The title of the message today is, Is There a Justified Lying? Dear Father, we do pray that You help us understand Your Word. We do pray, God, in these last days that we can sort through these questions. We love You, Lord. Help us be ready at Thy appearing. In Jesus' name, Amen. The text we can begin with is Romans 3, verse 8. Paul says, and not rather, as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, let us do evil that good may come, whose damnation is just. Is it acceptable to lie in an emergency, to lie to do good, to save a life, etc.? Last week I preached on slander. Paul is saying here that he And the Christians have been slandered. They've been lied about. They were claiming something like, since Christians say that God's love and glory is shown in the forgiveness of sin, then they must be teaching that we should sin that grace may abound, therefore to glorify God by it. But Paul replies that this is a lie. He never taught that we should sin so more grace may abound to God's glory. So he sums it up as a general principle that Christians do not teach that it is right to do evil, so good may come. He says whose damnation is just, meaning anybody who says such a thing is worthy of damnation. The previous verse is even more telling in its wording. Verse 7 says, For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner? That is, if the lies, the unfaithful life of the Jews and all mankind has manifested God's love in the cross, His plan of salvation through grace, through faith, then how can it be sin at all? How can God judge sin? How can we say that sin or lying in itself is wrong? I believe it's clear here that lying to do good even if it results in an amazing amount of good, such as God getting glory, is shown by the Holy Spirit to be wrong. Not that God gets glory through your lie, but the point is, if it worked out for good somehow. Job in chapter 13, verse 7, it says, Will you speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for Him? If the result of lying could somehow bring glory to God, and that doesn't justify the action, then how much more does it not justify an evil action such as lying if somehow it does good for man? Our forefathers make this clear. Thomas Manton, who died in 1677, says, A man is not to lie for the glory of God, therefore certainly not for the good of another man. 1 John 2, verse 21 says, I have not written unto you because you know the truth, no, not the truth, but because you know it and that no lie is of the truth. Keep this all in your mind. Let's take a few moments to notice some general scriptures against lying. Job 27, my lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. Exodus 20, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Exodus 23, Thou shalt not raise a false report. Put not thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil, neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to rest judgment. Leviticus 19 says, You shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. Proverbs 6, these six things doth the Lord hate. Yea, seven are an abomination unto him, a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. These are things God hates. God hates lying. He hates when you sow discord among brethren by lying, by slanders, and that type of thing, insinuations. Proverbs 14 says, a faithful witness will not lie, but a false witness will utter lies. The aged women are warned in Titus that they be in behaviors becometh holiness, not false accusers. In Titus 1, Paul says, one of themselves, even a prophet of their own said, the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true, says Paul. Psalms 40 says, blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Some people are doing right, some people are growing, some people are maturing in Christ, and then they turn aside to lies and they end up subverted and shipwrecked. 2 Corinthians 11 says, The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed forevermore, knoweth that I lie not. Colossians 3. He says, lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds. Psalms 31, let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. There's people that believe these things. Psalms 52, thou lovest evil more than good and lying, rather than to speak righteousness, say thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue. David says in Psalms 119, remove from me the way of lying. He says in Psalms 119, 163, I hate and abhor lying. We've already seen God does as well. In fact, Proverbs 12 says, lying lips are abomination to the Lord, but they that deal truly are his delight. It's an abomination. Even the lips that are used for lying are an abomination to God. Proverbs 13, "'A righteous man hateth lying,' like God." Ephesians 4 says, "'Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be you angry and sin not.'" That is, make sure that, number one, you have a right to be mad before God or angry, but then make sure you don't lie and seek revenge out of your bitterness. Finally in Revelation 14 it says, "...and in their mouth was found no guile." No deception. We could go on and on with the Scriptures. Lying is something that is so against God, so opposed to God. All throughout the Bible it is rebuked. Now we need to say here that although all lying is sin, there are degrees