The Land of the Liars

I call on the LORD in my distress, and he answers me.


2 Save me, O LORD, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues.



3 What will he do to you, and what more besides, O deceitful tongue?

4 He will punish you with a warrior's sharp arrows, with burning coals of the broom tree.



5 Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar!

6 Too long have I lived among those who hate peace.

7 I am a man of peace; but when I speak, they are for war. Ps 120



John Noble was an industrialist who worked in the Soviet Union during the ‘50’s. During this time, he was arrested and spent time in a Soviet prison. His book I Found God in Soviet Russia, Noble wrote about his life behind the Iron Curtain. The Soviet system, he said, had a common trademark that ran from one end to another—lies. Everyone lied all the time. The people lied to the government and the government lied to the people.

The Soviets had a constitution which guaranteed democracy, as well as freedom of speech and religion. Nobody kept it. The people in the Soviet Union officially loved their government. Inside they resented it. No freedom really existed. It was all a lie from one end to another. It was a land of Liars.

Like John Noble, the composer of Psalm 120 livedj in a faraway land. Woe to me he said that I dwell in Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar! John Noble and the Psalmist are separated by nearly three thousand years, yet they have the same observation about the land of their captivity. Both were lands of liars. Lying was the primary characteristic of both places.

The early Christians lived in another land of liars—Rome. In Rome Caesar was worshipped as a god. Everyone knew that Caesar was not God. They pretended to believe. As long as a nation was willing to pretend that Caesar was god, Rome left them alone. If the early Christians had just gone along with that fantasy, they would never have been persecuted.

What about now? What about our day? Lying is on the upswing. Story has become more important than truth. Lies are the rule rather than the exception.

Christianity has always existed in a land of liars. The lies of unbelievers should not concern us. The lies of Christians are far more dangerous.

Christians are no less liars than their non-Christian counterparts. In fact, they may be more. Rather than following the grace of the Gospel, and trusting in the forgiveness of sins, Christians have become convinced that they are more morally upright than others around them. They have interpreted their mission in life to be moral and upright. This is the root of our lies.

That statement requires some explanation. Before we explain it though, let’s talk about what lying actually is.

Lying is first of all not about facts. It is about truth. It is possible to get the facts wrong, and not be lying. If we say untruths that we actually believe, then it is a mistake, not a lie. There is no moral culpability for it. Lying is not about getting things wrong. Some people call a lie anything opinion with which they do not agree. But if lying is a wrong opinion, then we are all liars because we are all wrong somewhere.

On the other hand, we can lie and not say a single incorrect fact. I we can mislead with the truth. If the intent of the truth is to mislead. In California, a used car dealership once advertised a car having a “deleted heater.” Of course, this means it had no heater, but most people who read the ad thought otherwise. He did not tell anything that was not factual. But it was a lie, nevertheless.

Actually, a lie is anything we use to deliberately avoid the truth.

A lie can be silence. It can be a distraction. It can be misdirection. It can be a shift of blame. If I let you think that something is not my fault when it is my fault, then that is a lie as well.

By this definition of lying, we are all been guilty of lying. Christians are some of the worst liars, because we pretend to be more holy than we are. We lie to the church. We lie to the world. We lie to God. Most of all, we lie to ourselves.

Now, what’s so bad about that? Many people argue that a little lying is good for us, that it greases the gears of social discourse and make things run more smoothly. I see their point. Sometimes, it is better not to say everything we think. But any amount of lying or secrecy adds distrust to our relationships.

Three weeks ago, we discussed how God transforms the world through us. We are salt and light. We live a clear relationship with Him, and we will clearly reflect Him to others.

But having this vertical relationship with God is only half of what it means to be salt and light. We also need clear horizontal relationships with others. We were not put on this earth to transform the world into a utopia. We were put here to carry God into the world. We are only effective when we walk in the power of God. God transforms the world as we reveal His light.

But the less transparent we are, the less of God’s light can shine. If people cannot clearly see our insides, then our light is invisible. The more we open ourselves up to others. The more we give glory to God.

