The 9th commandment

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Introduction

Doctrines

When we go to the mountains in a few weeks for our Easter Retreat, I want you to notice the guard rails along the road as we twist and turn around the mountains.

Those guardrails are not there to restrict our freedom.

I hope that none of us, especially our bus driver, looks at them with frustration for telling us where we can and can’t drive.

They are not there to ruin the drive but rather to protect us as we travel.

As long as you stay on the road, all is well.

But if a driver ignores the boundary and drifts too far off course, that guardrail may be the very thing that keeps us all from going over the edge.

In many ways, God’s commandments function like guardrails for His people.

They show us the boundaries for how life is meant to be lived.

They protect our relationship with God and our relationships with one another.

When we live within the boundaries God has given, we are walking in the way He designed life to work.

That is why we have been focused the past 9 weeks on these commandments.

Today’s focus is on the 9th commandment, or not bearing False wittnes.

We will examine this commandment in two points.

I. False Witness Corrupts Justice (most of our time)

II. Truth Reflects the Character of God

I. False Witness Corrupts Justice

The ninth commandment is only 9 words.

Exodus 20:16 ESV

16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Often people summarize this commandment by simply saying, “Do not lie.”

We often see it even written like that on ten commandment posters.

That idea is certainly related, and we will look at honesty in the second point, but the commandment itself is actually more specific than that.

The wording points to the setting of testimony, especially testimony given against another person.

The phrase “to bear false wittness” is legal terminology that would be used within the justice system.

To understand why this commandment mattered so much, we need to remember how justice worked in the ancient world.

In our modern world we have many tools to investigate crimes.

Does anyone in here enjoy true crime shows,

or shows like Law and Order,

NCIS,

or CSI?

All of these put a lot of focus on forensics in order to solve crimes and pursue justice.

Although much of what we see in those are pure Hollywood,

we still today have video cameras,

fingerprints,

DNA testing,

and forensic science.

But none of those things existed in the ancient world.

Justice depended almost entirely on eyewitness testimony.

Their words could determine whether a person lost:

their property, their reputation, or even their life.

Because of that reality, false testimony had enormous power.

A lie spoken in a courtroom could destroy an innocent person.

That is why Scripture repeatedly emphasizes the importance of reliable witnesses.

For example, Deuteronomy 17:6 says,

Deuteronomy 17:6 ESV

6 On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.

This requirement protected the people of Israel.

A single person could not simply accuse someone and ruin their life with one claim.

There had to be multiple witnesses.

But even this protection only works if the witnesses tell the truth.

If witnesses lie, justice would not be served.

False witness is therefore not just telling a lie.

It is using speech as a weapon against another person.

Scripture gives us a clear example of this kind of injustice.

In 1 Kings 21, we read about a man named Naboth.

Naboth owned a vineyard that had belonged to his family for generations. King Ahab wanted that vineyard and offered to buy it.

But Naboth refused, because the land was part of the inheritance God had given his family.

When Ahab returned home angry, his wife Jezebel took matters into her own hands

She arranged for two men to falsely accuse Naboth of cursing God and the king.

These accusations were lies.

But because the testimony appeared to come from two witnesses, Naboth was condemned.

He was taken outside the city and stoned to death.

After Naboth died, Ahab seized the vineyard.

Their false witness accounts resulted in:

an innocent man’s death, the theft of his property, and as the story unfolds…corrupt leadership.

God did not ignore this injustice.

Later in that chapter, we see how serious God takes false witnesses when the prophet Elijah declared that judgment would come upon Ahab and Jezebel because of what they had done.

We see this pattern used throughout scripture.

False testimony played a role in the condemnation of Jesus Himself.

In Matthew 26

We see the Pharisees in need of evidence to make their case against Jesus legitimate so they sought to find those who would give false testimony.

We see the same pattern again in the early church.

In Acts 6 we see men were persuaded to bring false accusations against Stephen.

These witnesses twisted his words and presented them as blasphemy.

Their lies stirred up the crowd and led to Stephen’s execution. Again and again Scripture shows how destructive false witness can be.

Because of this danger, the New Testament continues to apply the same principle in how we conduct Church discipline.

Matthew 18 shows us that we should take 2-3 with us to speak to someone about their sins before taking it to the Church. Why? So that there can be 2-3 witnesses to what is being brought forth.

In 1 Timothy 5:19, Paul instructs the church on how to Conduct church discipline with the elders.

“Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.”

God knows that words can destroy lives, so accusations must be supported by trustworthy testimony.

I want to pause here and say this doesn’t mean elders of the Church shouldn’t be held accountable, quite the opposite actually. By the wisdom of God, Hutong is set up so that neither me nor Mr. Rick can ever be without accountability. That is one of the important roles of our leadership team. God cares about accountability and Justice so much, He gives us multiple commands in how to go about implementing it in the Church, and it must be done accordingly.

And as we see how God has declared this to be done, Do you see the importance of honesty?

Justice only works when people are honest.

Church discipline only works when people are honest.

If witnesses cannot be trusted, several dangerous things begin to happen.

Accusations lose credibility and people begin to doubt witnesses.

This leads to the words of real witnesses being doubted.

We have sadly seen a few examples of this in recent years. Right now in America, we have the Epstein files.

This collection of millions of documents collected by the FBI that are connected to an evil man who abused children.

In this, there have been a number of accusations that were later found to not be credible at all.