of sin. and therefore degrees of lying. Of course, the amount of light that you have, as well as the motive for the lie, to some degree will determine the degree of sin, and therefore the punishment for it. But all lying is sinful, and I believe it's worse than you likely care to think. We might take a few moments now to look at judgment for liars. Psalms 101 says, he that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house. He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. The Bible says we ought not take up a reproach. We ought not be tail hearers, but we ought not be tail bearers. We ought not lie in any situation. And the Bible says that they shall not dwell within my house. Not only should this be How we respond? We ought to hate lies. We ought not have fellowship with liars and slanderers and that type of thing. But the house of God is the church, the local church. And this is also a prophecy of the judgment seat of Christ and dwelling with God in the future kingdom of reward, the prize, the high calling that Paul spoke about in Philippians 3 and 2 Timothy 2.12 and other scriptures. It affects your fellowship with God when you lie, now and later, when judgment begins at the house of God. What this means is that lying will be something that will break your fellowship with God, and a lot of people end up in lies and believing lies. And the Bible says that when people believe lies, a lot of times it's because they are liars themselves. And what we find out is that a lot of times you will not survive the local church if it's a good church. Psalm 63 says, the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped. Psalms 5 says, thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing. It's a type of lying. The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. Proverbs 12 says, the lip of truth shall be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment. It may seem like the liars are given God's patience to last longer than should be. But really, in the scheme of things, in the big picture, it's just but for a moment. Proverbs 19 says, A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish. Proverbs 21 says, A false witness shall perish. Revelation 22 says, "...for without her dogs, sorcerers, whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." And Revelation 21 says, "...but the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and the murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Very, very dreadful words. Certainly unbelievers, will perish for all eternity. But Paul tells us that judgment begins at the house of God, and Paul says that we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Read Matthew 5. Listen to these scriptures that talk about sinning with our tongue. In fact, we're told in the Bible that lying will increase in the last days. even among Christians. A professor wrote a book and he said that decades ago in class discussions, his students would rarely ever consider the possibility of lying even in an emergency situation. But he said nowadays he could hardly get anyone in the class to consider that maybe telling the truth is always right, regardless of the situation. What has changed in just a few decades? Are we somehow wiser now, toward good? He sees it as the result of postmodern thought on the culture, humanism. We're told plainly in 1 Timothy chapter 4, Paul is telling us that in the latter times there will be liars. They will depart from the faith because of this devilish instigation. 2 Timothy chapter 3 says, this know also in the last days perilous times shall come for men shall be, and he goes on to say, trucebreakers and false accusers, and he says from such turn away. We're told in the last days what type of sins we will see in churches among believers as well as the culture at large. Jeremiah 9, he says, Oh, that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go from them. For they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. God forbid that that's God's people. And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies, but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth. take heed every one of his neighbor, and trust you not in any brother. For every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders. And they will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies." Micah shows that this is going to be in the last days. Our Lord Jesus shows this also for the latter times, that it will be hard to trust people. We need to beware of this situation. Those that believe it's okay to lie, even in emergency situations, are in some pretty bad company. John chapter 8, the Lord says, "...Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not." In history, the Jews, by and large, adopted the idea that it was praiseworthy to lie for good purposes. The Platonists and the Pythagoreans adopted lying for good causes. The Greeks, after the time John wrote the book of Revelation, was born about 150 A.D. He's the father of figurative interpretation, but he influenced a couple of good men. He claimed that the apostles Peter and Paul agreed together to deceive their hearers at Antioch by faking a conflict between themselves, when in reality they were agreed. That's a terrible thing to say, that Paul somehow was lying about rebuking Peter in the conversation that they had in the conflict. He's saying that Paul was lying to accomplish something good. Origen writes, a man on whom necessity imposes the responsibility of lying, is bound to use very great care, and strictly to preserve its measure, and not go beyond the bounds observed by Judith." He quotes an apocryphal writing to justify lying. He should act like the patriarch Jacob who, as we read, obtained the blessing of his father by artifice and falsehood. The Bible never says what Jacob did was right. And Jacob, I believe, as you read, What transpired after his lie? Even though his mother said, I'll take your punishment, it'll be on me. No, no, he ended up with a lot of trouble, a lot of hardship because of that lie. But Origen is saying it's a good thing that Jacob deceived his father and lied. It is evident, he says, that if we speak falsely with any other object than that of obtaining by it some great good, we shall be judged as the enemies of him who said, I am the truth. So notice how Origen is cutting this. He's not saying if we speak falsely, we shall be judged as the enemies of him who said, I am the truth. He's saying if it's for any other object other than obtaining some great good. Jerome was taken into this deception, but after a while he broke free from it. Jerome died in 420 A.D. He writes, our friends take it amiss that I've spoken of the originists as confederated together by orgies of false oaths. I named the book in which I had found it written, that is, the sixth book of Origen's Miscellanies, in which he tries to adapt our Christian doctrine to the opinions of Plato. Augustine wrote, if officious lies are admitted into the sacred scriptures, what authority will remain in them? What are officious lies? Ophiuchus lies are the opposite of malicious or mischievous or pernicious. What he means is the helpful lie, the lie for good purposes. And he's rebuking this idea of origin that Paul wrote into the scriptures and gave us this story about something that never really happened, but it was for a good cause. Augustine is saying, if you admit such a thing, what authority will remain in regard to the Scriptures? And this is a good question for people that believe in a justified lie. If officious lies are proper, did any of the writers of the Bible use them? If not, why not? I don't mean hyperbole and things like that. I mean outright lying. Did any of the writers of the Bible, whose writings are inspired by the Holy Ghost, are there some things in there that are lies, but they're good lies? They accomplish good purposes. In 66 books of the Bible, if they never did that, why? If it's acceptable to do it, isn't the salvation of souls, isn't that important? Isn't that an emergency? Isn't rescuing people from eternal death an emergency? Why aren't there any holy lies in the Bible? At the time of Augustine, the Priscillians were saying it was good to lie to do good, to evangelize or promote religion. I remember as a young Christian, we would go hand out tracts in Dallas, and there was a group of dancing girls that would wear bathing suits, and they would go down to the lake and even show up downtown in the bar areas, and they would hand out gospel tracts. And if you say, why are you walking around immodest like that handing out gospel tracts? They would say, you would not believe the crowd we're able to generate. Would we agree that that's a good thing? At least it attracts attention and a lot of people take a track that would not have taken it. Hopefully you don't believe that that was acceptable. Is not again the salvation of souls, is that not an emergency? Some of them may perish that very night on the way home. John Wesley says, Who scruples the telling of officious lies? the varying from truth in order to do good. How strange is that saying of the ancient father's sound in modern ears. I would not tell a lie, no, not to save the souls of the whole world." Wesley is against this justified lying. And he's saying, in modern times, it's getting pretty bad. You've got a lot of people agreeing with this idea of it's okay to lie to do good. What would Wesley think about the day and age that we're living in now? Of course, after the time of origin, you had the Jesuits, the Catholics and the Jesuits who said it's okay. The end justifies the means. It's okay to lie if it's for a good cause to promote the Catholic Church. We had Muslims who says it's okay to lie to the infidel. And then of course the Communists, the Marxists, which believe that it's okay to lie to promote the cause of world domination for Marxists, Communists. But George Smallridge in 1852 says, none have been so indulgent to officious lies as the Church of Rome, the Catholic Church, the Jesuits. Maggie 1867 says, Rome calls them officious lies which hurt nobody. The Westminster Confession, centuries ago, had a question and answer. The question is, who are they that plead in favor of officious lies? The answer, they write, is the Papists, the Socians, and most of our modern moralists. We've already seen that the Catholic Church believes in the justified lying. Who were the Socians? They were immoral what we would call Unitarians or what came to be called Unitarians in history. They disbelieved the Trinity. They