In Peter Allison's sermon 'Satan's Offspring', the focus is on the relationship between wealth, friendship, and lying, as highlighted in Proverbs verses 4-9. The sermon emphasizes the consequences of bearing false witness, repeating that a false witness will not go unpunished. It explores different types of relationships defined as 'friends' in the Bible, revealing a distinction between temporary, superficial friendships and those with genuine affection. The speaker points out that wealth attracts insincere friends, while poverty drives people away. The sermon further discusses various forms of lying, including false testimony in court, deceitful speech, and unjust silence, emphasizing that such actions disrupt societal trust and reflect Satan's nature as the father of lies. The sermon concludes by highlighting the importance of truth, the troubled conscience resulting from lying, and the advocacy of Christ, who pleads truth for believers before God.

I like to read verses 4-9. Wealth makes many friends, but the poor is separated from his friend. A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who speaks lies will not escape. Many entreat the favor of the nobility, and every man is a friend to one who gives gifts. All the brothers of the poor hate him.

How much more do his friends go far from him? He may pursue them with words, yet they abandon him. He who gets wisdom loves his own soul. He who keeps understanding will find good. A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who speaks lies shall perish." Almighty Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word.

Please open our eyes this morning that we may behold wonderful things out of your law. And please sanctify these sinful lips to set them apart, that they may proclaim what is holy and true. And may the chaff be blown away. In Jesus' name, Amen. In Jesus' name, Amen.

This text speaks of friends and lying. At first glance it may not be obvious how these are connected. But I hope as we go through this this morning that it will become apparent to you how this section of God's Word is closely tied together. Twice it says in verses 5 and 9, almost identical verses. Within a couple of verses of each other there is almost exact repetition that a false witness will not go unpunished, And he who speaks lies will not escape.

In verse 9, the only difference is that he who speaks lies will perish. But This opens up talking about wealth and friends. We just looked at this issue of friendship a few weeks ago in the previous chapter, a man who has many friends must himself be friendly. What is not obvious as we saw is that there are different words being used for friends there. A man who has unreliable friends will come to ruin is what we saw verse 24 says more literally.

Come to ruin. And that word for friend is a word that the Bible uses to speak of many different contexts and relationships. It's used of business relationships, customers and suppliers, service providers. It's used of employers and employee relationships. It's used of the Egyptians that the Israelites were to plunder as they left the land of Egypt.

They were to borrow from their neighbor. It's used of creditors and debtors, that relationship. It's used of adulterous lovers, described by this word here as friends. It's used of those who murder the person that they kill, their neighbor. It's used in all of the laws, in the many laws throughout the Pentateuch, that speak about how we are to treat or not treat our fellow man.

It uses this word for neighbor. We're not to rise up and kill our neighbor. We're not to lie against our neighbor and so forth. It's also used generically anytime there's a reciprocal relationship. Something to doing to each other or to one another.

This word is used in that sense as well. So it is a broad word in that sense, used to describe many different types of relationships that we have with other people. And actually many of these relationships, it's describing what we're not to be doing, we're not to be taking the life or hurting the life or the lot or the name, the good name or the property and so on, of this person, this neighbor. And so, that's the word. It says a man who has friends, these types of friends, will come to ruin.

And that's the same sense in which it's used in verse 4 of our text that wealth has many friends. This is not the kind of friend in chapter 18, 24 where it says there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. The friends that wealth make are these kind of fair-weather friends. They're not really the friend that sticks closer than a brother. That word there of the friend that sticks closer than a brother is a different word.

And it refers to somebody who is truly a friend. It refers to somebody for whom there is great affection and a close bond of fellowship. Somebody who will stick closer even than a brother through sick and thin, through want and plenty, through sickness and health and so on. In fact, it's even used to refer to human lovers who are close together. But I want to start this morning looking at this verse that is repeated twice.

If God's Word says something once, we need to believe it. We need to pay attention to it. When He says something twice, then we need to pay attention twice as much to it. It is more important. It's a way of emphasis.

And of course, if the Word of God says something three times, then it's very, very important. Like, God is holy, holy, holy. Upmost importance and utmost truth. Jesus often would say, verily, verily, truly, truly. He repeated it to give emphasis to it.

