Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
It's our hope that these sermons will draw you
more into the life of following God, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. Please consider coming and
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Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this
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
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
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.