                      THE NINTH COMMANDMENT

     I'm not going to give you anything else but the word of God this morning.
I know you come to church these days expecting the preaching to make some
comment about the airplane that was shot down over Korea. I don't make any
comment, because nothing ever happened or ever will happen, so just forget it.
I mean, America many years ago lost the power to retaliate anywhere. And so
you want to know what's coming down the bottom? I'll tell you, save you
trouble bying the newspaper--nothin'.

     And somebody said, "Gromyko?" Well, he don't feel like comin' today. And
somebody said, "Well, they're gonna not drink vodka, and pour vodka"--yeah,
big deal. Listen--if you were Russian, you'd know what that's about, man.
Those Orientals and semi-Oriental people--they don't pay any attention to
stuff like that at all, man. Just blank.

     So let's get down to business here. Get with the news--Exodus 20. Exodus
20, verse 1. "And God spake all these words, saying,  I [am] the LORD thy God,
which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage." Commandment number one: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
Commandment number two:  "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or
any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the
earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth." Commandment number
three, verse 7:  "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain;
for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."
Commandment number four, verse 8: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."
Commandment number 5, verse 12: "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy
days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee."
Commandment number 6: "Thou shalt not kill." Commandment number 7: "Thou shalt
not commit adultery." Commandment number 8: "Thou shalt not steal."
Commandment number 9: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy
neighbour."

     Now, Father, we commit this preaching service to thee, and all we're
about to say, we pray the Holy Spirit will guide and lead us into all truth.
We pray, Father, these illustrations that are real and true from life might be
effective and might help us to apply these things to our congregation. May
they understand the words of truth and apply them in their own lives, and help
them to be an honest people, Father, in dealing with themselves and others and
especially with Thee. And we pray it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.

     The command says, "Thou shalt not bear false witness." In the New
Testament it's worded a little bit differently, but the substance is the same.
In the New Testament in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 13, it says, "Speaking the
truth in love." In Ephesians chapter 4 verse 25, it says, "Wherefore putting
away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour."

     Now this is one of God's laws. I read the other day in one of my
reference books where, if you took all the law books of Asia, Europe, and
Africa, and combined, you would fine 32,600,000 laws in the books. There are
32,600,000 laws or variations of laws that men have made up--and there never
has been any improvement on the original ten. You can't improve on the
original ten.

     In a grocery store robbery in Louisville, Kentucky, about five years ago,
two policemen were killed. And when the defense lawyer--the lawyer for the
defense--brought in those culprits in before the judge, Judge Hayes of
Louisville, Kentucky, he asked that the court remove from the back wall a
framed picture of the Ten Commandments. And he said, "It was detrimental to
the child. I request it be removed, lest it adversely affect the jury." That
is, he didn't want the jury sitting there reading, "Thou shalt not steal," and
"Thou shalt not kill," when two fellows were getting tried for stealing and
killing. And Judge Hayes refused to have it removed. He said, "Leave it
there."

     And the district court judges had it removed from the school. Ain't that
somethin'? You can't post a copy of the Ten Commandments in the school,
because you'll offend the thieves and the killers. Why would any kid in high
school who wasn't a thief and wasn't a killer, why would he get upset about
the Ten Commandments--unless he was a liar and a thief and a killer and an
adulterer? Well, Judge Hayes had more sense. He was just a circuit court
judge, but he had more sense than a district court judge.

     Now, of all the commandments in the word of God, the most violated
commandment outside of the Tenth Commandment is this one here. Of all the
commandments among the ten, the one violated more than any except "Thou Shalt
Not Covet" is "Thou shalt not bear false witness."

     Now, originally, when the commandment was given, it had application to a
law court. It had application to a fellow coming in and swearing and telling
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and then bearing false
witness against a neighbor. But the principle's the same. You're not to bear
false witness against anybody. You're not to bear false witness--period.

     Psalm 58 verse 3 says, "The wicked go astray as soon as they're born,
speaking lies from the womb." And if you had one proof word to pray, but it's
the fact that all of us--eventually--some time or some place--lie.

     Now, you may lie intentionally, or you may lie unintentionally. Some
people--their life, from the cradle to the grave--is just a great big lie.
That's right! There are some people whose lies are just unreal. They lie by a
look. They lie by their manner. They lie by their gesture. They lie by their
clothes. They lie by the way they handle things. There are some people who go
through all of life, just putting on a false, artificial front.

     If there's one thing I can't stand--and there's much in this life I can
stand and had to stand--but I can't stand professionalism in anybody. It makes
me an enemy of half the preachers in this country. If there's anything I can't
stand it's this phony put-on. To me, ice cream is vanilla. There's only one
kind of ice cream--it's vanilla. You say, "You're narrow-minded." Well, that's
the difference between you and me. I think chocolate is frozen dessert. I
don't think it's ice cream. I think ice cream is vanilla.

