Living with a Liar ~ Proverbs 14

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” Proverbs 14:12

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” Proverbs 16:25

              What do you think of liars?  I imagine your answer is very similar to mine.  The words of a liar cannot be trusted.  Their intent to deceive runs so deep that you must question every motive and plan offered from their lips.  After having ample time dealing with the liar, you feel that there is no hope of moving forward.  You simply want to exit the presence of someone that you cannot hold faith in to be truthful, honest, and forthright.  And the hardest part is that it seems they either cannot, or will not, make an effort to change.  The liar seems to enjoy being a liar.  Somehow, like a person subconsciously enjoying a deep draw of fresh air, the liar is simply exhaling the lies that dwell deep in their heart.  But before we go too long railing on our hypothetical liar here, I want you to think about an individual in your life that has told you the most lies.  And then I want to challenge you in your selection.  For, to be brutally honest, if you truly want to identify the guilty party…walk to the nearest mirror and take a good long look.

              Our sin nature runs directly against the grain of who God desires us to be.  It is incredible to truly process how devastating that fruity crunch was in the garden all those years ago.  You see, we, just as you would expect sinners to do, greatly dismiss the severity of what truly lies buried deep in our DNA.  We falsely believe that somehow we are good, have the potential to be good, or can even find our way to goodness.  But the sad fact of the matter is that human sin nature, unchecked, leads to one place and one place only…spiritual death.  And that journey to spiritual death is not constructed of just one large leap, but countless tiny steps.  And each of those tiny steps are littered with lies.  Lies we tell ourselves in self-deception to make us feel good about our sin, justify our selfish choices, and defend our prideful, arrogant treatment of others.  Yes, I lament to personally confess that the person that has lied to me more than any other on this planet…is the same guy I stare at every morning in my mirror.

But before we all go jump off the nearest cliff to conclude this big pity party, I have good news.  No, let’s call it great news.  God knows our predicament and He has a plan to save us from ourselves.  And, in the glory of God, He made the plan super simple as to not let our self-inflicted lies corrupt something overly complicated. The plan has two simple steps…1) Fear the Lord and 2) receive His wisdom through His revealed Words.

Folks, I want to preface the above two steps with this.  I said they were simple, not easy.  Never confuse the two, for something can be very simple, but incredibly difficult.  That being said, this plan is not some quick-fix guide to erase your current problems.  It is not some easy-cheesy 5-minute late night infomercial fix.  This is war.  There is a war raging and it is raging for the future destination of your soul.  God and heaven are real, satan and hell are real, and the battle for the souls of the creatures that God loves dearly is being waged with ferocity.  And the human heart is the field of battle.  Yet what is the great bewildering fact about this fierce spiritual battle?  It is that most people do not even know it is raging.  Hence the purpose of our study verse and the warning that God issues to us within it.  And issues not just once but twice as a warning in Proverbs.  Yes, our sinful souls, left unredeemed by Jesus Christ, are on a direct path for spiritual death.  In fact, the verse very well could read, “our sinful human cruise control can and will drive us right into the hands of the evil one and the eternal death he desires for our souls.”

If you read last week’s 5MC study, you read about the fear of the Lord being the beginning of wisdom.  Well, if it ain’t broken don’t fix it.  God has a very similar message for those that are seeking to find the abundant life of salvation that only comes through Jesus Christ. (John 10:10)  And to find it, you must first admit that God is God and you are not.  And then you must act like you mean it.  Every day, everywhere, all the time.  And how do you do this?  Here comes our two steps.

First, commit to absolute reverence, honor, respect, and obedience to the Lord.  And if you truly do that at the heart level, it means a personal consultation with God is in order.  It means that as all your life decisions pop up, large, medium, and small, you first commit to talk to the One that will never lie to you.  That as you find yourself with a major fork-in-the-road life decision, the first one you ask advice and direction from is the One that is incapable of lying, and that excludes you.  For if you truly believe that your sin nature is capable of boldly lying to you in order to lead you in a direction that is harmful to you (away from God), then the last person you should be trusting is the one wearing your shoes right now.  The fear of the Lord leads to the wisdom you need to avoid the path that seems right to your inner voice…that sinful inner voice that is ever so ready to lie to you and lead you astray.

Secondly, to obediently walk in God’s wisdom, you must first receive it.  How?  Well, all praise be to God, He left us a 66-book volume that is chock full of His wisdom, guidance, correction, and warning.  And all you need to do to glean from God’s book is pick it up, study it, let it feed your soul, and then do what it says.  You see, humans can never truly know God unless God first willingly reveals Himself to humans.  And that is just what God does through His Holy Word, the Bible, His revelation to mankind.  That big church word ‘revelation’ simply means ‘to reveal’ or ‘to make known’.  God’s Word is His revelation to His creatures; it is God revealing Himself to those that faithfully choose to seek Him and know Him.  God has intentionally chosen to reveal Himself, His nature, His love, His mercy, His grace, and His plan to see His creatures redeemed to Himself through the blood of His only Son Jesus Christ.  But His revealing of Himself is of little point or purpose if you are ignorant of it.  And folks, ignorance can be fixed.

God tells us here in our study verse that if we only follow the liar that lives within us, he or she will take us to a destination that we do not desire to visit…a life of denying God, defying God, and staying ignorant of His revelation.  And that, we are told, is the way to death.  A death far, far worse than mere physical death.  For this death is an eternal spiritual death in hell separated from the presential goodness, mercy, peace, and joy of God.  And folks, upon hearing this, you can accept it or continue listening to and following the counsel of the liar that lives within you.  Lies telling you that you are smart enough to find another way out of hell and into heaven.  Lies telling you that you have done enough good in this life to avoid hell and earn your way into heaven.  Lies telling you to simply choose another religion, a false religion, that promises you an easier softer way to heaven.  Or lies telling you that God is just too nice of a guy to condemn people to hell for eternity.  Oh, the liar we live with is so creatively deceptive in telling us just what we desire to hear.

There is a way that seems good, fair, and right to us, or better clarified, it is a way that is good for the liar that we live with to be content and comfortable.  Today you have a choice, continue listening to and following the liar within, or begin to fear the Lord and heed His truth as He reveals it in His Word.  For God’s truth is incapable of lies, deception, and falsehood. The choice is yours; the way is your own.

Blessings ~ Dan

“Nothing is more ordinary or more dangerous than self-delusion” J. Trapp, Commentary upon Proverbs (1650)

“The conclusion of the matter is that we deceive ourselves so easily and therefore cannot fully evaluate ourselves. God, by his Spirit and through his Word, provides the penetrating evaluation.” A.P. Ross, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (1991)

"contrast" ~ Oaxaca de Jaurez, Oaxaca, Mexico