And so this text repeats this same theme, this same verse twice in just a couple of verses apart, the exact same verse, that a false witness, a false witness will not go unpunished. And he who speaks lies will not escape." Or in verse 9, will perish. So what is being talked about here? What is This terrible thing that is being described, that will result in our perishing, our not escaping. Well, it is, we could say very broadly, it's something we all know, I'm sure.

It's very broadly, whatever conduct, which in any way, by word or by deed, interferes with maintaining of truth between people, or the good name of people, anything which interferes with maintaining someone's good name. And this is especially important in bearing witness in civil courts and in church courts. And so there are many things that are comprised in lying, or being a false witness, or Speaking lies. This is a very broad command. And I wanted to take a minute this morning to just go through and at least list, name, some of the things that are covered in this broad term of false witness and speaking lies.

And so, first, since it's something that's especially important in bearing witness in the courts. It is to be a one who speaks lies is to give false evidence. Because this is evil, this is wicked, this is not a little thing because it reduces the means that God has ordained for deciding right and wrong, who is guilty and who is innocent, it reduces this means that God has ordained for this, and He has ordained a very specific means, which we looked at a few weeks ago, as the Bible discussed that. It reduces it to a mockery. It mocks God.

Suborning false witnesses. So not giving the false testimony oneself, but bringing in others to give the false testimony. Arranging for false witnesses to testify. So if giving false evidence is like murder, suborning false witnesses is like hiring somebody to murder. This is exactly what Jezebel did When she wanted to get rid of Naboth, she arranged for his conviction as a blasphemer, and she did it by suborning false witnesses, telling the city officials to go out and find worthless fellows, false witnesses, people who would lie against Naboth's character and say that they heard him blaspheming.

God says, these people who do this will not escape, they will perish, knowingly appearing and pleading for an evil cause, Justifying the wicked, or seeking to have that done. This is an indictment of a vast portion of our own legal system. The goal of criminal defense lawyers is to get a not guilty verdict. That's their goal. If they don't work for that, in fact, they can be sued for not doing their job.

If they don't seek to get a not guilty verdict, even if they know that their client is guilty. Now certainly there are times When somebody who is innocent has been accused, then it is the job of them to get a not guilty verdict. But many times, the lawyers know that their client is guilty, and yet they seek to bring about a not guilty verdict. There are well known cases, very famous cases in our history, recent history even, of lawyers getting not guilty verdicts for guilty clients. That is being a false witness.

That is knowingly appearing and pleading for an evil cause. A lawyer's duty should be to see that their client has a fair trial, that the standard of justice, which is a plurality of witnesses, of truthful witnesses, are brought into the court and testify. And that the evidence is rightly handled. And that the due process, which the Bible speaks about, even in the previous chapter here in Proverbs, that due process is followed. That is the role of a Bible believing good attorney.

But our culture has turned that upside down. And it's a problem. It's a long-standing problem. So much so that when our country was first established, and I'm not talking about 1787, I'm talking about the very first constitutions in this country that first established civil government in this land in the 1740s, in the 1730s. In the Massachusetts body of liberties, it was forbidden to have an attorney or to pay for one.

You could have a... So if you were getting paid, you were not allowed to appear in court. Now, if somebody needed help in preparing his case and presenting his case, you were allowed to bring anybody to go get anybody you thought would be helpful to you. Anybody who knew, who was intelligent or who had an ability to present ideas clearly, you were allowed to bring anybody into court. That was your right.

But you were not allowed to pay somebody to do that because of the potential for abuse. So this is a whole field that was not even allowed originally. And it came about gradually. Now it's coming to the point where if you bring somebody in who doesn't have a license, then you are thrown out. Or they are thrown out of court.

It's completely upside down from what a biblical pattern of justice would require. Alright, another way of lying is out facing an overbearing of the truth. That's a stubborn and persistent and a perverse effort to oppose and to defeat what a person knows in their heart to be true. Jeremiah writes, indicting such people that they bend their tongues like bows for lies, but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, says the Lord.

And they will deceive everyone, his neighbor, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies and weary themselves." They weary themselves to commit iniquity. But Acts gives us an example of this in the life of Paul. When Paul was before the, what's called, into court by the Jews, they knew that Paul was an upstanding man, and yet they hated Paul. They despised him.

He had been one of their own. He had been more zealous than many of them in persecuting Christians and putting them in jail. And then he had been converted by the power of God. And he now was a bold and fearless witness for the gospel. And so they despised him.

