Resurrection Life:Truth Telling

Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

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sermon. God Bless. Lord, thank you for your word.

Thank you for your commandments. God, I do pray

that we ask once again that we would find them

to be life, that we would find them to be something

we desire, because we see them most fully lived

in the Lord Jesus himself, who kept the law perfectly,

but also because they were given out of salvation,

out of a resurrection life, were even brought

near to you, and you desire to teach us, Lord.

And so we pray that that would be what happens

today. That the law would be something that is

more to be desired than gold that passes away.

That's sweeter to us than the honey from the

honeycomb. Something to be delighted in and treasured.

God, would now the words of my mouth and the

meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your

sight. The Lord our rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

All right, I will say that this illustration

Has Robert and Will in mind, but it's for all

of you It's in their honor December 2001 George

O 'Leary Was named the next head football coach

at Notre Dame Growing up as I did watching Rudy

I don't have to be Will or Robert to think that's

a big deal and neither do you It's the kind of

position that coaches dreams are made of Leading

one of the most history prestigious football

teams Two days later, which was actually his

first actual day on the job. He got a call He

got a call a reporter had Contacted some of the

people who had supposedly played with O 'Leary

at the University of New Hampshire He the reporter

had called them up and None of them remembered

the name George O 'Leary. Not a one. And so this

call that George O 'Leary received was from the

athletic director saying, what's going on here?

He reluctantly admitted that he didn't really

play college football. According to him, he had

a bad knee one year, mono the next, you know,

someone, something. So anyway, the reporter phones

back The next day and he actually has some documentation.

He found out what happened Years earlier earlier

O 'Leary applied for the job at Syracuse not

not the head position But a lower position coaching

job at Syracuse and he was asked about his athletic

background and it's true He actually was on one

of the state championship teams, but he thought

that's not enough. I Got a pad this I got a pad

this and so he wrote down college University,

New Hampshire lettered three years It's a small

lie, just a little amendment, right? Just something

to pad the papers, a little falsehood, a little

witness that could sway maybe his future employer.

It was that that led to one of his dreams becoming

one of his nightmares because he lost not only

his job, right, but his reputation. Here's one

of the wild things. And actually, I think what

I love about this in some ways is that it begins

to invite us into thinking that lying is so utterly

pervasive in our world. His brother in response

to this says, is anyone trying to tell me that

resumes are truthful? In the America we live

in, the willingness to lie on a resume is an

indication of how much you want the job. And

actually, He, for one, isn't lying. There's a

study done, three million different Americans.

I guess, I don't know how you do a study with

three million Americans. And they found that

50 % of the resumes contained lies. 50%. Last

night, Mumford and Sons played at Hershey Stadium.

If you're wondering, it was awesome. But this

sermon was on my mind, so there were a number

of times where I'm taking out my phone and jotting

down little notes. Okay. And because a number

of the songs that Marcus Mumford sang had to

do with truth -telling and with lies, because

he's living in the world that you and I are living

in. And also about actually the difficulty of

belief because it is the world that we are living

in. And so he's saying his song, Believe. Let

me, I'm not gonna sing some for you, okay? I

won't do any singing this morning. Let me read

it to you. I don't even know if I believe. I

don't even know if I believe. I don't even know

if I believe. everything you're trying to say

to me. Verse two says, I have the strangest feeling

your world's not all it seems, so tired of misconceiving

what else this could have been. I don't know

if I believe, I don't know if I believe, I don't

know if I believe everything you're trying to

say to me. Some people think that he's actually

speaking to God. The reality of living in a world

that is so chock full of lies actually has to

do even with just not even being able to receive

the truth because we're so used to living in

a lie. Which is say that lying is so pervasive,

so ubiquitous, so present. Which is also why

it is so present in so many other songwriters.