were liberals. They justified immorality and debauchery. The Westminster Confession says it's just this group of people. They believe in this justified lying. Michael Glenn Manis, a modern author, writes a whole book showing that it's acceptable to lie for good causes. And he blames those who disagree. He calls them radical fundamentalists. He says radical fundamentalism is a lost ship. Well, we might ask some questions here. If it's right to lie for good, is it right to murder for good? We're gonna put aside, till next week, this question of killing. Because what people will say is, well, killing isn't always wrong, so maybe lying isn't always wrong. And there's a very simple answer to that argument. But the question I'm asking is, We're talking murder that is wrong. Is it right to do that for good? While somebody is right with God, if you didn't want them to backslide, would it be okay to kill them? To save them from sin? Does not sin work death? What about an age of accountability? Would any argue that a child should be slain before he came to responsibility to save his soul eternally? I know nobody, hopefully, would ever say such a thing. But the question is, if it's okay to lie to save a life, what about other sins? What about lying to promote more truth or goodness? Like, they would claim these miracles in the early centuries, and they would write these forged documents claiming to be from the apostles, and they said, you know, we're doing it for good. If it's wrong to lie for good, how evil it must be to lie for bad motives. Now one problem we have with the justified lying is that there is a slippery slope here. I read early in my Christian life a wicked book from 1966 by John Fletcher. It was called Situation Ethics. Colleges were filled with this moral relativism. College professors with books like this would give hypothetical examples and scramble the morality of these young college kids that were not prepared for such a course of humanism and unbelief. Situation ethics. He would say it's okay to commit adultery and lie and sin and steal if it's for the greater good, depending on the situation. Now we know in the Bible that Rebecca's favorite was Jacob. But don't you think it's possible that she convinced herself that they were going to deceive her husband, Isaac, and keep him from great sin and error? It's to save life. It's to do good. It's to the glory of God. But she was wrong, and Jacob paid a high price for such lies to his father. Wayne Grudem in Christian Ethics says, such reasoning from hard cases quickly leads to rationalizations for many other sins. The whole system can slide quickly into moral relativism. And that is really true. I have seen people that have adopted this view, and they have ended up in terrible sin, and they have ended up with the most outrageous lies. I mean, they became so practiced in lying, and they began with this idea that there is the holy lie, and how easy it was to justify that emergency from there on out. Once this addiction begins, the emergencies just keep on coming, like the emergency use of a credit card, so-called. Like pornography or drug addiction, you just go further and further. The lies begat more lies. The emergencies become very small after a while. First you start with the right to lie to preserve life, and then you end up with the right to lie for good results, and you can say it's to preserve life because you could always rationalize. There's eternal life. There is millennial life. There's life at the judgment seat. There's quality of life. And then you end up, it's sometimes right to commit other sins for good also. Your whole life just becomes one big lie. Oh, we need some holy backbone. We need some that'll keep their promises to their own hurt. As it says in Psalms 15, we need more faith and trust in God. George Smallridge in 1852 says, those who have allowed of officious lies have been as liberal in the allowance of officious treasons and officious murders. That is true. Edward Stone in 1797 says, there are indeed very few of those lies which are called officious where there is not some mischief in the intention. How easy can you kill and think you do God's service? How easy you can lie and think you are doing God and man's service, when maybe there's another motive along with it that you're using the justification. Again, I have seen several people adopt this view and end up a mess. I've seen others that I thought were somehow or another being faithful and righteous, though they were sharing that view of justified lying, and then I've seen them totally lose it. And always you're kind of wondering, even before they manifest and fall off into just outright lying, you always have to wonder whether you can believe what they're saying. You never know if they're using one of those justified lyings. The Bible says integrity will guide a man. It will lead a man. A man's integrity. before I really ever knew much about this whole subject of officious lies or justified lies so called. As a street preacher I had angered the city, preaching against homosexual parades and such like. I had become hated and there was a situation where I was arrested, and a policeman who arrested me stopped in the jail and put his head on the steering wheel and began to say, I know