As many of you know, I enjoy traveling. A part of my traveling experience is reading various hotel and restaurant reviews. I have here a few hotel reviews from Tripadvisor. Some are downright funny; some are simply gross:
- This place is not suitable for humans.
- Far more comfortable in a morgue!
- Free mice with every room!
- There was dirt at least 1/2″ thick in the bathtub which was filled with lots of dark hair.
- Sleeping on the street would have been cleaner.
- The place had the distinct smell of wet dog.
- If you stay here you’re crazy!
- Park bench might be a better option.
- If you are looking for a hotel with chewing tobacco spit oozing down the halls and corridors; spiders actively making webs in every corner of your room; carpeting so greasy and dirty you wouldn’t want to sit your luggage down – let alone walk around barefoot…… by all means, stay at The Grand Resort.”
A creative couple actually put together a PowerPoint presentation to describe their experiences at a particular hotel in Houston, Texas. Here is the contents of one of their slides:
- Lifetime chances of dying in a bathtub: 1 in 10,455
- Chance of Earth being ejected from the solar system by the gravitational pull of a passing star: 1 in 2,200,000
- Chance of winning the UK Lottery: 1 in 13,983,816
- Chance of us returning to the … Club Houston: worse than any of those
Here is my personal favorite:
- I am writing from room 406 of the Cromwell Crown Hotel, in Kensington, west London. Last week, users of the review website TripAdvisor.com named this as the dirtiest hotel in Britain. Here’s a selection of the more repeatable comments: “What an absolute dive”; “Would rather camp in my car”; “Absolutely disgusting on every count”, “Don’t stay here — EVEN IF YOU GET PAID FOR IT.”
Sitting in room 406 in the grey light of dawn, I have one argument with the Tripadvisor verdict. I became a squalor connoisseur in my backpacking days, and I reckon this isn’t just the worst hotel in Britain. I think it might be the worst hotel in the world.
There’s no one thing that puts the Cromwell Crown out front: it’s the artful combination of every sort of awfulness that’s so impressive. Hideous, filthy carpet? It’s so dirty, it’s hard to see what’s stain and what’s pattern.
I thought I’d lie down and have a cry, but made the mistake of checking out the bedding first. Reassuringly, the sheets were clean. But they were thin. Inside its torn, grubby cover, the comforter was a cloudscape of dismaying yellowish stains, with the odd sprinkle of what could only be blood.
I decided to watch TV…. The ancient set didn’t seem to work, though, so I felt back along the wire to make sure it was plugged in properly. Bad move. As I groped under the chipped dressing table, I touched the plug — and the back cover promptly fell off, leaving the live wires exposed to my wandering fingers.
There’s nothing like a 240-volt shock to put things in perspective. As I sat, panting, on the vile floor, I realized what was happening here. This room was trying to kill me.
Just to be honest, I have learned to ignore the best reviews – I take it that the best review was written by the owner’s mother. And I also disregard the worse reviews. According to ReputationDefender, a company that moves bad reviews out of sight, “almost every single report is false and planted by a competitor or disgruntled former employee.”
The point? Some of the reviews are so bad, you simply know in your heart – you just do not want to go there – regardless. That is the way it is with lying – you just do not want to do there. In fact, let me be so bold as to say, you can’t afford to go there!
This morning I want to return to my series of messages on the Ninth Commandment. (This is the second of three messages on the topic.)
Exodus 20:16 says, “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” Other translations put this:
- New Century Version, “You must not tell lies about your neighbor.”
- The Jewish Bible, “Do not give false evidence against your neighbor.”
- The Living Bible, “You must not lie.”
Proverbs 4:24 (New Century Version) adds, “Don’t use your mouth to tell lies; don’t ever say things that are not true.”
Also, in last week’s sermon I asked the question, Why would God include this command as one of the Ten? I then gave you two of three reasons:
- Because God wants us to be like Him
- to put a control on the Tongue
This beings me to the third reason god gave us the ninth commandment: To prevent perjury in a court of law
Do the names Casey Anthony and Roger Clemens ring a bell with you? Anthony was recently acquitted of charges of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse in regard to the death of her two-year-old daughter Caylee. Even though she was found to be “not guilty”, from all accounts it still appears as if Anthony lied as did others who were important to the case.
Roger Clemens, on the other hand, is accused of lying under oath when he said that he never used performance-enhancing drugs during his 24-season baseball career. Clemens added a new word to the lexicon of the English language as he refuted the testimony of another baseball great and close friend, Andy Pettitte. Clemens said Pettitte “misremembers” an important and potentially incriminating conversation.
It seems like people think nothing anymore of lying through their teeth after putting their hand on a Bible and swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
While it doesn’t appear that perjury — “lying under oath”– is all that big a deal any-more. It is a very big deal to God. You see, God cares about justice.