The Eurythmics, the Black Keys, Chuck Berry,

Depeche Mode, Elvis Costello, Elvis Presley,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I could just keep

going on. I don't know many meatloaf songs. Maybe

you do. But I know the song, I'd Lie For You,

and that's the truth. It's just every it's just

all over from football coaches to boyfriends

to meatloaf to politicians to courtrooms Where

we say hand on the Bible Tell the truth the whole

truth and nothing but the truth. So help me God

to pastors Seeking to save face to lift themselves

up to Morgan Wallen admitting that he often lies

to himself in his song. Lies, lies, lies. Y 'all

don't know that one. Well, all right. But what

all this says is that the Ten Commandments, there's

no way you can take the Ten Commandments and

just say, antique, passe, pass it off. No, at

the very least we must admit that they speak

to our world, to our lives, to our words. And

so today we come to this ninth commandment, right?

You shall not bear false witness against your

neighbor. Don't bear false witness against your

neighbor, don't lie. And the Bible is replete,

it's well -stocked with telling us how the Lord

hates lies. Let me read a few of these passages

to you, Proverbs 6, 16 to 19. There's six things

that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination

to him, which by the way is the complete number

in scripture. Hottie eyes, pride. A lying tongue.

Hands that shed innocent blood. Murder. Heart

that devises wicked plans. Sounds like something

that's conceit, maybe. Desires to take something

else from somebody else. Something from somebody

else. Feet that make haste to run to evil. A

false witness. Who breathes out lies. And one

who sows discord among brothers. Isn't that interesting?

There's this list of the things that God says,

I hate these things. These are not for the good

of the world. And there's this list, one of them

is repeated. One of them is repeated, lying.

A lying tongue, verse 17, 19, a false witness

that breathes out lies. So it shouldn't be surprising

that we find this kind of thing elsewhere. Proverbs

11 tells us a false balance. Lying in your business

dealings with others is an abomination to the

Lord. Proverbs 12 tells us lying lips are an

abomination to our Lord. So it's not just lying

with our words, but also with our practice, our

life. Psalm 101 says that he who practices deceit

will not dwell in the house of the Lord. And

if we, you know, I could keep going, but if we

just get to the end of the Bible, Revelation

21, for you who are astute, yes, there's one

more chapter, but it's near the end, okay? Liars

are among those who it says will find their place

in the lake of fire. So is it any wonder? that

we are also told that to live in light of the

resurrection, to be a resurrection people, to

be a people who have been brought from death

to life means that we are people of the truth.

And also as Ephesians chapter four verse 25 told

us, to put away falsehood. Put it away from you.

To let each one of us speak the truth with his

neighbor. And it says, for we are members of

one another. Or as James tells us, the book of

James later on in the New Testament, do not boast

and be false to the truth. Don't do that. But

so anyway, so what's clear in the Bible is that

we don't want to practice falsehood. Lying tends

towards destruction, lying in our actions, unjust

balances, lying with our words. These are not

things for resurrection people. But this morning

I wanna just pose a couple of questions, okay?

One is why do we lie? And then the other one

is why does God love truth? Okay, so why do we

lie? Why do we lie to ourselves? Why do we lie

to and about our neighbors? The first word I'm

gonna give you is malice. Part of why we lie

is malice, which is to say part of why we lie

is the intent for harm. Maybe let me put it this

way. Part of why we lie is we like to put others

down. Just something about putting somebody else

down. And I think we start here because I think

that's actually part of what's going on in the

first lie in the Bible. You come to the snake

in the garden, the snake who loves death. putting

others down. Who loves destruction? Who loves

to harm? Who loves it when marriages are a wreck?

Who loves it when teenagers aren't talking to

their parents, right? Who loves it when things

are not right? When deceit runs rampant? When

promises are empty? Serpent loves this kind of

thing. He loves destruction. And Jesus tells

us, as we heard in John chapter 8, they were

John 8 · chapter mention

of our father, the devil, when we do not stand

for the truth. We lie, we're actually of this

sort of practice of malice, harm -seeking in

the world. And Jesus actually tells us in that

passage that that is accompanied, that kind of

action is accompanied by murder, the intent to

cause harm. So one reason why we do not practice

truth is because we do not love life, actually.