These false accusations,

or false witness accounts,

have damaged the trust and reputation of others who have come forth as witnesses and victims.

Do you see how horrible of a sin bearing false witness is?

False accusations do not only harm the person who is accused.

They also harm future victims whose true claims may later be doubted because trust has been broken.

sometimes, people even think they are doing good by making false claims.

They think that this is the best way to take down an evil person.

But guys, we don’t have that responsibility.

To behave in this way is to say I don’t trust God’s timing, I must take things into my own hands, smd often leads to more doubt being cast on valid claims.

We have so far looked at the application of this commandment being in government justice systems as well as within Church Discipline.

But there is another important application here as well.

How do you talk about others around you?

Are you quick to spread rumors?

Are you quick to hit share on Facebook or WeChat moments to spread articles or post that you have not taken the time to verify?

Guys, I don’t care how much you don’t like person,

a politician,

or a group of people. I don’t care how bad this person or group may be. your words about them must be true. I sometimes can’t stand to be on Facebook because almost every post I see is a lie,

yet people share it by the thousands.

If you can’t determine if it is true or not, don’t share it!

Don’t be guilty of spreading false testimony about someone.

But even outside of the internet, how do you talk about people?

Gossip is one of those sins that seems so harmless, except it isn’t.

You are sharing things about someone,

often harming their character,

without knowing if it is true or not.

That is bearing false witness against them.

Another place I see this often is in prayer request.

I sometimes think people use prayer request like a loophole to talk about people and they think it is ok as long as they ask for prayer somewhere in the sharing.

So YES, let’s pray for one another, but let us not use prayer as an excuse to share what we otherwise would t have.

Another way we tend to spiritualize gossip is by saying things like “I just have a feeling” or “ I just feel in my heart…”

I am not saying this wording is always wrong,

but when you are saying things you are unsure of about a person and do so with wording that will lead people to think that the Spirit is involved,

you are not only breaking the 9th commandment,

you are dragging God’s name into it as well thus violating the third! To summarize our first point this morning, we have seen how false testimony can be dangerous in courts, in the Church, and what we say about each other.

But there is another reason this commandment matters so much.

It reflects God’s very character.

That leads us to our second point…

II. Truth Reflects the Character of God

The Ten Commandments are not arbitrary rules. They are a reflection of the character of God Himself.

Christian morality is at it’s core based on who God is.

Why are the commandments wrong? Murder is wrong because human beings are made in the image of God,

and God’s very nature is being the giver and sustainer of life.

Stealing is wrong because God is a faithful provider. When we steal, we act as if God cannot be trusted to care for us, which goes against His very nature.

And lying is wrong because God is a God of truth.

God does not deceive. God does not distort the truth.

God does not bear false witness.

Why?

Because He is truth.

So when God commands His people not to bear false witness, He is calling them to live in a way that reflects His own character.

And If God is a God of truth, then His people must be people of truth as well. That will be an important part of our sanctification. So let’s take a quick second to see how scripture repeatedly makes this claim by looking at each of the persons of the God head.

The Father

Deuteronomy 32:4 ESV

4 “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

The Son

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

The Holy Spirit

John 15:26 ESV

26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

Each person of the God head has many passages making these claims,

I simply picked one of each for the sake of time. the point I am trying to make is that we see thriugh the entirety of the Trinity that God by His very nature is truth. He can not lie.

That is the heart of the 9th commandment.

It places guardrails for a good society but even more importantly,

it also points us to who God is and how we are to grow in our sanctification.

Morality is based upon the Character of God and therefore we are to strive to be more and more like Him.

Because of this, when God’s people speak truthfully, we reflect the character of the God we serve.

You might think of it like a mirror. A mirror does not create reality.

It reflects it.

If you stand in front of a mirror with dirt on your face, the mirror did not cause the dirt.

It simply shows what is already there.

A good mirror reflects reality accurately.

But imagine a mirror that distorted everything.

My wife and I once took my mom to a theme park in Missouri called Silver Dollar City.

In it was a house with a lot of distorted mirros and other optical illusions meant to distort reality.

Going through this house really messed my mom up. She almost did not make it through.

When we got out, she had to sit down for a long time to try to get over it.

The mirrors in this house did not portray truth, they made everything appear different than it really was, and my mom’s mind and body were confused and sickened.

In that way our words function like a mirror.

When we speak truthfully, our words reflect reality accurately.

But when we lie, exaggerate, or twist someone’s words, we distort reality instead of reflecting it.

so Hutong, do your words speak truth?

Are we men and women of our words?

Do you fall into temptation to exaggerate or tweak the truth to make yourself look better?

Are you willing to lie to protect yourself?

Just as we discussed last week that stealing can be a symptom of a far greater heart issue of not trusting God, so too is lying. Do you trust God to care for you?

Do you trust God to be the source of your identity?

If so, there is no need for lying.

Conclusion

so in conclusion… Words are powerful. They can protect justice, or they can destroy it. They can defend the innocent, or they can harm them. They can build trust, or they can break it. That is why God placed this commandment among the Ten Commandments.

Exodus 20:16 ESV

16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Let us now go to God in prayer, seeking His power to resist the temptations to rely on our own power and cunning lies to get what we desire instead of trusting in the one who holds the world in His hands.

we will get into groups of 3-5

Worship Him for being truth.

Repent where we have not met this standard.

Pray for wisdom and strength to keep this commandment.