January 28, 2007

Cawson St. Church of Christ

Hopewell, Virginia

Mural Worthey

 

Lies, Lies, Lies !!!

 

Introduction: Text: 1 Kings 13

 

a.      Tell the story of the younger and older prophets in 1 Kings 13.  Verse 18 says, “But he (the older) lied unto him (the younger).”

b.     Abraham lied twice about Sarah being his wife.

c.      Ananias and Sapphira lied to God.  (Acts 5.)

d.      Jesus said that Satan is the father of lies.  (John 8:44.)

e.      Two of the seven things listed that God hates are about lying.  (Prov. 6:16-19.)

f.      John wrote that liars will have their part in the lake of fire and brimstone.  (Rev. 21:8.)

g.      There is a difference between lies that are told: some say things that are not true innocently, but others know that they are telling falsehoods.  One is deliberate and intentional; the other is just mistaken.  The most severe judgment will be against those who purposefully and maliciously mislead others.

h.      Lies are found in all areas of life.  It is even found in religion.

i.        Young people are most vulnerable; older people have learned to watch and be careful.  The purpose of this lesson is to give some examples of deliberate lying and to warn all of us of the dangers of telling and hearing lies.

 

Lies Against Jesus Christ

 

Our text (John 8:44) reveals that the Pharisees were liars.  In the strongest possible language, Jesus exposed their falsehoods.  He did not mince words about them.  They were corrupt people who would do anything to keep their positions of power and leadership.

 

Think about it.  If Jesus was not the Messiah, Jesus knew that he was not telling the truth.  Of all lies, this one would be the worse.  Imagine offering to people forgiveness, a new life in heaven, comfort in sorrow, but all based upon falsehood.  What cruelty; what treachery!  This would be the lie of all lies.  Furthermore, it was done purposefully, knowingly, intentionally.  Jesus did not leave any room for half-truths.  He is the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world; or He is the worse liar that ever lived.  He would, in fact, be worse than the Pharisees, scribes, and lawyers.  We must decide who is telling the truth.  It affects us today, just as it did those in the first century.

 

Here are some examples of lies told against Jesus: 1) The Jewish leaders accused Jesus of leading a rebellion against Caesar because he said that he was a king.  (John 18:37-38.)  They knew better.  It was just an argument that they knew would bring a swift judgment from the governor.  2) The soldiers and chief priests knew that the disciples did not come and steal Jesus’ body while they slept.  This was deliberate; they made it up.  (Matt. 28:11-15.)  3) At Jesus’ trials, false witnesses came and testified.  The chief priests and elders paid people to lie against Jesus.  (Matt. 26:59-62.)  They said that Jesus claimed that he was going to destroy the Jewish temple. 4) They accused Jesus of committing sins; but he never sinned.  Jesus asked them, Which of you can convince me of any sin?  (John 8:46.)  5) They accused Jesus of casting our demons by the power of the prince of demons.  They knew better.  Jesus exposed their arguments by saying, A house divided against itself cannot stand.  But even when Jesus showed the utter ridiculousness of their arguments, they continued on as if they were right.

 

The Pharisees, chief priests and scribes lied against Jesus because they were enemies of the cross, enemies of God and enemies of the truth.  (Phil. 3:18.)

 

Lies in Religions

 

It is embarrassing, but true that many lies are presented in modern religions.  Can you imagine preachers deliberately telling gullible people falsehoods??  We should not be surprised because this world is filled with lies.  One must be discerning and wise in order to recognize the truth.

 

Some might argue that we should reject all religions because of these obvious lies that are told.  This would be a grievous mistake.  If we followed that line of reasoning, we would have to reject every field of study and endeavor in the world.  We would have to reject medicine, science, politics, philosophy, history, psychology, sociology, psychiatry, etc.  There are deliberate lies told in every field because Satan and human beings are involved.

 

God told me this.  Some preachers will begin their message by saying, God told me this.  He told me to tell you this.  Preachers say such things because they know that this should gain the attention of their audience.  Obviously, if God said this, we had better listen.  They also say such because they have not studied anything from the Bible; they do not have a message from God’s Word.  They claim direct inspiration and revelation. But of all people, these preachers know that God has not told them anything.  They know that they are lying, just as the older prophet in 1 Kings 13.  See Deut. 18 for the test of a false prophet.  We should not believe every spirit.  (1 John 4:1.)

 

Recently, a well-known preacher in Virginia said that God revealed to him that the USA was going to be attacked by terrorists later this year.  He said that the message from God was not clear, but he believed that it was going to be a nuclear attack.  He then added that he had a fairly good track record over the years of making predictions.  He admitted that he misses sometimes.  But if God was really telling him such things, why would he ever make a mistake!!  He is lying and he is knows it better than we do.

 

Faked healers.  We have all seen them on television—large audiences and a preacher claiming to heal sick people.  The preacher is dressed in a white or pink suit with gold watches and diamond rings.  He calls sick people onto the stage and pushes them backwards, claiming that he has power in his hands.  The Holy Spirit smites them.  It is amazing that he claims the ability to heal, yet he needs somebody standing behind them to catch them!!

 

While Norma and I were students at IBC, we attended a healing service at a local motel in Florence, AL.  We wanted to see for ourselves such a service.  We arrived early; there were not many people present.  We went into the restaurant to eat before the service which was held in a large ballroom.  Only a few other people were dining with us.  We noticed a couple sitting not far from us.  We were surprised during the service when we saw that same couple go up to be healed.  They were healthy only a few hours before.  The preacher asked the couple if he had ever met them before; they said no.  But they were there early and had met the preacher before the service.  The whole thing was planned and staged; it was a deliberate lie!

