“Jesus, the Truth” (Exo 20:16; Acts 5:1-11) - The 10 Commandments for Today IX –

“Jesus, the Truth” (Exo 20:16; Acts 5:1-11)

- The 10 Commandments for Today IX –

“You Shall Not Lie”

Whenever I read the ninth commandment, one incident comes to my mind. That day I told a lie to my parents. I forgot exactly what it was, but it was a big lie. My father was very angry and was about to give me the cane on the calves. So I hid behind my mother. And I thought, ‘Now I am safe.’ Do you know what happened next? My mother got the cane instead of me. She volunteered, and my father gave her the cane. I was shocked. That day I learned that to tell a lie is a serious sin.

Father of All Lies

At Sinai, God said to his people, “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” This commandment is not just about the false testimony that people give in court, but also about any kind of lying. There are many different ways to lie. Sometimes we tell the half-truths. We keep silent when we have to tell the truth. We exaggerate our accomplishments and profiles. According to a survey of nearly three million job applicants, about 50 percent of American resumes contain one or more falsehoods. We mislead, misquote, and misinterpret. Intentionally and unintentionally we quarrel, slander, and gossip. These sins of speech all violate the ninth commandment because words are used to harm our brothers and sisters. Lying is a serious sin, and this sin comes from Satan. Jesus called Satan “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Probably, you remember the story of Adam and Eve. God made man and woman and put them in the garden to take care of it. He told them to eat freely from any tree in the garden, except one – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God said, “When you eat of it you will surely die.” It was the one and only covenant between God and man, between the Creator and the creation. God put this tree to give Adam and Eve a choice to obey him or disobey him. But one day Satan approached Eve and said, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” He distorted God’s character from loving and caring father to controlling and strict figure. And then, he said, “You will not surely die… You will be like God.” Adam and Eve were deceived and chose to disobey God. And immediately they did experience spiritual death, spiritual separation from God.

Ananias and Sapphira

Satan continues to pour into people’s heart the poison of deception. In the early church Christians shared everything they had. They cared for one another’s practical needs. One time, Joseph, called Barnabas, sold his property and gave it all back to God. It was a public gesture of total commitment to Christ. It was such a generous gift that the church acknowledged him. Ananias and Sapphria saw this. And they did the same thing to enhance their reputation in the church. On the surface, both sold a property. Both brought the proceeds. Both committed it to their disposal. The difference was that Barnabas brought all the sale money, while Ananias and Sapphira brought only a proportion. Yes, Ananias and Sapphira had the right to use their property any way they wanted. They were not required to sell their field. They were not obligated to give all their money to God. But in the context, we have to assume that before the sale they publicly made some kind of pledge to give the church the total amount raised. But they lied. The Bible says that Ananias kept back part of the money for himself. Here Luke chooses the verb nosphizomai, which means to ‘misappropriate.’ The same word was used in LXX (Septuagint, Greek Old Testament) of Achan’s theft. Ananias and Sapphira said and acted like they had done something totally for God, but in fact, they kept back for themselves and brought only a part of it. It was a sin of deception. Peter told Ananais where his sin came from. He said, “Ananais, why have you let Satan fill your heart?” (Acts 5:3 NLT) Ananais’s sin was not just from his own mind, but it actually came from a heart infected by the poison of Satan’s deception. Satan is the one who filled Ananais’s heart with lies. Every lie comes from the devil himself.

We all know what happened next. Both Ananias and Sapphira fell down and died. You may wonder why God’s punishment was so severe. Was it really fair for God to do that? The answer is yes. It was fair. It was fair because lying is a deadly sin. By this judgment God showed what he thinks about deception. The Bible says that every liar deserves to die and to suffer God’s eternal wrath against sin (ex. Rev 22:15). After this incident, every believer in the early church was scared. The Bible says great fear seized the whole church (vv. 5, 11). They were scared because they knew that they were liars too. After this incident, they realized that they too were unrighteous. They realized the real truth about them. The truth was that they were so guilty that the very Son of God had to be crucified to pay for their sins. And they were filled with the holy fear of God. Then revival came to the church. Acts 5:14 says, “More and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.”

Know the Truth

We need to have the same holy fear of God that the early church Christians had. We need to have the same sensitivity to sin, especially to the sin of Satan’s deception. We cannot be satisfied with not just telling lies. Keeping the ninth commandment means much more than not telling lies. It means telling the truth. We are called to be people of the truth because our heavenly Father is the God of truth. But if we honestly examine ourselves, we know there is no truth in us. We have the desire to do what is good, but we don’t have power. We don’t have power not to tell lies. We don’t have power to stand up for the truth (cf. Rom 7:20). But there is a way! Though there is no truth in us, Jesus is full of truth (John 1:14). Jesus is the truth (14:6). The more we know Jesus, the more we know the truth.

How do we know Jesus? Jesus is the Word – the living Word of God. The Gospel of John begins in this way: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then in verse 14 the Apostle John says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling with us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” We can know Jesus through reading his word. Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32 ESV). He also said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (5:39 ESV). After Jesus was raised from the dead, he said to his disciples, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44). The Bible is all about Jesus. All scriptures point to Christ. We know Jesus and grow in him through reading the Bible. When George Muller, one of the spiritual giants in church history, was 71 years old, he made this statement: “We should read regularly through the Scriptures, consecutively, and not pick out here and there a chapter. If we do, we remain spiritual dwarfs. I tell you so affectionately. For the first four years after my conversion I made no progress, because I neglected the Bible. But when I regularly read on through the whole with reference to my own heart and soul, I directly made progress. Then my peace and joy continued more and more. Now I have been doing this for 47 years. I have read through the whole Bible about 100 times and I always find it fresh when I begin again. Thus my peace and joy have increased more and more.” How do we know the truth? We know the truth through reading the Bible which points to Christ, full of truth.

Live the Truth

Once we know the truth, then we must live the truth by the Spirit. Jesus said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). It is not easy to live out the truth. It is a narrow path. In 1945 Romanian Communists seized power and convened a congress of all Christian leaders. Many of them came forward to praise Communism and to swear loyalty to the new regime. Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand attended this meeting. Sabina said, “Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ.” Richard warned, “If I do so, you’ll lose your husband.” She said, “I don‘t wish to have a coward as a husband.” So, Richard declared to the 4,000 delegates that their duty is to glorify God and Christ alone. His speeches were broadcast to the whole nation. After that he had to pay for this. He was brutally tortured and had to resist brainwashing constantly. He was released after eight and half years. He moved to the small country to farm for the rest of his life. One day he prayed, “Lord, make me be more like you. Make me whole.” The Holy Spirit said to him, “Then, are you able to stand up for the truth and go to solitary confinement again?” Richard said, “Please don’t tell me to go to prison again.” The Lord said, “Then, don’t ask me to make you whole.” Richard was in agony days and nights. After a few days he surrendered and said, “Lord, I will stand up for the truth and follow you at any cost.” And he experienced heavenly peace and joy. But right after that, he was rearrested by the secret police and had to endure for another six years.

We live in the last days. The biggest lie today is that there is no universal truth. Fewer and fewer people believe there is an objective standard of truth. If we resolve to live the truth, for the time being we may lose our reputation, possessions, or relationships. But if we resolve to live the truth, the Holy Spirit will give us strength, wisdom, perseverance, and everything that we need. We are called to be people of the truth in a world of same-sex marriage, sexual immorality, racism, abortion, poverty, and persecution. Let us search the Scriptures with diligence and humility to know the truth. Let us then live the truth with love and boldness. And genuine revival will come to our church, our community, and our nation. Amen.