Throughout the Bible and the history of mankind, God has always bestowed blessings on those who were honest. For those who were dishonest, history and the Bible shows that they have been and are in big trouble. I don't know of many things that God takes as seriously as truth and honesty. His Name is Truth. Not bearing false witness is one of the 10 commandments.

Most people cannot appreciate the value of being honest.

In order to appreciate truth and honesty, one must peer into the invisible world to see how things really operate.

Truth brings God on the scene; deception brings Satan on the scene!

God has a lot to say about the truth.

Ps 145:18 says, "The LORD is near all those who call on Him, all those who call on Him in truth."

Ps. 15:2 says, "Who shall dwell with God -He that walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart."

Ps. 25:10 says, "All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies."

Ps. 33:4 says, "For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth."

Ps. 51:6 says, "Behold, thou desires truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom."

Ps. 85:10 says, "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other."

Ps 85:11 says, "Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven."

Ps. 91:4 says, "He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall trust. His truth shall be your shield, and buckler."

Pr. 12:19 says, "The lips of truth shall be established forever, but only while I wink is a lying tongue."

Pr 23:23 says, "Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding."

Ex. 18:21 says, "Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth…"

Ex. 34:6 says, "And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth…"

Joshua 24:14 says, "Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth."

1Samuel 12:24 says, "Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you."

John 4:23 says, "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him."

John 4:24 says, "God is a spirit, and they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth."

John 8:32 says, "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

John 14:17 says, "…the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him nor know Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and shall be in you."

John 15:26 says, "And when the Comforter has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He shall testify of Me."

John 16:13 says, "However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatever He hears, He shall speak. And He will announce to you things to come."

John 17:17 says, "Sanctify them through Your truth. Your Word is truth."

Rom 1:25 says, "For they changed the truth of God into a lie, and they worshiped and served the created thing more than the Creator, who is blessed forever."

2 Thessalonians 2:10 says, "…in those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, so that they might be saved."

2 Thessalonians 2:12 says, "…so that all those who do not believe the truth, but delight in unrighteousness, might be condemned."

Revelation 22 13 says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Blessed are they who do His commandments, that their authority will be over the Tree of Life, and they may enter in by the gates into the city. But outside are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and makes a lie."

God makes an oath to you and me that He will not lie.

Have you ever seen someone in a courtroom raise their right hand, put their left hand on the Bible and say, "I swear to tell the truth."? They are taking an oath that they will not lie. They are giving the courtroom a guarantee backed up by the Bible that they will not lie.

Hebrews 6:13-19 says that Jesus, the Creator of the Universe, is standing before you right now, with His right hand lifted in covenant oath and His left hand on Himself, swearing that His promises to you are true and He will guarantee them with His life. He will give His life as a deposit to you, a ransom, that if they are not true, He will be killed. That is the best type of guarantee one could have, because Jesus cannot be killed again!

"For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself, saying, 'Surely in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply you.' And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men truly swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. In this way desiring to declare more fully to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, God interposed by an oath, so that by two immutable (fixed, unalterable) things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil…" (Hebrews 6:13-19)

He cannot lie! The Blood Covenant is the guarantee!

God did this for Abraham in Genesis 15. He will do it for you. He is not a respecter of persons.

God told Abraham that he would become a great nation of people. He told him that his descendants would be as the stars and as the sand, more than he could count. The problem was, that Abraham was childless. His wife Sarah was barren. How could God be making such a promise? Abraham did what I would do. He asked God how could he be sure of this.

To prove to Abraham that He was not lying, God responded by cutting a blood covenant, the strongest type of agreement or oath that could take place. It was more than a contract; it was an actual exchange of lives and blood. God was to guarantee His promise by taking an oath.

When we promise to make our car payment to the bank, the bank says, "How do we know you will make the payments?" And you say, "I will give you my car (the title) as the warranty, the guarantee, the oath, so that if my promise is no good, you can take the car."

Well, God could find nothing more valuable to give as a warranty than Himself, so He swore on Himself.

How? One such covenant was defined in Genesis 15. In the typical blood covenant, they would cut animals in half to make a trench of blood. Then each party could walk down the trench in the blood signifying that he was promising his life if the promise were to ever break. In this arrangement God would never break His promise. But what about Abraham? He was just a man, from the race of Adam, subject to sin and lying. And indeed Abraham did fail, and lied several times. Did this annul the covenant? No. Why?

God guaranteed that He would not lie. But He also guaranteed that if we lied, He would get the death penalty.

Genesis 15:8-12 says, "And he said, 'Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?' And he said unto him, 'Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.' And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him."

Notice that Abraham did not walk through the trench, but God put him to sleep after he had chased away the birds of prey. A great darkness and fear oppressed Abraham in a dream and God spoke and promised him some additional things. After some time, two objects passed through the bloody trench, a smoking oven and a flaming torch. Abraham did not go through, but God walked through on his behalf. The covenant is actually between God and God, but Abraham gets the benefit and the blessing! It cannot be broken if Abraham hangs on long enough.

Here are some definitions from Genesis 15 that are interesting.

The word lamp or torch means to destroy, to perish, a burning supernatural fire, a theophany (an Old Testament appearance of Jesus).

The phrase smoking oven means God's wrath, a portable fire.

God knew that Abraham, and you and I, would not be perfect in truth, that we would be false in some of our ways. He also knew that this would get us the death penalty.

So He went ahead and died for us in advance. Now we can connect with the blessings by being honest, truthful and meeting the other conditions of His promises.

There are some conditions to some of His promises:

Abraham had to chase away the birds of prey. This is like Satan trying to steal the seeds of God's Word in Luke 8. Deceitfulness of riches, lusts for things, unbelief, lying, selfishness, cares of this life all come to steal the promise of the seed of God's Word and promise. But those who have an honest heart bear much fruit and inherit the promise. Notice in Luke 8 it did not say those who were always perfect, but those who were honest.

1.         The first problem is that some of us cannot hear Him speak His promises because we are not living in truth. In order to pick up God's frequencies we must tune into the station called TRUTH. God is always broadcasting on this station, but we must be in truth in order to pick up His Words.

2.         The next problem is that we don't trust Him long enough to inherit His promises even if we do hear Him speak. Hebrews 6:15 says, "And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise."

If God cannot lie, then can you believe this one?

If you can believe that your sin is removed, then you are in line for a blessing. Curses come on sin; blessings come on the righteous. If you can believe this and walk in truth, you will be blessed.

1 John 1:5-10 says, "And this is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light (truth), and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light (truth), as He is in the light (truth), we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive (forgive means to cut away and remove them from us as if we never had them at all, this includes lying) us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."

1 John 2:1-4 says, "My little children, I write these things to you so that you do not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is the propitiation concerning our sins, and not concerning ours only, but also concerning the sins of all the world. And by this we know that we have known Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, I have known Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

Revelation 21:8 says, "But the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, will have their part in the Lake burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

I am not saying that one lie will get you into Hell, but any kind of untruth or lie will bring some sort of hell on you.