     I think candy is chocolate. If it's chocolate, it's candy. If it's not
chocolate, it's confectionary, delicattessen, bon bon, something--it's not
candy. Chocolate is candy.

     Potatoes are to be eaten with salt, pepper and butter--baked. Only one
kind of potato.

     You say, "Well, folks like this, different." I know. I'm stretchin' the
thing right now, but what I'm trying to say is, "All of the frills, and all
the extra stuff--no thank you, just give it to somebody else." I don't care
nuthin' about it.

     I know some people come into this life, and their whole life is, why,
their dress is a lie. They're dressed to look like something they're not.
Their look is a lie. They get a look in their face that doesn't express what's
going on inside. Their whole manner of life is a lie.

     They call these lies fabrication. They call it a romance, they call it a
novel. They call it delusion. Lying is a God-defying sin, and there's no sense
in covering it up with a lexicographer's blanket, and calling it something
it's not.

     A lie is a lie.

     Now, we have famous liars in the Bible. In Numbers 23 verse 19, I read,
"God is not a man that he should lie." Do you know what that says? That says
that if it's a man it'll lie. "God is not a man that he should lie, neither
the son of man, that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it?
Hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?"

     Diogenes spent all his life going around trying to find one honest man. I
don't guess he ever found one. He sure wouldn't have found one if he had
looked in the mirror.

     Did you know when we're born in this world, we're born, just born liars?
You are a natural born liar. You say, "How'd I do it?" Well, the first thing
you do, when you come in, you scream. The kid yells. Well, maybe he's more
honest about that. But it isn't that bad.

     Did you ever watch a little baby, when he got mad? A little baby--I mean,
you know, six or seven months. That kid, if he could haul a gun and shoot you,
he'd blow your brains out. Folks say, "My darling little baby?" Yes, your
little darlin'! Your darlin' gets red in the face, and just puffs up, and that
lip comes up----EEEEEEGGGH--that kid would kill you just as quick as look at
you!

     You say, "Not my little boy or girl!" Yes ma'am, your little boy, and
your little girl! They're born that way, brother! Why, you take that baby--
that baby would cry, and cry--liar! liar! There's nothin' wrong with that kid!
Kid get to crying, you know, they look for a cockroach in the crib or
something, a diaper pin stuck in him--there's nothing wrong with that kid!
That kid just wants to be picked up. That kid goes, "AAAAhhh! Aaaaahhh! Awful!
Terrible!" Nah, it ain't that bad.

     Listen, man--they can lie before they can talk! I read in the Bible where
the devil was a murderer from the beginning, and he was a liar, and when he
speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is the father of it. That's what
Jesus says. The devil's a liar.

     Gehazi was a liar--lied to get clothes. Ananias and Sapphira lied. They
wanted people to think they were spiritual. You take the old prophet in 1
Kings chapter 13, he lied to the young prophet, and it cost him his life. You
take Balaam, he lied--he told a half-truth, or a third-truth. You take the
charges against Jesus Christ--they were lies. You talk about a deadly sin,
man! Those lies about Jesus Christ were what sent him to the cross.

     "We found this fellow forbidding to give tribute to Caesar." A lie! That
kind of business!

     Judas was a liar by false impression. Judas didn't come out and lie, but
he said, "How come this money wasn't given to the poor?" See? He gave the
impression he would have done that with the money--he wouldn't have done that
with the money. The Bible says he was a thief and held the bag.

     You take Saul lied by super-piety. Along comes Samuel and says, "Did you
do what God told you to do?"

     "Blessed be the Lord! I have performed the will of the Lord!"--and he
hadn't done it.

     Super piety--a liar.

     Famous liars in the Bible.

     Now, secondly, I want to talk about famous liars in Burlington,
Wisconsin. If you're from Wisconsin, you have the notoriety, or you have the
fame of belonging to a state that hosts the International Liars Club, that
meets in Burlington, Wisconsin, every year. And I didn't write 'em all down,
but I've got seven years of the winning lies they told. And here are the seven
winners.

     One year, one guy--this is a liar's club--one year, in Wisconsin it was
so cold that a dog jumped over a fence and froze in mid air.

     And a guy said, "Why didn't he fall down?"

     The guy said, "It was so cold, the law of gravity was frozen too!" That's
cold, boy!

     Another one said he got shot through the chest, and he said the bullet
entered right where his heart was--a .45 caliber bullet. And they said, "Why
didn't it kill you?"

     He said, "My heart was in my mouth at the time."

     Then one of them said one year, the fastest man in the world would flip
the light switch, and was in the bed before the light went out. And the fellow
who beat him said, "This fellow was so fast he could take a gun and outdraw
his own reflection in a mirror!" That's fast, boy! That's speed, man! Quick
Draw McGraw.

     Then fellow won, he won a prize one year. He was unloading this ship in
the harbor that had a bunch of car motors on it, and he was drowning, and he
was caught between the peer and the ship, going up and down. The third time he
came up, they wouldn't throw him a rope. He said, "If you don't throw me a
rope, I'm gonna drop this 300-pound motor."