what I'm doing is wrong. And he was struggling. He was struggling. I told him, you need to do the right thing. You know what you're doing is wrong, so you need to do the right thing. He pretty much implied that he can. It's too late. His higher superiors or wanting him to do it, and he justified it, washed his hands like Pilate, and said, you can't win them all. I can't get them all right. This put me in a situation where, after being falsely accused, I was going to go to a jury trial. My attorney came back and says, you would not believe how bad these police and prosecutor and everybody back there just hates you. They said, they're offering you a plea deal. All you have to do is admit guilt. We don't want to risk going before a jury with this type of thing and this type of climate. I said, no, the decision's already been decided. There's nothing I can do about it. I'm not an ounce guilty in this situation of what they're claiming. So it is what it is. We're going to have to go forward. And what happens, happens. Somehow or another, he came back and says, the judge has changed the situation where you don't have to admit guilt. See, God intervened. And there's sometimes you can be lied against where Naboth and our Lord Jesus and so many others in the Bible and history, you end up suffering the consequences of people's slander and lies and false witness. But there are situations where God saves us out of these things. I have had other examples where if I had lied, I could have promoted great good. But I chose not to and to wait on God. There was a man named Henry Clay Trumbull. He wrote a book called A Lie Never Justified in 1893. His son went on to publish many great writings. Henry Clay Trumbull was a prisoner of war during the Civil War, War Against the States. And they were arranging an escape. And he looked at the plans and he realized that he would have to lie. And you've got to understand this is a different day. You may right now hear that story and think that's just insane, but you've got to understand, you would not believe how careful people were and how bad they viewed lying. It was a different culture. As the professor said, And what I alluded to earlier, just not many decades ago, things were different. So he says, I will not lie to escape. And God went on to bless him. He stuck to that. And he wrote this great book, A Lie Never Justifiable. and his son was blessed and went on to be a great publisher and do other things. But he writes in his book, it has been asserted that great emergencies may necessitate a departure from all ordinary rules of human conduct and that therefore there may be in an emergency such a thing as the lie of necessity. The great body of Christians in the apostolic age and in the age early following acted on the conviction that a lie is a sin per se and that no emergency could make a lie a necessity. and it was in fidelity to this conviction that the role of Christian martyrs was so gloriously extended." See, we're going to stop quoting for a second. In the early centuries under the Roman Caesars, as Christians were fed to lions, if you remember, a lot of times All they had to do was admit that Caesar was a god. That he was divine. But they would not. They watched their families be martyred. They were martyred. Because they would not say that lie. So those that say, It's acceptable to justify lying to save a life. Hopefully you're willing to alter your statement. Because these Christians could have saved a life immediately just with a few words. Thousands and thousands and thousands died. Henry Clay Trumbull goes on to say Justin Martyr, whose apologies on behalf of the Christians are the earliest extent, speaks for the best of the class he represents when he says, it is in our power when we are examined to deny that we are Christians, but we would not live by telling a lie. He was martyred. He knew the martyrs. He says we could easily get out of it if we just tell a lie, but we would not do it to save life. He goes on to say, "...Tertullian names among sins of daily committal, to which we are all liable the sin of lying from necessity." He calls it a sin. Basil asserts without qualification as his conviction that it is never permissible to employ a falsehood even for a good purpose. The treatise Against Lying was written by Augustine with special reference to the practice and teaching of the sect of the Priscellanists. These Christians affirmed with some other of the theosophic sects that falsehood was allowable for a holy end. He goes on to say the knowledge that a lie is under certain circumstances deemed proper by a man throws doubt on all that that man says or does under any circumstances. And I have to say that is true. I've experienced that with friends who sometimes I had to wonder if this wasn't a time where, like I said before, it was one of those what they think are holy lies or lies of necessity. And then I've seen them go off the deep end with this thing. Little foxes spoil the grapes. The tongue is a little member, but oh, what a fire! Oh, what a fire! One thing we need to consider is God cannot lie. It says in Numbers 23, God is not a man that He should lie. It says in Samuel 15, 29, and also the strength of Israel will not lie. So He should not, He will not, Habakkuk 