They hated him. And they exhibited this stubborn, persistent, and perverse effort to oppose what they knew in their heart was true. In Acts 24 it speaks about a man, Tertullus, began to accuse Paul saying, seeing, Well, they first flattered the judge, saying that we enjoy great quietness and very worthy deeds are done by you, oh judge. We have found this man, speaking of Paul, a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. Remember these are the people that when Paul would leave one city and go to another city, they would follow him In order to tell the people there that this is a bad guy, in order to stir up any worthless people they could find in the next city against Paul.

This is exactly what it means by out facing and overbearing the truth. Passing another way of speaking lies is passing an unjust sentence. This lies against what the judge knows to be true. We had a case right here in Conroe, in the court just around the city, that made national news because of this very thing. Judges and prosecuting attorneys that insisted on prosecuting somebody who they knew to be true, who knew to be innocent, But they needed somebody to prosecute.

And they persisted in prosecuting. It was so egregious. It was such an egregious miscarriage of justice that there's actually a book written about it by somebody not even connected with Texas. It's so bad, they came to Texas to dig into it, investigate, and wrote a book about it. You can read it, it's called White Lies.

It happened right here, in this neighborhood. Passing unjust sentence. Some of the people mentioned in the book are still living today. They're around here. Another way of lying is calling evil good and good evil.

This is obliterating the distinction between right and wrong, between truth and error. This is an absolute distinction, right and wrong, truth and error. God is truth. God's Word is just. And God is good.

And Satan is evil. And God hates evildoers. And to confuse these two things, that which is good and that which is evil. And to call evil good and good evil is to attack the very character of God. Rewarding the wicked according to the work of the righteous, and the righteous according to the work of the wicked.

Proverbs 17, 15, He that justifies the wicked and he that condemns the just, even they both are an abomination to the Lord. This is again what Jezebel did in that case with Naboth. She had Naboth, who was a righteous man, condemned as a blasphemer, Rewarding the wicked according to the work of the righteous, and the righteous according to the work of the wicked. So Naboth was executed. And Ahab, a wicked ruler, was rewarded with his field, at least he thought he was.

But it was at that moment that God said to him, because you are wicked, the dogs will lick your blood. And they did. Your blood. And they did. Both he and his wife suffered unimaginable deaths.

Jezebel was dumped out of an upper window and fell down onto the ground. She was run over by a chariot by people who then went in and ate lunch, leaving her body there. When they came out and said, well, I guess we better bury her. There was nothing left but a few bones from her hands. A false witness will not escape.

Forgery. Forgery. Falsifying legal documents. Forgery. Forgery.

Falsifying legal documents. David said in Psalm 119, The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart." When Jesus came to Zacchaeus and saved him, gave him a new heart, He said, "'Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have taken anything from any man by a false accusation, if I have forged a lie against anyone, I restore him fourfold. If I have forged a lie, if I have charged anyone falsely, and taken wealth because of that, and he was a tax collector, so he assessed people taxes, and he's saying, if I assessed anyone taxes wrongly, if I forged a lie against them, then I will repay them for full." Concealing the truth or undue silence in a just cause is another form of lying. We have a duty to speak the truth and to defend the innocent.

Just like the Samaritan had a duty to pass by this person who was injured, even though he didn't know him, there he was injured on the road in front of him. He had a duty as a neighbor to care for that injured person. So we have a similar duty. We have a duty to defend the just, or to testify against the wicked. Do you see something happen that is wrong?

Do you see an accident, a hit and run? We have a duty as neighbors to defend the innocent and to testify against the wicked. In Leviticus 5 it says, And if a soul sin and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he has seen or known of it, if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity. Leviticus is saying, if we see somebody swearing and we say nothing, then we are guilty. We are guilty.

If a person sins in hearing an oath and is a witness, if he doesn't tell it, he bears his guilt. And in Deuteronomy we have a very similar instruction and warning about our duty to defend the innocent or condemn the guilty, to testify against the guilty. In Deuteronomy chapter 13, if your brother or the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom or your friend who is as your own soul secretly entices you saying, Let us go and serve other gods which you have not known either you nor your fathers, of the gods of the people which are around you, near to you or far from you, from one end of the earth or to the other, you shall not consent to him, nor listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him. But you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first against him, to put him to death, and afterward the hand of the people.