Why do Christians lie? Several reasons.

First, we do not think we can face the truth. We put off facing what is the case about us, like a fat man who does not want to get on a scale, or fudges his weight to make him feel better. As long as we do not face the truth, we cannot fully repent or be forgiven.

Second, we think we need to justify ourselves to God. Most of us think of God as a judge, But what kind of judge is He? Does He judge us like we judge a beauty contest? Does he choose who is going to heaven based upon our attractiveness, righteousness, or intelligence? Is there some standard which, if we fall below it, we will be condemned? Deep down, I think many Christians believe so. They think that they must be better than other for God to love them. So we are constantly pleading our case to God and to others, letting them know how good we are, how righteous, and how smart--as if any of that made a difference to our ultimate destiny

God is not that kind of judge. He is an absolute judge. No on can stand innocent before Him. No one deserves heaven. He is an absolute Judge, and in His eyes all of us deserve condemnation.

But this is only one part of God’s judgment. Our guilt only establishes our need for forgiveness. A human judge, sitting on the bench is not there just to determine who’s good or bad, or right or wrong, but what to do about it. H is there to give mercy where it is needed. But without an admission of guilt, we cannot get mercy.

Faced with an all-knowing judge, lying is useless. The only thing that helps us is to confess our sins to God, and to receive His promised love and forgiveness.

Third we lie because we think we are doing God a favor. We have told the world a lie—that if they are believers, all will get better, that believers do not sin, that they do not get angry, that they love one another with a warm and sincere love. We all know this is not true. There are Christians who hate each others. There are Christians who sin freely and without remose. All of us get angry and frustrated on occasion. We know it isn’t true, and the non-Christians around us certainly know it is not true. So why do we do it? Because we think that we need to maintain an illusion of goodness, even when there is no goodness. There is a word for this. It is niceness. We have learn to act nice, even if we are not nice. We learn to talk with civility even if we are doing rotten things.

But niceness solves nothing. It just delays conflict. Niceness does not give an opportunity for God’s love to shine through. Most of all, it makes the assumption that we know what part of our live experience God and and cannot use. God often shines brighter through our failures than through our successes. Who’s to say that an admission of our own weakness, may not be the thing that God will use to help someone else learn the grace of God. God needs us to admit our sin and our failings. Sinners reach sinners. The nice only attract the nice.

But the last and deepest reason Christians lie is because we do not believe that God matters. We are public Christians and practical atheists. We do not fear God, we fear men. If we lay ourselves open and vulnerable, then we do not think that God can protect us. We think we will be savaged by others, and that God will not be there to help.

I have a friend who was recently arrested for stealing from his church. For thirty years he was a trusted elder, well respected, but he was living a double life. Yet he continued to witness for Jesus, to attend prayer meetings, to do all those things expected of an elder in the church, even while he was stealing from it.

I do not know exactly what motivate him to start stealing, but I think I know what keep him stealing. He kept this awful secret inside him because he feared people more than he feared God. He did not worry that God knew about it. He worried that people would find out about it. God already knew. Loss of God’s blessing did not bother him, but loss of status in the community did.

Which did he fear more—God or men? God already knew, and he was already feeling God’s wrath in separation from His Spirit. His prayers rang hollow, yet this did not bother him. The only way we can do this is if our own relationship to God is already practically nonexistent. We assume that God will forgive, so we don’t talk to Him about it. We do not know how much our sins hurt him. We don’t want to know.

But letting others know our sins would bother us greatly. Yet only when our sins are exposed and out in the open that we can truly find forgiveness. We have to trust God, that He will take care of us when we allow others to see our true self.

Sunlight dis the best disinfectant. Truth is the best antidote for the creeping lies that establish themselves sin our minds. If we do not turn our lives over to Him, how will we know what it means to be clean, and know the power of God in us?

Let’s leave the lies. Let’s throw ourselves upon God’s mercy. Only then will we experience the grace that God promises through Jesus.