2 says, The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. God will not lie. And the Bible is saying here that His prophecies will not lie. So when He says He'll punish liars and all liars, He means it. In fact, Titus 1 says, In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. He cannot lie. And just to make it clear, Hebrews 6 says that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie. He can't. It is impossible. Hebrews 4, for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. We're told that God does not and cannot lie. And we're commanded to be perfect even as our Heavenly Father is perfect. We're told that the Lord Jesus Christ was and is sinless and we believe it. The Bible says He is our example. He is our example to show us how to live the Christian life. He is our forerunner, the captain of our salvation. Where did He ever lie? Where did He ever lie to save life? Where did our great example ever lie for necessity to do some good? The Bible says in Hebrews 2, for in that he himself had suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. We're told in Corinthians 10, 13, There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it. Do we believe that? I pastored many people over many years. And it's very common for people to believe that they have to sin, that necessity means they have to sin. What if God would have provided an escape, as many can testify to? Now again, I want to say that I believe in saving life. And I believe that some sins are worse than other sins. And I believe that some lives are worse than other lives. But what we're looking at is perfection here. We're looking at what is the right thing to do. And we also know that the Lord told us to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves. That doesn't mean to be sinful. But there are many testimonies of people in Nazi Germany that saved Jews and hid them, and they had a conscience against lying. They verbally did not lie. And God gave them at that moment, because of their conviction, a way out where they could say things. And so the idea is, what if you're in a situation and there's no way out, and you know there isn't a way out? I don't want to be in a situation like that. May the Lord not put us where we believe such a thing. Let me give a summary of answers to the arguments that people give to justify so-called justified lying. One of the main arguments is they go through the Bible and they find Bible characters that lied. And they say, see, this person lied, it must be okay to lie. Or they say God praised them for something, and they did tell a lie while they were doing good. So that must justify holy lying. Number one, I'm going to say this. My first answer is that when you look at the list of Bible liars, and we're looking at what they call justified lying, to save a life and things like that, oftentimes when I look at it and read it, and I agree with many of the commentators of old, there's no lie there. You assume there was a lie. There are situations like that. So first of all, you need to make sure you're not assuming a lie. Number two, when it was a clear lie, the lie itself is not praised by God in the Bible. The language of the Holy Ghost is very exact, sharper than a two-edged sword. He knows how to write that the lie was a good thing, but he never did that. He praises a lot of things, or several things, but he did not praise the lie. Oh, that's very important. And number three, we are to know that the act of lying is wrong, like any other sin we see a Bible character commit, even if in the context, direct attention is not called to the sin. Now, I don't believe in presuming sin in Bible characters. I've preached against it presumptuously. But don't go to the other extreme. where there's a clear sin that somebody in the Bible justified or felt they had a necessity to do, and you all of a sudden assume that it must be right. This must be condoned by God. He didn't condemn it in the context. How far are you going to go with that argument? Okay, take the case of Rahab. You believe that Rahab, because God praises her in the Bible, that her lying must be justified, even though he never says her lying was right. How far will you take that? Are you going to apply that to other cases? Many others do. It says in Genesis 4 that Lamech took unto him two wives. No specific condemnations mentioned in context. Was Lot therefore justified when he offered his virgin daughters to be raped? That was an emergency. It was to save the life of the men that were in his house. Was that justified to let his daughters be gang raped? No condemnation is stated. Did he feel he was in one of those situation ethic? Did he have to look at his daughters and say, sweetheart, I'm sorry, but we got to save life here. This is an emergency. There's no condemnation stated on what he did. Does that mean it was right? In fact, it says in Genesis 19.36, thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. They committed incest. Was that right? It was an emergency situation. It doesn't say in the context it was wrong. They thought they were the last people on earth. Was this a justified incest? If somebody can lie in the Bible, and you say, well, it's not condemned in the context, so it must be right. Even though the Bible says