Telling the Truth (Part 2 of 2)

Music playing But are they? Today on Truth for Life, we'll find out how the Bible addresses this common practice and learn why Jesus calls his followers to a high standard of truthfulness. Alistair Begg is teaching from the book of James. We're looking at verse 12 in chapter 5. What James is calling his readers to is three things, I think, or two things with a third, by way of emphasis. First of all, to say no to duplicity, and secondly, to say yes to integrity. Verbal integrity is what's involved here—truth-telling from the very core of our being. Remember, in Psalm 15, the psalmist asks, Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary and who may live on your holy hill? Answer, he whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart—epicenter truthfulness, core truthfulness. In contrast to the description again in the Psalms, Psalm 55, the psalmist says, My companion attacks his friends, he violates his covenant.

Listen to this. His speech is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart. His words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords.

Okay? So the divorce is between the words that are spoken and the heart from which those words proceed. And the call is a call to unconditional truthfulness.

Christian believers, by God's enabling, in obedience to God's Word, are to distance themselves from all duplicitous, deceitful use of language. The use of language, classically characterized during the discussions that surrounded the Monica Lewinsky hearings, vis-à-vis the issues of the White House. And at that point in our culture, we suddenly realized that the notions of truth and truth-telling were moving significantly from that which was based upon an understanding of objective truth. And the inference was that nothing actually, in the use of language, really means what it says and says what it means. The only way that we can determine meaning is by inference and by context and by every other thing, so that the plain meaning of issues is flushed. And the same is true in universities, where professors have fun with this kind of thing, and they tell their students, you know, that there is no real objective truth to which we can refer.

But when push comes to shove, it's silliness. None of that high-sounding, high-minded stuff works in the radiology department, works in the issues of oncology, works in the matters of air traffic control, works where people understand that that which is true needs to be defined in terms of objective truthfulness. The Pharisees were forerunners of this kind of relativism.

And Jesus is saying, and James is reinforcing it here, isn't he? Just make sure that you are known as being people of irreproachable honesty. Irreproachable honesty. So that when the Christian says, You have my word for it, everybody's able to relax.

Business associates, assistants in the office, the scientific community, children in the house, a wife, a husband—you have my word for it. We don't have to say, For heaven's sake, I told you, you have my word for it. Or in the name of Jove, I have your—no. Listen to me. Yes. No. Without clouding the issue.

Without playing any games. Where are you there? Well, it depends what you mean by there. I mean, I was sort of there, but not really there there.

Were you there? Yes. No. Did you say that? Well, I mean, say it. I mean, I don't know if I said it, but… Did you say it?

Yes. That's to be the Christian. Interestingly, coming back to the issue of the law court, the very fact that we need to make vows and say things in a court of law is a tacit acknowledgment upon the fact of so much dishonesty in everyday speech.

I mean, isn't that why they do it? They say, Now, look, fellow, you're going to come up here, and someone's life—future, business, marriage—is going to rest on what you're saying. So don't come up here with any funny business. I want you to tell me that you will tell the whole truth, nothing but the truth, God helping you.

The very fact that we do that in civil litigation is on account of the fact of so much funny business in everyday conversation. A Christian's word ought to be their bond. That's what James is saying. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Our word should be just as reliable as a signed document.

Our word should be as good to take to the bank on as if it had been signed in triplicate and witnessed by five Supreme Court judges. Is it? Are you a truth-teller from your heart? Are you an equivocator? Am I? Am I evasive?

Am I inconsistent? Do I employ language—technical language, theological language, biblical language—in such a way as to exaggerate, to make it appear as though I am something that I am not? When someone else exaggerates on my behalf, do I correct them, or do I like it so much that I just leave the lie standing out there? And what about in relationship to our spouses? Do we tell the truth? Our whole marriage bond is based on telling the truth, isn't it? I call upon these persons here present to witness that I do take you for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death parts us.

What has the girl got to go on? Your promise. Your promise.

