speak. Charles Stanley tells of a woman in his church who was married for only a short time when she found out her husband was a homosexual. Soon after, he left her. As Dr. Stanley talked with her, she said something he would never forget. She said, "After I was divorced, several of my friends came to me and said they knew he was gay. When I asked them why they didn’t say anything to me, they said, ‘We didn’t think it was any of our business.’" The husband had been dishonest about his life and the wife’s supposed friends perpetuated the lie by remaining silent; probably because it was the easy way out, at least for them!

And then there are those who embellish the truth, who boast or stretch the truth like a contorted piece of Silly Putty. In 1993 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.

In the Jewish Talmud it is written, "When you add to the truth, you subtract from it." You see, there are people so addicted to exaggeration they can’t tell the truth without lying. Or as one philosophical soul said, "Some folks we know don’t mean to exaggerate--they just remember big." "Remembering big" is the lie of boasting.

Certainly one of the most common reasons for not telling the truth is to avoid the pain or discomfort of being honest. I am reminded of the story of the four friends who, on a beautiful fall day, 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, "I am going to ask one question and if you all answer correctly you all will get an ‘A.’ On your paper write the answer to this one question: ‘Which tire was flat?’"

M. Scott Peck in his bestseller, The Road Less Traveled, wrote, "Truth is avoided when it is painful. We can revise our maps only when we have the discipline to overcome that pain. To have such discipline, we must be totally dedicated to truth. That is to say that we must always hold truth to be more important, more vital to our self-interest, than our comfort. Conversely, we must always consider our personal discomfort relatively unimportant and, indeed, even welcome it in the service of the search for truth."

"And what does a life of total dedication to the truth mean?" Dr. Peck lists three essentials: 1. "Continuous, and never-ending stringent self-examination." 2. "Willingness to be personally challenged." 3. "Total honesty." And none of these things comes painlessly!

Another reason people are less than truthful is closely related to the avoidance of pain and that is that some people feel a need to make excuses for their actions. I found some of these crazy excuses when doing research for this sermon:

When the Police League of Indiana sponsored a Best Speeding Alibi contest, one honorable mention award went to an exasperated father who was stopped with a load of fighting, squalling children in his backseat. He told the officer, "I was trying to get away from all the noise behind me."

George Shamblin insisted to police that he was trying to save his wife from drowning when he threw rocks at her as she struggled in the Kanawha River. "I was trying to drive her back to shore," he said.

A young man arrested for stealing a car, had the year’s most novel excuse. He’d found the automobile in front of a cemetery, he explained, and thought the owner was dead.

There’s no end to the creativity of one who is trying to excuse himself. And although I’m sure none of those people actually believed their own excuses there are people who engage in self-deception – they lie to themselves. We see this all the time in our culture as people delude themselves into thinking that they are righteous enough, moral enough, good enough to enter into God’s kingdom on their own merit. Their delusion either comes from ignorance of the truth or willful denial of the truth.

And finally, the last type of lie we find is perhaps the most ironic – it is the lie made to God. Those who lie to God mistake the god they have created for themselves – a god who can be hoodwinked and fooled – they mistake this created god for the one true God who knows all.

Now some people who have been dishonest sincerely believe that their dishonesty is for the better. For example, we have seen some are dishonest in their silence because they sincerely feel someone’s feelings will be spared. Some sincerely believe there are occasions when "little white lies" that seem to hurt no one are permissible in this relativistic culture. However, a sincerely held belief does not necessarily equal a correctly held belief.

When I was the senior pastor of a church in Cape May Court House the local funeral director told me a story about another pastor who was a friend of mine. I cannot remember that pastor name, but he was retired from full-time ministry, although he still pastored a small church on a part-time basis, and he and his wife were over eighty years old. In spite of their advanced age, this pastor and his wife still both drove a car, and I mean this literally because it took both of them to see to drive a car. The pastor had no peripheral vision, so as he looked straight ahead while he was behind the wheel his wife constantly looked from side to side advising him of what was happening on each side of the car.

Anyway, one of the members of this pastor’s church died and the service was to be officiated by the pastor at the funeral home and the burial was to take place in my church’s cemetery, about one mile straight down Route 9 from the funeral home. On the appointed day the service was held and everyone went to their cars for the committal service at graveside. The pastor and his wife did not know where my church’s cemetery was so the funeral director told them to simply follow the hearse because it was a short distance straight down the road.

The funeral procession, consisting of about 40 cars, proceeded out of the funeral home parking lot onto Route 9 with the hearse leading, and the pastor and his wife next – of course with the pastor looking straight ahead and his wife constantly scanning the view out the side windows. There is only one traffic light between the funeral home and the cemetery and the hearse is directed by the police escort to proceed straight through the light. The second car, driven by my friend, inexplicably turned left, nearly running over the traffic cop, leaving the funeral procession, the remainder of which followed the hearse. The hearse and 39 cars arrived at the cemetery; my pastor friend and his wife ended up at the ACME!

My point in telling this story is this: My friend sincerely believed that he was supposed to make a left turn, but his great sincerity did not make up for the truth that he was mistaken. All of the sincerity he could muster would not have permitted his church member to be buried in the ACME parking lot. A sincerely held belief does not necessarily equal a correctly held belief. Therefore, those who believe that their dishonesty is alright because it is for the best, OR, no on will get hurt, OR it will spare someone the pain of knowing the truth, are still deceivers and guilty of breaking God’s law.

Now we must understand that there are consequences to breaking God’s law. Just as if I try to defy laws of the physical universe, such as the law of gravity, I will be in for a fall, the same is true is I try to defy God’s spiritual laws.