One reason is out of malice. But here's my guess,

is that when I said malice, some of you started

to glaze over. You're like, that's not really

a word I use that often. It's not really something

I think I do very much. This preacher feels a

little out of touch this morning. Sure, he can

quote Morgan Wallace and Mumford Sons, but he's

using a word like malice. Whatever. But I want

you to think about this for a moment, okay? Isn't

it interesting that this command, so the last

three commands were those two words, right? We

looked at them, low blah blah blah, low blah

blah blah. There were two words, and this one

gets a little bit longer. So this is not just

don't lie, right? It's not what it says. Instead,

the command is do not bear false witness, don't

lie, against your neighbor. Which, you know,

so often we think of the commands as governing

our individual lives, right? How does this speak

to me personally? And there's actually, that's

super important. That's really true. We kind

of think of it maybe as a code of ethics for

our individual personal kind of, how do we engage

with those about us? But all of these commands

are social. All of these have to do with how

you interact with others. Honor your father and

your mother. And we talked about how that's not

just your father and mother, but it's actually

kind of the social structures of the world. Don't

murder. That's a social dynamic. Don't steal.

That's the social thing. Don't lie. It's not

just don't lie. It's don't bear false witness

against your neighbor, which means that bearing

false witness does harm. It's a malice dynamic.

It harms the world. And of course obviously when

we think of bearing witness we think of the courtroom,

right a place where justice is determined Truth

-telling has to do with the care and the fate

of your neighbor. So this is saying Truth -telling

has to do with the care of your neighbor lying

has to do with the harm of your neighbor The

good name of our neighbor is so often not honored

with our speech. And the farther away we actually

put people, the more easily we kind of harm them.

I hope not many of you are in the cesspool that

is Twitter. If you are, or maybe Facebook or

any of the other kind of things in which we engage

with people from a distance, you know how quickly

it is malice, lying. Not seeking the others well

-being rumors spreading innuendos increasing

false accusations abounding slander running rampant

Which is just to say that part of the reason

why we lie is we actually do harm the world Part

of living out of sin is living towards the harm

of the world. It's malice But I do actually think

that for the most part you're like, I don't think

I practice lying like that So give me another

reason, Peter. I have two more for you. Don't

worry. Okay. The second one, I actually think

why we lies out of pride. I think the second

reason we lie is out of pride, which is to say

that we think of ourselves more highly than we

ought to. There's a good pride that you have,

but oftentimes pride leads to sin. It's over

thinking more highly of yourself than you ought

to. And of course this goes back to the garden.

into buying into the first lie. The devil wants

to place himself as God, working against the

good creation of God towards its harm. But the

fact is that we actually do the same, right?

We say, oh, God may have said this, but you know

what? I'm gonna buy that lie and I'm gonna persist

in lies because I think I'm better. I'm gonna

elevate myself above my proper place in the world,

which is say we puff ourselves up. So often our

malice is done for the sake of ourselves because

we actually puff ourselves up by pushing others

down. Think with me, some of you will know the

story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter

five. Ananias and Sapphira have a piece of property

and they sell it. And from the proceeds of that

sale of property, which was theirs, Peter says,

was it not yours when you sold it? You could

have kept it. They go to the church leaders and

they're like, hey, we're gonna give it all to

you. Lying. And Ananias dies and then Sapphira

comes and she's like, oh, we gave it all to you.

She dies. And what Peter says is it's not just

that you have lied to man, but you've lied to

God. But why did they do that? Why would they

do that? If Peter says that all their property

was theirs and they could have given some of

it away because it was theirs to do that, why

did they just do that? Because socially, can

you imagine how we gave it all away, puffing

themselves up? How great will we look in this

community if we can just tell them we gave it

all away? Pride. They wanted others to think

well of them. O 'Leary wanted others to go, wow,

three years lettered. We should consider this

guy. And man, how often do we just want others

to think well of us? So, pride. And now I think

the third one is actually in some ways the flip

-flop of that. And the third reason I wanna say

that we lie is actually out of shame. We lie

because of shame. We lie to shield ourselves

from exposure of who we are, of what we've done.