 

Simon bewitched the people.  (Acts 8:9.)  He fooled them.  He knew that he was pretending to possess powers that he did not have.  Sinful people through the ages have claimed false powers.  Solomon wrote: “Whoso boasts himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain.”  (Prov. 25:14.)  It looks like it is going to rain, but the cloud passes away without any rain.

 

New revelations.  Think of the number of new religions that have been begun by some false teacher/prophet telling the people that God revealed to him this new information.  Examples abound throughout history: 1) Mohammad claimed that God gave him the revelations that he told and wrote in the silly book called the Koran; 2) Joseph Smith claimed to have received revelations through some pebbles that he placed in his hat.  His book was called Another Testament of Jesus Christ.  Yet Paul pronounced a curse on anyone, including angels, who taught another gospel.  (Gal. 1:6-9.); 3) Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health; 4) Charles T. Russell wrote Studies in Scripture.  He claimed that the KJV had many mistakes in translation. He claimed that he knew the Greek language, but in court when asked to read the Greek alphabet, he could not recognize one letter.  Yet, the New World Translation (1950-1960), a hundred years after Russell’s day, was made just for Jehovah’s Witnesses claiming that it is the only correct translation.

 

Lies Concerning Evolution

 

In the creation-evolution debate, many lies and falsehoods have been exposed.  Some of these are intentional, and they have been documented. Perhaps, there is no conflict as intense as the creation-evolution controversy.  This rivalry drives arguments and evidence that is ill-devised and sometimes purposefully wrong.  These falsehoods are found on both sides of the debate.

 

Haeckel’s Embryos.  In 1874, German biologist Ernest Haeckel published a series of drawings that has influenced thousands of biology students.  Haeckel was strongly influenced by Darwin’s Origin of Species, 1859.  Thus, Haeckel believed that humans evolved and that the embryo in the mother’s womb goes through stages that parallel evolution (from fish to amphibian to reptile to lower mammal).  Biology students recognize this belief by the phrase “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.” To support his idea, Haeckel, an artist, drew a series of images depicting embryos during these various stages of evolutionary development in the mother’s womb.  Evolutionists loved the artist concept presented by Haeckel.  The only problem was that the images were 100% faked.  He pictured the early stages of the embryo with gill slits; but today we know for certain that such is not true.  In that day, medical personnel did not have the modern techniques of taking pictures of the baby’s development.  Haeckel drew them.  The scientific community rebuked him for his fraudulent drawings, but they continue to be published 130 years afterwards.  Even abortionists use his drawings and writings to say that it is not wrong to abort babies because the embryo is nothing but a fish or snake at this stage.  It is not a baby until it is born, they say.  Do they know better?  Yes.  Are they deliberately promoting a falsehood on the public?  Yes.

 

The Nebraska Man.  During the Scopes Trial, 1925, in Dayton, TN, Clarence Darrow put William Jennings Bryan on the stand.  Darrow, an atheist and evolutionist, asked Bryan if he realized that in his home state of Nebraska there had lived a whole race of men a million years ago.  Bryan said that he did not realize or believe any such thing.  So Darrow brought in Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn of the American Museum of Natural History, the most respected paleontologist in America at that time.  He testified that just three years prior, 1922, evidence of a whole race of men had been discovered in Nebraska who lived there a million years ago.  Bryan was dumbfounded. 

 

This exchange in the trial was published around the world by printed page.  But when scientists investigated this so-called evidence, they found that it was discovered by a man named Harold Cooke. They also discovered that this whole race of men was based upon a single tooth.  The evidence was not teeth, or a jaw bone, or a skeleton, but one tooth!  Sometime later, they discovered in the same area a second tooth that was identical.  But this one was connected to a jaw bone and to a whole skeleton.  The skeleton was that of a pig!  Dr. Duane Gish wrote that this was a case in which “a scientist made a man out of pig and a pig made a monkey out of a scientist.”  Evolutionists had drawn an ape like man from a single tooth; but the tooth came from a pig.

In addition, the Piltdown man came from a tooth that had been filed down to resemble a human tooth.  It had been stained with salts and made to appear to be very old.  The tooth was planted so that it could be discovered.  The Piltdown man was a complete and intentional fraud.

 

The World’s Lies

 

Young people need to know that the world will tell you lies; it will purposefully deceive you and destroy you.  Solomon warned the young man about deception and lies.  The world offers happiness, but gives sorrow in its place.  It offers wealth, but gives poverty.  It offers pleasures, but gives pain.  It promises life, but gives death.  It promises freedom, but imprisons.

 

Ads tell lies.  Many ads on television are slick lies.  They promise that this pill will help you lose weight, but it doesn’t.  This insurance company will save you 50%, but it actually costs more.  The Marlboro ad falsely pictures cowboy on a horse.  He is sun-tanned, healthy and a picture of manhood.  But did you know that the Marlboro man died of a smoke-related disease?  TV commercials will not tell you that truth.  They won’t show you sick people dying of lung cancer or heart disease.

 

A carefree life.  The world says that so-called sinful deeds will not harm you.  You can live a promiscuous life and be healthy, happy and free.  They do not tell you the bare truth about aids, diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and death.  Victims of these lies can be found in every community in the country.  They fell for the lies and are now paying the penalty.  Sin is real; the wages of sin is death.  God warns us about these things because they are harmful and dangerous.  Do you want the truth about life?  You can find the truth only from God’s Word.  By His Word, you can discern and properly judge all things in this world.