And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt." It's our duty to not be silent in a just cause, to not hide the wicked, the guilty, even if they're somebody that is known to us. So some places have their laws against harboring those who are fugitives from justice. Because it's wrong, Because we have a duty to bring these people to justice, even if they are our own blood relatives. We don't hold somebody who is guilty of a murder or of theft or of some similar thing, we don't even give a quarter to these, but we expose them. That's our duty.

And failing to do that is to not speak the truth. And Closely related to that is holding our peace when iniquity calls for either a reproof from ourselves or a complaint to others. Holding our peace when iniquity calls for a reproof." Actually Paul had in his letter to Timothy, he talks about at his first defense, how no one stood with him. No one stood with Paul. They all deserted him.

And he says this to Timothy, may the Lord not hold it against them because they were silent in a just cause. They did not defend Paul, but they were afraid for their own lives. They fled and Paul's prayer is may the Lord not hold that against them because it is wrong. Whoever these people were should have defended Paul in his defense. Concealing the truth or undue silence in a just cause or holding our peace when iniquity calls for a reproof or a correction or a complaint to others.

Parents have this duty especially, and elders. But as parents, we need to bring a reproof to our children when it is called for. David is faulted in the scriptures for this with respect to Adonijah. In 1 Kings when Adonijah had lifted himself up against and tried to take the throne. He exalted himself saying, I will be king.

And he prepared people to run before him. And then there's this little parenthetical thought right in the middle of this historical narrative. It says, and his father, that is David, had not rebuked him at any time saying, why have you done so? And he was very good looking. He was a handsome young man.

But David did not bring a rebuke when he deserved it. The same injunction is given against Eli. And God said to him, why have you honored your sons more than me? Why have you not rebuked your sons? Why have you not stopped them from doing this?

Because He didn't, God said, you have honored Him more than you are honoring Me. We are to be those who speak the truth, need to bring a reproof, a correction, against when it is called for and not be silent. It is easier to be silent than it is to bring a reproof. Because in order to bring a reproof properly, we have to first get the log out of our own eye. We have to first look at our own heart and evaluate our own motives before we are qualified to bring a reproof against somebody else.

And that is hard, because what if we are guilty of the same thing? Then We have to confess and we have to repent before we can go to somebody else. So it's easy, it's much easier to just ignore that and say, well, I'm not going to pay attention to it. But to do so is to not speak the truth. Leviticus 17 says, You shall not hate your brother in your heart.

You shall rebuke your neighbor and not suffer sin upon him. You're hating your neighbor. You're not looking out for His good name if you do not bring a rebuke when it is necessary, when it is called for. Doesn't this begin to bring home the truth of Psalm 119 when it says, Exceeding broad is your command. Also it's a form of lying to speak the truth unseasonably, out of turn, to speak it in an inappropriate time, or to speak the truth maliciously or to a wrong purpose.

Speak the truth maliciously or to a wrong purpose, or to pervert it to a wrong meaning, or in doubtful and equivocal expressions. Equivocal expressions mean you can take something multiple ways, and you say something hoping people take it in a different way. It might be true in one way and wrong in another way, and you say it so that you hope people take it in the wrong way. Speaking the truth out of season, it's not an appropriate time to speak the truth. Speaking the truth to a wrong end is a form of lying.

Proverbs 29 and 11 says, A fool utters all his mind, but a wise man keeps it till afterwards. A fool utters all his mind. Just Because it is true, does it mean we need to say it? A wise man can keep it. 1 Samuel 22 is an example of somebody speaking the truth maliciously to a wrong purpose.

David is fleeing for his life. Fleeing for his life and he stops at a himalek to get some food. And while he is there, one of Saul's servants sees that a himalek gave him the showbread, gave David the showbread, and also gave him a weapon. A weapon. And when Saul found out that David had fled, then he tells his servants, how come nobody is telling me these things?" And then this one servant, Doag, says, I saw the son of Jesse going to Nob, to Ahimelech, the son of Hightub, and he inquired of the Lord for him and he gave him provisions and he gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.

Why did he speak the truth there? It was true. Why did he speak it? Because he was wanting David, he was wanting to bring punishment upon, judge Saul's wrath upon the priests for doing this. He was speaking the truth, but he was speaking it maliciously.