We often don't even really like who we are, which

is why it feels like the flip -flop of pride.

We aren't often proud of actual the real accomplishments

that we have done. We actually aren't often really

proud of the gifts we've been given and who we

are. And so we lie. So we lie out of malice and

out of pride, out of shame. But if these are

some of the reasons why we lie, what I also think

is really important to look at this morning is

this reality that there's also reasons why God

loves truth, which I think commend it to us.

We can say just kind of blankly that God loves

truth because He is truth. Jesus says, I'm the

way, the truth and the life. God's the author

of truth. When he speaks, they are true words,

but because it is coming out of his character.

So one of the reasons why God loves truth and

God loves truth in us is because it's actually

a reflection of who he is. But beyond this, beyond

this sort of character of God, why does God love

truth telling? So the first thing I want to suggest

to you is that God, one of the reasons is because

God loves justice. God loves justice. This is

just replete throughout the scriptures. And again,

This is courtroom language that is used in the

Ten Commandments. We're not just called to bear

truthful witness to our neighbor because we love

our neighbor. We're not just supposed to do that

because we love our neighbor, but it's because

God actually loves your neighbor. God desires

the truth to be spoken about the people about

you, about who they are, about what they've done.

God loves your neighbor. Now I'm not gonna read

for you all of the Westminster larger catechism

as I did last week Which you were all riveted

by which is fantastic. And of course I commend

it to you again But consider this the first sentence

that it's that it's taught that that it has when

it's asking the question, what are the sins forbidden

in the ninth commandment? Listen to this. It

begins like this. It says, the sins forbidden

in the ninth commandment are all prejudicing

of the truth and the good name of our neighbors,

as well as our own. And then it says, especially

in public juridicure. They're saying there's

a special place where justice is at play, where

truth -telling must happen. We call them the

Westminster divines, the people that wrote the

Westminster Confession in larger catechism, shorter

catechism. They said there's a special place

for truth -telling because God loves justice.

He loves justice. God hates wickedness and He

loves justice. The second reason I wanna suggest

to you of why God loves truth -telling is that

because God loves life. So the fact is that when

our first parents, they bought into the lie of

the serpent and they began to perpetuate that

lie, they died. They died spiritually, but actually

right afterwards, right? We know that their progeny

died by murder. So death comes into the reality

of the world. But beyond this, they actually

die relationally with one another. Right, they're

no longer naked and unashamed We're going to

cover up they're beginning to say I'm gonna present

myself just so that you kind of like me Living

out of pride and living out of shame They're

covering themselves up and Here's the truth,

right? You all know this one lie breeds another

lie breeds another lie Lies compound and when

lies compound You have to cover yourself up more.

You have to hide more. And when you do that,

you are living into death because that is not

what you were made for. Lies kill. That's what

I'm suggesting to you. And God loves life. We

know that lives can actually quite literally

kill in the courtroom, right? They can lead towards

death. Maybe death of somebody is wrongly accused.

We know that lies kill marriages. They utterly

kill marriages. Lying on tests can not only kill

the possibility of a grade that you do deserve,

but also they can kill your knowledge and just

the reality that you can grow and learn and understand

the world better. If you're living into that

lie, you're not going to do that. Lies on a resume

like O 'Leary's. can kill a dream and make it

a nightmare. Lies kill, God loves life. So God

loves justice, God loves life. And another reason

this is related to these things, but God loves

your neighbor. God loves your neighbor. God commands

us not to bear false witness against our neighbor

because he loves your neighbor. Why? Very simply,

if we go back, your neighbor was made in his

image, just like you were. and slander and deceit

and false accusations, they are like throwing

something at the very image of God, that God

made me say good, the cut against an image bearer

of God. Many of you know who Martin Luther is,

the great 16th century German reformer. He said

that the ninth commandment requires that we put

the best construction on everything regarding

our neighbor. Meaning give your neighbor the

benefit of a doubt. Act towards their good with

your words. God loves your neighbor. Finally,

I've got a fourth reason for you. This is something

that God loves you. God loves you. God's love

is for you. See, we lie out of pride and we lie

out of shame. For one, because we do not understand

sin enough. And we don't understand the goodness

of God's creation and his creation of us enough.

