The Ninth Commandment
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How many of you have never told a lie? In our society, truth telling seems to be a dying virtue… We are surrounded by deception, Novels. TV, Movies, Newspapers, The Enquirer, video games, and California the plastic surgery capital of the world. We find so many things that we thought were real, but in all actually found it to be fake. Continued deception with marriages, relationships, family members, lying to parents, lying to kids, and lying to ourselves. We also live in a society where it is getting difficult to tell the difference between what is real and what is fantasy. We are directed by stories that may not be true or may not be complete. We hear stories of victory without the agony of defeat. We hear of the success stories without the stories of countless failures before it. We hear of tales that lead us to the ever feel good … “and they lived happily ever after” and today many of us are still trying to experience it. There is so much deception in business and employment that contracts have to be signed. Marriage vows are not enough anymore that nuptial agreements need to be drawn up. Politicians make promises to people in order to get their vote and after they get into office the go back on the promise only to make promises again to secure the vote when it is re-election time. Some business thrives on deception… and it has gotten so bad that “guarantees” are needed to be made. And some companies make it extremely difficult to get the money back. We now depend so much on reviewers before we buy now. But now companies are making their own review sites and communications. Scams, Scams, and more scams… continue on the phone, in the mail, in the internet, a downright lie veiled by a promise without the intent of being kept. Science has a history of deception … in order to prove their point they make up stories… Piltdown man the fake ape-man to make a case for evolution.
The culture is even trying to redefine things in order to veil the lies. Even lies are starting to be called “true statements that are contradictory.” People are no longer here illegally, they are just undocumented. People lie today and we say that they are telling the truth. Even when we are caught in a lie, we insist that we are not lying. The truth problem to day is out of control. But it always has been. There is always a sense that lying is inevitable and always telling the truth is impossible. Again, this is not the continued progress of political correctness and philosophy. All of this stuff is direct rebellion against God and His truth.
Lets now be really honest… this kind of deception happens within the walls of the Church. Fraud, Embezzlement, Jet airplanes and investments hidden from the church membership, Deception in finances, Deception by television, deception on the radio, and especially promises of health wealth and prosperity based on the scriptures that promise nothing of the sort. These are just plain LIES. Sin is called mistakes, Hell is called figurative, wrath of God is called OT, and Jesus is our homeboy. Deception continues. And finally lets not forget that it was deception that lead Adam and Eve to Fall.
Lets not lie to ourselves we have a real problem today… as they did yesterday.
“You have also heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not break your vows; you must carry out the vows you make to the Lord.’ But I say, do not make any vows! Do not say, ‘By heaven!’ because heaven is God’s throne. And do not say, ‘By the earth!’ because the earth is his footstool. And do not say, ‘By Jerusalem!’ for Jerusalem is the city of the great King. Do not even say, ‘By my head!’ for you can’t turn one hair white or black. Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.
The grass withers the flower fades but the word of our God stands forever.
The 9th Commandment
Yes Be Yes and No Be No
The Oath
The first thing we will look at today is the degradation of the 9th commandment in following the leadings of the culture. The second thing we will explore is the treatment of Christ on this topic. Finally, we will rejoice in the greatest of all oths ever given.
Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world causes us to conform to the rebellion against truth it is the truth of the scriptures and the power of the Holy Spirit that will lead us to the truth and will know it and the truth will make us free.
I. The 9th Commandment
-You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
A. The law of God requires that we be truthful in our speech in accordance to the 9th commandment. For the most part it is what is sort of taught by the scribes and pharisees. In essense they are addressing the OT regulations for oath and vow taking.
“Do not steal. “Do not deceive or cheat one another. “Do not bring shame on the name of your God by using it to swear falsely. I am the Lord.
A man who makes a vow to the Lord or makes a pledge under oath must never break it. He must do exactly what he said he would do.
“When you make a vow to the Lord your God, be prompt in fulfilling whatever you promised him. For the Lord your God demands that you promptly fulfill all your vows, or you will be guilty of sin.
B. Another important piece that we should see is that oaths and vows were encouraged and to be done in the name of God.
You must fear the Lord your God and worship him and cling to him. Your oaths must be in his name alone.
And if these nations truly learn the ways of my people, and if they learn to swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives’ (just as they taught my people to swear by the name of Baal), then they will be given a place among my people. But any nation who refuses to obey me will be uprooted and destroyed. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
C. But what we see in the scriptures is a clear prohibition of of perjury. Breaking the oaths and vows that we make. Yes vows and oaths were assumed, even encouraged. But once made, they were not to be broken under any circumstances. The Bible taught that this is a serious violation.
D. Over the time it became clear that keeping these vows and oaths were just impossible. The reality of sin and the lies in our hearts just made things impossible. Remember the scribes and pharisees sought the ability of keeping the law and so softened the requirements. God could not have meant it strictly or no one could fulfill it.
E. The pharisees seemed to have played the game of the fallacy of accent. Accents in our language can be used to mislead and or change meaning. Do not swear falsely BY MY NAME. If a man makes a vow TO THE LORD. If you make a vow to JEHOVAH YOUR GOD. My Fav…example of the philosophy of language. We should not talk bad about women.
F. There were some vows and oaths that are taken that could be transgressed. Some oaths and vows were not actually binding. Some of them could be broken. There is a section in the Mishna (Oral traditions) called the shebuoth where it discusses when an oath is binding and when it is not. This whole system became a system rules that declared when it was OK to lie. It be came trivial and a way of life and speech to make a person believe you are telling the truth when you are not. Scouts honor, i swear to god, i sear on my mothers grave, saying it and crossing fingers behind your back. And the mentality… OK so I’m not telling the truth, but im not lying.
