Do Not Bear False Witness
The Ten Commandments • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
I found a list of what we might refer to as "Little White Lies."
The check is in the mail.
I’ll start my diet tomorrow.
We service what we sell.
Give me your number and the doctor will call you right back.
Money cheerfully refunded.
One size fits all.
This offer limited to the first 100 people who call in.
Your luggage isn’t lost, it’s only misplaced.
Leave your resume and we’ll keep it on file.
This hurts me more than it hurts you.
I just need five minutes of your time.
Your table will be ready in a few minutes.
Open wide, it won’t hurt a bit.
Let’s have lunch sometime.
It’s not the money, it’s the principle.
The list reminds me of the Store Manager who overheard his clerk talking to a customer.
A store manager heard his clerk tell a customer, “No, ma’am, we haven’t had any for a while, and it doesn’t look as if we’ll be getting any soon.”
Horrified, the manager came running over to the customer and said, “Of course we’ll have some soon. We placed an order last week.”
Then the manager drew the clerk aside. “Never,” he snarled, “Never, never, never say we’re out of anything—say we’ve got it on order and it’s coming.
Now, what was it she wanted?”
“Rain,” said the clerk.
Lying is so ingrained in our minds that we buy and consume lies every day. It is expected. We buy products that promise to do certain things, and we eat certain foods that promise to perform miracles, yet we have just learned to accept all of these lies.
We lie because it seems reasonable and convenient. We tell our children lies to get them to obey.
Have you ever heard the phrase “what’s true for me may not be true for you?”
There is something very wrong with that thinking. If something is true, it must, by definition, be true for everyone.
Philosophers suggest that there is no absolute truth. A quick Google search on the nature of truth can be quite disheartening.
Richard McKay Rorty was an American philosopher and historian of ideas, said, “Truth is made, not found.”
Friedrich Nietzsche has quite a long definition for truth, but I have distilled it down to this. He says, “What then is truth?… Truths are illusions which we have forgotten are illusions.”
If there is no truth then all we are left with is lies.
Clearly, our society has so confused truth that we don’t know the truth from the lie. Therefore, we must find the truth somewhere if we are to understand it.
The Bible tells us that God cannot lie, and since the Bible is God’s word, if we want to seek truth from a lie, the final and only real source is found here.
Let’s look at our verse again.
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
False = deception, misleading falseness
Neighbor = this is not just your immediate neighbor, it is anyone else you happen to come in contact with.
In ancient Israelite law, a person’s guilt or innocence was judged based on testimony by faithful witnesses. It was literally a matter of life and death.
“On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.
If a person is untruthful or a false witness, their testimony undermines justice.
We see examples of this with Jesus and Stephen.
Jesus was the subject of people falsely accusing Him before the chief priest and council
Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any.
For many were giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent. Some stood up and began to give false testimony against Him, saying,
“We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.’ ” Not even in this respect was their testimony consistent.
Stephen was accused falsely before he was stoned to death.
They put forward false witnesses who said, “This man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the Law;
Justice was undermined with the false witnesses against Jesus and again with Stephen
Proverbs says this about false testimony.
Like a club and a sword and a sharp arrow Is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor.
A false witness will cause the innocent to suffer and even die.
Is the ninth commandment just about the Judicial system and false testimony? No!
This verse is more inclusive than just the judicial system. Lev. 19:11 links both false testimony and lying together.
‘You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.
Where did false testimony or lying all begin?
Where did false testimony or lying all begin?
It began with Satan in the Garden of Eden. Gen. 3:4
The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!
What happened? Adam and Eve, died spiritually immediately, then they would eventually die physically.
John 8:44, speaking about Satan says,
Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
God Calls lying and abomination. Prov 6:16-17
There are six things which the Lord hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood,
Application
Most of us understand the potential damage of a bold face lie, but we all have lied in subtle ways that can be just as damaging.
The More Subtle Lies
What are some deceptive ways we lie that ultimately lead to destruction?
Gossip
Gossip
Gossip - a person who spreads rumors or idle, fruitless tales.
Gossip is listed among the common sins of the last days.
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
1 Timothy 5:13, describes gossips as busybodies the speak about improper things.
A study indicates that the average person spends 52 minutes a day gossiping.
I like what Joyce Meyer says in regard to gossip. She says Christians are often the worst when it comes to gossip. They gossip about so-and-so and then turn it into a prayer request.
“Did you hear about Sally? I saw here with this guy and she was probably doing things that a good Christian girl shouldn’t do. I know I wouldn’t. What would her momma say? We should really pray for her so she can become more like Jesus, like us.”
Slander
Slander
Slander - a malicious statement designed to injure the person of whom it is said.
‘You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor; I am the Lord.
Social Media is huge a platform for this today.
Our news channels do this.
Slander is spoken about fellow believers among churchgoers.
Slander can quickly kill and destroy lives, and once spoken, it is difficult to overcome. There have been many careers and lives destroyed because of slanderous lies.
Deceit
Deceit
Deceit - is a deliberate misrepresentation of the truth.
I immediately think of Ananias and Sapphira when it comes to deceit.
Ananias and Sapphira lied about the price they received for their property when they claimed to be giving all of it to the church (Acts 5).
We are deceitful with our Fish Stories. Fish stories are almost expected…
“Man, you should have seen that fish! It had to be a record-sized bass; I bet it would have been a Guinness World Record, it was so big. But it just got away from me.”
We are deceitful when we claim to have been part of something, even though we were not.
Military - Mary and I will start a conversation with someone who claims to have been in the military, and at times, she will give me a look that says, this guy is full of it… he is stating things that are inconsistent and deceitful.
Sports
I could say, “I caught a touchdown from Mark Rypien back when I played football.”
This is true, but if I left it at that, it could make it seem that I played college or pro football with Mark Rypien, when in reality, it was at a High School football practice, and I was a coach whom Mark was trying to help out.
Etc.
Let me conclude by clarifying the problem and offering a solution.
The Problem
When we lie, we mimic Satan, the Father of Lies.
Satan promotes lying for a specific purpose. When lying becomes the accepted norm, truth ceases to exist.
Robert Mohler said - If there is no truth, there are no lies. If there is no truth, there is no God. If there is no lie, there is no sin. If there is no sin, there is no Gospel—it is all a lie.
The Solution
As believers, we are in Christ. We are to model and emulate Christ in all we do. Philippians 2:5, says we are to take on the mind of Christ. If you are a believer, you are no longer to be controlled by the old self. We have a new nature in Christ.
Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,
Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
As we practice in speaking truth to one another, Psalm 141:3, is a great verse to pray.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.
Let’s Pray.