As you know by now, Exodus 20 carries the Ten Commandments. Exodus chapters 21 through 23 though set forth standards of justice that cover such things as:
- personal injury claims,
- rights of private property,
- restitution to victims,
- as well as the caring for the poor, the orphaned, the widowed and the foreigner.
Again, God is concerned about such matters.
You see…
- Psalm 9:16 notes, “The LORD is known by his justice.”
- Psalm 11:7 declares, “For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice.”
- Psalm 89:14 echoes, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.”
- Isaiah 30:18 likewise confirms, “For the LORD is a God of justice.”
- Isaiah 56:1 cries, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Maintain justice and do what is right….’”
- Jeremiah 9:24 then states in part, “…I am the LORD who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the LORD.”
- Furthermore, Deuteronomy 16:18-20 commands, “Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town…, and they shall judge the people fairly. Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you.”
God knows that justice is foundational to a stable and lasting culture. Without it, society begins a slow but definite decline into tyranny.
Undoubtedly, one of the most famous as well as controversial court cases of the last fifty years has to be the 1995 murder case of OJ Simpson. Simpson was charged with murdering his former wife as well as her boyfriend. Christopher Darden, a member of the prosecution team — the largest in California history — wrote a book on the trial. The book, In Contempt, became a New York Times best seller. On the back cover Darden wrote these words, “I never got a chance, of course, to cross-examine him. And I didn’t want to anymore. I just wanted to talk to him, to make sure he knew that he hadn’t fooled all of us and that his “Dream Team” hadn’t fooled most Americans.
I wanted to tell him that there was another court that would hear his case one day, with a judge who would separately try racist cops and murderers. A court where everyone will have to account for his actions alone. A court where the only witnesses will be the eyewitnesses, Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown.”
Mr. Darden was mistaken on one point. He said that “the only witnesses will be the eyewitnesses, Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown.” There will be one additional witness there and then – Jesus Christ. You see, the book of Revelation calls Him “The faithful and true witness.” He too knows what went on that fateful night.
In the days of Moses witnesses were a big thing. People did not have the means to sort through forensic evidence. Fingerprint analysis was not known. Neither blood typing nor DNA evidence was available. There was no hair or fiber analysis, no ballistic testing, and no computer database to check bank records, purchases, travel data, cell phone records, etc. Trials depended on physical evidence such as a body, a weapon, bloody clothes, written documents, and circumstantial evidence.
But more than anything else, trials were and still are determined by the testimony of witnesses.
- Can you identify the assailant in a lineup?
- Did you hear an argument?
- Did you hear a gunshot?
- Can you describe the thief?
- Who was in the house when you arrived?
- How fast was the car traveling?
- Was there a stop sign at the intersection?
- What time did it happen?
The false testimony of a witness could have as well as can have devastating consequences. This helps explain the elaborate penalties in our criminal code against perjury and against those who attempt to buy a jury.
Realizing that witnesses are subject to false recall and an imperfect perception of reality, Moses included in the ancient Hebrew law a provision that everything needed to be established by two or more witnesses. Notice Deuteronomy 17:6, “On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death, but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.” Then Deuteronomy 19:15 adds, “One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”
Yet, even with this safeguard in place, gross miscarriages of justice still could take place. Under the law of Moses, if a witness were found to be a false witness, the punishment that would have gone to the accused would go to the false witness. There was another subtle twist here. If more than one witness testified against a person, and the crime was substantiated and the punishment pronounced, the witnesses carried out the punishment.
After the reign of King Solomon, the kingdom split in two. The northern portion was called Israel, and the southern portion was called Judah. At the time of the prophet Elijah, the king of Israel was Ahab. Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, was a scheming, manipulative worshiper of Baal.
According to Scripture, King Ahab owned a palace and grounds in Samaria, and he longed to possess the vineyard adjoining the palace grounds, which belonged to a man named Naboth. This set up a situation in which four of God’s commandments would be violated: coveting, false testimony, murder, and stealing.
Ahab tried to purchase the vineyard from Naboth, but Naboth refused because it was his family’s inheritance. Ahab was frustrated. The situation consumed the king to the point that he eventually went to bed and refused to eat. Finally, Jezebel could take her husband’s depression no more, so she concocted a scheme.
Letters went out in the king’s name to summon the elders of the land to a judicial proceeding. Naboth was the accused. Then Jezebel found “two scoundrels” who charged Naboth with cursing God and the king. On the testimony of these two false witnesses, Naboth was dragged without appeal from the city and stoned to death.