     And the biggest one in one year was from Lubbock, Texas. And Lubbock,
Texas, said this fellow had a duck call that was so good he always got the
limit. For example, he had been out the week before and blew this duck call
and shot the limit. But it wasn't any good. And the fellow said, "Why not?" He
said, "Well, only three of the ducks were alive, and the duck call was so good
he got three decoys with the duck." That's a real duck call.

     Then there was this fellow who was so drunk his shadow had the hickups.
And one winter, one won one year by saying that a family had a house burned
down, had a faithful dog that woke him up and got 'em all out of the house in
time, and they were standing there, the house burning down, and they suddenly
saw their beloved dog run back and jump into the burning building and come out
through the blaze. And he came out with the insurance policy in his mouth
wrapped up in a wet towel.

     Now, you get you a dog like that, you got you a good dog, brother! That's
a good dog.

     All right, how do people lie? Well, advertisers lie. Teachers lie.
Preachers lie. Newspapers lie. You have commercial lies. You have social lies.
You have religious lies. You have economic lies. You have domestic lies.

     One of the favorite subjects of cartoonists and jokers is the fellow
coming in the house late at night, trying to pick up some alibi, you know, for
getting in late at night, you know--lied to his wife. Funniest one I ever
heard was a guy came in drunk, and he went and tied a bunch of pots and pans
to his legs. Then, as he crawled upstairs in his stocking feet, he said, "I
know she can't hear me in all this racket!" That's really gettin' tough with
it, brother!

     Now, you take advertisers lie. Teachers lie. Advertisers say, "If you're
out of Schlitz, you're out of beer." No, you're not. You may have Blatz or
Heidelberg or Rutepole or something else. They'll make you think that their
product is the only one that's beer.

     "You're never driven, till you've driven a Suthensa." That's a lie,
you've driven all over the place in all kinds of cars.

     You folks that watch television, you're more susceptible to lying than
anybody in the world, because you get it just day and night and day and night.
I mean, "Duz does everything!" No, it doesn't! I mean, "It's more than a
soap!" No, it ain't! It's a soap! A fellow said, "It's a detergent--it'll eat
up your clothes! If it's a soap, it won't wash your clothes, and if it's a
detergent, it'll eat your clothes up."

     Advertisers lie. They'll lie. They got some of you young people thinking
if you just get rid of your acne, your blemishes, every boy in the school will
be crazy about you. Not necessarily. You witness--you'll blow him out quick.
The advertisers make you think that if you put on the Clairol, you'll have a
bunch of men trail you around, you know--"Only her hairdresser knows, you
know." And only her hairdresser cares, in nine cases out of ten.

     The thing is, they're having you think--they've got you thinking that
sweat is bad in this country. Get your arms all plugged up with shellac where
you can't even sweat, man. I often wonder sometimes, what your forefathers did
that came over here and worked across this country, when the time came for BO
and Right Guard and all that stuff.

     Teachers lie. Teachers say, "The Original Greek says..." It says nothing
of the kind. There isn't a teacher in this world that's ever seen "the
original Greek." Bible teachers say, "The Greek text says"--they're lying,
man. There's no such thing as "the Greek text." There's a Greek text by
Elford, there's one by Westcott and Hort, there's one by Mill, there's one by
Wetstein, there's one by Fail, there's one by Milton, there's one by Erasmus,
there's one by Elzevir, there's one by Tischendorf, there's one by Aland,
there's one by Metzger, there's one by Stephanus--what do you mean, "The Greek
text says..."? He's a liar. He's a liar.

     I was talking about these lying invitations people give, and Brother
Gilbert told me about a case, and, you know, I couldn't mention the fellow's
name in public because Falwell's very sensitive. But anyway, he said he was
talking about a meeting up there where they had an evangelist come in, and got
all these decisions--about 800 decisions--and then Sunday morning, before they
went on television, Falwell gave instructions for all these people to come
down on Sunday morning, who had made decisions during that week. You know what
that looked like? It looked like one message on salvation Sunday morning had
caused 800 people to get saved. That's what you folks thought that watched
television. Why, that thing is crooked when Christians are on it!

     This isn't my video tape, but I'll try to watch my step. Why, you take
that thing right there--the 800 came. Seven hundred of them weren't even for
salvation. You know what that is? That's making and producing a lie!

     Folks call it, "Well, it's just, you know, a good way to help encourage
people to get saved." Don't give me that baloney! I mean, we had one of these
healers come through here, Alsburn, or Ewing, or I don't know--one of these
fakirs--he came through there, and put on a thing. And I had a friend in Bay
Monette, who came down to that meeting, and saw his sister go through the
line, throw away her crutches. And my friend from Bay Monette said to her when
she came to the other end of the line, "You've never been on crutches a day in
your life. What were you doing in that line?"

     And she said, "Easiest $35.00 I ever made!"

     And he said, "Why, you're deceiving people!"

     And she said, "No, that's to encourage them to have faith."