elsewhere that lying is wrong, you say, well, this must be a justified lie because it was an emergency. And God doesn't say right here in the context it's wrong. Well, He doesn't say it's wrong that both daughters of Lot were with child by their father. There's a lot of things He doesn't say is wrong in context, but He says it elsewhere. But this is how the originites argued. I found somebody in the Bible telling a lie, and they were in a hard situation, and God didn't condemn it. So this justifies to me that I'm to follow that example specifically. Several of these supposed examples, there is no lie at all. I repeat, liars can see lies pretty easy. Maybe too easy. When God praises the good conduct of a Bible character, He does not praise the specific lie or any other sin. He calls Lot righteous. But He didn't praise Lot lingering in Sodom or offering up his daughters or having incest with his daughters. What about Jacob and Rebekah's lies? For good, God judged them but said nothing in context. They're not named as lies, just like polygamy. But you can see the consequences of it. You can see the strife. You can see the hard knocks that Jacob endured. Now let me give you a very, very important example. In 1 Peter chapter 3, Peter praises Sarah and praises the fact that she called her husband Lord, little El. She's respectful, submissive to her husband, and she called him Lord. Nothing else is said about any of Sarah's sins or errors. But when you go back and look at the very example, the Holy Spirit is likely discussing. When you see Sarah calling Abraham Lord, she is by herself, in private. She's just speaking of her husband as her Lord, as if it's just normal. It was part of her character to see him as Lord. But the exact situation, the specific situation where she is calling her husband Lord, she is laughing and scoffing at the promise of God that they will have a child through her husband. And though she was in private, God heard it. And God said, you laughed. And she lied. And God says, you did laugh. So Sarah was guilty of a lack of faith. Sarah was guilty of lying to God. But the Holy Ghost bypasses that momentarily. and deals with the good things she did. Even though she lied, even though she lacked faith at that moment, she did call her husband Lord when she wasn't even really thinking about it all that much and nobody was around to hear it. She wasn't putting on a show. She really saw him as her head to be obedient to. God can praise an action that has some sin mixed with it. Don't ever assume a sin is not a sin because the Bible doesn't condemn it directly. Now Jesus does tell us that David and his men were hungry and they ate the hallowed bread, which was only for the priests. But it's clear this is a ceremonial commandment in a real emergency. Jesus doesn't praise the lie that David told in that emergency. The Holy Ghost and the Lord Jesus are very specific to say He ate the show bread. Notice in Matthew 12, But He said unto them, Have ye not read what David did when he was a hungered, and they that were with him, how he entered into the house of God, and did eat the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? The Lord never said, Did you not see how he lied in that situation? Was guiltless? No. This was a ceremonial precept. He ate the shoe bread. That's all the Lord mentions. Burkett says, in case of necessity, a ceremonial precept must give place to a moral duty. No mention is made of the immoral lie. When we go back and look at it in Samuel 21 it says, David said unto Ahimelech the priest, Ahimelech the priest, the king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, let no man know anything of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee, and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. So the priest gave him the hallowed bread, for there was no bread there but the shoe bread. David lied, and that is never commended. But the Bible makes it clear that you can break a ceremonial command in an emergency situation. The Family Bible note says, when men are guilty of falsehood for the sake of obtaining a present good, they know not what evils they may occasion to themselves and others. And this is what happened to David in this situation. In 1 Samuel 21, it says, Abiathar showed David that Saul had slain the Lord's priests. And David said to Abiathar, I knew it that day when Doeg the Edomite was there. that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house. He says in Psalms 119, Remove from me the way of lying, which many old commentators take it to be a confession that he knew he had lied before and was sorry for it. Now what about this case of Rahab? Let's take a few minutes and then close. Joshua 2, it says, The woman took the two men and hid them and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wish not whence they were. And it came to pass, about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out. Whither the men went, I want not. Pursue after them quickly, for you shall overtake them." And it says in Joshua 6, the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein to the Lord. Only Rahab the harlot shall live. She and all that are with her in the house, because, why? Because she hid the messengers that we sent. Not because she lied. Hebrews 11, the