Introduction:
A. Who can we trust today? Truthfulness is really
suffering
today! There are very few people whom we
really feel
that we can trust what they say!
B. Why? Because in our world today truthfulness has a different meaning than it once had. Today it means: telling the honest facts at all cost "except" when it stands a chance of having negative consequences for someone, especially the one speaking.
C. So today we not only have untruth & truth, but we also have various degrees of truth in the middle! We hear some statements that are so close to truth that it is really hard to tell if someone is telling us the truth or not!
Trans.
Today, let's
look at "The Truthful Tongue" and some
of these
various degrees of truth in the middle and
see what we can
learn to help us be better Christians.
Prayer
I. First,
let's look at our new definition a little.
II.
A. "Telling the honest facts at all cost
"except" when it stands a chance of having negative
consequences for someone, especially the one speaking."
B. That one little word "except" has
really made room for
a lot of
degrees of truth. Each person now has
the
choice of when
it is alright to tell the truth or not!
1. If I tell her that I don't
like her dress, it will probably hurt her feelings, so it will be alright to
tell her I like it when I do not.
2. If I tell them the real reason that I can't come over today, they will think it isn't very important to me to come over, so I'll just tell them I'm not feeling well. I do not want to hurt them.
3. If I tell the honest truth of
what I think of this product, I won't be able to sell any of them. If I don't sell any, I will be hurting my
family who depends on me to make a good living, so in this case, surely it will
be alright to bend the truth a little.
2.
If I tell the truth about what I really think
and plan to do, I won't get elected. If I don’t lie a
little about
the other party, they might get elected! Surely, the end justifies the means!
C. If I told you one of these
pardonable untruths, and you caught me in it: the truth of what I really
thought got back to you. What would you
think of my word next time?
(Pause) Our word should mean something!
II. Now, let's look at some of these degrees of truth in the middle.
A. The
Half-truth and the Part-truth.
B.
1. Half-truth.
This is telling
someone truth mixed with
Something that
may or may not be true, leaving the impression that they are both true to the
hearer.
Example - They haven't been to church for several weeks
(truth); they must be mad at someone! (don't really know this;
it is opinion; may be false)
2. Part-truth.
Not telling the
whole story thus making it appear different than it is.
Example - Oh, on the way home, this gray hot rod crashed into me at the intersection of Park and Elm. He really tore up my car!
This is all
true; I've just
conveniently
forgotten to tell you that
I ran a red
light! That makes things
look much
different!
(Still
degrees of truth in the middle!)
B. Silence at the wrong time.
1. Sometimes we can lie by simply being silent!
2. We may know for a fact that what is being
said
about someone
is untrue, but by our being silent,
we show that we
agree that it is true!
C. Failure to distinguish between fact and
opinion.
Let's look at
our example again we used above:
They haven't
been to church for several weeks (fact); they must be mad at someone (opinion).
Failure to
distinguish between the two makes them both look like fact!
C. Using
"absolute statements" too loosely.
These aren’t “always” true! We
are using absolute statements too loosely!
D.
Examples:
1. You never talk to me anymore.
2. You're just like your mother.
3. We never go out anymore.
4. I don't have anything to wear.
5. This car always starts right. no
matter how cold it is!
6. These statements being untrue as stated mar
our reputation for being truthful.
E. Failure
to be "truthful about ourselves."
1. By justifying our prejudices, by excusing our
mistakes,
by trying to explain and justify why we have failed, and by using half-truth,
part-truth, and all the above to
do it, we make ourselves
look good. We just can't accept that we have failed, and
it comes out in the fact that we aren't truthful about ourselves.
2. We can also fail to be truthful about
ourselves
by denying the
God-given talents that God has given us!
III. I think a discussion about
being truthful must also include
the
acknowledgement there are folks like Corrie Ten Boom,
where maybe
beint untruthful is justified.
A. Corrie Ten Boom felt it was the Christian
thing to do
to
lie to protect the Jews of her day.
B. She is thought of as a hero by many.
C. So perhaps there are times when there are
ethical gray
areas,
but what can we say about Corrie’s situation?
What
is the difference?
a. She wasn’t
doing it to protect herself!
b. She wasn’t
doing it for personal gain!
c. There was
a real justice issue at stake in her situation.
This was a life and death situation!
D. We need to be careful not to use the fact that
there
are gray areas
(such as with Corrie Ten Boom) to give us the license to be untruthful in
lesser issues!
IV. Now, let's look at what the Bible says about
being truthful:
Psalm 51:6 "You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret
heart."
Prov. 12:22 "Lying lips are an abomination to the
Lord,
but those who act faithfully are his
delight."
Exo. 20:16 "You shall not bear false witness
against
your neighbor."
Eph. 4:15 "But speaking the truth in love, we must
grow up in
every way into him who is the head, into Christ,"
John 8:44 "You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not
stand in the
truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar
and the father of lies."
Rev. 21:8 "But as for the cowardly, the
faithless, the lluted, the murderers, the
fornicators,
the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars,
their place
will be in the lake that burns
with fire and
sulfur, which is the second
death." What a group to be named among!
Does it sound
like God sees different degrees of truth?
Can we agree that we get too
slack with the truth today? If
Christians are too slack with the truth, who can we trust?
Conclusion:
A. Again,
there is a lot at stake here.
1. Our
witness! If someone catches us in a lie,
they won’t think much of the God we serve!
2. Our
reputation!
3. What people think of our church!
B. Let’s call upon the power of the Holy Spirit
to help
us
with this one!
B. As
we encounter Christ at the table today, let's
examine ourselves
to see if we have been guilty of any
of the different
middle degrees of truth of which we have talked about today. Let's ask also, have we been
outright
untruthful?
D. Let's ask God to help us to be truthful at
all times
and to bring it
to our attention when we are about to
tell an untruth so that we can correct it. Let’s also ask God to help us to discern those rare occasions when an un-truth is justified!
E. If we will, we will be known as people of
truth and
will be able to
make a positive difference for God.
Prayer
of Confession
Service
of Communion
