if you would, in your Bibles to the book of James, chapter 2. James, chapter 2. We are in the Heidelberg Catechism, going through the Ten Commandments as the third part of the Heidelberg Catechism, teaching us a Christian world and life view. And we have gone through eight commandments so far. We are at the ninth. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, which has to do specifically with judicial matters. Bearing false witness is a judicial sentiment phrase. But, of course, it covers the entirety of the tongue, and we've looked at truth, the requirements and the prohibitions of the Ninth Commandment from the Catechism specifically, and want to consider this morning a further concern about lying. And we want to see the truth about lying. And this is somewhat of an odd text, and somebody on the way in actually questioned whether it was the right text. But it is, because it's about Rahab. And Rahab was a liar, if you'll remember. So we'll eventually get to this. But let's read James chapter 2, verses 25 and 26. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. So two points to the sermon this morning, a number of sub points, but the truth about truth, and secondly the truth about lying. Let me introduce this by way of some introductory questions. Is it ever all right to tell a lie? Now, before you answer, think about that, all right? I suspect that most people, based on the Ninth Commandment, would say that it's never right to tell a lie, perhaps even a so-called white lie. Well, but think about that. Is it ever all right to withhold truth from someone? Many people say if you don't tell people the truth, if you withhold it, that's as good as lying, all right? A little further consideration. Is it okay to use hyperbole? That's not exact truth, precise truth. Is it all right, ever all right to use satire? Is it ever all right to have a surprise party where you mislead someone like Dagmar into thinking nobody's going to be at the house when we come back from our engagement event in the park? And surprise! So was she lied to in that event? Is it ever all right to tell false comedic claims? Comedians often use untruth in there. Here's another one. Is it ever all right to act? There are Christians, you know. My wife was an actress in her earlier years, and we ran into Christians when we were in Michigan who said it was not all right for people to act because it constitutes a lie. You're impersonating somebody else, and you're not yourself. That's lying. Or how about this for you sports enthusiasts? Is it ever all right to fake a move in sports? to pretend that when you get the ball from the quarterback, you're going this way, only to go that way. Or are all of these condemned by the Ninth Commandment, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor? Well, you see, what might have been immediately apparent when you think about it, maybe is not all that apparent to begin with. The truth about truth, just to rehearse or, if you will, repeat some things which we already considered under requirements and prohibitions of the Ninth Commandment, a number of points here. Scripture explicitly commands us to speak the truth and to lay aside falsehood. not only in the ninth commandment, but in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 25, Colossians chapter 3 verse 9, Exodus 20, Exodus 23 verses 1 and 7, clearly, very emphatically, imperatively instruct us to refrain from lying. In Psalm 58 verse 3, we're told that lying is a characteristic of those that are depraved. In Romans 1 verse 25, when Paul is going through that list of sins, lying is contained there. We have noted that lying destroys others, such as Joseph's brother's lies destroyed that, or Potiphar's wife, or Pharaoh, or Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit, we're told, in Acts chapter 5. And as a result, they lost their life. So lies inflict pain and result in punishment. And worst of all, as we noted last time, liars go to hell. in Revelation chapter 21 and in Revelation chapter 22. We also previously noted that lies find their origin in the pit of hell, that Satan is a liar from the beginning and is the father of lies, John chapter 8. that lies are to be resisted. James tells us a little bit later on in James chapter 4 and verse 7 we are to resist the devil and his wiles. Thirdly, we're to imitate God. We are called to be imitators of God. We are made in his image and likeness. And God is a God who speaks the truth. And as such, his people are to speak the truth. Jesus is truth incarnate. He is the way, the truth, and the life. John tells us that the word became flesh, dwelt among us, and he was full of grace and truth. All God's ways are truthful and therefore God's people are to be truthful and speak the truth because God is truthful and speaks the truth. Well, you might think that in light of that mass accumulation of biblical citations, we are never to tell a lie. But having told you the truth about truth, We want to examine, in the light of God's Word, because I want you to be good Bereans, the truth about lying. And the fact is that the Bible, and please pay attention, in exceptional cases, permits and even requires deception and lies. That is, intentionally misleading or deceiving others as to the truth, as to reality. The exceptional cases are these two. When you are to preserve and protect human life from unjust aggression, lying is permitted. And in times of war, lying is permitted and at times even required. Now, if you've never heard this before, you might think it's somewhat odd. And you might be looking with raised eyebrows at your pastor thinking, this looks, this sounds a little bit funny, but it's actually similar to the Sixth Commandment. What's the Sixth Commandment? Shall not murder. Right, all right. Yet, when we examined the Sixth Commandment, we said that the Sixth Commandment permits capital punishment. Isn't capital punishment taking human life? How about self-defense? The Bible permits self-defense. If somebody is going to take your life, you're allowed to protect and preserve your life and attack your attacker. Or just war theory, which we didn't consider because it's quite lengthy, but Christianity has an ancient philosophical criteria about whether a war is just or not. And to put it simply without rehearsing all the facts, yes, there is just war theory, that a nation or a people can go to war and take the lives of other nations' people. for a just cause. So just like the sixth commandment is not an absolute prohibition, it entertains exceptions, so also the ninth commandment is not an absolute prohibition and likewise entertains exceptions. So I know you all want to be good Bereans, so let's search the scriptures here. First of all, in our text, verse 25 and 26. You may remember the story of Rahab, how she hid the spies and deceived the king's representatives. If you want a reference for that, it's Joshua chapter 2, in the first 24 verses there. When she was asked where they had gone, she said she didn't know where they were. And when she did, it was, they went that a way, even though they had gone this a way. Here, she's commended for doing that. In the same way, was not Rahab the prostitute justified? That is, commended when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way. And if that's not enough for you, in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 31, we find a similar citation. And no matter how you read it, it's very interesting when you look at preachers or commentators on these texts. They do exegetical and hermeneutical somersaults to try to show that this was not a lie. But I don't know how you can read these texts and come to any conclusion. No matter how you read it, it's deception. It's lying. All right? And in James 2, she's actually commended for it. Let's look at some other passages. Look at Exodus chapter 1. Look at Exodus chapter 1. Exodus chapter 1 verses 15 through 20. The Hebrew midwives. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shifra, the other Pua, when you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it's a son, you shall kill him. If it's a daughter, she shall live. But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, why have you done this? And let the male children live. And the midwives said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are vigorous and gave birth before the midwife comes to them. That was not true. And look at verse 20. So God dealt well with the midwives in their lie. They are blessed by God for lying to Pharaoh. Here's another one. 2 Kings chapter 6. 2nd Kings 6, verses 8-23. Elisha deceived the army of Syria that sought to capture and kill him by leading them into the hands of the Israelite army. We won't read all the verses. The money verse is verse 19, 2 Kings 6 verse 19. And Elisha said to them, this is not the way and this is not the city. Follow me and I will bring you to the man whom you seek. And he led them to Samaria. And when they got there, they found out they had been deceived. And that's that. Joshua chapter 8 is another example. Turn back from 2 Kings. Joshua chapter 8. Verses 3 through 29, and again, we won't read them all there. We'll just look to verse 15, all right? This is the fall of the city of Ai. Pick up in verse 14. As soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people hurried and went out to early to the appointed place for the Arabat to meet Israel in battle, but he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city and Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness. This is militarily deceiving your enemy. And why is it an exceptional case? Because it is a time of war, and it was to preserve the life of God's people. They deceived the city of Ai by means of an ambush. Look at 1 Samuel 16. 1 Samuel 16. A fourth example. Verses 1 through 5. The Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons. And Samuel said, how can I go? If Saul hears it, it will kill me. And the Lord said, take a heifer with you and say, I've come to sacrifice to the Lord, and invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do, and you shall anoint for me, him whom I declare to you. Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him, trembling, and said, Do you come peaceably? And he said, Peaceably. I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. and he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. Samuel, to save his own life, was instructed by God himself to mislead others by creating a false impression to them, alright, that he was going to sacrifice. In Judges chapter 4 and 5, I'm going to kind of ratchet this up a little so you might want to take notes and look at them later. In chapter 4, verse 18 through 21, we won't read it, but in chapter 5, verse 24, J.L., all right, the example there, had a splitting headgear headache. He's deceptively promised to protect Cicera, and then when he came in the tent, killed him. and gave him a splitting headache and is called in chapter 5 verse 24 most blessed as a result of that. In 1st Samuel chapter 19, I have about three or four more, 1st Samuel 19 verses 12 through 17, Michal put a fake body in David's bed so he could flee for his life and in verse 17 very clearly lied to do that. In 1 Samuel 21, verses 10 through 15, and chapter 22, verse 1, we have an instance of faking insanity to deceive the king of Gath and preserve his life. In Jeremiah chapter 38, verses 24 through 28, and explicitly in verse 27, he is commanded by King Zedekiah to lie so that he wouldn't die. and Jesus himself in Luke chapter 24. This is very interesting, particularly to those of you that are or have been involved in theater. Luke chapter 24, check it out. Jesus himself in verse 28, you remember the story. He's on the road to Emmaus. And in verse 28, so they drew near to the village to which they were going, he acted as if he were going farther. Jesus was an actor. He misled the disciples to believe one thing when the contrary was true. So Dagmar, it's all right to be in the play you're in, and it was all right for Julie. to be an actor, right? So what do we have here? We have nine separate examples in the Old and the New Testament where lying is explicitly presented to us by example or by precept. instruction to lie or with God's explicit commendation and approval. Now please let me come to a conclusion here and reiterate what I said. Don't go out of here today and say Pastor Murphy said we can lie. It's an exceptional situation. It's to preserve life. In World War II, to save the life of the Jewish people, it was perfectly legitimate when the German soldiers came and they were hiding Jews in their homes to tell them there were no Jews there. That was perfectly legitimate, all right? To mislead them. So, if it comes down to saving your life or the life of another, it is perfectly legitimate to lie. and it is perfectly legitimate to lie in times of war. I just read a lengthy biography about D-Day. And it was very interesting. It was about 450 pages. And it took into account the perspective of German soldiers, British soldiers, American soldiers, French soldiers, the French resistance, the underground, the citizens of France, the citizens of Germany, the spouses of the German officers, et cetera, et cetera. It was a very interesting book. But throughout it all, There was lying going on to deceive the Germans into where the Allied troops were actually going to come ashore. What they were leading the Germans to believe was that they were going to come ashore much further north than Normandy. where they landed on June 6th, by the way, this upcoming week, is the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the storming of the beaches at Normandy. And there was a lot of subterfuge going on in intelligent circles to mislead and to lie to the Germans so that they would not get an idea of what the Allies were planning as they were planning their attack to storm the shores at Normandy. So in times of war or in times to preserve and protect human life from unjust aggression, it is permissible to lie. And we have nine explicit examples in the Bible for that. So, that's the truth about lying. For now, let's pray. Father, we come to you and give you thanks that you are the God of truth. We thank you that Jesus Christ is not only the truth, but that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that you have given us life in him by leading us to follow him on the way to holiness and to heaven. We are thankful for your word that directs us how we are to live and how we are to act in certain circumstances. We pray that you would give us a love for truth and that you would make us a people that are known for speaking truth but a people that would not shy from misleading others when it comes to saving life. And we ask that you would continue to guide us by your word and spirit and we ask it in the name of your son, Jesus. Amen and amen.