G. Now this made living in a society of decpetion and decit empowered by the lies that are in us more realistic. We can keep the 9th command as long as we do not break the vows that are not supposed to be broken. Do this and you are good. But Jesus said that our righteousness needs to exceed that of the scribes and pharisees.
II. Yes Be Yes and No Be No
-Jesus fulfills the law.
A. One rabbi taught that if one swore by Jerusalem one was not bound, but if one swore toward Jerusalem, it was binding—evidently because that in some way implied the Divine Name. So as long as you are no invoking the name of God you are OK. Jesus is saying don’t do this…
B. All of the oaths and vows you take are binding, because all of it points to God. You are using all of these things, by Heaven, or by earth, or by Jerusalem and all of this points to God. You are using this all as a backup but all of this is invoking God as your back up. None of what it is you think you are doing is keeping the law of God at all. You think you are OK and you are not. There is no way to be Ok when you commit pergery. There is no way to be ok when you transgress an oath. There is no way you are gonna be OK to not tell the truth and say that you are not lying. It is not ok for you to bear false witness against your neighbor no matter what you swear by.
C. Jesus is calling for the truth. Forget all this oath and vow taking and boundaries for truthfulness. Just be truthful. If you say YES then mean it. If you say no then mean it. Mean what you say. Say what you mean.
John Stott writes, “The modern application is not far to seek, for the teaching of Jesus is timeless. Swearing (i.e. oath-taking) is really a pathetic confession of our own dishonesty. Why do we find it necessary to introduce our promises by some tremendous formula, ‘I swear by the archangel Gabriel and all the host of heaven’ or ‘I swear by the Holy Bible’? The only reason is that we know our simple word is not likely to be trusted. So we try to induce people to believe us by adding a solemn oath.”
A.M. Hunter writes, “Oaths arise because men are so often liars.”
D. The followers of Christ are to be truth tellers. We do not need oaths and vows because our yes is yes and our no is no. What a refressing and freeing thing for the world whether the world admits to it or not… a world free of dishonesty. But again the wolrd doe not want the honesty. the relity is that the truth hurts. In a world full of lies and deception. It want rtuh and it does not want truth. Lies are what sits deep down inside of us. It is our very nature…
These wicked people are born sinners; even from birth they have lied and gone their own way.
E. Lets make it simple… just tell the truth. This is the 9th commandment. Christ did not come to relax the law he came to confirm it. Anything that the scribes and pharisees and anyone today even that relaxes and minimizes the thrust and force of the law… do not hear it. Christ came to confirm the truth of the law. But if Christ is right then we cannot keep the law. Yes that is the point. Lying just spews out of us.
George MacDonald writes, “I always try—I think I do—to be truthful. All the same I tell a great many petty lies, e.g. things that mean one thing to myself though another to other people. But I do not think lightly of it. Where I am more often wrong is in tacitly pretending I hear things which I do not, especially jokes and good stories, the point of which I always miss; but, seeing every one laugh, I laugh too, for the sake of not looking a fool. My respect for the world’s opinion is my greatest stumbling block I fear.”
F. For many of us I don;t think the reality is that we intend to lie, in our culture we do what I am calling… “Careless with Truth.” We have over the years have lost the importance and value of what we know as truth. Its kind of like we may not intentionally lie, but we have lost the drive and motivation to be truthful. We just don’t see being truthful as as a virtue to strive for. We are hard pressed to not lie… but are we hard pressed to tell the truth. Do we see the truth as the wonderful gift it is? We as Christians are not motivated to not lie, but motivated to be truthful. We are those whom Jesus prayed to the Father to santify us with the truth.
III. The Oath
-The promise to save.
A. Oh and we got the flesh… the sin nature. And the lies still come. And the future is not bright for us who have lied.
The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in those who tell the truth.
You will destroy those who tell lies. The Lord detests murderers and deceivers.
You love evil more than good and lies more than truth. Interlude
B. Some of us might be saying that we do not lie. But are we lying to ourselves?
If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.
C. This is so deep that somtimes I think we lie and don;t even know we are doing it. Somtimes we lie and forget we did it. Selective memory. I remember once when I spoke about Rahab’s lying about the spies as a product of her faith, a young lady began to chastise me about my celebrating Rahab. (Which in reality… I’m not celebrating Rahab’s faith the Bible does) It was a long painful process. But then she had said in passing as if it was nothing that she lied on her application about an injury when joinging the military. I caught it, but did not bring it up. How do we explain that?
D. We cannot even be truthful with ourselves.
“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
E. And the confirming of the law is only showing us this truth. The Bible says… all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is no one righteous no not one. There is no one on earth who always does good and never sins. Our throats are open graves. Our tongues are filled with lies. There is no fear of God.
F. And the truth continues… The wages of sin is death. The wrath of God is being poured out on all mankind. Christ is coming to judge the living and the dead. Condemnation is real. Hell is real. The fires that never go out. Eternal torment. The worm never dies. The place reserved for the devil and his angels. God will punish all liars.
G. But then Shane can we be saved from this? Is there any hope for us? Some of us are saying the same as that of Paul… Oh wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death. It is Christ my friend. Christ has come to save us. He lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.
God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind.
H. God understands that we struggle with doubt. We live in a society that is full of deception and lies. The Lord in true condescending love gave us additional assurance with an oath. Salvation is real.
I. The Bible says all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. Believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God and you will have life in his name.
J. This is the gospel of Jesus… the power of God for salvation and the Motivation and strength for our sanctification. The gospel is not the ABC’s of Christianity… it is the A to Z of Christianity. It is not just the life but the growth of a christian.
K. This is the truth and the truth will make us free.