And that's lying. Anytime we speak with an intent to deceive or an intent to harm somebody else, that's what's being condemned here. Of course, speaking an untruth, saying what's not true, is obviously an attack on God's character, because God is truth. Satan is a liar and the father of lies. Society cannot exist without the truth.

It's impossible to have any sort of commerce, it's impossible to have any business, it's impossible for anything to happen without the truth. And even among liars, there must be the truth in order for anything to happen. The very foundation of our culture is based on the truth. So to speak an Untruth is an attack on the character of God. Lying, slandering, backbiting, detracting, tail bearing, whispering, scoffing, reviling, these are all things that are contrary to what is being spoken of here.

And these are all things that fall under this statement that a false witness will not go unpunished. Rash, harsh, and partial censoring. Making a rash judgment is when there is no need for a harsh judgment. A harsh judgment is censoring beyond what is required, also misconstruing intentions, words and actions, or jumping to conclusions, assuming evil about people. About people.

Just like we read about this morning with with Hannah, Eli made an assumption that that she was drunk but she said she told him no I wasn't Paul talks about in Romans about him People attributing to him teaching that we should do evil that good may come. He says, no, not as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say let us do evil that good may come. Their damnation is just. Paul is being misrepresented, misconstrued. His words were being misconstrued, his actions were being misconstrued, and people were jumping to false conclusions.

Vainglorious boasting, thinking too highly, Thinking or speaking too highly of ourselves, but also thinking or speaking too lowly of ourselves is another form of what is talked about here. We looked at this a few weeks earlier under the topic of pride. Speaking too highly of ourselves, speaking too lowly, but it is also not speaking the truth. If we are speaking too lowly of ourselves, that is not the truth. That is not true.

And that is not humility. Denying the gifts and graces of God. Aggravating smaller faults. Why do we aggravate smaller faults? To harm someone's good name.

That falls under this commandment. Hiding, excusing, or extenuating of sins when called to a free confession. Hiding, excusing, or extenuating of sins when called to a free and full confession, unnecessary discovering of infirmities of others, falls under this command here. Receiving false rumors, receiving and countenancing evil reports, stopping our ears against a just defense. These are all forms of speaking falsely.

Paul talks in 1 Corinthians that love does not assume evil about other people. It is not wrong to always receive an evil report. Sometimes that is necessary. Evil suspicion, again what Paul talks about, assuming evil about people. When we don't have evidence to do so.

We should assume good unless we have evidence to the contrary. Envy or grieving at the deserved credit of any. Now here is where this passage connects these other verses about wealth. Wealth makes many friends but the poor is separated from his friend. Many entreat the favor of nobility, and every man is a friend who gives gifts.

All the brothers of the poor hate him. How much more do his friends go far from him? He may pursue them with words, yet they abandon him." What is this speaking about here? This is speaking about a, speaking favorably to those who are wealthy because they are wealthy. Have you ever had somebody do that?

Somebody who thought maybe you were important, you were in an important position, probably not because we had lots and lots of money, but maybe we were in a position of authority at some point or of some importance. And so, have you ever had people say very nice, flattering things about you? Fond admiration, if it will? Well that's the kinds of people that are talking about here when it says, Wealth makes many friends. These are people who gather around and they have a fond admiration.

They flatter those who have money because they have money. They are hoping that in some way it will benefit themselves. People don't gather around those who are needy, people don't gather around those who have nothing that way. The Bible says the poor doesn't have friends and that friends flee from a poor person. The poor are separated from his friends.

These are friends who are lying friends. They're speaking, they have a fond admiration because somebody has money, or because you're in a position of power, and they hope to be able to win your favor. And so they say things, not in sincerity. Money talks. Money brings power from people who are false witnesses.

It's a good warning. It's a good caution to keep in mind, a good warning, just because somebody says nice things about us. Because You need to ask, am I in some position of authority? Do I have something that they want? And then be careful, be careful of what people are being said.

I remember very clearly one time I had given a lengthy conference, an all-day conference, and afterwards somebody came up and was asking about, well, what books should he read to study more about this? And I was thinking, wow, Wow, that must have really affected him. But I learned later, no, he was just saying that because of the position that I was in at that time. Or we thought I was in. Be careful.

Be careful of fond admiration, of flattering. These are the kinds of friends that are spoken of here. Wealth makes many friends, but power as well can have the same type of influence on people, resulting in flattering and fond admiration. Now As soon as your power, status, or wealth is gone, then you find out who your real friends are. The ones who stick closer than a brother.