Holy Ghost says, by faith, the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believe not. When she had received the spies with peace, he says nothing about lying. The Holy Ghost calls her a harlot. Was her harlotry justified? Because the Holy Ghost does not say that necessarily in context it was wrong. We know it was wrong because of other scriptures. James chapter 2, likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way? Sent the Israelites out. No praise or even a mention is made of her lies. Burkett says Rahab's faith was seen in receiving the spies. Her weakness and infirmity appeared in her lying. Wayne Grudem, in Christian Ethics, says Scripture does not hold up Rahab's lie as an example for believers to imitate. Robert Govett, whose Spurgeon said his writings will be in the last days as treasured gold. Govett says, but she, Rahab the harlot, told a lie. That's what you're going to say. Yes, that sprang from her unbelief. No doubt she had long been accustomed to utter falsehoods. There is much dross in the gold of those young in faith. Now, because the book of Hebrews chapter 11 praises Rahab without praising her lie, and you're gonna argue that that somehow justifies the lie, what about Barak? He's mentioned in Hebrews 11. Shall we say that he did not have sin or error? It says in verse 29, by faith they passed through the Red Sea. But if you go back, the whole event was not entirely with faith. There was some murmuring and grumbling, but that's not mentioned. Augustine speaks of a pastor named Firmus. He hid a righteous person from the wicked emperor. When the king's men came, the pastor would not lie. and he wouldn't tell the hiding place. They tortured him to tell, and he endured, so much so that the emperor pardoned the man he was hiding due to the courage and witness of this man." See, we never know how things are going to end up. When people quote the Hebrew midwives, which we won't get into today, but I will say this, When you say it's okay to lie to save a life, the Hebrew midwives didn't lie to save the lives of babies. They already saved the lives of babies by disobeying the king, if it's true that they lied. They lied to save their lives. The question is, Thousands and thousands and thousands died and their families died because they would not say that the Catholic wafer is the literal body of the Lord. Could they not have reason to themselves, I'll just lie to save life and say I believe it? I'll close with the Westminster Confession again. They ask, what is it for a person to make an officious lie? Answer, it is to tell a downright untruth for their own or their neighbor's safety as Rahab did. Question, does not the apostle describe the action of hers to her faith? Answer, no, not the lie. Her protecting the spies is commended, but not the manner. They go on to write, and centuries of children grew up with this understanding. Their sinful failures in this and other instances are not recorded for our imitation. In no case are we to do evil that good may come. Romans 3.8 If we are not to speak wickedly for God, nor talk deceitfully for Him. Job 13.7 Neither are we to do so, though it were for the benefit of all mankind, or the best among them. I had already written much of this sermon and argued on the basis of Romans 3, 8 as well as Job 13, 7. And so I thought it very interesting that they use the same arguments. If you're not to lie for God and His glory, so-called, you're not to lie for the good of man. I don't want to be in a situation where I'm tempted to lie. There's always silence. There's always other options, I believe. But even if you say, I could not find any other option, I had to tell a holy lie to save life, does that automatically mean that it was justified? These are things I hope we ponder seriously. And if you're going to argue that it's acceptable, don't use vain arguments. God help us. Dear Lord, I do pray in the name of the Lord Jesus that you, we look forward to your coming, God, but we also pray to be ready and watchful. You told us that we ought to be without spot, Lord, without blemish. They ought to strive to be perfect and faithful. God, I pray, forgive us of all sins. May we confess our sins. May we be ready for your coming. And may you teach us what's right. Lord, you know we can see it all around us, Lord. There's lying everywhere. It is an epidemic of it, God. And just about all these people believe that they are justified for some good cause or some emergency or some necessity. And Lord, I've seen it firsthand with my own eyes in regard to many Christians. Oh, how they just fell into a slew of despond, how they fell into a subverted situation where they're just lying just left and right about everything, and they think it's justified for a good cause. Lord, help us. We thank you that you did not lie about the blood. We thank You that You have not lied about our eternal salvation. We thank You that we know that we can trust You, that this isn't just some lie to make us be good for our own good. You've told us that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And we believe it, Lord, and we believe in You. Thank you that you cannot lie. Thank you that you will not lie. Thank you that you have not lied. And you are our example. In Jesus' name, amen.