Which is to say, we think of ourselves too highly

so we diminish our sin. And we think of ourselves

too low in a way, so we live out of pride. We

also live out of shame. And we diminish God's

very image in us. We don't understand our own

value. Father's, it's Father's Day. I had a lot

of different ideas of how to wrap Father's Day

into this sermon, but it was getting too long.

There's so much that this command has to do with

how we how we train our children how we talk

to our children how we love our children Think

of a couple right? I mean we're told Us fathers

are told specifically in the Bible. They were

not to provoke our children to anger right Which

is to say don't continue malice Don't treat them

in a way that's not honest When you're adjudicating

a conflict in the life of your family do so with

truth and proper justice Then justice will breed

anger But I found this basic insight so helpful

kind of in in my life And that's this that children

want to know to quit the answer to two questions

It's kind of basic one is Do you love me and

the other one is Can I do whatever I want? And

getting this right is very, very important. Because

you have to address your children always, always

with a resounding yes. The first one. I utterly

love you. There's nothing that can separate my

love from the love between me and you. Nothing.

Neither height nor depth or anything else in

all creation maybe to use. Paul's language, right?

And then the answer to the other question, can

I do whatever I want? What do you think that

answer is? No, I can't. Not good for you to get

your way all the time. It's actually very harmful

for you. But in some ways, these questions have

to do with pride and with shame, right? Our parents

in the garden believed the lie and perpetuated

the lie that they could do whatever they want.

that God might've said, hey, don't do this. And

they said, you know what? We should probably

do it. We should probably decide that we understand

what should be done in the world more than he

does. He might be a liar when he's telling us

what we should and shouldn't do. Maybe we should

be the ones that determine our life. But they

also didn't understand just how valued and how

perfectly loved they already were, right? They

were totally cared for. And of course, all that

led to the huge question about shame. The huge

question of shame is, am I loved? And what did

they do after they bought into the lie of saying,

I can do whatever I want, they hid, right? They

covered themselves up. They were no longer naked

and unashamed, but they were clothed and full

of shame. What you need to hear and what your

children need and what the world needs is an

answer to this pride. and this shame. And the

answer to our pride and our shame is addressed

in this idea that God loves truth. God loves

truth. The answer to why you cannot do just whatever

you want or that you do do whatever you want

and the answer to the idea that I am actually

not totally loved is in the God who tells truth.

Now I want you to think with me for a moment,

okay? This actually hit me after I already kind

of printed out my sermon this morning. Did it

ever strike you as weird? Let me pull this up,

okay. I actually marked it earlier. John chapter

John 18 · chapter mention

18, Jesus is before Pilate. And he's talking,

right, he's talking with Pilate. And Pilate says

to him, this is verse 37, chapter 18 of John,

he says, then Pilate said to him, so you are

a king? Jesus answered, you say that I'm king

for this purpose I was born and for this purpose

I've come into the world to bear witness to the

truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to

my voice. And then Pilate asks him a question.

What's the question that Pilate asks him? What

is truth? Did it ever strike any of you that

it's odd that Jesus doesn't say, that's a great

question. Let's talk about this. I'm the way,

the truth and the life. You know, whoever comes

to the Father, when no one comes to the Father

except through me, I mean, what an opportunity

to share the good news, Jesus. And that's the

end of their dialogue. Pilate saying, what is

truth? I want to suggest to you this morning,

you know, why do we, you know, why do we lie?