     Yeah.

     Let me tell you something. There isn't an unsaved commercial advertiser
in America that's any more crooked than that.

     Teachers. Teachers.

     If I got an order from these faculty members, I wouldn't have to use a
crate for mailing purposes--I'd just stuff for 'em in a matchbox and send the
thing like a postcard. Little men. Little people.

     You know what The Gospel Witness said about some of them? I'm quoting:
"These preachers and teachers are knaves and pulpit rogues, thrown over their
deceitful breasts. They are clever liars." I didn't write that; this guy from
The Gospel Witness wrote it. "Swindlers who take advantage of the innocent.
Hirelings who hunger for the pelt. They are killers of men, thrusting bayonets
into their souls, killing the young, the frank and the unsuspecting. I could
respect in some grim way the vulgar infidel who blasphemes openly on purpose
and rejoices in his pitiful bellowing, mistaking his blatency for courage. But
the man in the pulpit who insults the Book by which he makes his living, and
denies the infallibility of the Book by which he climbed into the pulpit--I
charge with worse crimes than those which blackened Barabbas or damned Judas
Iscariot."

     Now, what do you think about that?

     Here's a Book by which you got saved, a Book which you claimed is
infallible, a Book by which you make your living. You fellows called to preach-
-you gonna make your living by a Book you don't believe? And stand there in
the pulpit and try to kid the sucker and fool the sucker, and take advantage
of the sucker? Why, Judas Iscariot was decent enough to know he wasn't fit to
live. You ought to got out and hang yourself, and break your rotten neck!

     I got a letter from Timothy Peach over there in Japan a couple years
back, and he said, "Custer and Jones were over here," this was back in '75,
and he said, "They seem to think that Ruckman is the devil incarnate." That's
OK with me. I don't care. You know why those fellows think that? Because I
think just what this fellow wrote right here. I believe that. I believe that
any man does a thing like that is guilty of worse crimes than those which
blackened Barabbas or damned Judas Iscariot.

     Teacher or a preacher, stealing the faith of young men and young women in
the word of God--and then professing to preach it and professing to teach it.
Nuts to him! I don't care if he's your father!

     I was up in Rochester, and somebody said to me, "You know the new video
game they got?" And I said, "What's that?" I said, "Is it Pacman?" He said,
"No, it's Ruckman." I said, "What's Ruckman?" He says, "This little Bible
believer chasing these professors all over this board." He said, "He chases
them all over this board and gobbles them up. When he does, he just spits them
back out." OK with me. I don't mind if they think that about me. It's OK with
me. Just about what I feel like doin' with 'em.

     I'll tell you something else that'll lie. The Associated Press will lie.
They'll lie intentionally. The Associated Press will lie about the problems in
North Ireland and South Ireland. They'll lie every day, every week, every
month, every year. They'll lie about the results of segregation and
integration. They'll lie, they'll lie, they'll lie.

     I was on the radio, I was on the telephone the other day for an hour and
a half on a radio broadcast with a colored fellow up in North Someplace. They
phoned me in and got one of these cable things, you know, debate and stuff.
And he was talking about the good effects, you know, of everybody having equal
training. I was quoting the figures on what happened in the public schools
since 1964. And he was trying to deny the statistic, and say you couldn't
count on them. I said, they're just as good as your opinion. I mean, I don't
say that everybody who puts out the statistics is telling the truth; I don't
say they're infallible; but they're just as good as an opinion. The guy's done
research. Telling you integration works--it's never worked anywhere in this
country. Don't you Yankees come down and kid me; I'll go up to Detroit. I go
to Philadelphia. Don't you kid me. I know where the colored end of town and
the white end of town. Don't kid me. You go kid somebody else, brother! I know
where they are in Dayton, down there across the bridge from where Holiday Inn
is. I know where they're at. Don't kid me! It never worked anywhere. Some of
you folks are gettin' too quiet! You got a prejudice! You got a prejudice! You
think I got one; you got one!

     Listen, the newspapers will lie about the United Nations. You know how
many votes America has in the United Nations? One vote. You know how many
Lichtenstein has? One vote. You know how big Lichtenstein is? It's not as big
as the state of Vermont. They vote against the United States. You know how
many votes Russia has? Three. How come the newspapers don't make more of that?
Suppose you objected to the Korean airliner shot down; suppose you didn't
object; you're outvoted three-to-one as soon as you open your mouth.

     Why don't the newspapers start a big campaign and run it for ten years,
on "Let's Got Out of the U.N." That would be a beautiful thing. Feature
articles: "And now we take you here," "And now who do you think," "And now
what do you think?" "And now here's so-and-so." And just keep it up for ten
years until you get out.