Notice now 1 Kings 21:15 (New Living Translation), “When Jezebel heard the news, she said to Ahab, “You know the vineyard Naboth wouldn’t sell you? Well, you can have it now! He’s dead!” Of course, Ahab and Jezebel did not get away with this monstrous crime. God saw to it that they both died violent deaths. Nevertheless, Naboth died because two professional liars bore false witness against him in what we would call a court of law.
Can you think of another trial in the Bible where perjury played an important role? The trial of Jesus in the New Testament. Notice Mark 14:53, 55-59 (New Living Translation) “They took Jesus to the high priest’s home where the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law had gathered. 55 Inside, the leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find evidence against Jesus, so they could put him to death. But they couldn’t find any. Many false witnesses spoke against him, but they contradicted each other.
Finally, some men stood up and gave this false testimony: “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this Temple made with human hands, and in three days I will build another, made without human hands.’” But even then they didn’t get their stories straight!” These false witnesses bore witness against the Truth.
Do you think God thought ahead in time as He gave the Ninth Commandment to when His Son, His one and only Son, would be sentenced to death due in part to the lying words of false witnesses?
The Ninth Commandment was meant to serve as a safeguard. It assured both the guilty and the innocent that they would be given a fair and honest hearing. Again, God is a God of justice.
Moving on, I now want to talk to you about ten different types of lies. I will cover one today and I hope to get through the reminding nine next week.
A FALSEHOOD
Of the ten, this is the most common type of lie.
I have here fifteen of the most common falsehoods in the English Language:
- Why no officer, I have no idea how fast I was going
- I’m 29
- This is going to hurt me more than it will hurt you
- It wasn’t me
- I’m fine
- Gee, you haven’t changed a bit
- The check is in the mail
- That really looks good on you
- One size fits all
- I’ll start my diet tomorrow
- I need 5 minutes of your time
- Money cheerfully refunded
- This offer limited to the first 100 people who call in
- It’s not the money, it’s the principle
- I was just kidding.
Dr. Charles Ford, psychiatrist as well as professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and author of Lies! Lies!! Lies!!! says that the average Joe lies seven times an hour — if you count all the times people lie to themselves.
As a rule:
- men lie more than women,
- young men lie more than older men,
- and unemployed people lie more than those with jobs.
Who do people lie to?
- 86% lie to parents,
- 75% to friends,
- 73% to siblings,
- 69% to spouses,
- 58% to best friends,
- 49% to neighbors,
- 32% to doctors,
- 21% to ministers, and
- 20% to lawyers.
One lady when asked how she knew that her husband was lying, responded by saying, “His month is moving, isn’t it?”
No doubt, many of you have a social media account. A recent survey carried in USA Today reported that of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media users,
- only 31% of respondents said they were totally honest,
- while 26% said they fib a little,
- 21% said they post “total fabrication” and
- 22% said that they “flat out lie.”
In addition:
- a 2007 Forbes.com article says people lie on their resumes regularly and that some experts even encourage it.
- Another study showed that people rampantly lie on their online dating profiles. No surprise there.
- Last Sunday night I asked my discipleship class about the accuracy of the weight they have listed on their drivers’ license. All I got by way of a response was a nervous laugh.
We have developed a tolerance for certain untruths. In fact, at times, we actually prefer to hear a so-called white lie over the harsh truth. Maybe you are acquainted with this television commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPX2cQP8uoI
If you are a husband, you know very well that when your wife asks you what Honest Abe’s wife asked him, you are in deep weeds regardless of how you answer the question.
Though the years, a number of folks have lied to me. Most do it without giving the
lie a second thought. They were lying as a matter of habit. Most of the lies that I knew were lies were not the great big gonna bust hell wide open lies. Rather they were what we might call a fib, a half-truth, nothing more than an exaggeration, or a whopper.
If the person had been a preacher, we might even say that he or she was merely “evangelistically speaking.”
I am reminded of a lie found in the Old Testament. It wasn’t a big lie and the fellow who told it was not some pathological liar. His name was Abraham and the fib is found in Genesis 12:11-13, “As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” Actually, according to Genesis 20:12, Sarai was his half-sister. I guess we could say that he was telling a half-truth. However, as we know, a half-truth is a full lie. Sarai agreed to be a partner in her husband’s deceit.
I want to now point out some of the ramifications of Abraham’s little white lie.
HE GRIEVED GOD
- All sin is an offense against the Lord – yours, mine, Abraham’s. David, after he had sinned with Bathsheba, said, “Against you and you only have I sinned and done that which is evil in your sight.”
- If you ever get to the place where you think God takes sin lightly, look back at the Cross.
HIS FAITH SEEMED TO HAVE BEEN WEAK IN THIS AREA
- Do you have some area of “weakness” in your life? Well, as strange as it sounds, lying may well have been Abraham’s weakness — really. In Genesis 20 we find the brother telling the same lie again. Verse 2 says, “And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She [is] my sister….” Can you believe it? Some people never learn.
