309. Truth – The
death penalty for lying?
Isn’t that a little
harsh?
Throughout the Bible and the history of mankind, God has always
bestowed blessings on those who were honest. For those who were dishonest, history and the Bible shows
that they have been and are in big trouble. I don’t know of many things that God takes as seriously as
truth and honesty. His Name is
Truth. Not bearing false witness
is one of the 10 commandments.
Most people cannot appreciate the value of being honest.
In order to appreciate truth and honesty, one must peer into the
invisible world to see how things really operate.
Truth brings God
on the scene; deception brings Satan on the scene!
God has a lot to
say about the truth.
Psalm 145:18 says, “The
LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.”
Psalm 15:1-2 says, “LORD,
who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks
uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart.”
Psalm 25:10 (KJV) says,
“All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his
covenant and his testimonies.”
Psalm 33:4 (KJV) says, “For the word of the LORD is right; and all his
works are done in truth.”
Psalm 51:6 says,
“Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to
know wisdom.”
Psalm 85:10 (KJV) says,
“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each
other.”
Psalm 85:11 (KJV) says,
“Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down
from heaven.”
Psalm 91:4 says, “He
shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield, and buckler.”
Proverbs 12:19 (KJV) says,
“The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a
moment.”
Proverbs 23:23 (KJV) says,
“Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and
understanding.”
Exodus 18:21a (KJV) says,
“Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God,
men of truth…”
Exodus 34:6 (KJV) says,
“And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God,
merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.”
Joshua 24:14a (KJV) says,
“Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth.”
1 Samuel 12:24 (KJV) says,
“Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart:
for consider how great things he hath done for you.”
John 4:23 says, “But the
hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”
John 4:24 (KJV) says,
“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth.”
John 8:32 says, “And you
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
John 14:17 (Amplified
Bible) says, “…the Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot
receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and
recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly]
and will be in you.”
John 15:26 says, “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall
send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the
Father, He will testify of Me.”
John 16:13 says,
“However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will
guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but
whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”
John 17:17 says,
“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth.”
Romans 1:25 says, “…who exchanged
the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than
the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”
2 Thessalonians 2:10
says, “…among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be
saved.”
2 Thessalonians 2:12
says, “…that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in
unrighteousness.”
Revelation 22:13-15
says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and
the Last. Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may
have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the
city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers
and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.”
God makes an oath to you and me that He will not lie.
Have you ever seen someone in a courtroom raise their right hand,
put their left hand on the Bible and say, “I swear to tell the truth”? They are taking an oath that they will
not lie. They are giving the
courtroom a guarantee backed up by the Bible that they will only say the truth.
Hebrews 6:13-19 says that
Jesus, the Creator of the Universe, is standing before you right now, with His
right hand lifted in covenant oath and His left hand on Himself, swearing that
His promises to you are true and He will guarantee them with His life. He will give His life as a deposit to
you, a ransom, that if they are not true, He will be killed. That is the best type of guarantee one
could have, because Jesus cannot be killed again!
“For when God made a promise
to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,
saying, ‘Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply
you.’ And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.
Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the
immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two
immutable (fixed, unalterable) things, in which it
is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who
have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of
the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil”
(Hebrews 6:13-19).
He cannot lie! The
Blood Covenant is the guarantee!
God did this for Abraham in Genesis 15. He will do it for you.
He is not a respecter of persons.
God told Abraham that he
would become a great nation of people.
He told him that his descendants would be as the stars and as the sand,
more than he could count. The
problem was, that Abraham was childless.
His wife Sarah was barren.
How could God be making such a promise? Abraham did what I would do. He asked God how could he be sure of this.
To prove to Abraham that
He was not lying, God responded by cutting a blood covenant, the strongest type
of agreement or oath that could take place. It was more than a contract; it was an actual exchange of
lives and blood. God was to
guarantee His promise by taking an oath.
When we promise to make
our car payment to the bank, the bank says, “How do we know you will make the
payments?” And you say, “I will
give you my car (the title) as the warranty, the guarantee, the oath, so that
if my promise is no good, you can take the car.”
Well, God could find
nothing more valuable to give as a warranty than Himself, so He swore on
Himself.
How? One such covenant was defined in
Genesis 15. In the typical blood
covenant, they would cut animals in half to make a trench of blood. Then, each party could walk down the
trench in the blood signifying that he was promising his life if the promise
were to ever break. In this
arrangement God would never break His promise. But what about Abraham? He was just a man, from the race of Adam, subject to sin and
lying. And indeed, Abraham did
fail and lied several times. Did
this annul the covenant? No. Why?
God guaranteed that He
would not lie. But He also guaranteed
that if we lied, He would get the death penalty.
Genesis 15:8-12 (KJV) says,
“And he said, ‘LORD God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?’ And he said unto him, ‘Take me an
heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of
three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.’ And he took unto him
all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against
another: but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the
carcasses, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep
fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.”
Notice that Abraham did
not walk through the trench, but God put him to sleep after he had chased away
the birds of prey. A great
darkness and fear oppressed Abraham in a dream and God spoke and promised him
some additional things. After some
time, two objects passed through the bloody trench, a smoking oven and a
flaming torch. Abraham did not go
through, but God walked through on his behalf. The covenant is actually between God and God, but Abraham
gets the benefit and the blessing!
It cannot be broken if Abraham hangs on long enough.
Here are some definitions from Genesis 15 that are interesting.
The word lamp or torch means to destroy, to
perish, a burning supernatural fire, a theophany (an Old Testament appearance
of Jesus).
The phrase ‘smoking
oven’ means God’s wrath, a portable fire.
God knew that Abraham,
and you and I, would not be perfect in truth, that we would be false in some of
our ways. He also knew that this
would get us the death penalty.
So He went ahead and
died for us in advance. Now we can
connect with the blessings by being honest, truthful and meeting the other
conditions of His promises.
There are some conditions to some of His promises:
Abraham had to chase away the birds of prey. This is like Satan trying to steal the
seeds of God’s Word in Luke 8.
Deceitfulness of riches, lusts for things, unbelief, lying, selfishness,
cares of this life all come to steal the promise and the seed of God’s Word. But those who have an honest heart bear
much fruit and inherit the promise.
Notice in Luke 8 it did not say those who were always perfect, but those
who were honest.
1. The first problem is that some of us cannot
hear Him speak His promises because we are not living in truth. In order to pick up
God’s frequencies we must tune into the station called TRUTH. God is always broadcasting on this
station, but we must be in truth in order to pick up His Words.
2. The next problem is that we don’t trust Him
long enough to inherit His promises even if we do hear Him speak. Hebrews 6:15 says, “And
so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.”
If God cannot lie, then can you believe this one?
If you can believe that your sin is removed, then you are in line
for a blessing. Curses come on
sin; blessings come on the righteous.
If you can believe this and walk in truth, you will be blessed.
1 John 1:5-10 says, “This
is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is
light (truth) and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have
fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the
light (truth) as He is in the light (truth), we have fellowship
with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all
sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive (forgive means to cut
away and remove them from us as if we never had them at all, this includes
lying) us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that
we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
1 John 2:1-4 says, “My little children,
these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is
the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says,
‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
Revelation 21:8 (KJV) 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.”
I am
not saying that one lie will get you into Hell, but any kind of untruth or lie
will bring some sort of hell on you.