There is certainly the downside of poverty. Poverty is a trial, it's a difficulty, it's a burden. When you don't have enough money to provide for your basic needs, That can be a very difficult burden. But wealth can also be a difficult thing. Because one, you don't know who your friends are.

But also it can lead to looking down, contempt for those who don't have what we have, envying, or scornful contempt of people. And that is one of the sins that is listed. By the way, all of these statements, many of them, have simply come out of the Westminster Larger Catechism on the question of what is forbidden in the Ninth Commandment. You can go there and read all these things that we've been talking about. But scornful contempt, rejecting people based on external circumstances, such as the color of one's skin, or this condition of one's home, or the amount of money, or the type of dress people have, and so on.

These things that go with being poor, can cause those who are above that, or think themselves above that, to look down with contempt. Now it works the other way. Those who are poor can also be envious and grieve at the good of others. They can be envious of the wealth that others have. And this also is one of the sins that is spoken of, addressed in the Ninth Commandment, speaking lies.

We see then that what looks to be two totally unrelated things, those speaking lies, false witnesses, and wealth making many friends and the poor being separated from friends, and many entreating the favor of nobility, and every man is a friend to one who gives gifts, we see these things are coming together in that these things are often true. Everyone is a friend to those who give gifts. Many entreat the favor of nobility. They're speaking of power and authority. Causes people to entreat their favor.

But the reality is they are not speaking what is true. They are false witnesses. They are flattering. They are showing fond admiration. And these things are what God's Word condemns.

Lies are never good. It is never right to lie. If you want to know how to handle those cases like Rahab and the midwives and so on, I recommend just going back to a sermon earlier dealing with just and unjust concealment of the truth. But this morning Our purpose is to clearly state what God's Word says, that those who speak lies will not go unpunished. It is always wrong to lie in all of its many forms.

It is always wrong. Because God is truth. Satan is a liar and the father of lies. And it can never be right to partake in what the father of lies does. Now, Some people say that lies are good, that some lies are okay.

In fact, there is one article I was reading that said that some lies, they would call them pro-social lies, lies that are spoken supposedly with the intent to help other people, they would say they foster relationships, build trust, create social networks, and make people more creative. And so therefore there is a class of lies that we might consider good lies. Is that true? Well, not according to God's Word. According to God's Word, liars, those who do not speak the truth, will not go unpunished, they will perish.

And those who speak lies are speaking as Satan, because he is a liar and the father of lies. There are many such lies that people consider to be good. The Bible says they are not. Santa, the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny. How are you feeling?

These things are lies that some parents tell their children. And they destroy the trust between somebody who is speaking the truth, somebody whom they should be able to rely upon to give them what is accurate, what is right. And they're giving them what isn't right. They're giving them a lie. No, it's a nice sounding lie.

That money under your pillow came from the tooth fairy. Those presents under the tree came from Santa Claus. They're lies. And what happens when our children hear those things is then they say, well, they're telling me that I'm a sinner. Is that like Santa too?

Is that really true? You see, we destroy our credibility as parents or whoever is telling the lie. When a severe disaster has struck, telling a child, everything will be okay, when we don't know that. It is better to tell them, we don't know, but God does. And we know that God is good, and that God will never leave us nor forsake us.

And to give them the comfort of the Word of God, and not a lie that says everything will be okay. You'll be alright when we don't know that. Some lies are motivated by compassion, wanting people to feel good about themselves. And so we tell them a lie about how good they are so that they feel good about themselves. And so we don't have to say something that might be hard to say.

That doesn't help people. It leads them into trouble. They go through life thinking that they're doing wonderful when they're not. In fact somebody was relating to me the story of a minister who was who was called into it by a church to be a minister of visitation, basically visiting sick people and so on in the church and go and minister to them. Somebody, but he was apparently very terrible at it.

And finally somebody said, you know, you're terrible at this. You're just terrible. You know what the response was? Well, thank you. Nobody ever told me that.

And he was able to go find something that he could do because somebody was willing to tell him an uncomfortable truth and help him. And it resulted in a blessing to everybody. Praising people for doing things, for being better than they really are, can lead them to attempting to do things they're not qualified or able to do because everybody's praised them about how good they are. Now, there is no room for any so-called good lie or pro-social lie. But, not everything that people call a lie is a lie.