- Be careful of what you give to the devil, he might not want to give it back.
- Think of people who use foul language. After they do it a few times, it usually becomes habitual. The same goes for any vice.
HIS NEPHEW LOT MAY WELL HAVE BEEN AWARE OF THE LIE
- Sin always seems to have a witness. Who knows what part Abraham’s compro-mise here played in Lot’s subsequent compromises in Sodom? Monkey see, monkey do.
DUE TO ABRAHAM’S SIN, PHARAOH AND HIS WHOLE HOUSEHOLD WAS AFFLICTED WITH GREAT PLAGUES
- Genesis 12:17-19, “But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. So Pharaoh summoned Abram. ‘What have you done to me?’ he said. ‘Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!’”
- Sin casts a wide net. Other people always seem to get hurt in the process. Genesis 20 also notes that King Abimelech almost died due to Abraham’s second failure. In a similar vein, David’s fling with Bathsheba resulted in the death of the child born of that evil relationship as well as the death of her husband Urriah.
- A rock tossed into a lake makes many ripples. So it is that a sin tossed into the lives of a family, a church, a workplace can cause many ripples too. Had Abra-ham known the painful consequences of his sin, he might have done things differently. But he didn’t know until it was too late. The damage had already been done.
ABRAHAM COMPROMISED HIS TESTIMONY
- This morning I am not talking to you about Abraham’s faith and goodness. I am talking to you about the fact that the brother lied. This account forever marked the fellow.
- Maybe telling a little white lie is no-big-deal to you, however, it might be a spiritual deal-breaker to the person listening.
THE UNRIGHTEOUS REBUKED THE RIGHTEOUS
- In regard to the brother’s second lie, the Bible in SLIDE 34: Genesis 20:9-10 notes, “Then Abimelech called Abraham in and said, ‘What have you done to us? How have I wronged you that you have brought such great guilt upon me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should not be done.’ And Abimelech asked Abraham, ‘What was your reason for doing this?’”
What a powerful rebuke! Isn’t it something when the world has to reprove the saint for his or her failures? The world notices when our walk does not match our talk. In 2 Samuel 12:14 (King James Version) we read, “Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme….” David’s sin of immorality even sickened the wicked!
ABRAHAM PROVIDED A TERRIBLE EXAMPLE FOR HIS SON
- Although Isaac had not been born at this time, it is interesting that the young man later commits the very same sin himself. I can’t help but wonder if the lad had not heard of his father’s failure and felt somewhat justified therefore in repeating it?
- It is so common for the sins of a parent to be acted out again and again in the lives of their children. Why not? The parents are the child’s first and most important teachers. Mom and/or dad teach the kid to talk, to walk, to not put his or her elbows on the table. The child learns many other important lessons as well simply by observing and following the example of those over him. 2 Chronicles 22:3 notes, “He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly.” Isn’t that a tragic verse? Well Abraham was Isaac’s mentor when it came to lying.
ABRAHAM’S SIN IS STILL CAUSING DEATH AND TROUBLE IN THE WORLD TODAY
- Notice Genesis 12:16, “And Abram acquired… menservants and maidservants.” One of the maidservants is thought to have been Sarah’s maid, Hagar. Genesis 16:3 adds, “So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.” The child that was conceived here was none other than Ishmael, father of the Arab race. The unrest that continues in the Middle East today between the Jews and the Arabs is directly tied to this “little white lie” that was told some 39 centuries ago!!! Think about it.
Sometimes we cannot see the full effect of a sin because we are too close to it. The ripples haven’t had time to touch all points of the shore yet. Well in the case of Abraham’s “little white lies”, we have the benefit of seeing their full impact. In retrospect, what appeared to be only ripples were in fact giant and devastating tidal waves that is still causing death and destruction yet today.
Maybe lifting a towel from a hotel room, calling in “sick” when one is as healthy as a horse, or shaving a few years off of a kid’s age while visiting the movie isn’t that big a deal. But that is only how it looks now. Give sin time and then look at its results. You may find that it was a much bigger deal that anyone would have thought. I know that Abraham would certainly agree with me.
Listen, you can almost hear the voice of God crying out – “Don’t lie.” Don’t tell big lies; don’t tell little lies. Don’t lie in court. Don’t lie in school. Don’t lie at home. Don’t lie at work. Don’t lie to those you love. Don’t lie to those who are your enemies.
A lie is a lie! Don’t lie.
No parent would approve of his or her child playing in the street, playing with guns, or playing with matches. Such actions can be dangerous; they can in fact be deadly. Lying is equally dangerous in our Heavenly Father’s point of view. He therefore cries to His children — don’t do it. Just don’t go there!”