     The Associated Press will lie about a conservative politician. I was
around when they were getting ready to run Wallace for president before they
shot him. I know what they said about him. I was around when they tried to run
Goldwater for president. I know what they said about them. I've been around
every time they try to run a conservative for president. I know what they've
been saying about Reagan since he got in. I'm no Republican; I'm a Christian.
And I'll tell you one thing, though. The time I've been alive, that's the only
President I saw get in that tried to do what he said he'd do. That fellow
actually made an effort. I like those fellows that make effort. I don't think
he'll make it, but he's sure got a good effort.

     And the paper will lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.

     Then you have unintentional lying. It's possible to lie when you don't
mean to lie. "How are you?"

     "Fine, thank you. And how are you?"

     Isn't that how folks say? "How are you?"

     "Well, I'm fine, thank you." You're about two steps from the undertaker,
you know. You got a headache, you know, or a bellyache; you about to fall
over, you just lost your job. "How are you?"

     "Fine, thank you. How are you?"

     Folks say, "Everywhere up and down this country they're taught to say,
'Have a nice Day. Have a nice Day.'" I wish somebody would get a variation of
that, you know. It would be refreshing to hear a fellow say, "Have a lousy
day." You know. "It sure is a lousy day, isn't it?"

     A fellow said, "How's the world treating you? How's the world treating
you?"

     I tell 'em, "Rotten. Rotten." I say, "The Lord's treatin' me pretty good,
but the world isn't treatin' me good."

     Folks: "How's the work goin'?" I ask pastors.

     "Oh, fine. Fine." It's about two weeks from folding up, you know.

     There's unintentional lyin'. You take the members of Seventh-day
Adventist Church and the Church of Christ and the Jehovah's Witness and the
Mormons and those people--I've dealt with those people for years and years and
years, and the most I've dealt with them, the more I'm convinced that most of
those people don't really believe what they tell you they believe. You pin the
guy right down, you'll find somewhere he received Jesus Christ and put his
faith in the blood--somewhere--not all of 'em. But I'd say half of 'em. And
they get up there and put out that stuff--they don't know what they're saying.
Some kind of a mental problem, or something.

     People can lie unintentionally. You can lie unintentionally when you fill
out forms. They ask you some stupid question, you don't know the answer to it.
You can't figure the thing out; you do the best you can.

     You take, intentional lyin', that's done by men who are after money. A
fellow said, "America is a country full of liars." The country doesn't lie.
The cow doesn't lie; the milk bucket lies. The fruit tree doesn't lie; it's
the basket full of fruit that lies.

     I never will--I'm gonna git him some day, if I find the stand where I
bought 'em at--but I bought some good hard sour winesap apples up in North
Carolina last September. And I got home, and that basket with them things,
took off that top row, and everything down there was old soft, mealy,
Jonathans. And what he sold me, he sold me a basket full of winesaps--and it
wasn't a basket full of winesaps. You see, the package lied. The bushel basket
lied.

     You buy a box of cereal--well squeeze it right there, and it's up to
there. I mean, the regular size is half full, you know. And the giant size is
that full, and the super giant is up to there, see? But none of them are full.
The package lies.

     Did you ever buy a candy bar that's wrapped with a little piece of
cardboard on the bottom of it? Don't buy 'em. That ain't candy; that's
cardboard. And a fellow will take--oh yeah, man! I mean, this is my specialty--
spottin' phonies. And you take that piece of cardboard like that, and it's got
three pieces of chocolate on it, and they wrap paper around that thing, and
there's a space there, and a space there, and a space between each piece of
chocolate. You're buying 20 percent paper when you're buying that thing. You
know what that is? Lyin'.

     I bought a Bible the other day, you know, and it said, "Genuine leather,"
you know--"genuine leather, Morocco bound." I looked at that thing--it was
about like this here--and I thought to myself, "Now how could that be genuine
leather?" And I got me a little knife and scraped off in place here--and it
was leather. It was sprayed on there. The guy had--they take this leather, and
grind the stuff up in little ol' particles, and then put glue on there, and
blow that stuff on there. That's your genuine leather. Christians. Baker Book
House. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Good ol' Pat Zondervan, bless your heart,
brother!

     You take this thing here--how many of you have a Bible that's coming
apart at Genesis and Revelation? Would you raise your hand? You suppose that's
a coincidence? How is it that 200 people's Bibles all come apart in the same
place--don't you know? Did you ever look at the binding on a book? You'll find
those things in sections. And almost every commercial Bible sold in that
market is so put together that the first and last section are not bound to the
back of that thing. And they tear--they come off.

     You say, "What is that?" Lyin'. That's fraud. That's fraud.

     Folks will lie to you. "I can get it for $400 down the street." Well,
maybe you can, and maybe you can't. You're just saying that to get the guy to
put his price down. The Bible says, "It is nought, it is nought, saith the
buyer. But when he goeth his way, he boasteth." I mean, the guy's buying the
stuff, and he says, "That ain't worth $20. That almond? I'll give you fifteen
dollars for that. That ain't worth twenty. It ain't worth fifteen!" Buys it
for ten. Goes back, "Boy, man, look what I got, man, that thing's worth forty
dollars!" It's lying.