Remember, it's the fool that speaks everything that is in his heart. And if somebody asks you how you're doing and you say, fine, even though you have a splitting headache, but you're fine because you know that this too is a day that the Lord has made, and you're rejoicing in this day in the Lord, and you're counting this trial a joy, knowing that such trials produce patience, and you're reflecting on the fact that God chastens those whom He loves, And you see that you are doing fine despite that challenge at one level. And you don't have to go into all of the greater detail about how you are not doing so fine because that truth may not necessarily be relevant in the context of that relationship and that conversation. And so if you truly are fine because you are rejoicing that day in the Lord, because you are counting the trial a joy, then you are indeed fine and it's not wrong to say simply fine to somebody who asks how you're doing, if the context doesn't require more. Now, but if it's a close connection, and it's a closer friendship, and that person is owed more because you have a closer relationship, then you should be, we should be telling those closer friendships more about what is going on within us.

Or a child. Have you ever had a three-year-old, your child or somebody else's, come to you with what looks like a piece of paper that was a drop cloth in some painting class for the Stability Challenged. They present it to you as their work. What do you say? Good job!

When you look at it and you are not even sure what it is they're trying to draw, it looks like chicken scratch, right? Paint just fell on the page. Is that a lie? Well, not necessarily, because for their ability, for their gifts, what they are able to do, that was a good job. They did that to the best of their ability and so that makes it a good job And it's not a lie to give that kind of encouragement when somebody has done the best that they can when it is their best work There is a place for saying good job to that little child or to somebody else who has done the best that they can.

When it is their best work, there is a place for saying good job to that little child or to somebody else who has done the best that they can. Now we have to put that into the greater context as well. But often those forms of encouragement will help that child or that person to persevere and to continue working and to get better and better at doing that. So those sorts of comments are not lies, and they're not deceptions, and we shouldn't put them under the category of pro-social lies. If some lies are okay Lies, according to the Word of God, brothers and sisters, are always wrong.

They are always sin. And our tongue, the Bible says, is a world of iniquity. It is very easy to sin with our tongue. There is a consequence for lying. The liars do not escape.

They will perish. The consequence is, first, our conscience is troubled. Our Conscience becomes troubled. In fact, how do I know this? The very essence of a lie detector test is built upon the fact that somebody's conscience is troubled by telling lies.

And it results in physiological symptoms that change the resistivity of your skin. Your conscience is troubled by a lie so much so that you can measure it By measuring the resistance of your skin Your heart beats faster it changes And that's the basic principle of a lie detector. It's measuring those physiological changes in someone's heart as a result of telling a lie. It's because your conscience is troubled. Secondly, people will no longer believe a person who lies.

So you lose. Nobody accepts what you're saying, doubts you. But thirdly, this brings God's wrath as well. God is truth. His Word is truth.

And we are to speak and to think God's thoughts after Him. Christ is our advocate. Christ is now at the right hand of God the Father, pleading the truth about us before the throne of grace, before God the Father. Satan is there accusing us as liars, Just like he was there accusing Job. He made an accusation against Job that was, well Job is one of these fair weather friends.

Job only is saying the truth about you because you've blessed him so richly. That's why It's a fond admiration. If you take away those blessings, then He will curse you. And God proved Him wrong. Christ is our advocate.

Christ is even now at the right hand of God the Father, pleading the truth about us that we are His people. We are those whom He has purchased, we are those in whom His Spirit lives, we are those who have been washed with His blood, we are those for whom He has died, we are those whom He loves, and we are righteous in His sight because of Christ's righteousness. Christ is now, even now, pleading this truth, speaking this of you, If you are in Christ, speaking that before the Father in that courtroom, thank the Lord and praise the Lord that He has washed us, cleansed us, made us righteous, and speaks the truth about us. Let us pray. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are the truth.

Thank you that your Word is truth. We ask that you would sanctify us by your Word. That you would set us apart to be vessels who speak what is true, who love what is right, who condemn the wicked and defend the just, who speak the truth in season, who have wisdom to know what to say and what not to say, what to receive and what not to receive. Father, we ask that You would give us wisdom. We ask that Your Holy Spirit might be our light and our guide.

And that Your Word would be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Your Word that is truth, may it guide us. May we hope In your word. In Jesus' name, Amen.