We need to take God seriously.  Proverbs 6:19 gives us things that God hates.  As Christians, we believe that God is real, that he has spoken to us through the authors of the Bible and through Jesus Christ.  We believe that God is intelligent and has told us why he made us and how he wants us to live.

                    The Christian life is an exchanged life.  By that I mean that a Christian trades in his own outlook on life and replaces it with a Biblical world view.   We look at things through different eyes as Christians.  If the Bible says that there are things God hates, we believe it.

                    Because we love God we don’t want to do what he hates, we want to do what is pleasing to him.  What God hates is “...a false witness who pours out lies.” 

                    I’m reminded of the old story of the farmer who went to church on Sunday without his wife because she was sick.  When he returned home, his wife asked him, “What did the preacher speak on today?”  He replied, “He spoke on sin.”  She asked, “Well, what did he have to say about it?”  The farmer replied, “He was against it.”  God is against a false witness that spreads lies. 

                    To make the message simple, if we have spread lies and been false witnesses, we owe it to the people we slandered or hurt to apologize and make it up to the best of our ability.  God hates it when false witnesses pour out lies.”

                    The biggest false witness we can give is to give a false witness about God.  In Genesis, that is what Satan did.  He gave a false witness about God.           Genesis 3:1-5...1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ’you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

                    Where is the lie in this?  Did Eve die?  No, no physical death took place.  When she first touched the fruit, she didn’t fall dead, like Annanias and Sapphiria.  Where her eyes opened?  Yes, they were.  Did she know good and evil?  Yes she did.  What was the lie in all of this? 

                    The lie was unspoken.  Satan puts these truths out in such a way to make it appear as though God was afraid of competition.  He puts it before us in such a way that would make us believe that God did not want Eve to eat of the fruit, because it would raise her up to his level.  The operative word is “like God...” She did go from knowing only good to knowing good and evil.  In that specific sense it was the truth.  But under the words is a false witness about God.  That his restrictions on Adam and Eve were an attempt to stop them from being all they could be.  The restrictions on them were an attempt to keep them at the top.  The result was that the human race fell as a result of knowing good and evil.  God doesn’t fall, but we did.  And that was the lie, that we would be able to handle the information.

                    I will add that I believe that Satan knew that.  Jesus called him the “Father of lies...” Satan is the one who promoted this false testimony about God.  That is why he is called the Father of lies.

                    One reason that Christians speak out against groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Unitarian Universalisms is not because we hate the people.  The reason we speak out is because they are speaking lies about God.  They are teaching truths that conflict with what the Bible and Jesus say.  We do not hate the people, but we do stand up and say that their claims about God are false.

                    I hear people say, “Why can’t we just live together in peace and harmony?”  Yet those very same people reject Christians and Christianity.  In so doing, they are not in harmony with Christians.  The presence of sin in the world does not allow us the luxury of being in harmony.  If we recognize that face, then we can have the courage to stand up for what is right and stand against what is wrong.

                    As your pastor I will tell you that there are a lot of people out their who speak about things they know nothing about.  They make up a god in the image that most pleases them and then promote lies about God in the name of tolerance.  But God hates the false witness they give to him and what he is about.  He is real and he is not pleased when people get his name and his reputation wrong.  God is not pleased that people call him a liar.  He sent his Son to save a world that needed saving and the world rejected the Son and said that they were all right.  They didn’t need saving.

                    I don’t know about you, but I needed saving.  And if the Bible is the Word of God, then it tells us we need saving.  Jesus said that he came to seek and to save those that were lost.  How can we turn to God and say, “Thanks for sending Jesus to die, but you really didn’t need to do that for me?”  It’s like the guy in the middle of the ocean who says, “I don’t need a life raft.  I can swim to shore.”  There is nothing wrong with the crew of the rescue boat; there is something wrong with the person in the water.

                    There are lies about God and there are truths about God.  God hates the false witnesses who spread lies about him.

                    A second area of concern to God is the effect it has on people.  He knows personally what that is about.  Hebrews describes Jesus as our High Priest.  One reason that Jesus is so effective as a High Priest is that he can sympathize with our weaknesses because he has been through the fire.

                    Nowhere is this clearer than in the area of false witnesses.  Jesus had several people step up and perjure themselves before Jesus. Matthew 26:59-68 gives us the picture of Jesus trial.

                     “59 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. 60 But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward 61 and declared, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’” 62 Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” 63 But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” 64 “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” 65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. 66 What do you think?” “He is worthy of death,” they answered. 67 Then they spat in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him 68 and said, “Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?””

                    One thing we have to say about this trial is that they tried to do the trial by the rules.  They brought in false witnesses.  It is my understanding that the witnesses would be brought in one at a time.  So the picture is that two or three witnesses gave different stories. 

                    How did God view these men who deliberately lied about Jesus?  God hates the one who brings false witness and pours out lies.  How did Jesus react?  He didn’t say a word.   And when they finally found something that would stick, he was not afraid to speak the truth.

                    Have you ever been the victim of false testimony?  Has your character or reputation been unfairly represented to others? 

                    First, I want you to know today that those lies, those things said about you, have reached the ears of God.  If you are right, God knows that.  You are not alone.  God stands up for those who are right.

                    Second, God stands against the lie.  He might not choose to send a bolt of lightening onto the person who said the lie.  He might be giving you an opportunity to show the spirit of Christ and in so doing, perhaps work repentance in that person’s heart.  He may want you to take a blow for his sake.  But he has recorded those lies in a book and has clearly stated that he hates false witnesses who pour out lies.

                    But what if you are on the other side of the aisle?  What if you have spread lies about someone?  What if you constantly pour out lies? 

                    First, God says that the false testimony comes from your heart.  You don’t need reform; you need a new heart.  Jesus died to forgive your sins and to give you that new heart.  He wants to help you.  You wonder why you have gotten away with it for so long?  It’s because God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.  He is giving you time that you don’t deserve to make a change...to follow Christ.

                    Bill Hybles in his book, “Laws That Liberate” gives two examples of false witnesses.  He lists exaggeration and distortion or misquoting someone, as two kinds of false witnesses.  A third would be the all-out lie.

                    Satan certainly distorted the truth.  The false witnesses in Jesus day came out with all-out lies.  And many exaggerate the truth to give a false impression.   I have had people come to me who say, “My wife never helps me with anything.”  The meeting with the people was set for 7PM so the man would have time to come home to the meal his wife had cooked, to change into clothes that she had washed, to drive a car that she helped pay for, and to get telephone messages that she passed on to him from the time he was away.  And she never helped him with anything?

                    Or a wife will tell a story about how angry her husband gets and how he raises his voice.  She wishes that he would calm down and treat her with respect.  But then it comes out.  She started on him the moment he walked through the door.  She spoke to him through the bathroom wall.  She never let up on her tirade for three hours.  She raised her voice and was full of rage.  But her picture was a distortion of all that took place.

                    If we could back away from the edge of the cliff, not distort, not exaggerate, not mind-read, not accuse, not refuse to listen, so many more issues could be resolved.  God hates false witnesses who pour out lies.

                    What does he love?  People who tell the truth,  people who tell the truth in love,  people who tell the truth when they are wrong,  people who spread truth.