     When I come into a gas station I see, "$1.04," and "$1.10," and drive in
there and find $1.10 is regular, and the $1.04 is diesel, I drive out. Don't
you know what he's trying to do? He's trying to make you think the first price
is regular and the second price is ethyl--is unleaded. He gave you diesel
price to get you in there on the regular, and then jacked it--yes sir, boy,
yes sir.

     I've been known to go to those places in the rain. And when the guy came
out to pump, I waited till he got outside, and then drove off and left him in
the rain. I mean, you say, "You're so mean, Ruckman!" No, the dirty rascal has
no business trying to con me, I don't like to be conned!

     Sometimes people lie unintentionally, but that stuff's intentional. I
mean, unintentionally: "I'll see you tonight." Well, you mean, "Lord willing,
I'll see you tonight!" you know.

     I'll tell you one. "I love you." How about that one? You know, when I was
a boy, we had a song that said, "Be sure it's true, when you say 'I love you.'
It's a sin to tell a lie. Millions of hearts have been broken just because
these words are spoken. 'I love you, yes I do; if you break my heart, I'll
die'--so be sure it's true when you say 'I love you.' It's a SIN to lie!"

     That was our popular music. It was unregenerate, but it's sure above
yours, ain't it, kid?

     I'll bet you haven't got many songs talking about being a sin to say
that. You say, "Why do you say that?" Well, you influence somebody. If you
don't mean it, you're influencing them in the wrong way. Men find that out
real quick. They find out women are subject to flattery. You want to get what
you want, just tell 'em you love 'em. Love 'em and leave 'em. That's the
world. "We're goin' to hell; we're a bunch of drunks. We're a bunch of--" even
though those days it was hard to lie. I had a terrible time lyin'. We'd just
go out and get drunk. I'm not recommending that to you; I'm talking about the
unsaved life. But be straight.

     All right, one time a fellow was talking to a man, and he said, his wife
was called home and went home to Heaven. And the guy said, "That's too bad."

     Then he realized that implied sorry went to Heaven, so he said, "I mean,
that's fine." Then he thought, "Well, I don't want to say it's fine for a
guy's wife to die." So he said, "I mean, uh, oh really?"

     And that shows you how people can get hung up. You can say something, you
know, you could tell a lie without meaning to tell a lie. But most of it's
deliberate.

     Now, how about the magnitude of the sin? Well, a lie is one of those
things that has degrees to it. If there are degrees of sin, a lie has degrees.
But one of the worst lies in the world is a lie that's three-quarters the
truth.

     You take, when the devil wanted to mess up Eve, he said, "You'll be as
gods." True. "Your eyes will be opened"--true. "You'll know good and evil."
True. "You won't die"--false! What he gave that woman was three-quarters the
truth, and it destroyed her.

     You have lies that begin little ol' lies, what they call "little white
lies." And they go up there, to where you have big lies like the Pope parading
around and acting like a Christian. I mean, those are the biggest lies of all.
One time I sat down and I said to myself, "Well, Ruckman, whatever you know
about history, if you know anything--and maybe you don't know much--but if you
know anything about history, who would you say were the few men that did the
most damage of any other men?" I wrote 'em down. I've got one, two, three,
four, five, six, seven unsaved liars. I've got seven saved liars. And these
fourteen fellows have probably done more damage to the human race than any
other bunch of people combined, that ever have lived or ever will live.

     Darwin--when that fellow said, "Men came from animals," he did an
incalculable amount of damage that you couldn't even estimate.

     Ingalls and Marx--saying the trouble is economic. The trouble is the
heart--not the economy. Once you think the economy is the trouble, you try to
straighten out the economy, you get the nations and the mess they're in.

     Einstein--Einstein said, "It's relative." "It's relative." "It's
relative." So you teach your boys and girls that sin is relative. And holiness
is relative. And purity is relative. And crime is relative. You teach 'em sex
perversion is one lifestyle, and dopeheaded fornications is another lifestyle.
That comes from Einstein. The damage those men have done to generations of
people unborn, you couldn't estimate.

     Sigmund Freud--it's all based on sex. It's all based on sex. It's all
based on sex. It's not all based on sex. The instinct to self-preservation is
greater than the instinct to self-propagation--as anybody knows who's got any
sense.

     Haeckel--evolution. And the unsaved popes. What the unsaved pope did for
humanity, I wouldn't care to say.

     Among those who profess to be Christians, profess to be saved:

     Origen in Alexandria, who started all this newer manuscript, better bible
stuff. Origen. From Origen you find the heresy that a pastor should be called
a priest. From Origen you can find the heresy that a fellow burns for awhile
and then gets right in the afterlife. From Origen you find the teaching that
everybody's going to get saved finally--including the devil. Damage--damage of
the mind, damage to generations, damage to churches, damage in 1400, 1500,
1600, 1700, 1800, and 2000 if the Lord tarries.