Okay, malice, but shame and pride. What about,

why is God love truth -telling? Because he ultimately,

because he loves you. But what is the, what's

really the answer in a way towards to Pilate's

question? Here's what I want to suggest to you.

It is the cross. It is. It's Jesus going to the

cross. Jesus is answering Pilate's question there

on the cross, because what is the big truth of

the world? That actually we are absolutely loved,

utterly loved, completely loved. God Himself

will die for you. That's the message of Christianity.

You know, image bearers who run away from Him,

who don't believe His Word. God goes, I will

hang on the cross for you. That's how much I

love you. What's the other part of the truth

telling? Can I do whatever I want? No, sin has

to be dealt with. And that happens also on the

cross. And the cross is like the big answer to

what's truth. God's love is utterly expansive.

How bad is your sin? Absolutely horrible beyond

your imagination. It is so bad that God has to

die. God himself has to take on flesh and die

for you. That's truth telling. That is the message

of Christianity that God's not shirking away,

right? And what's that doing for us, right? What

that is doing is that it is addressing our pride

in a proper way. It's bringing us low because

our sin is so bad. And it's addressing our shame.

It's lifting us up because God's love is so great.

It's so great. And it's addressed right there.

What is truth? Let me show you on the cross.

Truth is a God who gives, who loves, who dies,

who redeems. Truth is a people that are made

in the image of God, full of dignity and life

and wonder and beauty. who are running away from

God, who are deciding that they are the arbiters

of what is right and wrong in the world, who

are living into lies. And truth is that God will

love those people, forgive those people. That

is truth. Let me end with a few more words from

Marcus Mumford. So one of the last songs Melissa

and I left unfortunately quite early from what

I understand because there were some other wonderful

things that happened But I like to say that Saturday

night for me is a school night And if I stay

up too late, I don't show up as I ought to for

you So any one of the last songs that we heard

Them saying with their song here that he sings

on the recording with Chris Stapleton And some

of the lyrics, let me read some of them for you.

He says, here's my final serenade. That's how

it begins. Here's my gun. Here's my blade. Here's

a picture that I saved for too long. Here's my

credit card and my keys. And the reason I won't

find peace. He's just laying it all out. Here's

all the stuff that I used to defend myself. Here's

the stuff I used to harm other people. Here's

the thing that I used to buy so that I look good,

whatever, right? Here's all these reasons I won't

find peace and Then here's the course it says

here. Well, here's my pride and here's my shame

Here's the trophy that bears my name like the

pride thing Here's all the mistakes. I made the

shame stuff for too long Here's the answer. I

never give here's the calls. I should have made

here's the substances I crave the ways that we

try to hide our pride in our shame, right? all

along He says, here it is. Here's my pride and

here's my shame. Brothers, sisters, be truth

tellers. And go to the cross and say, here it

is. Here's my pride and here's my shame. God,

would you speak your truth over me? Will you

tell me again how much I am loved? How great

a sinner I am? How much I run from you? How much

I believe the serpent flies? And would you speak

your truth, Lord, over me? And would we be truth

tellers? Amen. Amen. God, thank you for your

commands. Would we hide them in our hearts that

we would not sin against you? And would we love

your ways? Would we be people of the truth and

not people of the lie? Would we be honest with

our sin? Would we be honest with how destructive

it is against our neighbor, against ourselves?

And then also as we lay it before you, would

we receive your love? That we would see you as

the God who who loves justice, the cross where

justice and mercy kiss, embrace. Would we see

you as the one who loves our neighbors, Lord,

that you died not just for us, but for those

around us, that you took our sin upon yourself

on the cross and you are remaking us with the

very image of love itself. You, Lord God, do

all this we pray for us, for our good and for

your glory. Amen. Thank you for listening to

Second City Sermons podcast. We hope this sermon

has encouraged you to worship God and to celebrate

the gospel of Jesus. Please consider subscribing

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bless.