Nothing else. That's why it's so important. It's so important with our children. I don't doubt that one of the sources of exasperation, to which Paul refers in Ephesians 6, where he says, fathers, do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord—one from both my own poor example and by observation—it is pretty obvious to me that one of the greatest points of exasperation for a teenage boy or girl is to have their mother or their father be an equivocator, so that the child never knows where they are.

Just tell me if I can do this or cannot do it. I don't want a philosophical discussion on it with various, you know, accretions and additions. Just tell me yes or no. I mean, I may disagree, I may disobey, but I would appreciate clarity. Do you know how many kids are just driven nuts by the evasive inconsistency and flowery language of their mother or their father, and they haven't got a clue what their parents are saying?

It's a very short step from that to their own manufacturing of language to suit their own ends. Well, finally, because our time is gone, the last word is gravity. Gravity. There is gravitas to this. This is a grave matter. This is not a matter that is to be dealt with in some kind of casual way—a little piece added in, just a funny little verse 12, stuck in between verse 11 and verse 13.

No. James addresses the importance of this. Look at how he begins.

Above all, my brothers, above all, what does he mean? Beyond what I've said about adultery and murder and those other things? Clearly not.

Clearly not. He's urging them to pay particular attention to this area of Christian living. He's mentioned the tongue again and again, and it would appear that his people—he understood them, he knew what his people were like—they were prone to sins of the tongue. He's warned them against grumbling, they'll be judged, he says in verse 9, and now he warns them again. And his above all, which is the opening phrase, is championed by his concluding phrase, You will be condemned. You will be condemned. It's a very sobering thought, isn't it?

All of our temptations at double meanings, or misleading affirmations, or little white lies employed to extricate ourselves from tricky situations, or to try and make our clients think that we are able to supply when we're clearly unable to supply, or we will be able to meet the deadline, or whatever it might be. We understand, don't we? And some of us must very quickly take Isaiah's words as our own. I dwell in the midst of a people. I am a man of unclean lips, and I live amongst people who also have unclean lips. Our culture is impregnated with lies. Although it is apparently based on the foundations of truth, when the foundations are destroyed, then something else will fill the gaps. And the great skill in litigation now is in trying to discover who in the world, in the midst of all of this, can we start with that is prepared for one moment to tell the truth.

And the Christian, in a culture like that, has a tremendous opportunity to stand out. Such a simple thing. I was at the funeral of a man the other day, and someone gave a eulogy and said that this man was a gentle man. And I had only met him, I think, three times, but I thought, He certainly was that. He was a gentle man.

And then I thought about what it would be like to be a gentle man, and whether I had enough time left in life to become one. Jesus was gentle and lowly in heart. Jesus told the truth. The purpose of God the Father from eternity is to make his children like Jesus—truth-tellers. When I don't tell the truth, I actually line up under the evil one. That's what Jesus says in Matthew 5, verse 37. He says, Say yes and say no, and anything beyond this comes from the evil one. All your funny business, he says, all your clever use of language, all your swearing of oaths, to make it appear that it is when it isn't or to weasel out of it when you have made an affirmation—all of that, he says, is from the devil. And you see the distinction in the Bible between truth and lies? Jesus was really clear. Remember, he says to the Pharisees on one occasion, I know you think you have Abram for your father, but if Abram was really your father, you would do what Abram did. As it is, your father is the devil, and he's a murderer from the beginning. And he is the father of lies, and when he lies, he speaks his native language. And when you or I are tempted to lie, we line up under the evil one's banner.

Quite a thought, isn't it? It's a huge warning. And it also, and finally, provides a great welcome.

Because once again, the searchlight of the Bible shines in upon our lives. It's like an MRI. I haven't had one, I'm afraid to have one, but I've seen them.

I've heard them. And, you know, you walk down the corridor, and apparently you're good. Good to go. Then they put you down there, down the tube. Then they tell you how you really are.

And you see, that's what happens when we study the Bible, because the Bible is like an MRI. I said, I'm doing pretty good. I'm pretty good. No murder this week.

No peculiar coveting of anybody's donkey. I've done pretty well on that. No, it's pretty good. How about lies? How about the third commandment? How about taking God's name in vain? Oh, well, I mean, depends what you mean by vain.