     Plato--Plato's Republic, teaching children ought to be raised by the
state. Teaching the family should have convenient marriages for purpose of
state, and nobody tell anybody what to do, and the state raise the children.
Dirty dog. Dirty rotten dog. Influencing the HEW and the American Congressmen--
still in effect after 2100 years.

     Augustine--damage incalculable, teaching you had a right to persecute
people who wouldn't baptize babies. Teaching you had a right to imprison
people and attack people who didn't believe in infant baptism. If you had the
blood of all the martyrs shed in the Dark Ages, all that blood could be laid
just about to the hands of one man--a professing Christian. "Woe be to the
world because of offenses. It must be that offenses come, but woe be to that
man by whom they come."

     Westcott and Hort--all the modern, corrupt bibles in 100 years come from
two Englishmen, Westcott and Hort.

     The unsaved popes--Jerome, Philip Schaff. The fruit of those fellows'
lies is incalculable.

     I'll tell you a big lie. I'll give you a whopper. You ready? "All men are
created equal." That's one of the most hellish lies that came out of the pit.
There isn't anybody in this building created equal. Go ask the doctor if
you've got the same genes and chromosomes as anybody sitting next to you. If
you do, check the fingerprints. All this stuff--"All men are created equal"--
you couldn't get a bigger lie hatched out of hell if you thought about it.

     How many of you were born to a home where both parents were unsaved? Let
me see your hands. How many of you were born at home where both parents were
saved? Let me see your hands. How many of you were born at home where one
parent was saved? Let me see your hands. Well, what do you mean "equal"? You
didn't have an equal chance to get saved when you got born.

     Ask the folks that are raised now in China and Africa and Russia if they
have the gospel opportunities you have here. They're not born equal! Some of
you are born with talent--some of you are born with no talent at all.

     How many of you were born in a rich home? Let me see your hands. Four or
five of us--we've got five of 'em here. How many were born in a poor home, let
me see your hands? How many were born in a desperately poor home, poverty
stricken? There you go. About ten of them. What do you mean, you're born
equal? Cock-eyed, ravenous, Communist nonsense--nobody's born equal.

     I'll tell you another one--a good lie. "Socialism will bring peace on
earth." It never has. It never has in one country where it's ever been tried.
"Communism will solve all man's economic problems." Earl Stanley Jones said
the Communist political system is the only system that takes the Christian
position. Can you get the folks in Afghanistan to believe that? Or the folks
in Red China? "Communism will solve the world's economic programs?" Brethren,
let me tell you something, if we weren't sending wheat to Russia right now,
they'd starve. Doesn't work anywhere.

     Another great big lie: "Integration is Christian. Segregation is not."
Where's you get that from? You didn't get it out of the Bible. You got that
out of some public policy someplace, or some book you read.

     I'll tell you a great big lie. "People are basically good." There's one.
Well, that's a lie! Basically, folks is bad! You have to have a sign--"Keep
Off the Grass." You have to have a sign--"Forty Miles an Hour." You have to
have a sign: "Beware the Dog." You have to have a sign: "No Trespassers." You
know why? Because people are just naturally bad.

     There are two philosophies of education. One of them is, the little
kiddies are just wonderful; let them express themselves; let them do what they
want to, because everything in them's good, and if you just 'em fly away and
do what they want to, they'll just be fine. That's one philosophy.

     The other philosophy is, "The kid's a rascal. You better keep an eye on
him, he'll break out somebody's window! You better watch him; if he does
wrong, you better punish him, so he won't do wrong again!"

     People are basically good--it isn't true. It isn't true.

     Another lie, great big lie, right out of hell: "No one has a right to be
anti-Catholic." I hear folks say, "He's anti-Catholic." Well, excellent! Fine!
Let's have some more of them!

     We certainly have some anti-Communists, don't we? Don't we have some anti-
capitalists, don't we? Why, sure we do. Don't we have some anti-evolutionists?
Let's have a few anti-Catholics; it would be a better place to live in.

     Folks say, "Well, it's just wrong to be that way." You don't know what
you're talking about! You don't know what you're talking about. You're just
giving the standpoint of a bigoted, dogmatic religious thing that you picked
up from someplace. You don't believe that. Just lie.

     "Well I hear Ruckman said"--oh you might have, and you might not. I'm
quoted all over this country. "Ruckman teaches"--you don't know what Ruckman
teaches. You don't know what I teach unless you hear some of those tapes, sit
down with a pair of earphones, and write down what I taught. Write the thing
down, if you want to be sure of it. Nobody has to go far to hang. They don't
have to go around and say, "Ruckman said," and he didn't say something he
said. Why, all you got to do is play the thing for the guy if he wants to hear
it!

     Somebody came down here to school this year, last year, and said, "He
heard that they don't have any women in Ruckman's church, because Ruckman so
hard-women, they don't have any women in the congregation." Boy, if I was one
of you ladies, I'd resent that! Boy, they sure took your sex away from you--no
women in this congregation. If I didn't have some women in this congregation
this morning, I don't know what I'm lookin' at!