One consequence to breaking the commandment against bearing false witness is that the deceiver may very well get caught. Pastor David indicating this in his radio spots this week on Christian radio highlighting this sermon topic. If we lie we run the risk of getting caught by someone else. It reminds me of the story of a woman who, coming home from work, stopped at the corner deli to buy a chicken for supper. The butcher reached into a barrel, grabbed the last chicken he had, flung it on the scales behind the counter, and told the woman its weight. She thought for a moment. "I really need a bit more chicken than that," she said. "Do you have any larger ones?"

Without a word, the butcher put the chicken back into the barrel, groped around as though finding another, pulled the same chicken out, and placed it on the scales. "This chicken weighs one pound more," he announced. The woman pondered her options and then said, "Okay. I’ll take them both." It is embarrassing to get caught in a lie.

Another consequence of dishonesty is that our humanity is degraded. Lewis Smedes wrote in his book, Mere Morality:

I read a recent report that said 74 percent of Americans will steal from those who won’t miss it, and 64 percent will lie for convenience as long as no one is hurt. Most Americans (93 percent) say they alone decide moral issues, basing their decisions on their own experience or whims. Eighty-four percent say they would break the rules of their own religion. And 81 percent have a violated a law they felt to be inappropriate. Only 30 percent say they would be willing to die for their religious beliefs or for God.

Our humanity is degraded, and what’s worse, dishonesty divides us from the Divine. Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Christ is not a truth, or merely true; but He is THE TRUTH. Any violation of God’s commandments, including this 9^th commandment, separates us from God and condemns us for all eternity.

The obvious question then is how do I avoid being dishonest and keep God’s commandment? I thought you’d never ask!

First, our hearts must be right. We must tell the truth all the time in love. Sodium is an extremely active element found naturally only in combined form; it always links itself to another element. Chlorine, on the other hand, is the poisonous gas that gives bleach its offensive odor. When sodium and chlorine are combined, the result is sodium chloride--common table salt--the substance we use to preserve meat and bring out its flavor.

Love and truth can be like sodium and chlorine. Love without truth is flighty, sometimes blind, willing to combine with various doctrines. On the other hand, truth by itself can be offensive, some times even poisonous. Spoken without love, it can turn people away from the gospel. When truth and love are combined in an individual or a church, however, then we have what Jesus called "the salt of the earth," and we’re able to preserve and bring out the beauty of our faith.

However, we must also tell the truth plainly. There is a great story about an elderly countess was very happy with her own chauffeur. He was courteous, prompt and efficient. The only complaint she had concerned his personal appearance. One day she said to him diplomatically, "Randall, how frequently do you think one should shave in order to look neat and proper?"

"Well, madam," said Randall, also trying to be diplomatic, "with a light beard like yours, I’d say every three or four days would be enough." When you tell the truth, do it in love but also that there will be no misunderstanding.

Also, convey truth in a caring way.

Another favorite story of mine is related by John Maxwell in his book, Be A People Person. In that book he tells of Mr. Myrick who had to go to Chicago on business and persuaded his brother to take care of his cat during his absence. Though he hated cats, the brother agreed. Upon his return, Myrick called from the airport to check on the cat.

"Your cat died," the brother reported, then hung up.

Myrick was inconsolable. His grief was magnified by his brother’s insensitivity, so he called again to express his pain.

"There was no need for you to be so blunt," he said.

"What was I supposed to say?" asked the perplexed brother.

"You could have broken the news gradually," explained Myrick. "You could have said, ‘The cat was playing on the roof.’ Then, later in the conversation, you could have said, ‘He fell off.’ Then you could have said, ‘He broke his leg.’ Then when I came to pick him up, you could have said, ‘I’m so sorry. You’re cat passed away during the night.’ You’ve got to learn to be more tactful. "By the way, how’s Mom?

After a long pause, the brother replied, "She’s playing on the roof."

Ephesians 4:15 reminds us to "Speak the truth in love."

However, before we can convey the truth we must know the truth. It is not enough to know of the truth, or that there is a truth, but we must have a relationship with the truth, which means a relationship with Jesus Christ. Now I caution you that you may be called intolerant because you believe in an absolute truth. Most of our society believes truth is relative and it depends upon your point of view.

The Christian sees truth as an absolute. The humanist views truth through the eye of the beholder. An attorney friend of mine was representing a client charged with bank robbery. The robber complained bitterly to my friend that he would never get a fair trial. My friend asked the robber why he felt that way and his response was, "There were too many people who saw me do it!"

There is absolute truth and the problem we have today is not that there are those who believe there are some absolutes, but that tolerance seemingly knows no bounds. Rob Bugh, in a sermon entitled, "Brokers of Truth and Love," wrote, "Tolerance is the final virtue of a decadent society. Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying we should be petty, harsh, narrow-minded evangelicals. I don’t want to be a jerk. But I am saying that to be a Christian is to believe that God has spoken in sentences that can be understood and must be obeyed. If that means I’m intolerant, so be it."

Abraham Lincoln once asked a man he was debating, "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!" The truth of a matter is not determined by how many people believe it.

We must know the truth and we do that through God’s Word which we must absorb. C.S. Lewis wrote, "A man can’t always be defending the truth; there must be a time to feed on it.

We must also understand that God knows all and sees all, including the very sinful depths of our hearts. We cannot deceive God because He knows of our attempts to deceive Him even before we formulate the deception in our minds. We cannot ever fool the Creator of the universe.