You know, I don't know if it's vain. What are you going to do when you realize that if you break the law in one point, you're a lawbreaker, and the sentence for lawbreakers is death? It's not like breaking a cup, and you have a dozen of them, so there's eleven more. To break the law of God, said Jesus, at one point is to break it in totality. It's like a chip in your windscreen.

As soon as it goes, it's gone. Your windscreen is broken. The whole windscreen's broken in one place, but it's all broken. And the law of God is broken when we tell lies. And as liars, we fall under God's condemnation.

And that's the bad news. And the reason we need that bad news is to arrest us, to show us that while we thought we were perfectly healthy and really not a bad soul, that in actual fact, under the MRI of the Scriptures, we realize that we've got all kinds of cancer inside of us that we had never realized before. And when we get the bad news, then the good news makes sense. And the good news is just this—that not only do we have in Jesus a Savior who's the way, the truth, and the life, one who has fulfilled the precepts of the law in their entirety, one who has paid the penalty of the law in the fullest extent, thereby providing for us a righteousness, not our own, that becomes ours when we are united by faith to him. So that Jesus is the one before whom we can all be completely honest. Jesus frees us from the need to tell lies. You see, if you don't think you're good enough to get into heaven, you'll have to fabricate it, won't you?

How good you think you're gonna have to be. What if the law of God condemns you as it does? Where will you turn? Well, the instinct is to hide, isn't it? To hide in our use of language.

To hide in all kinds of ways. And Jesus says, Why don't you just come out into the truth? Come out into the light of my truth and acknowledge what you are.

Acknowledge who you are. You don't need to lie to me. You can't lie to me. I'm the one who frees you from all the need ever to lie again in your life. Because he's the one who knows the worst about us and loves us just the same. There is no one else like that in the world.

No one else can take the penalty. No one else could keep the precepts. I wonder where you are in relationship to this. And a final thought. I recognize that we go back out into an environment that is completely opposed to just about everything that we've been discovering this morning. And I want just a quote to you from my files from ten years ago. Some Christians are agonizing about how to reach their friends who are relativists. Okay? No objective truth.

Everything's on a sliding scale. We're told that people today can't stomach doctrine—particularly hard, negative doctrines about sin and judgment. They want a tolerant God and tolerant churches with no demanding content. Sometimes we're told that the way to reach these folks is for the church to become relativist itself.

But that won't work. The church must reach them by first helping them face reality. This is not hard, since reality always intrudes itself.

Relativists, when caught in their own devices or facing real-life problems or driven to the point of despair, can become honest with themselves. They need to face the devastating truth of God's law. Then they can be introduced to the truth of the gospel, the grace and forgiveness that comes from the objective work of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one to whom we may come and before whom we may be completely honest. And Jesus is the one who frees us from the need to tell lies, to exaggerate, to make ourselves appear better than we are.

Well, the call is clear. A call to say no to duplicity, to say yes to integrity, to recognize the gravity of what's involved, and then to come in penitence to God and cry out to him. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life.

Alistair returned shortly to close today's program with prayer. Here at Truth for Life we hear regularly from listeners from all around the world, even from people in areas that are hostile to the gospel. They tell us what a needed source of strength and encouragement this program is.

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Now here is Alistair. Father we thank you for the truth of your word. We pray that you will help us, that you will show us ourselves and show us our Savior. Some of us have been convincing ourselves that we really had never broken your law—certainly none of the big ones. But we have told lies. I guess that makes us liars—liars who will never inherit your kingdom. We even lie to ourselves about ourselves.

And now here we find you saying, Come now and be clean, but be honest about where you are. And then be honest with others as you deal with them. Well, what we do not know, please teach us. What we do not have, please give us.

And what we are not, please make us. And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest upon and remain with all who believe, now and forevermore. Amen. Amen. I hope you have a great weekend. I hope you are able to worship with your local church this weekend. Most of us do our best to avoid suffering, but as we will hear Monday, the Bible teaches that trials can be a source of joy. Does that sound ridiculous? We will hear more on Monday. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.