     I'll tell you, the Judgment will demonstrate who did what, and what they
said, and why they said it. Don't quote 'em unless you're sure of 'em.

     I'm writing a church history, and I found three places I have no evidence
for in documented evidence. I could bluff my way through. I'm gonna bluff my
way through; I'm gonna write down, "I couldn't find the documented evidence
for this statement." Let the fellow go ahead and strangle with it. Tell the
truth. Put away lying. Speak the truth to your neighbor.

     Some lies are ferocious lies. Some lies will damn your soul. People tell
you Christ wasn't virgin born, Christ didn't die on the cross, Christ didn't
rise up from the dead--they'll damn your soul. People tell you you can get
saved with those sacraments--they'll damn your soul. Some lies are murderous
things--they're terrible things, they're awful things. They're things much
worse than advertising gasoline by the wrong price, and advertising hairdos,
and advertising bow ties, and women jeans--there's something a lot worse than
that.

     A fellow will tell you you can get saved by doing the best you can--you
can't. A fellow will tell you you can get saved by taking the sacraments--
you'll go to hell and take your sacraments with you. Every now and then some
fellow makes up a little lie to kid somebody, and it turns out to be a
disaster. I know of a case in a Christian camp, where they put a dead
rattlesnake in a fellow's bed. And he had a heart attack and died. And it
wasn't a live rattlesnake; it was a dead one. That was a lie. See, the fellow
made him think it was a live rattlesnake, and it was a dead one.

     In Shawnee, Oklahoma--and I'll close with this--in Shawnee, Oklahoma,
several years ago, a terrible thing happened. A preacher named--I think it was
C.L. Heard, he was 38 years old--was coming back from his church at night in a
station wagon, had his wife and two children with him. And he sailed out in
the highway and got hit broadside, and killed him instantly. His wife, broke
both her arms and both her legs--both his children had to go to the emergency
treatment at the hospital. And the driver of the other car had to go to the
emergency room, got hit. You know what happened there? A bunch of guys--young
fellows, about 14 or 15--decided to have a little fun--and they went down
there and moved the stop sign from that street, where that street entered the
highway, and took it out. And that fellow came through there, he went right on
through the street out into the highway and got hit broadside. They found the
sign removed and put back up the road there about half a mile. Those kids
through that was real funny.

     There was nothing funny about killing a man and crippling his wife, and
injuring two little children. You know what those fellows did? They loved to
make a lie. Said, "This is funny. This is a joke. We'll just move this sign.
And make this fellow think he doesn't have to stop here, when he does." That's
a lie. It turned out to be a disaster.

     And you fellows that are called to preach, let me admonish you, man. When
you finally do get into the pulpit anywhere in this country, whether that
pulpit be in a jail or a hospital or out in a street or a mission home or a
youth center or a rescue mission, or a servicemen's center, when you get up
there to deliver that truth--don't you lie! Don't you tell 'em you believe
that Book when you don't. And whatever you do, if you value your life and your
soul, don't you get up there and tell them the way to get saved that winds to
hell. Don't you give 'em a false way of salvation. You tell the truth.

     Whether they like you or not. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against
thy neighbor."

     All right. Father, bless the message this morning. Lord, help these
people to see the truth of this matter. And, Father, if there's somebody here
this morning that's unsaved, I pray they might see the false way and the way
called death, the broad way that seemeth right unto a man. May they see the
narrow way, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the One who is the way, the truth, and
the life, and trust Him as their Saviour. Not be deceived by lies. Not respond
to lies, but respond to the truth. And, Lord, this hour we pray the Holy
Spirit might impress the truth upon their heart, while we're in prayer, and
help them respond by the grace of God.

     Now let's remain in prayer just a little while. I'd like every Christian
in this building to search your heart, go back over the last 24 hours, last 2
weeks. If you haven't kept your account straight with God. Sometimes we forget
these things. You ask God to forgive you for any false impressions you may
have made, or false impressions you tried to cultivate, or false impressions
you cherished. I know most of you confess your sins daily and plead the blood.
But sometimes these things slip us. Sometimes we lie in manner and action, and
without lying in word. We lie in deed. You go back through. See if there's
been any pretense. Pretend like you were mad when you weren't. Pretend like
you knew something when you didn't know it.

     Now, Lord, we recognize the blood of your Son, Jesus Christ, cleanses us
from all sin. We confess before this morning we're needy sinners. And we're
sinners--no doubt about it. We're thankful we're saved sinners. We want to put
away lies and speak the truth to our neighbor. Just lay it out. Lord, we know
we don't always have to lay it out. We don't have to hurt anybody's feelings
with the truth. Sometimes a truth withheld is a wise thing. Like you told your
disciples, they weren't able to bear it now. But where the truth must be told,
and has to be told, then help us to tell the truth. And Lord, help us to be
harder on ourselves than we are on our friends in Christ. And more honest with
ourselves, Lord, than they are with us. By the grace of God.



